Yahoo Travel says, “Located in Golden Gate Park, this garden is a marvel of the landscape architects art. This traditional Japanese garden covers five acres. Several paths take you by an authentic pagoda, a monumental Buddha, a miniature waterfall, and over an acutely arched bridge that no kid can resist.

Overlooking the gardens koi-filled pond is a Japanese-style tea house, which in spring is covered with a cascade of wisteria. The gift shop sells souvenirs with a Japanese flair.

Tickets: Adults $4 USD; Children and Seniors $2 USD; Free on the first Wednesday of the month. Cash only.

p>Garden: Daily 8:30a-6:30p; Gift shop/tea house: Daily 10:30a-4:30p, 415 752 4227

Neighborhood: Golden Gate Park

Other San Francisco Attractions

North Beach as described on the SFResidence neighborhood guide:

“This is where San Francisco’s history all began. From Fisherman’s Wharf up and over the hills to the borders of the Tenderloin and west to the Civic Center complex, home to the newly restored City Hall with its 14 carat golden dome, one of the finest examples of Beaux Arts buildings in the the country. City Hall is neighbored by the grand buildings of Louise B. Davies Hall, the Opera House, Bill Graham Civic Auditorium plus more. On any given Sunday you can hear in the tenderloin gospel music at Glide Memorial Church to the magnificent sounds of Grace Cathedrals organ while ending your day w/ jazz at one of the many North Beach haunts.”

SFGate says, “North Beach is that rare thing — a neighborhood that manages to be a perennial hit with tourists, and also to remain beloved by San Franciscans. It’s best known as San Francisco’s Little Italy, with its high density of check-clothed ristorantes, caffes and Old World delicatessens. It’s also a popular pilgrimage for fans of the Beat movement seeking the old haunts of Kerouac and Ginsberg. However, North Beach is no relic, and it has much to offer beyond pasta and poetry.” Read more here.

Other features include:

• Sights and Culture
• Shopping
• Restaurants
• Nightlife

For more information on other neighborhoods and street maps visit our website.

- Mick Orton

Previous Neighborhoods

The following has been reprinted from the Davis-Stirling.com Newsletter, a publication of ADAMS & KESSLER LLP. New election law with regard to owning pets in a condominium.
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QUESTION:

Our CC&Rs prohibit pets. We are fearful that the new election law may affect our restriction.

ANSWER:

Your fears are well founded. By requiring all associations to adopt election rules, the legislature inadvertently voided all pet prohibitions in California.

Any governing documents amended after January 1, 2001 must allow pets. Civ.Code ’1360.5(e) Election rules are part of an association’s Rules & Regulations. Civ.Code ’1357.120(a)(7) Rules & Regulations are defined as governing documents. Civ.Code ’1360.5(d) Therefore adoption of election rules immediately voids pet prohibitions and allows owners to have birds, cats, dogs, and aquatic animals kept in aquariums. Civ.Code ’1360.5(a)&(b)

Your board cannot preserve your pet restriction by refusing to adopt election rules since all associations “shall” adopt election rules. Civ.Code ’1363.03(a) Therefore, the legislature has intentionally or unintentionally voided your pet restrictions.

RECOMMENDATION:

Associations with pet prohibitions should immediately amend their CC&Rs to limit the number, size and breeds of pets allowed. If they do not, owners can bring Pit Bulls, Dobermans, Rottweilers, etc. onto the property and there is nothing boards can do to stop it.
Moreover, if owners adopt pets before new restrictions are enacted, the pets are automatically grandfathered and associations cannot force their removal. Civ.Code ’1360.5(c) Therefore, boards should move quickly to amend their governing documents.

If you need help drafting and recording pet restrictions, contact Natalie Reynolds.

- Adrian J. Adams, Esq.

