The Castro is an iconic San Francisco neighborhood that symbolizes diversity, and celebration of difference, and remains a symbol of LGBTQ activism around the world. On the Beverly Barnett team, we often like to discuss what it means to curate a specific type of life in the city or simply “to be …(happy, freaky, outlandish, creative)” in a specific neighborhood. For many of us, the Castro epitomizes the freedom to be your most unique self and shout it from the rooftops.
While things have changed significantly since the “Summer of Love” in the late ’60s spilling into the ’70s, the Castro remains a highly sought-after area for its central location, easy access to the Muni/Bart (underground transportation), walkability, and stunning Victorian architecture.
Geographically, the Castro extends down Market Street toward Church Street and on both sides of the Castro neighborhood from Church Street to Eureka Street. Those who have settled in the Castro be it in a fabulous rent control apartment or intricately detailed Victorian stunner decades earlier know that they have a good thing, making turnover relatively low for the neighborhood.
A perfect Saturday in the Castro might include brunch at the diner-style restaurant
Harvey’s, followed by a matinee at
The Castro Theatre, which could be showing anything from an avant-garde indie flick to a Jewish Film Festival (currently playing in the spoof “Drag Becomes Her” – a play on the Meryl Street/Goldie Hawn film “Death Becomes Her”). After a grueling morning, casual pre-dinner drinks at the wine bar
Blush capped off with a takeaway pizza from the best pizza joint in the Castro,
Oz.
For the children in the neighborhood,
The Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy is an SF local public, co-ed elementary school for grades K-5.
