San Francisco - Best Of - People & Places (2007)

Best Comedy Act: Uphill Both Ways Best Stripper: Jade-Blue Eclipse Best Writer: Dave Eggers Best Activist: Medea Benjamin Best Mechanic: Aaron at Advanced Audi Best Morning Crew: KFOG Best Radio DJ: Dave Morey Best Talk Radio Host: Dorka Keehn Best Newscaster: Dennis... More >>

Best Socialite

Vanessa Getty

Charity starts at home, and no one typifies this clichéd line of altruism more than Vanessa Getty. Although we have yet to receive a dollar from her to help us out on our incessantly late rent, Getty's philanthropic work is second to none. OK, maybe second to the Stepmother From Hell (you know... More >>

Best Newspaper Columnist

David Lazarus, San Francisco Chronicle

Nobody wields a sharper scalpel than Lazarus when it comes to dissecting the doublespeak and deceptive practices of big business. His thrice weekly column serves as a consumer tip sheet, alerting readers when banks gouge customers through hidden debit-card fees or credit-card companies sneak... More >>

Best Zinester

Jay Howell

People love artist Jay Howell for two main — and pretty much indistinguishable — reasons: his boner imagery and his seventh-grade sense of humor. Both are displayed in this lanky pen-and-ink doodler's hilarious publications. From Punks Git Cut to Dogs and Dog Information , his... More >>

Best Local Street Vendor

The Tamale Lady

Virginia Ramos, better known to her hordes of fans and admirers as the Tamale Lady, has been wheeling plastic coolers filled with her handmade wares around the Mission for years. Stopping into as many as 18 bars in one evening between happy hour and closing time, the Tamale Lady's presence is... More >>

Best Pathological Citizen

Frank Chu

While most S.F. kooks are of the frightening, defecating-in-public variety, Frank Chu is quite the Dapper Dan. He's quiet and always sports a slick suit and sunglasses (even at night). Dedicated to the work he does, Chu can be found making daily rounds through downtown religiously and at almost... More >>

Best Stalker

Han Sup Shin

Mayor Gavin Newsom might be "relieved like a laxative" now that his admirer in diapers, Han Sup Shin, has been served with a restraining order for trying to break into his apartment this past Valentine's Day (so romantic!), but we kind of miss the nut. We could go into detail about the... More >>

Best Illegal Display of Fireworks (1 Comments)

Mission District Roofs

Living in a third-floor walkup with three roommates may not be ideal, but it has its perks — that's the mantra Mission District residents recite. And they get validation every Fourth of July. As the sun goes down on that patriotic evening, Missionistas climb up fire escapes and crack open... More >>

Best Evening Picnic Spot

Sutro Baths

Everybody loves ruins. They're romantic and eerie, and imaginations feed on the remnants to reconstruct the places and lives of yesteryear. San Francisco is too young a city to be rich in ruins, but we do have what's left of the Sutro Baths. The deluxe public bath house opened in 1896, and housed... More >>

Best Public Pay Phones

The Fairmont

Those of you without cellphones — all four of you — know that finding a working pay phone in San Francisco can lead to a journey longer than Odysseus' trip to Ithaca. No dial tone, dead mouthpiece, missing receiver — many are the obstacles that thwart the would-be pay-phone user.... More >>

Best Brunch Where You Might Also Get Laid

Sunday Brunch at Lime

It's not just the Castro location — ripe with horny and hungover twentysomethings looking for protein from a variety of sources — or the salmon deviled eggs that are so subtle yet tasty that you will want to make love to any and all after just one bite. Instead it's the bottomless... More >>

Best Place to Get Off on BART

The Last Car of the Train

Just a quick search on XTube will vividly tell you what a thousand words can't: Men like to screw around with other men on BART. Specifically, men like to achieve orgasms on the train's last car, which is usually the least crowded of cars. Famously performed on the very last train of a BART car,... More >>

Best Glory Hole (5 Comments)

Blow Buddies

What is a glory hole, you might be asking yourself? (Well, you might be asking that if, say, you just moved here either out from under a rock or from under the state of Michigan.) Well, it's a vile and crudely cutout hole, about waist-level high, on a wall or a bathroom stall in which to stick... More >>

Best San Francisco Values

The Castro Lions

Here are the unpoetic but inspiring words that must have inspired the 1985 founding of the Castro Lions: "Is there a need in your community that is not being met? Consider forming a Lions Club to bring together community service-minded individuals ... " In the mid-1980s, there was indeed a need... More >>

Best Morbid Display of Gay Pride

Columbarium

Rainbow flags have waved over so many aspects of city life that it's not surprising to find them in a final resting place; still, it's a nice sight. The Columbarium is an exquisite, 110-year-old building in the Richmond where the cremated remains of thousands of San Franciscans are tucked away in... More >>

Best Cemetery

Mission Dolores

In a city famously (and intentionally) lacking in graveyards, this lovely little "cemetery garden" at the city's oldest landmark is a hands-down winner. The gravestones date to the 1830s, but they don't begin to tell the whole story. There are an estimated 5,000 Ohlone Indians buried on the... More >>

