Union Square, Civic Center, and the Tenderloin

The Union Square area bustles with big-city bravado. In Union Square—a plaza but also the neighborhood around it—the crowds zigzag among international brands, trailing glossy shopping bags.

Just east is one of the city’s poorest districts, the Tenderloin, where rough life on the streets brushes up against a new wave of investment. Here you’ll find excellent Vietnamese food, a fancy new design hotel, a brand-new IKEA, and startlingly public drug use and street crime.

Another hop east is Civic Center, where wonderful museums and gold-domed City Hall share space with the city’s unhoused.