| SoMa (South of Market) is a neighborhood
in San Francisco, California. Its borders are Market Street
to the north-northwest, the San Francisco Bay to the east, Townsend
Street to the south-southeast, and U.S. Route 101 to the west-southwest.
It is the part of the city in which the street grid runs parallel
to and perpendicular to Market Street. The eastern edge along
the Embarcadero and south-eastern corner of this area (where
Mission Creek meets the bay) is known as South Beach, a separate
neighborhood, and the border below Townsend Street begins Mission
Bay. The north-eastern corner (where Market Street meets the
bay) is often considered part of the Financial District.
South of Market was originally a warehouse district, with
longer blocks than other parts of the city. Today, in addition
to warehouses, there are a great many bars and nightclubs,
restaurants, and residential lofts in the area. Since the
1950s, South of Market has been a center for the leather subculture
of the gay community. At the end of each September the Folsom
Street Fair is held on Folsom Street between 7th and 12th
Streets. The smaller and less-commercialized but also leather
subculture-oriented Up Your Alley Fair (commonly referred
to as the Dore Alley Fair) is also held in the neighborhood,
in late July on Folsom between 9th and 10th Streets and in
Dore Alley between Folsom and Howard. During the late-1990s,
South of Market was known for being a local center of the
dot-com boom, due to its central location and relatively cheap
housing and office space.
Looking northwest toward the San Francisco Museum of Modern
Art. The waterfall drains into the pool on the right.Especially
near the waterfront, Yerba Buena Gardens and Financial District,
South of Market is rapidly gentrifying, with a large number
of new residential high-rises and hotels.
Because of its historic blue-collar nature, South of Market
is also an area of settlement for new immigrants. Entire communities
made their homes in the district--from Irish Americans and
Italian Americans to Greek Americans. Presently the largest
migrant group living in South of Market are Filipino Americans.
The conference center, Moscone Center, occupies three blocks
and hosts many major trade shows. Moscone South opened its
doors in December 1981. Moscone North opened in May 1992,
and most recently Moscone West in June 2003.
With the opening of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
in 1995, the Yerba Buena Center region of the South of Market
has become a hub for museums. Other museums in the area include
the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Museum of the African
Diaspora, the Cartoon Art Museum, the children's Zeum, and
the temporary home of the California Academy of Sciences.
The planned sites for the Contemporary Jewish Museum and the
Mexican Museum are also in the Yerba Buena area. The Center
for the Arts, along with Yerba Buena Gardens and the Sony
Metreon, is built on top of Moscone North. Across Howard Street,
built on top of Moscone South, is a children's park featuring
a large play area, an ice skating rink, a bowling alley, a
restaurant, the Zeum, and the restored merry-go-round from
Playland At the Beach. The children's park and Zeum are joined
to Yerba Buena Gardens by a footbridge over Howard Street.
A major transformation of the neighborhood is planned with
the Transbay Terminal Replacement Project, which if funded,
is planned to be open by 2013. In addition, many residential
projects are set to transform the overall San Francisco skyline,
with highrises up to 55 and 58 stories like One Rincon Hill
and Millennium Tower respectively (see sfcityscape.com). Other
highrises like 300 Spear Street are under construction too
in the neighborhood. According to an article on May 25, 2006
(see [1]), the Transbay Joint Powers Authority proposed to
raise the height limits around the new Transbay Terminal.
That will mean instead of having one 70 story, 925 ft. tower,
a trio of towers, with two at about the same height as the
853 ft.Transamerica Pyramid and a third one of at least 1,000
ft. will be built. The third tower could be the tallest on
the West Coast, beating out the US Bank Tower in Los Angeles
and it will probably have the most floors on the West Coast,
overtaking Seattle's Columbia Center. This proposal is said
to give San Francisco a internationally recognized skyline
by having a central peak and in addition, balance the off-centered
existing skyline due to the Transamerica Pyramid and the Bank
of America Building.
Most San Franciscans prefer to refer to the neighborhood
by its full name, South of Market, though there is a trend
to shorten the name to SOMA or SoMa, probably in reference
to SoHo (South of Houston) in New York City, and, in turn,
Soho in London.
Before being called South of Market this area was called
"South of the Slot". The reason being that cable
cars used to run on Market Street and the cable car tracks
have a center slot where the cable car attaches to the cable.
While the cable cars have long since disappeared from Market
Street some "old timers" still refer to this area
as "South of the Slot".
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