Blocker, No. 37: Serrano Dr. in Parkmerced

Every now and again, we’ll hear a resident of one of San Francisco’s older, more visitor-visible neighborhoods dismiss the western side of town in one fell swoop, and fog often doesn’t even come into play. Is that even San Francisco out there?, the statement often riffs atonally; common targets are the Richmond, Sunset, and/or Parkside.

Rarely is Parkmerced whirled into west San Francisco’s pooh-pooh (quite different from “poo poo”) stew. Before its come-live-here advertising campaign carpet-bombed a great percentage of MUNI vessels the last couple years, Parkmerced was one of the city’s lowest-profile neighborhoods. Maybe it still is. One thing’s certain: It stands alone within San Francisco, and not just geographically....