South of Market (SoMa) is a neighborhood in
San Francisco, California
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
, situated just south of
Market Street Market Street may refer to:
*Market Street, Cambridge, England
*Market Street, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia
* Market Street, George Town, Penang, Malaysia
*Market Street, Manchester, England
*Market Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
...
. It contains several sub-neighborhoods including
South Beach, Yerba Buena, and
Rincon Hill.
SoMa is home to many of the city's museums, to the headquarters of several major software and Internet companies, and to the
Moscone Conference Center.
Name and location
The area's boundaries are
Market Street Market Street may refer to:
*Market Street, Cambridge, England
*Market Street, Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia
* Market Street, George Town, Penang, Malaysia
*Market Street, Manchester, England
*Market Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
...
to the northwest,
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland.
San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...
to the northeast,
Mission Creek
Mission Creek (from Spanish: ''misión'') is a river in San Francisco, California. Once navigable from the Mission Bay inland to the vicinity of Mission Dolores, where several smaller creeks converged to form it, Mission Creek has long since bee ...
to the southeast, and Division Street, 13th Street and
U.S. Route 101
U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101 (US 101), is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that runs through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, on the West Coast of the United States. It is also known as (The Royal Roa ...
(
Central Freeway
The Central Freeway is a roughly one-mile (1.5 km) elevated freeway in San Francisco, California, United States, connecting the Bayshore/James Lick Freeway (US 101 and I-80) with the Hayes Valley neighborhood. Most of the freeway is part ...
) to the southwest. It is the part of the city in which the street grid runs parallel and perpendicular to Market Street. The neighborhood includes many smaller sub-neighborhoods such as:
South Park
''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boys Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand th ...
,
Yerba Buena
Yerba buena or hierba buena is the Spanish name for a number of aromatic plants, most of which belong to the mint family. ''Yerba buena'' translates as "good herb". The specific plant species regarded as ''yerba buena'' varies from region to regi ...
,
South Beach, and
Financial District South (part of the
Financial District
A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies and other related finance corporations have their head offices. In major cities, financial districts are often home to s ...
), and overlaps with several others, notably
Mission Bay, and the
Mission District
The Mission District (Spanish: ''Distrito de la Misión''), commonly known as The Mission (Spanish: ''La Misión''), is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. One of the oldest neighborhoods in San Francisco, the Mission District's name is ...
.
As with many neighborhoods, the precise boundaries of the South of Market area are fuzzy and can vary widely depending on the authority cited. From 1848 until the construction of the Central Freeway in the 1950s, 9th Street (formerly known as Johnston Street) was the official (and generally recognized) boundary between SoMa and the Mission District. Since the 1950s, the boundary has been either 10th Street, 11th Street,
or the Central Freeway. Similarly, the entire Mission Bay neighborhood may or may not be counted as part of SoMa, Excluding the entire Mission Bay neighborhood puts the southeastern boundary at Townsend. Redevelopment agencies, social service agencies, and community activists frequently exclude the more prosperous areas between the waterfront and 3rd Street. Some social service agencies and nonprofits count the economically distressed area around 6th, 7th, and 8th streets as part of the
Mid-Market Corridor.
The terms "South of Market" and "SoMa" refer to both a comparatively large district of the city as well as a much smaller neighborhood.
While many San Franciscans refer to the neighborhood by its full name, South of Market, there is a trend to shorten the name to SOMA or SoMa, probably in reference to
SoHo
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.
The area was develop ...
(South of Houston) in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, and, in turn,
Soho
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.
The area was develop ...
in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
.
Before being called South of Market this area was called "South of the Slot", a reference to the cable cars that ran up and down Market along the slots through which they gripped cables. While the cable cars have long since disappeared from Market Street, some "old timers" still refer to this area as "South of the Slot".
Since 1847 , the official name of the South of Market area has been the "100 Vara Survey" (alternately "100 Vara District") or simply "100 Vara" for short (with "100" sometimes spelled out). The "100 Vara Survey" derived its name from the surface area of the single lots which comprised 100 by 100 varas (275 square feet).
According to city documents from 1945,
the "100 Vara District" goes from the south side of Market Street to the Ferry. The name is found mainly in history books, legal documents, title deeds, and civil engineering reports.
