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Commercial square-footage is surprisingly small and mostly confined
to the downtown area, and the rest of the city is made up of
primarily residential neighborhoods with street-level shopping
districts, easily explored on foot. Armed with a good map and
strong legs, you could plough through much of the city in a
day.
San Francisco's reputation as a liberal oasis continues to grow,
attracting waves of re-settlers from all over the US. It is
estimated that over half the city's population originates from
somewhere else. It is a city in a constant state of evolution,
fast gentrifying itself into one of the most high-end towns
on earth thanks, in part, to the disposable incomes pumped into
its coffers from its sizeable singles
and gay contingents. Gay capital of the world, San Francisco
has also been the scene of the dot.com revolution's rise and
fall. The resultant wealth at one time
made housing prices skyrocket often at the expense of the city's
middle and lower classes but the closure of hundreds of start-up
IT companies has brought real-estate prices back down to (almost)
reasonable levels. Despite the city's current economic ebbs
and flows, your impression of the city likely won't be altered
it remains one of the most proudly distinct places to be found
anywhere.
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