(Sharing this excellent article that appeared recently in the SF Chronicle. And we just happen to have a wonderful listing here! www.8Mateo.com)
This S.F. neighborhood remains one of the region’s best-kept secrets. But the secret is getting out
By Connor Letourneau,
Staff Writer, SF Chronicle
Oct 18, 2025
In the three weeks since her low-key pocket of San Francisco was dubbed one of the “coolest” neighborhoods on Earth, Heather World has fielded some variation of the same question from fellow Glen Park residents: What does “cool” mean?
Few locals doubt that this tiny enclave along the city’s San Miguel hills is quirky, quaint, even a tad whimsical. But, cool? Some residents consider that an odd descriptor for a neighborhood with zero Michelin-starred restaurants, minimal nightlife and little name recognition. Unlike the more-bougie Noe Valley to the north, Glen Park remains an enigma to many Bay Area natives and a virtual non-factor to most tourists.
Perhaps that’s the point. At a time when few “hidden gems” remain undiscovered for long, this leafy village near Twin Peaks has done the borderline impossible: stay under the radar in a world-renowned city despite the neighborhood’s unique combination of family owned shops, rugged greenery and a bevy of public transportation options.
Some of Glen Park’s roughly 8,000 residents refer to their beloved burg as a “time capsule.” With brightly colored Victorians, a hardware store, a library branch and even a popular greasy-spoon diner, it looks much like it did three decades ago.
“Being ‘cool’ is essentially about not being showy,” said Renee Berger, who has overseen several major mural projects throughout the neighborhood. “Over all these years, it has remained very unassuming and authentic. It still feels like a small town plopped down in the middle of the big city.”
Then there’s Glen Park being named the 35th-best neighborhood in the world by London-based travel publication Time Out last month, including a top-five area in the entire United States and the “coolest” neighborhood in all of California. In the article’s immediate afterglow, Reddit commenters raved about Glen Park’s 70-acre swath of city-owned wilderness, its independent bookstore that transforms into an intimate concert venue at night, and the neighborhood’s easy access to BART, Muni bus lines and Interstate 280.
While surveying all that hype, many residents felt a mix of pride and apprehension. Though it was validating to see strangers tout their unheralded neighborhood online, they also wondered: What happens when a place locals long considered one of the Bay Area’s “best-kept secrets” is no longer so secret?
“I do kind of worry about it getting too well-known,” said Sean Kelly, co-owner of Glen Park Station, the neighborhood’s only dive bar.
Unlike some of San Francisco’s swankier neighborhoods, Glen Park has no high-rise apartment complexes or $30 burgers. And, even though it isn’t immune from skyrocketing housing prices, community leaders say that moneyed newcomers have yet to tarnish the area’s tight-knit feel.
Neighbors organize monthly trash pickups, commission large-scale paintings of local history and wildlife, and host block parties that draw hundreds of people. Still, with San Francisco’s median household income now around $150,000, the threat of hyper-gentrification looms larger than ever.
Some longtime residents have already had to leave because of spiking rents.
“For a couple of decades now, San Francisco’s story has been a familiar one: Whenever word gets out about an area, the vibe tends to change,” said Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, whose district includes Glen Park. “But if any area can withstand this level of attention, it’s probably a neighborhood with as much community involvement as that one.”
The only two other San Francisco districts to ever make Time Out’s “coolest” neighborhood rankings were Dogpatch (No. 36 in 2022) and the Richmond District (No. 27 in 2023), both of which are among the city’s buzziest areas. As for Glen Park? If not for its eponymous — and brutalist — BART station, even some of the city’s diehards might not be aware it exists.
Erika Mailman wants that to change. An Oakland-based author who moonlights as Time Out’s California contributor, she had to recommend three San Francisco enclaves to the editorial panel putting together the “coolest” neighborhood rankings.
Though she doesn’t recall the two other areas she suggested, she knows why she included Glen Park: When she started dating her now-husband, he lived there. Mailman quickly fell in love with the neighborhood’s rare blend of urban convenience and rural tranquility.
In the years since, she has cherished hiking the greenbelt that leads from the small commercial center to Glen Canyon Park. Visitors can take selfies in front of a sweeping San Francisco skyline, picnic along Islais Creek and spot hawks hunting overhead.
“I was really excited it made the cut because I’ve always felt it was very underrated,” Mailman said. “It’s boring when you read a feature that just talks about the same areas over and over. We all know what San Francisco’s most famous neighborhoods are. Glen Park deserves its moment.”
It has certainly been a long time coming. In 2014, more than a century after San Franciscans first settled there in the wake of the 1906 earthquake, Evelyn Rose founded the Glen Park Neighborhoods History Project to document a past she calls “among the most robust in the entire city.”
Perhaps nobody has been more instrumental in preserving Glen Park than the three young mothers nicknamed the “Gum Tree Girls,” who banded together in the early 1970s to stop a freeway from cutting through the neighborhood and damaging the canyon. The women’s portraits are part of a sprawling mural Berger helped commission, which starts at the end of Burnside Avenue, then snakes up a hill to connect with Bosworth Street.
It’s just one aspect of Glen Park’s charm. The area’s commercial corridor, a two-block stretch around Diamond and Chenery streets known as The Village, has a pet-food shop called Critter Fritters, several longstanding cafes and the aptly named Cheese Boutique. In addition to selling delicious baguette sandwiches for just under $10, it has more than 100 varieties of cheese from around the world.
At Bird and Beckett Books and Records, owner Eric Whittington, who lives in the building, pushes the rolling bookshelves to the back most evenings so he can host jazz concerts and poetry readings. A short walk away, at the 99-year-old Glen Park Station bar, construction workers and tech executives mingle over cold pints of Guinness and cheap cocktails.
They’re more than just acquaintances. When several Glen Park Station regulars organized a bar crawl to New York City in 2019, 32 people tagged along.
Longtime Glen Park resident Renee Berger stands for a portrait near the Burnside Mural and Steps. She said the neighborhood “still feels like a small town plopped down in the middle of the big city.”
“We’re like the neighborhood’s living room,” said Kelly, who has noticed an uptick in sales since the Time Out article. “All different types of people get along here. With how much tech is changing the city, that’s even more special than it used to be.”
Aside from a stint at nearby City College of San Francisco, Kelly, 37, has never left his childhood neighborhood.
After learning in 2021 that Glen Park Station’s longtime owner was about to retire, he partnered with one of the bartenders, scrounged up as much money as he could and beat out a slew of other bidders to buy his favorite local establishment. For as long as he could remember, that bar was where he and his relatives had relaxed after hard days of work, celebrated birthdays and watched 49ers and Giants games.
Kelly’s goal as co-owner is simple: Don’t let it change too much. And, for the most part, he has the same hope for the rest of the neighborhood.
“Maybe tourists might be more likely to book an Airbnb here, or at least check Glen Park out,” Kelly said. “But as far as the neighborhood changing in any fundamental way, I’m not concerned. If that was going to happen, it would have already happened. After all, it’s not like housing costs can get much worse.”
According to Realtor.com, Glen Park’s median home listing price is around $1.6 million, about $300,000 above the Bay Area’s median price. The teachers, police officers and former nonprofit employees who’ve lived in the neighborhood for decades often chuckle when they see seven-figure prices on local house listings.
A realtor for his day job, Kelly recently listed a modest two-bedroom, one-bathroom house on the border of Glen Park and Noe Valley for $1.3 million. It sold for $900,000 over the listed price. All cash.
“Things tend to be underrated until they’re overrated,” Berger said. “But as long as I’m here, I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure this community never loses its soul.”