Avram Goldman, President and COO of Coldwell Banker, San Francisco Bay Area said in his latest weekly report:

“Happy Holidays. The market is pacing typical holiday markets. Sales are slower. Listing inventories keep shrinking which is a positive sign. Our inventory levels are under both 2002 and 2001. If open houses are any reflection on the holidays it looks like we will have very good retail sales. Open house activity has slowed down in most markets. However, parts of San Francisco are still seeing brisk activity.

“The number of multiple offers has decreased overall. Even some of the multiple offers are going for under list price. Some sellers are receiving offers well under list price. Always interesting to note the exceptions. In the Portero Hill area of San Francisco we had 12 offers on a $1,095,000. It went well over. This reflects both the scarcity of inventory in certain areas and a home that is well prepared and priced to sell.

“It has become more difficult to negotiate acceptable terms for both buyers and sellers. It is taking several counter offers. This is reflective of a balanced market. A market where both buyers and sellers have compromise.

“Here are the numbers for the week of Dec. 4th-10th: 2 offers reported increasing inventories, 11 steady and 17 decreasing—–sales showed 5 offices with increasing sales activity, 12 steady and 13 decreasing.”

- Avram Goldman

* For an e-mail alert when this report is updated, send a note to info@SFResidence.com with “weekly market report” in the subject line.

Foster Weeks does a weekly mortgage update.

- Mick Orton
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“…News of blockbuster Retail Sales numbers showed that the consumer and the economy in general continue to hum along. And any of us out doing holiday shopping recently can attest – the long lines and crowded parking lots show the consumer is out spending in full force. In fact, shoppers might be singing, “I used to say I and me…now it’s PlayStation, now it’s Wii”.

“But typically, strong economic activity like Retail Sales is accompanied by higher inflation. Yet last week’s tame and improving read on inflation via the Consumer Price Index report put a “Goldilocks” spin on the economy – not too hot, not too cool…but getting closer to “just right.” Even though there was quite a bit of volatility during the week, home loan rates ended the week exactly where they started.

“So it appears that Ben Bernanke found what he’s been looking for – a healthy economy, along with a better behaved rate of inflation. But Ben isn’t out of the woods yet – because these reports are volatile, there could always be a rat lurking about in one of the upcoming economic releases…” Read the current report here.

- Foster Weeks

To quickly comment on yesterday’s article on earthquakes, I meant to point out that Federal, State and local building requirements have really made homes much safer. Note that when you hear about building collapsing, it is often older structures that have not been retrofitted.

- Mick Orton

This is a subject that is long overdue. While we hate to talk about it because it focuses on the negative aspect of living near a fault line, if we ignore it doesn’t mean it won’t happen again someday.

While we were in Hawaii on the Big Island (our place is in the Waikoloa Beach Resort area), we were hit with a 5.0 earthquake. I should have written this piece then. The quake made a loud crack and then shook for 10-15 seconds while I was in the bedroom putting on my swim suit. It was over before I had a chance to think. Of course, all the neighbors in the complex were out on their lanais, wild eyed, because they were from areas that never have these tremors. For us, it was another day at the office.

The San Francisco Bay Area has become synonymous with earthquakes. We have our share of little ones, but our reputation comes mostly from the great quake of 1906 which destroyed most of the City and the Loma Prieta of 1989 that did major damage to houses in the Marina, collapsed a section of the Bay Bridge and caused the upper deck of the Cypress Viaduct in Oakland to fall.

Yesterday one of my friends from Iowa sent me earthquake survival tips by e-mail which prompted me to finally post this long overdue article. The e-mail was a snippet from Snopes relating Doug Copp’s article on the “triangle of life”. However, their review was not very complimentary. Regardless, I have posted the link here. Instead, they suggest following the rules found at the Red Cross website. The more information, the better.

- Mick Orton

The National Association of Realtors reported on December 4, 2006, “Despite a two-month decline, the latest pending home sales data tracked by NAR indicate a steady pace of home sales in the coming months, according to a recent report. In October, the Pending Home Sales Index (PHSI), which gauges home sales activity for upcoming months based on the number of transactions that have signed contracts but are not yet closed, stood at 107.2, down 1.7 percent from the previous month and down 13.2 percent from October 2005. A PHSI of 100 or more generally indicates a high level of home sales activity.”

