West Portal is a small neighborhood located on the

West Side West Side or Westside may refer to: Places Canada * West Side, a neighbourhood of Windsor, Ontario * West Side, a neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia United Kingdom * West Side, Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland * Westside, Birmingham ...

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. West Portal is a primarily residential area of the city. The neighborhood's main corridor, West Portal Avenue, serves as a principal

shopping district A shopping street or shopping district is a designated road or quarter of a municipality that is composed of retail establishments (such as stores, boutiques, restaurants, and shopping complexes). Such areas may be pedestrian-oriented, with ...

of southwestern San Francisco.

Location

West Portal is located at the southern edge of the hills in central San Francisco. The neighborhood is named for the western terminus of the

Muni Muni or Munni may refer to: Municipal * A common US abbreviation for municipal, municipal services, and the like *Municipal bond *Municipal Bridge, the former name of the George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge in Louisville, Kentucky *"Muni", slang ...

tunnel beneath

Twin Peaks ''Twin Peaks'' is an American Surrealist cinema, surrealist Mystery film, mystery-Horror film, horror Drama (film and television), drama television series created by Mark Frost and David Lynch. It Pilot (Twin Peaks), premiered on American Broad ...

that opened in 1918. The ride in the subway from West Portal Station to Castro Station is about seven minutes. By the West Portal Station, the

K Ingleside The K Ingleside is a light rail line of the Muni Metro system in San Francisco, California. It mainly serves the West Portal and Ingleside neighborhoods. The line opened on February 3, 1918, and was the first line to use the Twin Peaks Tunnel ...

and the

M Ocean View The M Ocean View is a light rail line that is part of the Muni Metro system in San Francisco, California. Named after the Oceanview neighborhood, it runs between San Jose and Geneva and Embarcadero station, connecting Oceanview, San Franci ...

go south along West Portal Avenue. The neighborhood is served by the Quintara/24th Street and Parkmerced Muni bus lines.

Characteristics

Because of its small size and collection of

mom and pop Small businesses are types of corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships which have a small number of employees and/or less annual revenue than a regular-sized business or corporation. Businesses are defined as "small" in terms of being ...

stores, restaurants, and saloons, the neighborhood is often described as having a village-like atmosphere. The neighborhood is served by the West Portal Branch of the

San Francisco Public Library The San Francisco Public Library is the public library system of the city and county of San Francisco in United States. The Main Library is located at Civic Center, at 100 Larkin Street. The library system has won several awards, such as ''Libr ...

. Like Glen Park, West Portal is a San Francisco community that almost functions as a small city itself. Though small, the neighborhood has many banks, restaurants of many types, coffee shops, salons, post office, elementary school, drug store, bakery, ice cream shop, real estate agents, and spas. West Portal Avenue is dotted with locally owned and operated businesses which include a record store, book store, toy and craft store, clothing boutiques, produce market, candy shop, and hardware store. West Portal Avenue also has many professional services such as dentists, lawyers, accountants, optometrists, and urgent care facilities. The frequent fog helps keep the area green in the usually rainless summer months, and on a clear day, West Portal Park, above the Twin Peaks Tunnel, provides a view of the

Marin Headlands The Marin Headlands are a hilly peninsula at the southernmost end of Marin County, California, United States, located just north of San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge, which connects the two counties and peninsulas. The entire area is p ...

and the

Farallon Islands The Farallon Islands ( ), or Farallones (), are a group of islands and sea stacks in the Gulf of the Farallones, off the coast of San Francisco, California, United States. The islands are also sometimes referred to by mariners as the Devil's ...

in the

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

Transit

The neighborhood is served by the

train lines M Ocean View, S Shuttle, K Ingleside, and L Taraval.

References

{{Neighborhoods of San Francisco Neighborhoods in San Francisco Shopping districts and streets in the United States Streetcar suburbs