West Portal, San Francisco, California
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West Portal is a small neighborhood in San Francisco, California. It is at the southern edge of the hills in the interior of the city. Because of West Portal's small size and mom and pop stores, restaurants, and saloons, the neighborhood is often described as having a village atmosphere. The neighborhood is served by a branch of the San Francisco Public Library. Like Glen Park, the neighborhood is one of San Francisco's metro-centered communities. The neighborhood's main corridor, West Portal Avenue, serves as a principal shopping street for much of southwestern San Francisco.
The neighborhood is named for the western terminus of the Muni tunnel beneath Twin Peaks that opened in 1918, the street (West Portal Avenue) and adjacent district is still dominated by the frequent trundlings of the four Muni Metro lines (K, L, M and T) that emerge from the subway to run in the street median. The ride in the subway from West Portal to downtown/Union Square is about fifteen to twenty minutes.
West Portal lies directly adjacent to several larger San Francisco neighborhoods: the affluent and lushly verdant Forest Hill and St. Francis Wood neighborhoods on the east and south, Parkside (a southern sub-district of the Sunset District) on the north, and at the western end of the Avenue, Lakeshore Village and Merced Manor. The residential areas of the West Portal neighborhood, like several of the adjacent districts, are unusual for San Francisco in that the homes are often detached, albeit with small yards. The frequent fog helps keep the area green in the usually rainless summer months, and on a clear day, the park above the tunnel provides a view of the Marin Headlands and the Farallon Islands in the Pacific.
In addition to the streetcar tunnel, West Portal's landmarks include a large movie theater, a library, a school, churches, several restaurants and bars, a bookstore, markets, coffee shops, a bakery, professional offices, and other shops. Despite the semi-recent appearances of larger chain stores, the many unique neighborhood shops give the area a distinctly smaller-city, "retro" charm. The West Portal Muni Metro Station is located at the entrance to the Muni tunnel at the northern end of West Portal Avenue.
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