History
In 1847
Washington A. Bartlett,
alcalde
Alcalde (; ) is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and administrative functions. An ''alcalde'' was, in the absence of a corregidor, the presiding officer of the Castilian '' cabildo'' (the municipal council) a ...
(magistrate) of the pueblo (village) of San Francisco, commissioned surveyor
Jasper O'Farrell to extend the boundaries of the pueblo in a southerly direction by creating a new subdivision. At the time, the streets of San Francisco were aligned approximately with the compass points, running north to south, or east to west. Each block was divided into six lots 50
vara
Vara or VARA may refer to:
Geography
*Vara (river), in Liguria, Italy
* Vara Parish, former municipality in Tartu County, Estonia
* Vara, Estonia, village in Peipsiääre Parish, Tartu County, Estonia
* Vara Municipality, municipality in western S ...
s on a side. (A vara is about .) O'Farrell decided that the streets in the new subdivision should run parallel with or perpendicular to the only existing road in the area, Mission Road (later Mission Street), and thus be aligned with the half-points of the compass, i.e., northeast to southwest, and northwest to southeast. He also decided to make the new blocks twice as long and twice as wide, with each lot 100 varas on a side. Finally, O'Farrell created "a grand promenade" linking the old pueblo with the new subdivision, Market Street. Since then, downtown San Francisco north of Lower Market Street has been officially known as 50 Vara, while the South of Market area is officially known as 100 Vara.
During the mid-19th century, SOMA became a burgeoning pioneer community, consisting largely of low-density residential buildings, except for a business district that developed along 2nd and 3rd streets, and emerging industrial areas near the waterfront.
Rincon Hill became an enclave for the wealthy, while nearby
South Park
''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boys Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand th ...
became an enclave for the upper middle class. By the early 20th century, heavy industrial development due to its proximity to the docks of
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland.
San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...
, coupled with the advent of
cable cars, had driven the wealthy over to
Nob Hill
Nob Hill is a neighborhood of San Francisco, California, United States that is known for its numerous luxury hotels and historic mansions. Nob Hill has historically served as a center of San Francisco's upper class. Nob Hill is among the highes ...
and points west. The neighborhood became a largely working-class and lower-middle-class community of recent European immigrants,
sweatshops
A sweatshop or sweat factory is a crowded workplace with very poor, socially unacceptable or illegal working conditions. Some illegal working conditions include poor ventilation, little to no breaks, inadequate work space, insufficient lighting, o ...
, power stations, flophouses, and factories.
The
1906 earthquake completely destroyed the area, and many of the quake's fatalities occurred there. Following the quake, the area was rebuilt with wider than usual streets, as the focus was on the development of light to heavy industry. The construction of the
Bay Bridge and U.S. Route 101 during the 1930s saw large swaths of the area demolished, including most of the original Rincon Hill.
From the late 19th century to the mid-20th century, the South of Market area was served by several streetcar lines owned by the
Market Street Railway Company
The Market Street Railway Company was a commercial streetcar and bus operator in San Francisco. The company was named after the famous Market Street (San Francisco), Market Street of that city, which formed the core of its transportation network ...
, including the No. 14 Mission Street electric railway line, the No. 27 Bryant Street line, the 28 Harrison, 35 Howard, 36 Folsom, 41 Second and Market, and the No. 42 First and Fifth Street line.
Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, South of Market was home not only to warehousing and light industry, but also to a sizable population of transients, seamen, other working men living in hotels, and a working-class residential population in old Victorian buildings on smaller side streets and alleyways giving it a "skid row" reputation.
[Rubin, Gayle. "The Miracle Mile: South of Market and Gay Male Leather, 1962-1997" in ''Reclaiming San Francisco: History, Politics, Culture'' (City Light Books, 1998).]
The waterfront redevelopment of the
Embarcadero in the 1950s pushed a new population into this area in the 1960s, the incipient
gay community
The LGBT community (also known as the LGBTQ+ community, GLBT community, gay community, or queer community) is a loosely defined grouping of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other queer individuals united by a common culture and social ...
