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Welcome to San Francisco! A quintessential borderland, the city has long been at the crossroads of intersecting peoples and cultures. The result is a stunningly diverse, global city. It is also a city with a complex and visible history. From the immigration detention facilities on Angel Island to the WPA murals that grace many of its landmarks, San Francisco wears its history on its sleeve. It is a history marked by the aspirational utopianism of the signing of the United Nations Charter, the Summer of Love, and the election of Harvey Milk, as well as the violent reality of the Mission Dolores (here for visitor info; here for some of the history), Chinese Exclusion, and Alcatraz Island.
San Francisco is also known for both its natural beauty and its graceful, dynamic urbanism. The city and its surrounding communities are home to many leading educational institutions, including the co-sponsors of our annual conference: UC Law San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings), Berkeley Law School, and Stanford Law School. It also offers a wealth of vibrant neighborhoods, parks, restaurants, archives, and museums to explore, as detailed below. We hope that you conclude your visit with the same sentiment once expressed by Mark Twain: “I have always been rather better treated in San Francisco than I actually deserved.” (But of course, we on the Local Arrangements Committee know that our fellow legal historians are all eminently deserving!)
Hotel Information
This year’s conference hotel, the Hyatt Regency, San Francisco, is located at 5 Embarcadero Center in San Francisco’ financial district, overlooking the City’s historic ferry building. The hotel is easily accessed by public transportation and is within walking distance of innumerable restaurants, shops, and recreational opportunities.
Travel Tips
Central San Francisco is served by two main public transit agencies, Muni, with bus and streetcar service, and BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit).To pay for BART or Muni you must purchase a Clipper card. Clipper cards can be purchased at any BART station from a BART vending machine. There is a $3 fee for purchasing the card. You can avoid this fee by downloading the Clipper card app to your phone and adding a Clipper card to your digital wallet.
If you’re flying to the conference, you will arrive at either San Francisco International Airport (SFO) or San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport (OAK). SFO is located south of San Francisco, about 15 miles from the hotel. OAK is located across the San Francisco Bay in Oakland, about 20 miles from the hotel. Under normal traffic conditions, a taxi or rideshare ride from SFO to the hotel will take 30 to 45 minutes and cost between $50 and $60. The ride from OAK to the hotel will take 45 minutes to an hour and cost $80 to $90. It is also easy to take mass transit from either airport to the hotel. Both airports are serviced by BART. From SFO, take the San Francisco/Richmond line (the “red line”) or the Pittsburg/Bay Point/Antioch line (the “yellow line”) to the Embarcadero stop. The fare will be $10.55. From OAK, the Airport Shuttle Train will take you to the Coliseum BART stop. From there, take the San Francisco/Daly City line trains (the “blue line” or the “green line”) to the Embarcadero stop. The conference hotel is steps from the Embarcadero station.
Weather
San Francisco enjoys a Mediterranean climate, with dry summers and wet winters. October is the sunniest month of the year. Average afternoon temperatures are in the high 60s F (17-20 C), with overnight lows in the 50-54 F range (10-12 C). But these ranges can extend considerably in either direction, often on the same day, so it is best to dress in layers. Rainfall is difficult to predict (there are usually 3-4 rainy days in October), but light rain is definitely possible. Make sure to check the forecast!
Sites and Archives
San Francisco has a number of excellent museums. Some—like the SF Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of the African Diaspora, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, and the Cable Car Museum—are a short walk away from the conference hotel. Others are a short BART, bus, or car ride away: the Asian Art Museum is in San Francisco’s Civic Center, near the City’s dramatic, Beaux-Arts City Hall; the De Young Museum (focusing on art of the Americas) and California Academy of Sciences (science and natural history museum) are in Golden Gate Park; the Exploratorium (interactive museum geared toward children) is on the waterfront at Pier 15; the GLBT Historical Society Museum is in the City’s Castro neighborhood; and the Legion of Honor (featuring European art) is in a stunning setting in Land’s End.
Many of San Francisco’s most popular tourist attractions are north of the conference venue, across some very steep hills traversed by cable cars (a very popular attraction in their own right). These include Coit Tower, an Art Deco icon with fantastic views and WPA-era murals, the twisty path of Lombard Street, and the kitschy joys of Fisherman’s Wharf, which, in addition to lots of chowder in bread bowls and souvenir stores, includes the delightfully offbeat Musee Mecanique, the historic ships of the San Francisco Maritime Historical Park, and floating piers very popular with sea lions (currently there in record numbers). At nearby Pier 33, ferries depart for the notorious Alcatraz Prison, now a national park site (advanced reservations recommended). Many more ferries to points around the Bay depart from the aptly named Ferry Building at the end of Market Street, which contains an excellent food hall. Alcatraz’s less-well-known but larger neighbor Angel Island is one especially good destination: it has excellent hiking and biking as well as a museum preserving the “Ellis Island of the Pacific,” where detained Chinese immigrants carved poems into the building’s walls.