Best Place to Spot a Bike Messenger Sitting Still

One Post

The sunny steps of the Montgomery Street BART station may not seem like the hub of one of San Francisco's coolest scenes, but depending on whom you ask, they are. Bike messengers of all persuasions relax here between delivering tags: young, old, crazy, sexy, male, female (but not too many of the... More >>

Best Place for Doggie Dating (2 Comments)

Alamo Square Park

A local, let's call him "Steve," takes his dog twice daily to Alamo Square, and recently veered away from his pooch's regular "business" spot. The reason? "See that girl over there with the golden retriever? I slept with her a few weeks ago and haven't been returning her calls lately." Veering... More >>

Best New "It" Neighborhood (2 Comments)

NOPA

People who haven't lived in San Francisco for a few years will raise their eyebrows and make their eyes all big and say, "oooh," if you tell them you live in the area historically known as the Western Addition. What they don't know (and let's try to keep it our secret), is that the area north of... More >>

Best Panoramic View

Buena Vista Park

It's not uncommon to see a few European tourists huffing and puffing their way to the top of this park that's true to its name (it means "good view" in Spanish). On a clear day, hiking up the steep 575-foot hill offers spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge and much of the whole Bay Area.... More >>

Best Scenic Stairs

Harry Street Stairs

A perfect way to experience the varied architectural and horticultural charms of San Francisco with an elevated heart rate is to climb the Harry Street stairs. The wooden steps climb in a reasonably straight line from Laidley to Beacon Street in the border region of Glen Park and Noe Valley... More >>

Best Place to Farm Fennel

San Francisco Community Gardens

Now, fennel is something that actually grows with wild abandon all over the city if you know where to look (waist-high, pale-green fronds under the freeway overpass, anyone?), but if you're an urban dweller with a green thumb, there is hope for you if you want to think outside the window box. San... More >>

Best Fire Hydrant

The Golden Hydrant

It isn't often that a city recognizes a lowly fire hydrant as a significant historical landmark, but this one near the southwest corner of Mission Dolores Park has earned the props. In the aftermath of the 1906 earthquake and fire, it was here that a handful of exhausted firemen and throngs of... More >>

Best Place to Walk in Circles

Grace Cathedral's labyrinths

Talk about the benefits of going nowhere! Labyrinths, those circular paths leading to a center, have been around for centuries and in Europe they were a common feature of medieval cathedrals. Aficionados have long recognized labyrinth-walking both as a kind of spiritual journey and as a way to... More >>

Best Dashiell Hammett Haunt

Building at 891 Post

OK, Dashiell Hammett fans, we know you can never get enough. Some of us see Sam Spade, the famed author's famous detective, around most every corner — or at least at the spots immortalized in The Maltese Falcon . There's John's Grill (at 63 Ellis), where Spade loved to chow down, and the... More >>

Best Little-Noticed Shrine

Fisherman's & Seaman's Memorial Chapel

Nestled on the inner harbor side of Pier 45, this small wood-framed chapel, built in 1979, is a charming memorial to the memory of Bay Area fishermen who've lost their lives at sea. It's also something of a touchstone for San Francisco's mostly Italian, mostly Roman Catholic fishing community,... More >>

Best Place to Wait on a Plane

San Francisco Airport Museum

Dedicated to commercial aviation and SFO's role as the "Gateway to the Pacific," this museum constitutes an island of sanity amid the hustle and bustle of SFO's concourses. Step inside this 11,500-square-foot trove of flying lore and you're transported to an imposing model of the 1937 San... More >>

Best New Old Skyscraper (1 Comments)

450 Sutter (at Stockton)

When it comes to tense relationships, Hatfields vs. McCoys have nothing on architects vs. building code inspectors. Take the example of 450 Sutter St., the 26-story, Art Deco landmark designed by Timothy Pflueger, the architectural mind behind the Pacific Stock Exchange, Union Square Plaza, the... More >>

Best TV Reporter

Dan Noyes

While local TV news the nation over continues to take flack for obsequious coverage, our hometown reporter Dan Noyes has fashioned himself into Mayoral Enemy No. 1. Back in January, the chief investigative reporter for ABC 7 incited Gavin Newsom's old spokesman Peter Ragone to point into the... More >>

Best Girl for Gavin (1 Comments)

Jennifer Siebel

It's a close call to pick just one from the smorgasbord of suitors vying for a spot in Mayor Newsom's heart since his divorce: the CSI: Miami starlet, the friend's wife, the 20-year-old Republican with a porn name, the stalker with a purple glove. But this year, we've gotta give props to... More >>

Best/Worst Politician

Gavin Newsom

Ah, [sigh] Gavin, if the city only had a nickel for each time you were compared to a Ken doll, we could fix the Muni. Three years having passed since Newsom first boosted our glittering city into the national limelight by allowing gay marriages, Newsom staged a comeback in a big way this year... More >>

Best Talk Radio Host (5 Comments)

Bernie Ward

OK, so the guy is not sexy or suave. He looks like a plump systems engineer from Middle America who'd vote Republican. But this is radio, so what do we care if KGO's Bernie Ward isn't a looker. If you can sit tight through sermon-like pauses (he used to be a priest) that last so long you end up... More >>