, and the
leather
Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffalo, pigs and hogs, ...
community in particular. From 1962 until 1982, the gay leather community grew and thrived throughout South of Market, most visibly along Folsom Street, since it was a warehouse area that was largely deserted at night. Site of various sex clubs and bars, such as the
Caldron and the
Slot
Slot, the slot or Slots may refer to:
People
* Arne Slot (born 1978), Dutch footballer
* Gerrie Slot (born 1954), Dutch cyclist
* Hanke Bruins Slot (born 1977), Dutch politician
* Tonny Bruins Slot (born 1947), Dutch association football coach wh ...
, it was the sexual center of San Francisco during this period. This community had been active in resisting the city's ambitious
redevelopment
Redevelopment is any new construction on a site that has pre-existing uses. It represents a process of land development uses to revitalize the physical, economic and social fabric of urban space.
Description
Variations on redevelopment include: ...
program for the area throughout the 1970s. But as the
AIDS
Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...
epidemic unfolded in the 1980s, the ability of this community to stand up to
downtown
''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in North America by English speakers to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business distric ...
and
City Hall
In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
was dramatically weakened. The crisis became an opportunity for the city (in the name of
public health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...
) to close
bathhouses and regulate bars - businesses that had been the cornerstone of the community's efforts to maintain a gay space in the South of Market neighborhood.
In 1984, as these spaces for the gay community were rapidly closing, a coalition of housing activists and community organizers started the
Folsom Street Fair
Folsom Street Fair (FSF) is an annual BDSM and leather subculture street fair, held in September, that caps San Francisco's "Leather Pride Week". The Folsom Street Fair, sometimes simply referred to as "Folsom", takes place on Folsom Street bet ...
, in order to enhance the visibility of the community at a time when people in City Hall and elsewhere were apt to think it had gone away. The fair also provided a means for much-needed fundraising, and created opportunities for members of the leather community to connect to services and vital information (e.g., regarding
safer sex
In cryptography, SAFER (Secure And Fast Encryption Routine) is the name of a family of block ciphers designed primarily by James Massey (one of the designers of IDEA) on behalf of Cylink Corporation. The early SAFER K and SAFER SK designs share t ...
) which bathhouses and bars might otherwise have been ideally situated to distribute.
Redevelopment plans were first outlined in 1953. These plans began to be realized in the late 1970s and in the early 1980s with the construction of the conference center,
Moscone Center
The George R. Moscone Convention Center (pronounced ), popularly known as the Moscone Center, is the largest convention and exhibition complex in San Francisco, California. The complex consists of three main halls spread out across three block ...
, which 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
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...
in 1995, the Mission and Howard Street area of the South of Market has become a hub for museums and performances spaces.
Intersection for the Arts
Intersection for the Arts, established in 1965, is the oldest alternative non-profit art space in San Francisco, California. Intersection's reading series is the longest continuous reading series outside of an academic institution in the state of ...
is also based in the neighborhood, a non-profit which supports local Bay Area artists. The San Francisco institution was founded in 1965 in the Tenderloin, but has moved within the city to its current location in SoMa. Intersection supports the arts by offering local artists resources, fiscal sponsorship, and exhibition and performance spaces.
The area has long been home to bars and nightclubs. During the 1980s and 1990s, some of the warehouses there served as the home to the city's budding underground
rave
A rave (from the verb: '' to rave'') is a dance party at a warehouse, club, or other public or private venue, typically featuring performances by DJs playing electronic dance music. The style is most associated with the early 1990s dance mus ...
,
punk
Punk or punks may refer to:
Genres, subculture, and related aspects
* Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres
* Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...
, and
independent music scene. However, in recent decades, and mostly due to gentrification and rising rents, these establishments have begun to cater to an upscale and mainstream clientele that subsequently pushed out the underground musicians and their scene. Beginning in the 1990s, older housing stock has been joined by loft-style condominiums. Many of these were built under the cover of "live-work" development ostensibly meant to maintain a
studio arts community in San Francisco. During the late 1990s, the occupant of the "live-work" loft was more likely to be a "dot-commie", as South of Market became a local center of the
dot-com boom
The dot-com bubble (dot-com boom, tech bubble, or the Internet bubble) was a stock market bubble in the late 1990s, a period of massive growth in the use and adoption of the Internet.
Between 1995 and its peak in March 2000, the Nasdaq Compos ...
, due to its central location, space for infill housing development, and spaces readily converted into offices.