Given its dramatic setting, San Francisco has some spectacular outdoors spaces, most of which can be reached via public transit. Sprawling Golden Gate Park encompasses museums, botanical gardens, a separate (and very popular) Japanese garden, paddle boats, and even bison. The summit of Twin Peaks offers breathtaking views of the city, as does the aptly named Grandview Park further west. The vast Presidio, a former military base, contains beaches and hiking trails along the ocean and through eucalyptus groves, as well as providing access to the Golden Gate Bridge. At the city’s edge, Land’s End provides dramatic seaside hiking, leading to the ruins of the Sutro Baths and San Francisco’s extensive, if not creatively named, Ocean Beach. For those with access to a car, truly incredible nature is available on the other side of the Golden Gate Bridge, including stunning views from the Marin Headlands, the redwoods of Muir Woods (reservations required), and the slopes of Mount Tamalpais.
For those who would rather be indoors looking at historic documents, the Bay Area offers some significant archives. A branch of the National Archives, encompassing federal records from California, Nevada, Hawaii, and U.S. territories in the Pacific, is located just outside the city in San Bruno. The Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley is one of the state’s premier repositories for California historical materials, while Special Collections at Stanford and the Hoover Institute preserve the papers of a number of significant historical figures and organizations. In the City itself are several significant archives, including the GLBT Historical Society, the Labor Archives and Research Center at San Francisco State University, and the San Francisco History Center at the San Francisco Public Library.
Food and Drink
The conference hotel sits at the beginning of Market Street, at the corner of the Embarcadero, an attractive boulevard that runs three miles along the coast of San Francisco from Fisherman’s Wharf to Oracle Park, where the San Francisco Giants play. The hotel sits on the border of two neighborhoods, the Financial District to the north of Market and South Beach to the south of Market. Chinatown and North Beach are west and northwest of the hotel (half a mile and a mile, respectively). The Union Square neighborhood is about a mile to the west, and SOMA (South of Market) is about a mile to the southwest. All of these neighborhoods have excellent (and plentiful) choices for food and drink. Here are some, necessarily idiosyncratic, suggestions:
Nearest to the hotel, directly across the Embarcadero, is the San Francisco Ferry Building. It contains more than a dozen dining options. Other restaurants near the hotel along the Embarcadero, in the Financial District, or in South Beach include La Mar (Peruvian),One Market (American), Boulevard (American), Perbacco (Italian), Perry’s (American), Palio (Italian), Harborview (Chinese), Yank Sing (Dim Sum).
In Chinatown you might enjoy R&G Lounge (Cantonese), Mister Jiu’s (“Modern” Chinese); Henry’s Hunan (Hunanese), and Z & Y (Szechuanese).
North Beach is San Francisco’s “Little Italy.” Recommended restaurants include Tosca Cafe (Italian); Cotogna (Italian); Bix (modern American);and Original Joe’s (Italian-American).
Union Square-area restaurants include Bota (Spanish), Kin Khao (Thai), The Cavalier (modern British), John’s Grill (steak & seafood), and Sears Fine Food (Swedish-inspired).
In SOMA you will find Amber (Indian), FANG (Chinese), Marlowe (new American), Tropisueño Mexican Kitchen, and Mourad (Moroccan).
Further afield: Zuni (California), Absinthe (French); Nopa (organic wood-fired cuisine); Flour + Water (Italian/Northern Californian); Delfina (Italian/pizzeria); The Progress (new American); Rintaro (Japanese); Dragon Beaux (Chinese/Dim Sum/Hot Pot); La Taqueria (Mexican); El Foralito (no-frills Mexican); Penny Roma (Italian); Itria (Italian); Seven Hills (Italian); Udupi Palace (Indian); Hong Kong Lounge (dim sum); Dumpling Home (Chinese); Saru Sushi (Japanese); Funky Elephant (Thai); Nari (Thai); Saap Ver (Thai); Daeho (Korean BBQ).
Music Venues
San Francisco is home to a vibrant music scene that features everything from classical symphonies to new on the scene rock bands. The weekend of the meeting, the San Francisco Symphony will perform Rhapsody in Blue (October 25), and the San Francisco Opera will perform Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (“Choral”) (October 26). You can also see performances at The Warfield (Suki Waterhouse on October 25), the Bill Graham Auditorium (the Breakaway Music Festival), SF Jazz (SF Jazz collective), Mr. Tipples (various jazz artists plus craft cocktails and dim sum), The Filmore (Ravyn Lanae on October 26), and The Independent (Catpack on October 24).
If you like to cross the Bay for music you can go to the Fox Theater in Oakland (Joe Russo’s Almost Dead on October 24 and 25), or the Greek Theater in Berkeley (G-Eazy on October 24 and Toro y Moi & Aminé on October 25)
Outdoor Activities
San Francisco has many beautiful parks and outdoor spaces. The Embarcadero is steps from the conference hotel. It is a flat waterfront roadway with beautiful views of the Bay Bridge, Treasure Island, and Alcatraz. Great for running. Fort Mason, Crissy Field and the Presidio are a bit further afield but are well worth the journey, with rewarding views of Alcatraz and the Golden Gate Bridge, including Fort Point (a Civil War era fortress, as well as the location of a dramatic drowning scene from Hitchcock’s Vertigo). And, of course, there is Golden Gate Park, San Francisco’s largest public park and home to the Botanical Gardens, the Japanese Tea Garden, the Conservatory of Flowers, as well as the Goldman Tennis Center. The Park is mostly car free, especially on weekends, and it provides endless opportunities for running and cycling.
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