West Portal is a small neighborhood located on the West Side of

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 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 tunnel beneath

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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 and the M Ocean View 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 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 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 Muni 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