![Flags Moscone Center](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Flags_Moscone_Center.jpg)
A major transformation of the neighborhood was conceived during the 2000s with the
Transbay Terminal
The San Francisco Transbay Terminal was a transportation complex in San Francisco, California, United States, roughly in the center of the rectangle bounded north–south by Mission Street and Howard Street, and east–west by Beale Street and 2 ...
Replacement Project, which broke ground in August 2010 and opened in August 2018. In addition, new high rise residential projects like
One Rincon Hill
One Rincon Hill is an upscale residential complex on the apex of Rincon Hill in San Francisco, California, United States. The complex, designed by Solomon, Cordwell, Buenz and Associates and developed by Urban West Associates, consists of two ...
,
300 Spear Street, and
Millennium Tower are transforming the
San Francisco skyline. In 2005, the
Transbay Joint Powers Authority
The San Francisco Transbay development is a completed redevelopment plan for the neighborhood surrounding the Transbay Transit Center site, South of Market (San Francisco), South of Market near the Financial District (San Francisco), Financial Dis ...
proposed to raise height limits around the new Transbay Terminal. This led to proposals for more
supertall
A supertall building is an occupied "supertall" structure higher than and beneath . A form of skyscraper, it falls midway between a common minimum definition of "skyscraper" (a building taller ) and a " megatall" building (taller than ).
Diff ...
buildings, such as
Renzo Piano
Renzo Piano (; born 14 September 1937) is an Italian architect. His notable buildings include the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (with Richard Rogers, 1977), The Shard in London (2012), the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City (20 ...
's proposal for a group of towers that includes two 1,200-foot. (366 m) towers, two 900-foot (274 m) towers, and a 600-foot (183 m) tower. The 1,200-foot (366 m) towers would have been the tallest buildings in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
outside of
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
.
Renzo Piano
Renzo Piano (; born 14 September 1937) is an Italian architect. His notable buildings include the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (with Richard Rogers, 1977), The Shard in London (2012), the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City (20 ...
's complex has since been cancelled, and replaced by a newer project entitled 50 First Street, to be designed by
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) is an American architectural, urban planning and engineering firm. It was founded in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel A. Owings, Nathaniel Owings in Chicago, Illinois. In 1939, they were joined by engineer Jo ...
(SOM). In addition, the Cesar Pelli and Hines Group have also proposed another 1,070-foot (366 m), 61-story office tower. The
Salesforce Tower
Salesforce Tower, formerly known as Transbay Tower, is a 61-story skyscraper at 415 Mission Street, between First and Fremont Street, in the South of Market district of downtown San Francisco. Its main tenant is Salesforce, a cloud-based so ...
, formerly named the Transbay Tower, was completed May 2018.
Economy
The neighborhood consists of warehouses, auto repair shops, nightclubs, residential hotels, art spaces, loft apartments, furniture showrooms, condominiums and technology companies. A major children's park was also built for the area on top of Moscone South. The park features a large play area, an
ice skating
Ice skating is the self-propulsion and gliding of a person across an ice surface, using metal-bladed ice skates. People skate for various reasons, including recreation (fun), exercise, competitive sports, and commuting. Ice skating may be per ...
rink, a
bowling
Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...
alley, a restaurant, the
Children's Creativity Museum
The Children's Creativity Museum is an interactive museum for children aged 2-12 years, located in Yerba Buena Gardens, in San Francisco, California. It offers workshops and exhibits that allow children to produce their own media through various i ...
and the restored
carousel
A carousel or carrousel (mainly North American English), merry-go-round (List of sovereign states, international), roundabout (British English), or hurdy-gurdy (an old term in Australian English, in South Australia, SA) is a type of amusement ...
from
Playland-At-the-Beach. The children's park and Children's Creativity Museum are joined to the
Yerba Buena Gardens
Yerba Buena Gardens is the name for two blocks of public parks located between Third and Fourth, Mission and Folsom Streets in downtown San Francisco, California. The first block bordered by Mission and Howard Streets was opened on October 11, 19 ...
by a
footbridge
A footbridge (also a pedestrian bridge, pedestrian overpass, or pedestrian overcrossing) is a bridge designed solely for pedestrians.''Oxford English Dictionary'' While the primary meaning for a bridge is a structure which links "two points at a ...
.
