Page 27 - Allison's Magazine Issue #97

IF THE CLIMATES OF CITIES WERE his primary job. Our little group met
people, San Francisco would be a fussy on Judah Street in front of St. Anne of
toddler flinging his winter coat to the the Sunset Catholic Church, a building
floor, only to complain two minutes reminiscent of a frosted birthday cake,
later that he’s cold as he wrestles to built in the style of Romanesque revival,
reintroduce his arm into the sleeve of his and painted the color of bubble gum.
discarded jacket. Thanks to a preemptive The part of town we were in was once
email from my tour guide, in which called Outside Lands, and it’s built on
he had suggested, “Wear layers,” I was sand, which was all that existed there
prepared to take on the three-hour back at the turn of the century. But after
urban hike of hidden staircases, my first the 1906 earthquake and fire, people
adventure in the city. I imagine if you camped out here to escape burning,
condensed the hike into a twenty-second falling buildings. The city decided to
aerial video, it would look like a flip- use the space and created roads, and the
book featuring a tiny figure running up neighborhood began to fill in.
SHADES OF and down stairs while taking her coat off We made our way to 15th Avenue, a
and on, and off and on.
SAN FRANCISCO DAY ONE: OUTDOOR ADVENTURES magical street that becomes stairs at one
point and then resumes being a street.

written by shelley goldstein | photography by shelley rose photography Greg, our tour guide, is a Dublin (Cue the confused Uber drivers.) The Clockwise from Top Left:
native, with only 5 percent of his Irish staircase is quite long, and there was a The 16th Avenue Tiled Steps were the first
accent still intact but 100 percent of collective sigh of relief when Greg said stairs designed by artists Aileen Barr and
Colette Crutcher.
his personality. A runner and former we would not be climbing it. Our first The transformation of the Hidden Garden Steps
radio deejay, he had begun leading tours stop on the hidden staircase tour was was completed in 2013.
via Airbnb (“Hidden Stairways of SF the Hidden Garden Steps, one block Aeoniums and other succulents thrive in a
neighbor’s garden.
Urban Hike”) as an interim job and over on 16th Avenue. They were built
ended up liking it so much, it’s now in the 1930s out of plain gray cement.

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