Ferry Building Blur – San Francisco, California

While we used BART to get to the Mission District, we used Lyft to get back. What was the extra cost for using an on demand ride hailing service? Zero. If fact, Lyft might have been less expensive. For a compact city like San Fransisco, the ride hailing worked really well. Our destination? The Ferry Building.

The Ferry Building is a triumph of restoration. When originally built in 1898 and until the 1950’s, it was a key part of downtown San Francisco. An ill-conceived highway cut the building off from the city. But after the 1989 earthquake, the city removed the damaged highway, restoring its connection back to downtown. In 2002, it was full restored and a marketplace was created on the ground floor. As you can see, it is very popular.

These fancy shops in the Ferry Building couldn’t be more different from the everyday neighborhood stores in the Mission District. Instead of staple meat and fruit markets, this place has an artisanal mushroom shop. However, what they do have in common, it seems, is the lack of many chain stores. Most of these shops seem to be small businesses serving a market. A very different market from the Mission District, but independent stores, nevertheless.