San Francisco Today

The quintessential boomtown, San Francisco has been alternately riding high and crashing since the gold rush. Those bearish during the heady days of the dot-com bubble had barely finished dancing on the grave of the Internet economy when biotech rode into town, turning bust to boom once again before the housing market downturn brought the city's previously stratospheric median home price almost down to earth. So which San Francisco will you find when you come to town? A reversal of fortune is always possible, but here's a snapshot of what the city's like—for now, anyway.

Today's San Francisco

…is just as liberal as you've heard. Baghdad by the Bay, Sodom by the Sea: prudish types have been pegging San Francisco as a bastion of sexy liberalism since the town first rolled out the welcome mat. And we do tend to espouse a pretty live-and-let-live attitude here. Health insurance for city employees has covered gender-reassignment surgery since 2001. We voted in 2005 to ban handguns; we have a female fire chief, Joanne Hayes-White; and our biggest bash of the year is June's gay pride celebration, when roughly a million people descend on the city to party.

Our dashing young Mayor Gavin Newsom, himself a raging metrosexual, won the eternal devotion of gay San Franciscans when he decided to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2004, helping to shove the issue onto the supreme court docket as well as the ballot. And in this town he's considered a moderate. Newsom enjoys the city's tolerance as well. Following the 2007 revelation that he had a fling with his social secretary—who was also the wife of his good friend and campaign manager—and Newsom's admission that he has a drinking problem, his approval rating topped 70% and he went on to win a second term virtually unopposed.

…embraces its eccentrics. If a 6-foot-tall transvestite in evening wear doesn't merit a second look, just what does it take to stand out in this town? If history serves, it takes quirkiness and staying power. For instance, back in the 19th century a San Francisco businessman declared himself Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico. Instead of shipping him off to a nice, quiet place, San Franciscans became his willing subjects, police officers saluted him, and newspapers printed his proclamations (among them that the Democrats and Republicans be abolished for bickering).

Today the Brown Twins, ladies of a certain age who dress alike in eye-catching outfits and are always together, have their own place on the list of San Francisco icons. There's also Pink Man, who rides on a unicycle wearing a hot pink unitard and cape. (He says you can tell someone's a local when "they don't balk at Pink Man.")

One of the most celebrated eccentrics is Frank Chu, a middle-aged guy in a frumpy suit who's been faithfully carrying a picket sign around the Financial District since the 1990s. He accuses various politicians of being in cahoots and keeping millions of dollars from him and the population of the "12 galaxies." The city's response? Politicians buy ad space on the back of his sign and fans named a Mission District bar 12 Galaxies in tribute. Chu eats and drinks on the house there.

…is reshaping its downtown. Limited by its geography, San Francisco simply has nowhere to go but up. The sprawling area south of Market Street was long an industrial center, but since that industry has dried up, new high-rise developments are under way. Plot the nascent high-rises on a map and you can see a radical shift southward, stretching from Mission Street to Mission Bay (where UCSF's 43-acre medical and biotech campus is rising). More than 20 towers are in the works, several of which will eclipse the city's current tallest building, the 853-foot Transamerica Pyramid.

Got your bearings? Then join the locals as they constantly check the pulse of the city. Although the frenzied adrenaline rush of the dot-com era has died down, a new wave of energy is gathering.

What We're Talking About

Curious about the state of the city? Hear about it in great detail (except that unpleasantness about a budget deficit) in Mayor Newsom's 7½-hour speech on his YouTube channel. And while you're at it, become one of the mayor's 50,000-plus Facebook friends and check out his latest tweets on Twitter (where he broke the news of his wife's pregnancy).

You know the economy is bad when San Franciscans start curbing their dining-out expenditures. Sure, we still eat out, but we're spending less when we do. For the practice of ordering appetizers to share instead of entrées, waiters have dubbed us "non'trées." Ouch.

We love to hate Muni. Grousing about Muni's slow service and accident rates is a rite of passage. Commuters unite on Web sites like munioutrage.com and grumble on blogs like The SF Muni Grouchmunigrouch.blogspot.com.

Are we taking back the term "Frisco"? From Emperor Norton to legendary Chronicle columnist Herb Caen, residents have harangued against calling the city "Frisco." But lately some locals are rebelling, showing off hoodies and tattoos festooned with the F-word. The safest bet for a visitor? Call it "the city."

There's lots of hand-wringing and gnashing of teeth in the Bay Area these days over the slipping housing market, and though the city hasn't been hit nearly as hard as most other Bay Area towns, the median home price is finally coming into range for most mere mortals: $552,000 (and climbing).

Pier 39 has suddenly become much quieter. The cacophonous sea lions that used to sun themselves here have suddenly moved on. Marine scientists have listed a variety of reasons why the sea lions split and some speculate they moved to Oregon. But one thing is certain: their frolicking and barking is missed by tourists and locals alike.