North of the Panhandle

No matter where are you matter who you are and what you seeing around yourself ! Some people happy some by other hand looking aggressive because felling along … I love my neighborhood all what you need to know if you can improve it to became better part of the world — do it ! Even ants know how to work why we are so lazy !!

The problems with calling the neighborhood «NoPa»:
1. Most people refer to things between Baker and Scott as being «NoPa.» Recall your cardinal directions for a minute. This is all EAST of the panhandle.
2. There’s this thing called aesthetics. «NoPa?» Really? «NoPa?»
It’s not even about the infantile-​like need to shorten words (breakie, hoodie, sammie, et al.) Notice how SoMa is much more pleasing to the tongue? That’s because it’s a softer «ess» sound along with an easy «ma» after. NoPa? The hard consonant N and then the plosive P really just sounds terrible. Plus, you can’t say «NoPa» without saying «No.» You really want that negative energy associated with where you live? C’mon, San Francisco, I know you’re kicking out all the artists to the other side of the bay, but I expect more of you on the aesthetics front.
3. Not every four square blocks of SF needs to be balkanized into its own neighborhood.
The pretentiousness of needing these microhoods screams «please kill me.» Neighborhoods the size of The Mission, SoMa, Western Addition, Sunset, and Richmond, are about the size of hoods you see in other cities. At this point, why don’t we establish each side of every city block something else and be done with it?

NOPA? You mean Western Addition! Don’t be ashamed. Only some streets in the neighborhood is bad, but overall it is nice. Ghetto? It is not near ghetto compare to the TL or Mission.
UGGHHH I hate it when people call it NOPA!!!

So glad to call this ‘hood my home! Centrally located, great dining/​drinking options, and the fog usually burns off by noon. Having a bike here is great, too. The Wiggle and Panhandle help to get around, as well as having most surrounding streets marked for cycle use. yay!

I absolutely love this neighborhood. Oh how do I miss it. I’m currently house sitting for a friend and I couldn’t be happier.

I wish all the hipsters who have flooded into «NoPa» (it’s Western Addition, thank you) and who crowd the Panhandle with their croquet sets, their bocce balls, their slacklines, their beanbag games and their weber grills and whatever the h-​e-​double-​hockey-​sticks they think will make them look cool, would kindly pick up after themselves. Just because the trash cans get full doesn’t mean it’s okay to leave your picnic remains scattered all over the place. Grow up and take some responsibility.

I wear my North of Panhandle hoodie with pride because I got it in 2003 and it still looks good. And unlike a particular restaurant that claims to be part of the neighborhood even though it’s located in a different neighborhood, I actually live here.
But it’s fake.
OK, some of the people are fake, and the Wiggle + everyplace in the world having fourteen-​hour happy hours attract enough hipsters for this to be the Mission North, but I’m not talking about pretentiousness (check!), expensive laziness (check!), gentrification masquerading as chic authenticity (triple check!), or my neighbors (what I wouldn’t give for new neighbors). No, what’s fake is the neighborhood.
There’s no such thing as North of Panhandle. Yes, there is a geographical area bounded by Fell Street on the south, Masonic Avenue (or Stanyan Street) on the west, Fulton Street (or Turk Street) on the north, and Divisadero Street on the east. But this is the Western Addition. You may not like living in what used to be a predominantly black neighborhood, but you do. If you don’t like living here, there are plenty of other overpriced places to live in the city. In fact, many of them are close by. I suggest moving there. But if you’re going to live here, you should respect the people who live here. Not just the people you want to live here. Not just the people who hang out here. But those of us who live here and have lived here for a while, who wouldn’t be able to afford to live here now if there weren’t rent control, because your pet boutiques, wine bars, and Chase banks have crowded out a lot of awesome small businesses that catered to real people with real needs.
I love the neighborhood. I hate intellectual dishonesty.

Nopa is a restaurant, not the name of a neighborhood. As for the Western Addition? It’s alright, as neighborhoods go.

I love it when ‘San Franciscans’ vehemently complain that my neighborhood has recently been dubbed ‘the North Panhandle’ (or NoPa) instead of its traditional name ‘Western Addition’, which covers a HUGE chunk of the city. They basically accuse you of some nefarious gentrification plan, and that people who call it NoPa are somehow ‘ashamed’ of the neighborhood’s Western Addition roots. Learn your city history, people.
Newsflash: Neighborhood names evolve. You think SoHo in NYC has always been called SoHo? Tribeca? SoMa?
If you are comfortable calling other sub-​sections of the Western Addition ‘Lower Pac Heights’, Japantown, Hayes Valley or Alamo Square… and unless you want to start calling all those other sub-​sections ‘Western Addition’… then, give it a rest, hipster/​poseur… the neighborhood is now logically called «The North Panhandle». Deal with it.
And it is one of the best neighborhoods in the city!

New to the hood and loving it. It’s perfectly located in the middle of everything, but still maintains the cohesive feeling of a distinct neighborhood, and is pretty peaceful.
I’m not sure what all the fuss is about, as far as maintaining the identity as ‘Western Addition’. Living on Grove, just two blocks north of the panhandle, Nopa seems so appropriate & far less ambiguous than Western Addition.
My 2¢.

NOPA is awesome and real, as any resident who lives here knows. Want a taste of local flavor, go walk down the Divis corridor… for starters. Try to walk in and get a table at «NOPA» before 11pm. Go walk down the streets and check out the beautiful Victorians, Edwardians and tons of small local coffee houses, shops and businesses. It’s next to Panhandle Park, The Haight, GGP and the fun of Divisadero, etc, etc, etc. Any yes parking can be found before witching hour, and you ladies turn into pumpkins.
To add to other comments, many San Francisco districts are a hundred years old and cover vast areas. Today they are many new districts, and will continue to be as time marches on — accept it and deal with it, regardless of who came up with the name. What about Tendernob, just sayin… new districts are a way of life in any big city… nowadays we don’t call it Western Addition. Besides, it’s all SF, so go hate in someone else’s hood, and City, not mine.