Businesses
Many major software and technology companies have headquarters and offices here, including
Ustream
IBM Watson Media (formerly Ustream and IBM Cloud Video) is an American virtual events platform company which is a division of IBM. Prior to IBM acquisition, it had more than 180 employees across San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Budapest offices. ...
, Planet Labs,
Foursquare
Four square is a ball game.
Four square may also refer to:
Internet and entertainment
* Foursquare City Guide, a local search and discovery app
* ''4 Square'' (game show), a British game show
* ''4 Square'' (TV series), a Canadian children's s ...
,
Cloudflare
Cloudflare, Inc. is an American content delivery network and DDoS mitigation company, founded in 2009. It primarily acts as a reverse proxy between a website's visitor and the Cloudflare customer's hosting provider. Its headquarters are in San ...
,
Wikia
Fandom (formerly known as Wikicities before 2007 and later Wikia before 2019) is a wiki hosting service that hosts wikis mainly on entertainment topics (i.e. video games, TV series, movies, entertainers, etc.). Its domain is operated by Fandom, ...
,
Wired
''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fra ...
,
GitHub
GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, continuous ...
,
Pinterest
Pinterest is an American image sharing and social media service designed to enable saving and discovery of information (specifically "ideas") on the internet using images, and on a smaller scale, animated GIFs and videos, in the form of pinboard ...
,
CBS Interactive
Paramount Streaming (formerly CBS Digital Media Group, CBS Interactive, ViacomCBS Streaming), a division of Paramount Global, oversees the company’s streaming technology and offers direct-to-consumer services, free, premium and pay. These incl ...
,
LinkedIn
LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...
,
Trulia
Trulia is an American online real estate marketplace which is a subsidiary of Zillow. It facilitates buyers and renters to find homes and neighborhoods across the United States through recommendations, local insights, and map overlays that offer ...
,
Dropbox
Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by the American company Dropbox, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, U.S. that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, personal cloud, and Client (computing), client software. Dropb ...
,
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
,
Salesforce
Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides customer relationship management (CRM) software and applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, a ...
,
BitTorrent Inc.,
Yelp
Yelp Inc. is an American company that develops the Yelp.com website and the Yelp mobile app, which publish crowd-sourced reviews about businesses. It also operates Yelp Guest Manager, a table reservation service. It is headquartered in San F ...
,
Zynga
Zynga Inc. () is an American developer running social video game services. It was founded in April 2007, with headquarters in San Mateo, California. The company primarily focuses on mobile and social networking platforms. Zynga states its missio ...
,
Airbnb
Airbnb, Inc. ( ), based in San Francisco, California, operates an online marketplace focused on short-term homestays and experiences. The company acts as a broker and charges a commission from each booking. The company was founded in 2008 b ...
,
Uber
Uber Technologies, Inc. (Uber), based in San Francisco, provides mobility as a service, ride-hailing (allowing users to book a car and driver to transport them in a way similar to a taxi), food delivery (Uber Eats and Postmates), package ...
,
Advent Software, and
Pac-12 Networks
The Pac-12 Network (P12N; also sometimes referred to as Pac-12 Networks) is an American sports-oriented digital cable and satellite television network owned by the Pac-12 Conference. The network's studio and production facilities are headquart ...
. The area is also home to the few
Big-box store
A big-box store (also hyperstore, supercenter, superstore, or megastore) is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain of stores. The term sometimes also refers, by extension, to the company that operates the store. The t ...
s in San Francisco such as
Costco
Costco Wholesale Corporation (doing business as Costco Wholesale and also known simply as Costco) is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only big-box retail stores (warehouse club). As of 2022, Costco i ...
,
REI
Rei or REI may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
*Rei, a story arc of the anime ''Higurashi When They Cry''
*Rei, a shapeshifting godlike dragon in the Australian webcomic series ''Vainglorious''
*Rei I, II and III, episodes of ''Neon Genesis Eva ...
,
Nordstrom Rack
Nordstrom Rack is an American off-price department store chain founded in 1973. It is a sister brand to the luxury department store chain Nordstrom.
As of 2021, Nordstrom Rack operates 352 stores in 41 U.S. states and three Canadian provinces ...
, and
Best Buy
Best Buy Co. Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was rebra ...
.
