Living in North Beach, San Francisco

City Lights Bookstore has sold books at the corner of Columbus and Broadway since 1953, its publishing arm drawn into a 1957 obscenity trial over Allen Ginsberg's poem 'Howl' that the store won, cementing North Beach's identity as the heart of the Beat generation. Washington Square Park spreads a lawn in front of Saints Peter and Paul Church's twin spires, where Joe DiMaggio posed for wedding photos though he never married there, and Italian cafes and bakeries still line the surrounding blocks after more than a century in business. Coit Tower crowns Telegraph Hill a short climb east of the park, its 1930s murals and observation deck looking out over the waterfront that gave North Beach its name before landfill pushed the shoreline back. The T line's Muni Metro trains stop just one station south in Chinatown; the Central Subway's tunnels already run beneath Columbus Avenue toward North Beach, with a dedicated stop here under study for a future extension.

Without a station of its own yet, a lot of North Beach's daily traffic still moves on foot, by cable car, or by bus, and parking on the neighborhood's narrow streets is often a long search.

Its restaurant rows and nightlife keep sidewalks busy well into the evening, a livelier soundtrack than the quieter residential blocks farther up Telegraph Hill.