Union Square, San Francisco: My Hood For a Week

I was fortunate enough to visit San Fran twice this year. Both times were to cover conferences though, so they weren’t actual vacations. But I still got to walk around a bit and satisfy my cravings for quality Asian food.

My hotel was in Union Square so that got to be my hood for a week. Here are some of my observations (yes, I had more fun in Picnik!):

On my first day there I noticed this pigeon checking itself out in a shiney street corner wall. Maybe it’d been hanging out a lot at the FIDM (Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising) a couple of blocks away.

Crossing the street was a bit of a panicked affair for me. The count down on traffic lights only gave you 10 seconds to finish getting to the other side whereas the ones in DC give you anywhere from 43 to 26 seconds. Then again, the “white man” (why isn’t he green?) to signal it’s alright to cross also stays on longer in SF than DC. Also, everybody seemed very obedient to traffic signals, staying on the curb until they were given the go-ahead. Maybe they weren’t locals. In New York, there might as well not be traffic signals for pedestrians where as long as there’s room to walk, people are on the streets fighting with the cars for their right of way.

I saw this sign for Hotel Virginia nearby and thought it was funny that I could never get far away enough from Virginia (ok, it’s more of a tourist thing than actually funny). Also, the multi-story carpark behind it made me think about how I’m always wondering why DC doesn’t have more of those. Doesn’t it just make sense space-wise?

And here’s one of those famous San Francisco Trolleys. This one starts a couple of blocks from my hotel and is strictly for sightseeing I think. It annoyed me one night when I was having dinner along its route in a quiet residential area that I couldn’t just hop on it for a ride home. Grr.

Oh and I found Tony Bennet’s heart in Union Square Park.

Finally, I just thought this pair of fire hydrants was cute. They also remind me of E.T. (the very first movie I saw)…