Though only 49 square miles, San Francisco is confidant, self-absorbed and brash – and for good reason. How many great cities have two world famous bridges as points of entry? How many boast of Alcatraz as a daytime getaway? How many have well defined Chinese-American, African-American, Italian-American, Japanese-American, and Mexican-American cultural districts? How many support a world-class shopping district, 9 elite museums and 10 significant performing art venues? How many have a sophisticated urban park whose only domestic peers are Central Park in New York City and Grant Park in Chicago? How many have a Fisherman's Wharf with Pier 39 attractions and an award-winning baseball park on the same landscaped waterfront boulevard laced with jogging paths, historic markers and artwork? How many have a stunning multi-cultural complex whose closest rival is Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen? How many have the garden-blessed “Crookedest Street in the World”? How many have more restaurant seats than residents? How many cities are proud to be called Gay-friendly and back it up with a decades-old district like the Castro? How many cities have Friday night inbound traffic that often exceeds outbound traffic?

    Enjoy pace-setting Seafood, Soul Food, Italian, Japanese, French, Spanish, Caribbean, Thai, Indian, Irish, Chinese, Mexican, Russian, Korean, Vietnamese and Barbeque restaurants, bistros and cafes.  This gastronomic Mecca can be credited in large part to the world-famous Culinary Institute of San Francisco and several restaurant festivals year round. You'll find just as many restaurant chefs as patrons at Farmers' Markets that roam among The Ferry Building, Embarcadero Center, Metreon, and Civic Center Plaza, depending on day of the week.
 
    If you are addicted to driving, change your state-of-mind in this transit-rich city. The abundance of interconnecting cable cars, streetcars, subways, tour buses, electric buses, taxis, bike rentals and ferries will win you over. Even the city's grandest waterfront boulevard, called the Embarcadero, reminds you to think "transit" with its vintage and modern streetcars running in the center median. Public transit takes you to 80 percent of the places you want to visit in this city, including Fisherman's Wharf, Golden Gate Park and the Zoo.   San Francisco is developing a world-class Transbay Transit Center that will be completed in phases between 2015 and 2018.  It will feature a grand public park atop high speed trains, commuter trains & buses, shops and bistros, only two blocks from Embarcadero subway station and three blocks from the Ferry Building.

    Though San Francisco hasn't given a fair shake to its Black citizens over the decades, it has stepped up with several important cultural attractions. Begin with the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Waterfall as the centerpice of ever-popular Yerba Buena Gardens. Next door is a boldly designed Museum of the African Diaspora, whose exhibition endowment grows each year. Though Lorraine Hansberry Theatre is having its share of financial struggles, that cat has many more lives. It recently re-surfaced in a new home at 450 Post Street. And the guided eye will also spot Mary Ellen Pleasant Memorial. In case you didn't know, she's the madame who funded the western terminal of the Underground Railroad, right here in San Francisco. There is also Leidesdorff Street located downtown and named in honor of the 1840's San Francisco Gold Rush hotelier and prominent businessman, who happened to be of African descent.
 
    Not far from downtown, the Willie Mays and Willie McCovey statues at AT&T Baseball Park remind everyone who made baseball popular in the city.
 
   All of those attractions pale in cultural importance to the resurgent Fillmore District, which many in the 1950s called, Harlem of the West. Misguided city redevelopment crippled the neighborhood for decades, until a Black mayor, Willie Brown, took the bull by the horns. Though it can never be Harlem of the West again (even Harlem isn't the Old Harlem anymore), the beloved Fillmore District south of Geary Boulevard is making huge strides as a reborn center for soulful entertainment that features a number Black restaurants and nightclubs in the mix! Now, if only the Fillmore could get more Black galleries and boutiques, it would really be on to something. Please, Please, Please!

    At the end of the day, there's the end of the day on our continent's greatest view city. Views of the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco Fisherman's Wharf or Russian Hill at sunset take your breath away. And given the kindred destinations of Sausalito and Wine Country are so close to the city, its easy to see why travel polls consistantly rank San Francisco as one of the Top 2 destinations in the world.