It goes on to say that it appears the housing market is stabilizing nationwide. In San Francisco it is as if buyers woke up after Thanksgiving. Although our office has no more meetings this year, we have seen the market begin to pick up with more and more ratified offers. The opinion is that low interest rates and low unemployment numbers are contributing to this healthy comeback.

- Mick Orton

As we get closer to Christmas it is important to remember that it is also a time for giving. At SFResidence, we get so wrapped up in buying and selling real estate that sometimes we overlook the simple things.

Every year at this time, TRI Coldwell Banker sponsors a “Toys for Tots” drive in our office. This year I thought I would do something a little different in conjunction with this program. My idea was simple. I own a rental property and thought it would would be a good idea to “borrow” two kids from one of my tenants and have them help me pick out toys for the “tots”. In return I would let them each pick one toy for helping me. After all, who knows what kids want better than other kids? Sounds like a great idea, right? The vision I had of what was going to happen and what really took place were not the same, however.

My tenant is a single mother who works hard every month to pay her rent, and so I am sure the kids do not get a lot of attention. Before I go on, Bill Cosby used to say that if you only have one child, you’re not really a parent. Now I know what he means. My daugher is now grown, but I don’t remember having too much trouble keeping an eye on her when she was young. I thought having already been a dad once would prepare me for this experience… WRONG!

Just the ride to the toy store should have given me an idea of what I was in for. Now I know why my dad used to use the phrases, “Knock it off or I’ll stop this car” or “Okay, we’re going back home” on my sister and me on our road trips. The kids were so excited, they were WILD! During the drive, in order to keep them from hitting each other, I tried to distract them by singing Christmas songs. But the only one they could come up with was “Jingle Bells” with the funny lyrics that all schools kids know. And they sang it over and over… and over and over… and over…

At Toys ‘R’ Us, it was like herding cats. As soon as the car doors opened, it was like the opening of the gates at a horse race. I was afraid the kids would get hit by a car in the parking lot, and I had visions of having to tell the mother how her son and daughter were injured by an unsuspecting motorist. And once we were safely inside, it didn’t get any easier. Keeping these two together in a TOY STORE, was anything but easy.

Anyway, what usually takes 20-30 minutes turned into a 1.5 hour event. It was fun watching them choose toys for the other kids, at least when I wasn’t worried about losing them in that big warehouse! After that we had lunch and then headed over to the fire department where we dropped off our packages. There was an anxious moment. The firemen let the kids climb up in the big hook and ladder truck. All of a sudden a call came in. It was tough getting the kids out of the truck as the sirens started going off… I’m sure the firemen were just as relieved to be going to a fire as I was to have the distraction to herd the kids back into our car so we could head back to their house.

After years of the relatively benign act of donating to “Toys for Tots” and other charities, it was a great first hand experience, and I look forward to doing something like it again next year!

Happy Holidays!

- Mick Orton

The Western Addition as described on the SFResidence neighborhood guide:

“The Western Addition gave birth to the music neighborhood of the city since the 1800′s. Great jazz musicians/vocalist such as Charlie Parker to Billie Holiday played in the jazz and blues clubs along Fillmore Street. Yes, the same Fillmore Street that dominated the psychedelic music scene of the 1960′s with acts at the Fillmore Auditorium orchestrated by the great Bill Graham himself to John Lee Hooker’s Boom Boom Room.”

SFGate says, “If Perhaps the most ethnically and economically diverse neighborhood in San Francisco, the Western Addition feels more like several neighborhoods. And, in a sense, it is — from the stunning views at Alamo Square to the historic Fillmore to ever-changing Divisadero St., you can experience several distinct vibes in the space of a few blocks.” Read more here.

Other features include:

• Sights and Culture
• Shopping
• Restaurants
• Nightlife

For more information on other neighborhoods and street maps visit our website.

- Mick Orton

Previous neighborhoods