Public health
The South of Market Health Center ensured health care access to comprehensive care by providing mental and physical health problem services to close the gap on health disparities. It provides agencies with programs including finances, health care, food assistance or job training. In terms of sexual health, the district's
San Francisco City Clinic offers sexually transmitted disease (STD) tests and treatment, in addition to counseling and condoms.
211 United Way Bay Area is a service that connects callers with services and programs: including basic needs, physical and mental health, employment assistance, and seniors support.
Miscellaneous attractions
The local
Academy of Art University
The Academy of Art University (AAU or ART U), formerly Academy of Art College and Richard Stephens Academy of Art, is a private for-profit art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded as the Academy of Advertising Art by Richard S. ...
owns several buildings in the neighborhood, primarily for academic and administrative purposes.
Culture
Cultural centers
SOMA is home to many of San Francisco's museums, including
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), the
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) is a multi-disciplinary contemporary arts center in San Francisco, California, United States. Located in Yerba Buena Gardens, YBCA features visual art, performance, and film/video that celebrates local, nati ...
, the
Museum of the African Diaspora
The Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) is a contemporary art museum in San Francisco, California. MoAD holds exhibitions and presents artists exclusively of the African diaspora, one of only a few museums of its kind in the United States. Locate ...
, the
American Bookbinders Museum
The American Bookbinders Museum is a small, not-for-profit museum in San Francisco, California, dedicated to showcasing the artistry, history, and craft of bookbinding.
The Museum opened as a private museum in 2009. In 2015 it relocated to a larg ...
, the
California Historical Society
The California Historical Society (CHS) is the official historical society of California. It was founded in 1871, by a group of prominent Californian intellectuals at Santa Clara University. It was officially designated as the Californian state hi ...
, the Zeum, and the
Contemporary Jewish Museum
The Contemporary Jewish Museum (CJM) is a non-collecting museum at 736 Mission Street at Yerba Buena Lane in the South of Market (SoMa) neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The museum, which was founded in 1984, is located in the historic ...
. The
Old Mint, which served as the San Francisco Mint from 1874 to 1937, was restored over an eight-year period and reopened to the public in 2012. The Center for the Arts, along with Yerba Buena Gardens and the
Metreon
The Metreon is a shopping center located in downtown San Francisco, California, United States at the corner of 4th Street and Mission Street. It is a four-story building built over the corner of the underground Moscone Center convention cen ...
, is built on top of Moscone North.
SOMArts, one of four cultural center facilities owned by the City and County of San Francisco, is located on Brannan Street between 8th and 9th streets.
Many small theater companies and venues are situated in the SOMA, including the
Lamplighters, The Garage,
Theatre Rhinoceros
Theatre Rhinoceros or Theatre Rhino is a gay and lesbian theatre based in San Francisco. It was founded in the spring of 1977 by Lanny Baugniet (who became the theater's General Manager) and his partner Allan B. Estes, Jr. (who became the theater' ...
, Boxcar Theater, Crowded Fire Theater, and
FoolsFURY Theater FoolsFURY Theater is an ensemble theater company based in San Francisco.
Founded in 1998 by Artistic Director Ben Yalom, the company presents reworked Shakespeare and classical texts as well as new works by experimental contemporary playwrights. In ...
.
Events
Due to the area's gay rights history, the
Folsom Street Fair
Folsom Street Fair (FSF) is an annual BDSM and leather subculture street fair, held in September, that caps San Francisco's "Leather Pride Week". The Folsom Street Fair, sometimes simply referred to as "Folsom", takes place on Folsom Street bet ...
is held on Folsom St between 7th and 12th Streets (now between 8th and 13th Streets). The smaller and less-commercialized leather subculture-oriented
Up Your Alley Fair
The Up Your Alley Fair, most commonly referred to by locals as Dore Alley Fair or simply Dore Alley is a leather and fetish event held in San Francisco, California on the last Sunday of July on Folsom Street between 9th and 10th Streets and on D ...
(commonly referred to as the Dore Alley Fair) is held in late July on and around Folsom St. Also home to the annual
How Weird Street Faire
The How Weird Street Faire is an outdoor street fair held each year in San Francisco, occupying several blocks of Howard Street and the surrounding area, in the SoMa neighborhood. The event has been held yearly since 2000, and is currently centere ...
featuring dancing and costumes, held in early May along seven city blocks including Howard and Second streets.
