Simon Thorpe says:

The Portola (pronounced PORE-toe-luh) is one of San Francisco’s lesser known neighborhoods. It’s situated between Excelsior/McLaren Park and Bayview. Relatively few San Franciscans know about it, let alone visit it. The adventurous who do are rewarded with a cool variety of eateries, markets and bakeries. Established in 1869, it was rural and sparsely populated until just after the 1906 earthquake, when a place away from the tall buildings probably didn’t look so bad. In the 1920s it became known as the garden district when it became home to as many as 19 nurseries. This was because of the uncharacteristically sunny weather for San Francisco which is drawing many new residents to the area today. The modern Portola is a place of change with many local programs creating new parks, upgrading existing ones, new pop-up art galleries and events taking place. Keep an eye out, the Portola is to be one of the new buzzes of San Francisco over the coming years.

That’s what they said about Dogpatch twenty years ago, and look where that got us. 😉

In any case, Simon has launched a new neighborhood site for his neighborhood. Observe: