Living in NoPa, San Francisco

Alamo Square's sloped lawn frames the "Painted Ladies," the row of Victorian houses on Steiner Street whose facades became a familiar backdrop through the opening credits of the sitcom Full House, a few blocks from NoPa's own quieter rows of restored Victorians. Divisadero Street runs the neighborhood's commercial spine, its wine bars, coffee shops, and restaurants filling storefronts that sat empty through much of the 1990s before a wave of openings rebuilt the strip into one of the city's more closely watched restaurant rows. The Panhandle, a narrow eastern extension of Golden Gate Park lined with old-growth eucalyptus and elm trees, runs along NoPa's southern edge, giving the neighborhood a jogging and cycling path that reaches directly into the park proper. Low-rise Victorians and small apartment buildings fill most of the surrounding grid, spared the taller construction that has reshaped blocks closer to downtown.

No BART or Muni Metro line reaches NoPa, and residents rely on Divisadero's bus lines or a walk to Haight Street or the Fillmore corridor for anything closer to rail.

Rents here split the difference between the pricier blocks right on the Panhandle and the more affordable stretches further out Divisadero, in a corner of central San Francisco with one of the steadier safety ratings around.