Several Filipino cultural events are held such as Filipino American History Month Celebration at the Asian Art Museum in October and Pistahan Parade and Festival in August.
Undiscovered SF, held monthly, promotes economic activity and awareness of SoMa Pilipinas. It supports retail concepts, restaurants, and businesses by giving skill-set building workshops and professional services like accounting and crowdfunding to prepare businesses for growth and sustainability.
Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District
The
Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District was created in SoMa in 2018. The area is bounded approximately by Howard St. on the northwest, 7th St. on the northeast, I-80 on the east and US 101 on the south. There is also an exclave between 5th and 6th streets, Harrison and Bryant. It includes the
San Francisco South of Market Leather History Alley
The San Francisco South of Market Leather History Alley consists of four works of art along the Ringold Street alley, at 8th Street, in San Francisco's SOMA district honoring leather culture; it opened in 2017.
Artworks
Collectively titled ''Lea ...
, which opened in 2017.
SoMa Pilipinas
In April 2016, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution that established the SOMA Pilipinas Filipino Cultural Heritage District. The relationship between SOMA Pilipinas and the Philippines is established in the resolution: "Whereas, Filipino immigration patterns to San Francisco are rooted in the conquest and subsequent colonization of the Philippines by the United States in 1898, the American colonial regime in the Philippines from 1899-1946, and ongoing, often unequal and imperialist US-Philippines relations from 1946 to present."
The City of San Francisco certified
Tagalog as its third official language in 2014, and a 2010 Census illustrated the Filipino population to reach 36,347 Filipino in the city which 5,106 live in South of Market District. Within the SOMA Pilipinas' official borders—Market to the north, Brannan to the south, 2nd the east, and 11th to the west—are several streets named after Filipino historical figures, including Rizal, Lapu-Lapu, and Mabini, and are located between Folsom and Harrison Streets. A former Philipino district existed near North Beach, prior to its gentrification, called
Manilatown
A Little Manila ( fil, Munting Maynila or ), also known as a Manilatown ( fil, Bayang Maynila) or Filipinotown ( fil, Bayang Pilipino), is a community with a large Filipinos, Filipino immigrant and descendant population. Little Manilas are enclave ...
.
See also
*
List of tallest buildings in San Francisco
San Francisco, California, in the United States, has at least 482 high-rises, 58 of which are at least tall. The tallest building is Salesforce Tower, which rises and is the 17th-tallest building in the United States. The city's second- ...
*
Moscone Center
The George R. Moscone Convention Center (pronounced ), popularly known as the Moscone Center, is the largest convention and exhibition complex in San Francisco, California. The complex consists of three main halls spread out across three block ...
*
Foundry Square
Foundry Square is a complex of four architecturally-linked, 10-story mid-rise buildings located at Howard and First Streets near the Transbay Transit Center in the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco, California. Each of the four building ...
*
San Francisco Transbay development
The San Francisco Transbay development is a completed redevelopment plan for the neighborhood surrounding the Transbay Transit Center site, South of Market near the Financial District in San Francisco, California. The new transit center replaced ...
*
Transbay Terminal
The San Francisco Transbay Terminal was a transportation complex in San Francisco, California, United States, roughly in the center of the rectangle bounded north–south by Mission Street and Howard Street, and east–west by Beale Street and 2 ...
*
Salesforce Tower
Salesforce Tower, formerly known as Transbay Tower, is a 61-story skyscraper at 415 Mission Street, between First and Fremont Street, in the South of Market district of downtown San Francisco. Its main tenant is Salesforce, a cloud-based so ...
References
External links
LiveSoma Community & News SiteSharing Leather History Through a Board Gamesftravel.com South of Market InformationFoundsf SOMAReal Estate Overview for SoMaWestern SoMa VoiceSOMA Pilipinas: Filipino Heritage DistrictLeather & LGBTQ Cultural District
{{DEFAULTSORT:South Of Market, San Francisco
Neighborhoods in San Francisco
Warehouse districts of the United States
Economy of San Francisco
Gay villages in California
LGBT culture in San Francisco
Tourist attractions in San Francisco
Adaptive reuse of industrial structures in the San Francisco Bay Area