The people over at real estate site Zillow don't seem to understand how few children there are in San Francisco. And for the fourth year in a row, our city is number one on this annual list they do of the best cities in the U.S. for trick-or-treating. As we said last year, and the year before, this is great news for the few children who live here, assuming they live in one of the few neighborhoods where there's any actual tradition of trick-or-treating, like Glen Park, St. Francis Wood, West Portal, and maybe Noe Valley.
Sure, we've heard tell of years past when the former Dianne Feinstein mansion in Presidio Heights could be counted on for scoring full-sized candy bars. And probably, if you know anyone with a kid, they know where to go to get the full, sugar-encrusted Halloween experience for the tyke.
Zillow's criteria are basically neighborhood safety, density, and real estate values. So, sure. Fine.
But seriously: As several commenters suggested on this post yesterday, about the West Portal home with the guillotine out front, trick-or-treaters are about as rare a sight in most places around town as koalas. This story's funny, and probably fairly typical, from commenter Forthright: "One year in the 90s my roommates and I actually had trick-or-treaters come to the door. Shocked to see them, and not prepared with goodies, we went to the kitchen cupboard to see what we might bestow on these brave little souls. Well, no candy, but we had pack and packs of evaporated milk left over from previous tenants."