5.3 Miles in Central Waterfront/Dogpatch

 

Continuing on my tour of the east coast of the City, I had the most delightful walk through Central Waterfront and Dogpatch on a quiet sunny Wednesday morning.  The terrain is flat, the sidewalks are (mostly) pedestrian-friendly, there is plenty of food and interesting things to look at on the route including an informational kiosk about rope-making, bins of Chase Center holiday decorations, handmade clogs, and a beach. Let's get into it!

 

To orient ourselves, I started this walk at Mariposa and Indiana Streets in a residential area with condo and apartment buildings nestled along wide, tree-lined sidewalks.  

There are a couple of blocks on Indiana Street where the sidewalks are no so much "tree-lined" as they are "tree-dominated."  Add in perpendicular parking and litter, and the path became impassible.  Fortunately, traffic was very light when I was there, so I just walked down the middle of the street until the sidewalks were available again.

 

The southern boundary of this route was Cesar Chavez and the industrial warehouses just south of it.  I really wanted to walk all the way down to the Islais Creek Channel to look down into the water, but warehouses have the area directly along the water fenced off for equipment storage.

While the whole walk felt relatively safe during the day, there is definitely a dividing line in "vibe" along 22nd Street.  North of 22nd is residential/commercial.  South of 22nd is industrial, bordering on post-apocalyptic. Ha! It's not all bad but for casual pedestrians, I would say just stay north of 22nd Street.

While looping behind one block of warehouses down on Cesar Chavez, I spotted all the Chase Center holiday decorations stored behind Props2C.  Check out Props2C's online gallery to see the really cool large event props they create. 

One last thing to note about the industrial area south of 22nd street - ALL THE MUNI BUSES.  There is a large parking lot along Indiana Street housing dozens (maybe over a 100?) of Muni buses.  

Now, back to north of 22nd Street.  This area is referred to as Dogpatch. It was originally home to a Dutch community and no one knows for sure how it got its name.  Rumor has it the neighborhood was named after the fictional town in the cartoon Li'l Abner.  Read here for more about the history of this neighborhood.

A neat piece of history that is memorialized in the neighborhood is the rope-making industry.  There are historical kiosks on the Tubbs Street corner of Angel Alley (named after Tubbs & Co., a cordage factory started in the neighborhood in 1865).  This area is connected by Ropewalk that is described as:

"...a series of engaging community spaces, green infrastructures, and a celebration of maritime history. A meandering elevated boardwalk, which floats over a constructed bioretention wetland and connects an interactive plaza with an outdoor museum."

Besides enjoying the maritime history, a great reason to wander Dogpatch is to try out the food.  I wanted something I could enjoy on the go so I stopped into The Plant for a protein shake.

About 4 miles into the walk, I spotted my main man, Smokey, on a billboard. As I was walking alone, I couldn't share my glee with anyone in the moment.  So, I share it with you here.

On the corner of 22nd and Illinois is Bryr clog studio where they make shoes on site.  Their shoes are really cute. 

Okay.  This was a long walk in an interesting neighborhood, so I could keep posting pics all day.  But I'll wrap it up with this one of a dog playing on the beach located at 18th and Illinois Streets.

On the map, you'll see there are piers sticking out into the bay on the eastern most edge of this neighborhood. I'll need to take a separate walk to tackle those since this one was getting long. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the area and recommend taking a leisurely stroll between Mariposa and 22nd, from Indiana to Illinois and then ending at this beach on Illinois to enjoy the water views before heading home.