Certain San Francisco neighborhoods portray themselves as having captured a small-town feel amidst the big city bustle. But almost as often, closer inspection reveals these marketing pitches to be all arm without enough follow-through. Laurel Heights? Sure, it’s leafy and quiet, but since when does Smallville, USA have more salons, antique home furnishing retailers, and high-end fashion boutiques as it does grocers? Bernal Heights? Potrero Hill? We’re getting warmer, but the former’s brimming progressivism and the latter’s choice perch above downtown’s high-rises don’t align with what you get in genuinely small California towns such as Chester or Bishop. West Portal, however, boasts real follow-through – the retro Space Age streetcar station notwithstanding, of course....

Nothing says "welcome to our neighborhood in which you will never be able to afford a house" quite like graffiti of a veined penis stating, "Tupac Lives." On the Yerba Buena approach to St. Francis Wood (or "The Wood" as neighboring residents like to call it) from Westwood Highlands, this cuddly pee pee full of personality says, "Wassup" to drivers and pedestrians alike. And while we would expect such a display from the West Portal......

If you took Coolidge Corner and moved it to San Francisco, you'd wind up with something very much like West Portal, a nicely-kept secret neighborhood with folksy shops and restaurants and a theater, about a 10-minute subway ride from the Castro. And get this: it's about to get even nicer, thanks to some sprucing-up by Muni. "Underinvestment in the Muni system has brought us to a point where we cannot postpone this work," says......

Mayor Gavin Newsom says that one of his "top priorities is to ensure that every San Franciscan has a safe and happy New Year. Riding Muni is a smart and green way to ring in the new year." (Thanks, Gavin!) And with a firm flick of his wrist, this New Year's Eve, starting at 8 p.m., Muni will be free all night, which is about what it's worth. The free rides come to a......

Why aren't you hiding under the covers yet? The city doesn't want to so much as hear you breathe come tomorrow. So, start upending those floorboards and crawling into that dank attic, or Gavin and Bevan will be coming to get you, Barbara. "We are praying for a peaceful evening, but are preparing for the worst," says Newsom. No, he's not talking about election night (heh, eh), but Halloween night. Which brings us to your......

At three o'clock today we tried to take the M out to SF State. The overhead sign at Church Station switched from showing only "K in Seven Minutes" to "Next Trains In Subway - Delayed." We left the station in disgust. Looks like it's not a whole lot better two hours later. That shot is from 4:45 pm today. There are now nine M trains bunched up on the east side of West Portal,......

Well, first and most importantly! -- SFist MattyMatt's started a new job so he's been pretty busy at work and hasn't had time to post lately, for all folks asking about him in the SFist Tips column!. But he's still here, we promise! We miss him too! (Meanwhile, you guys can always check out his personal blog.) And second of all -- goodness, what a terrible day on the commutes. It's like when the sun,......

Service changes! Yay! Who doesn't love service changes? Communists, that's who. The point is, Muni's announcing some service changes. You're just going to have to take our word for it, though, because as usual the information isn't on their website yet. (We once asked a Muni spokesperson: who takes care of putting info on the website? Nobody could answer that.) We'll post a rundown of the changes below. Are they good or bad? Who......

Remember how effed-up Muni was at last year's Bay to Breakers, with no signs and riders vomiting and drivers getting lost and nobody having any idea how to get anywhere? Yeah, it's probably going to be rough this year, too. (The race is on Sunday, the 20th.) We've got some reasons to be scared, very scared, but also some tips for avoiding the worst of it. Muni promises to be doing their best to keep......

--The SF Board of Supes has imposed a moratorium on SoMa studio condo construction. --The Bay Area author of "Searching for Your G-Spot" was attacked by a shark in Maui. --Gavin Newsom's sneak-announced Fifth Fake Question Time this Saturday, in West Portal and on the topics of public works. "They're for your wife." --MUNI officials meet about the troubled T-Third. --The Newsom administration is forcing KFOG to charge for the KaBoom fireworks festival this year......

Muni driver is no longer with us, but that doesn't mean the questions won't keep coming. Reader RK sent us this last week and his completely frustrating experience is something we've all been through. And just why do they sometimes stop trains in the middle of the run anyways? And why can't drivers at least tell everyone why? ...

Funny, the SF-based Tanners never had these issues in Full House -- the Chronicle ran an interesting set of articles yesterday detailing the problems that San Francisco-based families face when trying to stay in the city. The articles profiled a couple who live on Guerrero Street and their two kids (5 and 1) -- on the one hand, an affordable area because of the high-density housing and street traffic, but on the other, not the......

Today is an exciting day in the world of San Francisco transit as we move from Phase I of the Metro Overhead Line Replacement Project (MOLRP) and start Phase II. Woo hoo! We hear there was a celebration in honor of the start of Phase II which largely consisted of Nathaniel Ford breaking a champagne bottle on the first delayed run of the J Church. ...

There's bad news coming out a church in West Portal-- two sheep and a lamb have been pilfered from a Nativity Scene. Yep, what we have here are a bunch of sheep stealers. The church in question is the West Portal Lutheran Church at 200 Sloat Blvd and the nativity scene in question had at one point four animals in the background. Now it has one. All things considering, it could be worse as stealing things from Nativity Scenes is quite common during the holidays. These thieves even stole Baby Jesus! We don't think we're exaggerating to say this will definitely make little Baby Jesus cry (unless he's Ninja Baby Jesus). ...

See, we're not the only people with server problems -- All MUNI K, L, and M trains are stuck after an unspecified "electrical problem" in the tunnel between West Portal and the Castro right before 8:00 a.m. forced MUNI to stop those three train lines so they could send in workers into the tunnel to fix the situation. The dreaded above-ground bus service will be shuttling people to the Castro, at which point we expect......

Author Jami Attenberg wrote her first book, Instant Love right here in the Bay Area, so damn right it's an O Magazine What To Read This Summer pick. She's reading tonight at Book Shop West Portal (80 West Portal, sorry, no links to this new shop yet) at 7 p.m., and at 7 tomorrow night at Copperfield's Books (138 N. Main Street in Sebastopol), in an appearance sponsored by Napa's Pearl Necklace 'zine. Looking at......

We can't take any more of this Bay Area independent bookstore stress -- first the Kepler's drama and now this? Venerated SF independent bookstore stalwart A Clean Well-Lighted Place For Books is on the market. Owner Neal Sofman says that it's been hard getting walk-in traffic at its Opera Plaza location and that sales have been steadily declining over the years. But what about that new Peet's that just opened next door? Surely that would......

Don't forget that Grateful Dogs is now doing twice-monthly adoption events! On the first Saturday of every month they'll be at 100 West Portal Ave (at Vicente) from 12:00 noon to 3:00 pm, and on the third Saturdays they'll be at 3995 California Street, in Laurel Village, from 12:00 noon to 3:00 pm. Maybe you can go meet Arnie, who has a rescue story very similar to SFist Franny's. Shy dogs of the world......

It snowed in the Bay Area this weekend -- the first March snowstorm since 1896. And we're not just talking snow like in the Sierras or maybe on the top of Mount Tam -- there was snow in Danville, on Mount Baker in the South Bay, and even some snow in San Francisco by West Portal. The last time it snowed in San Francisco was in 1976, and we got about an inch. (Click here for some interesting SF snow history: SF's largest snow was 3.7 inches in downtown on Feb. 5, 1887.) We didn't get a huge 1887-style blizzard on Sunday, but Highway 17 was closed for three hours on Sunday morning for snowplows, a section of 280 south of 92 was closed, a seven-car pileup on 80 was blamed on hail, and in the area's biggest car pileup in ages, 28 cars spun out of control in the snow on the north side of the Waldo Tunnel just outside Sausalito, as unsuspecting motorists sped out of the downhill-heading tunnel only to be faced with snowy, slippery roads. As an immigrant to San Francisco from a snowier clime, this correspondent assumes you kids out there will have no idea what we're talking about when we say that we're sorry this didn't happen during the week so you could have a snow day from school. Know why we know you won't know what we're talking about? The Chronicle had to provide a definition of snow for its bewildered readers!!! We love this city.

While snow falls in flakes and looks more like small ice shavings, hail is balls of ice, usually small. If the trees are white, [National Weather Service meteorologist Brooke] Bingaman said, it's probably snow.

Hey, Grateful Dogs is now doing twice-monthly adoption events! On the first Saturday of every month they'll be at 100 West Portal Ave (at Vicente) from 12:00 noon to 3:00 pm, and on the third Saturdays they'll be at 3995 California Street, in Laurel Village, from 12:00 noon to 3:00 pm. Finally, Starbucks is being put to good use! Hey, this coming Saturday is the third Saturday, so why not go check out Linden?......

Hey! Grateful Dogs is having an adoption event this Saturday from 12-3 at the West Portal Starbucks. Overcome your knee-jerk contempt for corporate coffee long enough to come and see some of the little pups you've met on SFist, as well as some new faces. SFist Franny will be making an alumni appearance there as well, so be sure to say hi! If nothing else, stop by to say hi to Billy! We have......

traffic woes of the last few days....