Quote:
Originally Posted by Austinlee
Isn't Rincon Hill downtown & part of the CBD?
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Not really. Until the 1990s, "downtown" San Francisco meant the retail shopping district around Union Square, the Financial District centered on Montgomery Street (sometimes called "the Wall Street of the West") and the area between these and the Embarcadero. Officially, I think the Tenderloin was considered "downtown" also by the city if not by all residents (these neighborhood limits and designations are a thing San Franciscans like to argue over almost as much as where to et the best latte/burrito/sourdough/sushi etc etc). All of these are north of Market St. In the development cycle that coincided with the "dot-com" boom, a Financial District South began to develop along Mission St. east of 3rd or so and also a new highrise residential (apartments and hotels) area around the Yerba Buena Redevelopment District (Mission to FolsomHoward/3rd to 4th). Most of us began to think of these areas as part of "downtown".
But Rincon Hill was/is several blocks further south and was, until the construction of One Rincon Hill's first and tallest tower, largely old, ignored and low rise (although a couple 9-15 floor residential buildings had begun to encroach on the hill). Basically, it was an area you passed and hardly noticed when crossing the Bay Bridge--there was no reason to go there unless you lived in one of the buildings mentioned and it made no particular impact on the skyline. The freeways loop around it in the center of this photo (I think from the 1980s--certainly pre-1989):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rincon...0_Junction.jpg