All-Star San Francis - rejuvenation of San Francisco's South of Market district

Sunset, April, 2000 by Jeff Phillips

A new ballpark. A new waterfront. A boom in SoMa.

Everybody's favorite city just got even better Construction crews are still stirring dust out on the field, but here in the locker room at new Pacific Bell Park, San Francisco Giants equipment manager Mike Murphy is already checking out the custom cherry-wood lockers where his "kids" will hang their caps.

A 58-year-old native of the city, Murphy was the team's batboy when the Giants moved into their former home at Candlestick Park back in 1960. "All the guys are really excited about opening this new park," he says as he checks the training rooms, indoor batting cage, and day-care center for players' families. "Everybody hated going out to Candlestick, with the cold and the wind. We built this park for the players, and it's going to be one of the best in the major leagues." The first pitch will cross home plate on April 11.

Climbing to the upper deck, we take in a view that angles from the bay lapping against the right-field wall to the edge of the city behind third base. A stiff breeze ruffles the bay's whitecaps, but even up in the cheap seats, we don't feel it.

"Barry Bonds is going to be happier here," Murphy says as he points out the dimensions of the field. "He's really going to like the short right-field porch; I look for him to hit 50."

While Bonds may or may not hit a magical 50 home runs this season, there's no doubt that San Francisco's top ranking in the major leagues of American cities is firmer than ever. The fact is, the new stadium is only the latest step in a complete redevelopment of San Francisco's most prized asset, its waterfront. This transformation began with a disaster: the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake that shattered the view-blocking, shadow-casting Embarcadero Freeway--and suddenly gave the city a chance to rethink the face it showed to San Francisco Bay.

The new waterfront started becoming visible last year, with the ground-breaking for Harry Bridges Plaza at the foot of Market Street. Next came the new trolley service extending from Market Street north to Fisherman's Wharf and south to the railroad station. Finishing touches were then applied to the public promenade--at 25 feet, as wide as the average city lot and roomy enough for strollers, bikers, and skaters--that edges the waterfront for 2 1/2 miles from Pier 39 down to the new ballpark.

Combine the resurgent waterfront with the boom of new hotels and restaurants south of Market Street (SoMa), the completion of Yerba Buena Gardens on Mission Street, and the conversion of gritty South Park machine shops and warehouses into the hard drive of Multimedia Gulch, and you can almost feel the city's center of gravity shifting south from Union Square and the financial district.

This is the new San Francisco.

Along the Embarcadero

On the bridge of the tugboat Delta Carey, captain Steve Ware sips a mug of coffee as we make an early-morning run past the Ferry Building for a waterside view of the new ballpark. We pass Pier 30-32, where the sign on an odd-looking, rusty barge reads, "Allied Cannery Co."

"This is where Don Johnson films his Nash Bridges television show," Ware says, nodding at the barge. The owner of Baydelta Maritime, the last tug service based along the Embarcadero, Ware has worked these waters for 35 years. While he misses the days when San Francisco had a true, working waterfront, he's also realistic about the changing nature of the city.

Gunning all 4,400 horses of his powerful tractor tug, Ware swings by PacBell Park. From the water the grandstands, which rise in three angled tiers, are screened by the forest of sailboat masts in South Beach Harbor; the promenade where ferries will unload baseball fans gleams in the morning sun. "This is the future," says Ware as he drops me back on terra firma. "It's already bringing the waterfront back to life."

It's a short walk from the harbor north to the trendy Town's End Restaurant, which serves up the best breakfast along the waterfront. After a heaping plate of potatoes and scrambled eggs with salmon, I continue north up the promenade, admiring viewscapes between the piers. Stopping at the Ferry Building, I meet Port of San Francisco planner Anne Cook, who quickly runs me through the waterfront plan.

The plan, started in 1990 and shaped during six years of complex public review, covers everything from the tips of the piers to the land side of the Embarcadero. "The underlying premise was always to reunite the city with the waterfront," Cook says as we study a map. "We started with identifying the needs of the maritime industry. After that, we looked for ways to encourage commercial development while providing public access and preserving the scale of the piers along with their historic bulkheads."

Resuming my northward stroll, I de tour out onto Pier 7. This lovely, narrow public walkway out over the bay has benches where anglers can sit while fishing for perch or flounder (although signs warn of potential health hazards from actually eating too many bay fish) and joggers can catch their breath. Both can appreciate the 360[degrees] view that includes Treasure Island and Coit Tower.