1667 38th Ave

The Outer Sunset and its neighboring Parkside neighborhood used to be largely desert -- literally; the area was entirely covered by sand dunes. The district got its name when a former city assessor, Aurelius E. Buckingham, went into the real estate business and sought a name that would dodge the area's reputation for gloom. A real estate boom followed the 1906 earthquake and fire as San Franciscans fled the shattered and burned downtown areas toward new housing. The completion of streetcar tunnels from downtown to West Portal (1917) and Judah Street (1923) only accelerated the boom. By 1924 the San Francisco Bulletin was writing headlines like "Home Seekers Conquer Sand Wastes of Sunset," and the process of paving over the dunes was largely complete a decade later, when the San Francisco News wrote, "Little more than a dozen years ago, a Hollywood motion-picture company shot desert scenes in the Sunset. The company set up its headquarters near 36th Avenue and Ortega Street, and by angling his cameras so that sand dunes hid Golden Gate Park to the north, the director created the illusion of a vast desert." 

The Outer Sunset's main retail drag is on Irving Street, between 19th and 27th avenues, while the Parkside's is along Taraval Street, roughly between 15th and 30th avenues, continuing with lower density practically to Ocean Beach. Connecting the two neighborhoods are the numbered avenues and Sunset Boulevard, which runs between 36th and 37th avenues from Lincoln Boulevard to Sloat Boulevard. Although Sunset is heavily trafficked, it's also heavy with trees and grass that separate non-motorized travelers from the cars, making it a great walking, biking or jogging route. Visitors can also take walks on the beach, hear concerts and opera at Stern Grove during the summer, visit the San Francisco Zoo and watch hang gliders launch from the cliffs at Fort Funston.