I love living a few blocks north of the panhandle.
It’s right in the middle of everything, so It’s serves as a good home base for the rest of San Francisco. It is possible to find a parking space and there’s interesting stuff close by — it’s the best of both worlds!

According to my SF buddies this area is actually called Western Addition. And they’re pretty pissed that a movement has started to change the name of this neighborhood.
My opinion? Leave it alone. Western Addition sounds cool to me. Do you really need to gentrify another area of SF? Every resident and every neighborhood serves a purpose. Plus NOPA sounds too east coast. Is that what you want for your children? Neighborhood ambiguity?
Not this time…

Ah, I see. NoPa isn’t a real neighborhood but Alamo Square, Anza Vista, and Cathedral Hill are?
Please.
«Western Addition» is a century old term for anything between Van Ness and Stanyan. A lot’s changed since then in terms of social-​economic makeup, but actually relatively little has changed in NoPa. The residents are middle class, the streets are loaded with Victorians, and unlike our sister Haight-​Ashbury to the south, we don’t have to deal with the riff-​raff. We do, however, boast a University, a city college, and a full-​blown grocery store. Not to mention some cool bars on Divis, diverse dining options from upscale to cheap eats, and crime statistics on par with Cow Hollow.
But hey, some of you will continue to insist to call it the Western Addition, because the east end of Western Addition had some housing projects built in the 60s and NoPa did and does have a high number of African-​American residents. I won’t call you ignorant of race, but will call you ignorant of Geography. So here’s a lesson:
Fulton and Laguna = Hayes Valley
Post and Sutter = Japantown
Pine and Scott = Lower Pacific Heights
Fillmore and California = Upper Fillmore
Steiner and Eddy = Lower Fillmore
Fulton and Pierce = Alamo Square
McAllister and Lyon = NoPa
Learn to love it. And welcome to the 21^st Century.

This is my hood! It’d literally be perfect if the Popeye’s were shut down (no offense Popeye’s), and a bookstore opened up instead. If not a bookstore, then something else useful.

I love it here! I don’t care what anyone says… sure we can be a little ghetto, little bit country, and a little bit rock and roll… but all in all can’t we all just get along?
If it bothers you so much that we call our lovely little neighborhood the NoPa. you don’t have to come here, we’ll keep it all for ourselves :)

Please bare with me, as I go off on a little rant. I am not being that serious here. But I do want to make a couple points.
There is this new neighborhood called Nopa according to some. But this term is in no way a substitute for the neighborhood called the Western Addition. You live in the Western Addition. I know its hard to accept. But it’s really not that bad there. In fact they have a park there called Alamo Square. And it has famous views of downtown. So if it bothers you so much that you live in the Western Addition, then just say you live around Alamo Square.
Also, Nopa is the name of a restaurant. I don’t care that some restaurant calls itself Nopa. That’s their right. They can call their restaurant whatever they want.
But, you don’t name a neighborhood after a restaurant and you don’t name a restaurant after a fake neighborhood. Check it out for yourself:
Anyone who thinks they live in the «Nopa,» district of San Francisco please move back to whenever you came from and stay there. The panhandle is a place. This is true. And you can say things like, «Its located just north of the panhandle.» That is acceptable. But it is not a new neighborhood name that replaces the old neighborhood name.
I think this is a deeper rooted problem. This new name comes from some people’s insecurities regarding their neighborhood. If you want higher rents, home prices, and increased gentrification then be happy with it. The local Real Estate developers and agents also fully support your cause.
But in general, I think people persist with this fake neighborhood name calling behavior because they are deeply insecure about where they live, and as a result suffer from dummy tourettes, OCD, ADD, etc. Thanks for listening.

I’ve lived in NOPA proper for over 5 years. I am literally 2 blocks north of the goddamn panhandle and had no idea this hood was being called NOPA until the restaurant opened opposite of what I believe the ‘hood was originally called, by us, the native american indians of the land north of Haight St.
People…it’s Popeye’s Heights.

It’s the neighborhood between the neighborhoods.
Look on a map. See the Haight-​Ashbury? Now look north. See USF? Look to the northeast. See Western Addition? Look at that white space of about 30 blocks with no markings on it between them. North of the Panhandle. You see it?
Of course not. That’s where we are. In the middle of the City, where you don’t see us.

I live in what is being called North of the Panhandle, or NOPA, and I’m a big fan. It’s a neighborhood in the crossroads, part MIssion, part Haight, part Hayes Valley, with tendencies towards the Marina (see my review of NOPA, the restaurant).
Sure, it’s a little ghetto, but that is what living in the Marina is for, if you can’t take the heat of living in an urban city. Or go live in Marin or something.
Some great Unilocaly locales: The Independent, Little Star Pizza, NOPA, Fly Bar, Tsunami Sushi, Ziryab, Poleng Lounge, the list is just starting to get going.
With Alamo Square so close by, it’s a great place to spend some time in the sun, and Golden Gate Park and The Haight are in the vicinity too.
Those who know me, know that I refer to this neighborhood as DMV Heights, just thought I’d throw that in for good measure.
It’s a great neighborhood, and I’d recommend anyone living there, feel free to message me about anything in specific; having lived in the Mission and Russian Hill before this, I can also comment on the relative safety, housing/​rental prices, nightlife scene, etc.