Hello World!

Hello Neighbors!

We moved into the Excelsior in August of 2015. It's taken me this long to pull the blog together, though we've been exploring a bit since moving in. Like many new residents in San Francisco, we had difficulty finding a place to live. As we navigated the house-hunting ritual here in Foggy City, we learned to pare down our expectations and really focus on those things that mattered the most and ignore those things that aren't necessities. We quickly threw away expectations of having much of a choice in the style or age of our new home. I was hoping for a place with a sunny yard and a good Southern exposure but knew that this was also something I'd have little say over. Knob and tube wiring were such a huge problem for our home in Tampa I was shocked at how prevalent and accepted it was here and quickly got over that too.

What we focused on was access to reasonably decent public transportation, walking distance from shopping, and a structure that wouldn't require a lot of updates and repairs to make it comfortable. It had to have enough of a yard for the dog because, by that point, I was done with getting up in the wee cold hours to walk him. There needed to be a dedicated parking place for the jeep. And so here we are, in one of the few areas of town we could afford and find these must-haves.

In summary, I find that Excelsior has moderately good access to public transportation with the BART station being the key feature. We can walk to BART in about 15 minutes or take the 29 bus in 10. That means we only need one vehicle and we have access to the core of the city whenever we like via the subway. The Ex has shopping--lots of it. But let's be honest, it's mixed in appeal. There are too many boarded up places and a few illegal gambling parlors but if you see the world as it can be, then our stretch of Mission street has a great deal of potential. What it excels in today is a variety of world cultures; you can taste yourself through Latin America, Southeast Asia, Northern Asia, and the South Pacific. You can even find a Zagat rated spot to have dinner (shout out to Henry's Hunan!) Oh, and the neighbors have been pretty cool. Several came over to welcome us on our first day here. That's worth a lot to me.

So here we are, in a 102 year old Arts & Crafts bungalow, learning how to live in the Ex.