San Francisco: The Unknown City

By Josh Krist and Helene Goupil

Arsenal's Unknown City series of alternative guidebooks designed for tourists and hometowners alike turns its attention to the City by the Bay: San Francisco, where stories of notorious murders, city hall scandals, and untold tales of Chinatown, Haight-Ashbury, and Castro Street share pages with secret dining pleasures, shopping meccas, and nightclub hotspots. From the Summer of Love back in the 1960s to the Winter of Love in 2004, when the mayor of San Francisco made the city the center of the nation's gay marriage debate, San Francisco has consistently been one of America's most colorful and offbeat urban oases. From pot dispensaries in the Lower Haight to the nightspots in the heavily Hispanic Mission district to private karaoke rooms in Japan Town, all of San Francisco's hidden nooks and crannies are exposed. There's info on the Castro district, the heartland of America's gay community; the city's hot restaurant scene, home to arguably the best dining in the nation; tidbits on nearby Napa wineries; multi-level sex clubs; and the alleged whereabouts of active opium dens. There's also the story of the confrontation between Orson Welles and William Randolph Hearst at the St. Francis Hotel, when Hearst refused Welles' offer of tickets to the premiere of Citizen Kane ; the legacy of Alcatraz and legendary prison escape attempts; and notes on San Francisco icons like the Golden Gate Bridge and the Transamerica Building. Ebullient and chock-a-block with facts and figures, this book raises a glass to life in the City by the Bay. Two-color throughout; includes a BART transportation route map. Helene Goupil and Josh Krist are editor and publisher, respectively, of InsideOut Travel magazine, a bimonthly online travel publication that caters to the traveler/adventurer at heart. Helene, Josh, and InsideOut ( www.insideoutmag.com ) are based in San Francisco.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1551521881
• ISBN13: 9781551521886
• Release Date: October 2005
• Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.5" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Won't be listed in your standard travel guide

The Unknown City series of alternative guides provides a fine focus on San Francisco, the hotbed of alternative culture in the 1960s, and identifies neighborhoods and places which reflect the city's hidden history and cultures. From the gay mecca Castro Street to offbeat museums, the scene of a duel, camping in the city, unique studios and performing arts venues, and more, it's fairly certain much of the attractions listed in SAN FRANCISCO: THE UNKNOWN CITY won't be listed in your standard travel guide. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch

A must-have for anyone visiting or living in the bay area

San Francisco: The Uknown City is not like the big name travel guides to SF such as Fodor's, Frommer's, etc... Instead of the typical guidebook that only recommends seeing obvious sights such as the golden gate bridge, coit tower and pier 39, The Unknown City highlights museums, bookstores, restaurants, and other attractions of the city by the bay that may not be as well known as they should be. The Uknown City makes for great reading,and lots of interesting factoids about the city are dispersed throughout. As a SF resident, I am constantly learning new and interesting facts about my city as a result of this book. I have recommended this to friends and family as a required book to purchase before their visit to SF, and all of them have later thanked me for it. If you are planning on visiting San Francisco or if you've been a resident for years and wish to learn more about SF from a different perspective, then this book is for you!

Very Good addition to Series

I like the "Unknown City" series, I've used the New York and Vancouver book before. San Francisco is one of my favorite cities, and I've been there enough times to think this book couldn't tell me much. Boy, was I wrong. What I liked is that one the one hand it hit all the big highlights of all the main, and not so well known neighborhoods, but what was really neat is this "guidebook" is really a bunch of short stories--I knew there were colorful and crazy people in this city, but I had no idea that these people have been here since it first began. I really enjoyed it, and as someone how has a lot of guidebooks, this is a great book on an even greater city. Oh, and although some of the photography was just picturtes of what places (especially hard-to-find ones) looked like from the street, some of the photography was really funky and cool.

A different kind of guidebook

This is not a typical guidebook for the traveler. Most of those books are little more than directories of hotels, restaurants, tourist destinations and shopping areas. By contrast, this is the kind of book I could imagine even a non-traveler curious about San Francisco might sit down to read. One would probably know more after merely reading this book than after traveling to San Francisco and rushing around a few touristy areas, camera in hand. In an engaging narrative voice, the authors flesh out the locations with background details and historical context. The emphasis is less on the "must see" tourist locations that the business traveler might squeeze in after his convention is over, and more on the elements that make San Francisco the unique place that it is for those who live there. Make no mistake, practical details about the places covered are not ignored. The main text covers both these details and the bigger picture of what makes each location worth visiting. Smaller sidebar entries are like footnotes, dropping in little bits of trivia along the way. There are plenty of photos and quirky iconic illustrations ventilating the text throughout the book. Highly recommended as an alternative to the mainstream travel guides out there.