The North Beach District has been predominantly populated by Italians since the 1920’s, according to a historical essay on foundsf.org. The neighborhood is even nicknamed “Little Italy,” and along all light poles of the area, the Italian flag is painted on them.
In present day, the district is heavily visited by tourists due to the famous landmarks such as Pier 39, Coit Tower, and the Exploratorium. Connie Hirschmugel is a Jehovah’s Witness volunteer that knows the area very well and guides tourists on where to visit.
“Boudin’s, on the third story, they have a museum up at that place that has been there since 1848, was founded by a man who was very passionate about bread making… He didn’t just take flour and put yeast in it. He kept the mother starter, so every loaf of bread made after that, he saved the mother starter which has bacteria in it, ” Hirschmugel explained. She also said that she could tell that the bakers in Boudin’s love making the bread.
She spoke about the multiple free museums that are in the area that are rich with the history of North Beach.
The neighborhood of North Beach falls inside of District 3 in San Francisco, which also includes nearby neighborhoods like North Beach, Chinatown, Fisherman’s Wharf, Polk Gulch, Union Square/Financial District and Russian, Nob and Telegraph Hills. Aaron Peskin is the current supervisor for District 3.
The area, like many of the other neighborhoods within San Francisco, has been slowly raising the rent on its residents and business owners, making it difficult to stay in the area. Annabella Rossetti, a local resident commented on the change that she has seen from growing up in the area.
“Gentrification has changed the dynamic of people living here now… a lot of businesses over time, over tech folks moving in, rent increasing, a lot of people have been forced out,” Rossetti said.
Rossetti later added in, “I just walked by a coffee shop I usually go to, it was so busy. It’s called Beacon and like everyone in there was just on their computer working remotely… Like everyone looked the same.”
Schools that are in the North Beach District include Garfield Elementary School, Francisco Middle School, and Saints Peters and Paul School. Right across from Saints Peters and Paul School is Washington Square, a park that is visited by residents and tourists of the area. A playground was recently renovated and reopened in January of 2019, according to the San Francisco Recreation and Parks website.
Henry Jeger is a resident of North Beach who is joined by his dog, Gus.
“Lots to do, lots of places to walk around… The things that I like the most are Washington Square Park, Pier 39’s lawn, I like to go up to Coit tower and walk to Ghirardelli Square.”
A few blocks down from Washington Square is another public park called the Joe Maggio Playground that is right next to the North Beach Library and the North Beach Swimming Pool. All of these areas are free and open to the public, minus the swimming pool which is public but does require payment to be used.
Central Police Station, which is located in Russian Hill, is the closest police station to North Beach. According to the crime data for the Central Police Station, just in the first month of this year alone, there have been 641 reported incidents of larceny theft. That is a decrease of reported thefts compared to the 711 thefts in January of 2019.
North Beach has a fire department station right in the middle of the district and nearby Washington Square. This is beneficial since the area is commonly affected by fires. In the matter of nearly 6 months in 2018, there were 3 fires that occurred.
“Coit Liquors was actually a famous liquor store here, a lot of people would famously go to Coit Liquors because it’s one of the standing businesses that was here for years, they were forced to close,” Rossetti commented. She made claims as to why the fires could be happening.
“I don’t know if people are purposely doing that to claim insurance money because they can’t afford San Francisco.”
North Beach is on the quieter side of crime compared to other areas in San Francisco. SFPD uses a system called Compstat in order to “inform our Crime Strategies Unit which is focused on tracking data and strategically deploying resources to significantly reduce violent crimes and property crimes.” By looking at the Compstat data for Central Police Station it can be seen that the great majority of crimes fall under property crimes.
The North Beach News Watch 