First Impressions

Clear on the other side of the hill from Dolores Park, the most ill kept secret of San Francisco, is the Noe Valley neighborhood perched one-hill-too-many away for any ironically seedy bicycle riders or their cut-off jean shorts. The distant flicker of lights from all that is Castro seem to dissolve into fairy dust and on to the baby strollers delegating traffic on walking paths that sparkle even at dusk. There is seemingly no other strip in any neighborhood of the seven by seven peninsula that has sidewalk shrubbery as manicured and cared for than that of 24th street. Bar patrons stay with in their confines. And you know that deli you think has the best subs in town? The one in Noe Valley was once it’s teacher and the deli you know still has to climb over desolate hills of dried grass for seven days with a roped donkey to reach the Noe Valley deli to ask it what ingredient is missing from the nearly perfect creation which has yet to be revealed but somehow has already existed for years and years and years.

But Noe Valley is not any sort of secret and this is in no way intended to be read and make anyone giddy or start twittering. You already know what’s over there. The thing is, there is no word a “local” will put in between two quotations signaled with the fingers in the air before describing this neighborhood and before you ruin everything, just don’t even try. It is not the gay district. There was never a heyday of excessive drug use or free love. It is not the overly hyped Mission neighborhood and it is not “the Loin” or “Tender-nob”. Noe Valley, comfortably, just is.

The hills that encompass the neighborhood give it a removed feeling, which with it’s clean streets and Victorian houses is what attracts younger families with kids and if anything, is why it has that snobbish connotation.

In turn, this has attracted the merchants who cater to this demographic. Although the neighborhood has acquired a sense of elitism, stores like Phoenix Books that are locally owned and operated for 24 years by the likes of Rosenberger Waters, can vouch for the legitimacy of Noe Valley’s sensibilities. As told to Pat Rose of the Noe Valley Voice in their August edition, La Boulange Café and Bakery co-owner, Thomas Lefort, likes the neighborhood for its abundance of families and merchants and foot traffic. “It reminds us a lot of a busy street in a French town.”

After a four year search for a site in Noe Valley, La Boulange will open its newest location on the corner of 24th and Sanchez streets this fall. Another locally-owned company opening on the strip this season is Green11, a company that lets you “refill your own containers with organic beauty and non-toxic cleaning products”.

Noe Valley residence seem to enjoy their neighborhood and this fall brings nothing but more to like for the happy people on the 24th strip.