One of the top must haves I hear from new home buyers? A straightforward commute to downtown San Francisco. With many companies now requiring a few days a week in the office, living near reliable public transit has become more important than ever. If you’re house hunting with that in mind, here are the neighborhoods I think offer the best access to Muni and BART:
1. Noe Valley: Yes, everyone loves Noe for its 24th Street retail corridor, Slow Street Sanchez and diverse architecture amidst tree-lined streets. But it’s also excellent if you need to get downtown regularly. The ideal commuting section of Noe is anywhere east of Sanchez. From there, you can walk to the J Church, and also to the 24th Street BART station.
2. Mission/Mission Dolores: Just next door to Noe is the popular Mission district, with its hot Valencia restaurant/shop/cafe strip. The Mission is directly served by the BART line, which runs downtown and into the East Bay. Ideal areas of the Mission would be within blocks of either the 16th or 24th and Mission stations. And on the Mission Dolores front, you have your 18th Street BiRite/Defina/Tartine empire, which are great places to stop off on your way home from the 16th and Mission BART station, or the J Church.
3. Glen Park: In the heart of Glen Park’s downtown area is the BART hub. This is pretty accessible from most parts of Glen Park, as well as the more northern section of Mission Terrace and the eastern portion of neighboring Sunnyside.
4. Lower Pacific Heights: No rail lines service this area, but buses run frequently to and from downtown on practically every east-west street, including California, Pine, Bush, Sutter, and Post. There’s also an excellent stretch along Fillmore that offers a variety of restaurants, shops and cafes.
5. Cole Valley: A bit more low key than its Haight Ashbury neighbor, Cole Valley is served by the N Judah. The station is at Carl and Cole, steps from all the restaurants, shops and cafes. The train can get pretty crowded at peak times, but it’s definitely a direct line to downtown.
6. Duboce Triangle: The N Judah also runs through Duboce, but the residents of this very small section of San Francisco can also walk over to Church and Market for the J Church.
7. Eureka Valley/Castro: The Market and Castro Muni station is ideal for Castro dwellers, who have a variety of train lines running to downtown.
8. West Portal: Sleepier than some of the aforementioned nabes, West Portal is a very cool area with a mom-and-pop retail strip that’s pretty much the opposite of Union Street. The area is served by the L Muni line. It may take a little longer to get downtown from this western San Francisco location, but West Portal is the most convenient area west of Twin Peaks for commuting.
9. Hayes Valley: Also the keeper of a hot retail area, Hayes Valley hosts a variety of bus lines that run to Market Street, or you can walk over to the Muni stations at Market and Van Ness or Civic Center to get downtown. You can also walk downtown on a good day.
10. Dogpatch: The Muni T line started running along Third Street back in 2007, and the city has since extended the line through SoMa, Union Square and Chinatown.