Michael San Francisco is a magnet for tourists, and offers plenty of attractions for visitors following the well-trodden paths of commercial tour operators. That's why almost no one thinks to explore the slightly hidden gems. Recently, we went to eat lunch in the Castro district and afterward were so stuffed that we thought a bit of physical activity wouldn't hurt. So, instead of walking straight home, we took the steep route and trudged up the steep "Liberty Hill".

You usually can only get there by car, because even for a mountain bike the streets are too steep, and due to the rugged terrain, every other dead-end literally leads to nowhere, often with a beautiful wide view of the city at the end. However, there is almost no traffic up there, as hardly anyone wants to subject their car to roads with up to a 40% incline when you can make faster progress down below in the flat area.

Often, between two sections of a street separated by a steep wall, there are public concrete stairs open for public use, even if they often look private and no one is around. Reclusive people live here, such as the eccentric Netscape dot-com millionaire Frederick Roeber, who, you might remember, raised a swastika flag on his medieval-castle-like house after the Trump election, causing an uproar among his neighbors (Rundbrief 12/2016).

Due to the high altitude, hardly any homeless people are found in these neighborhoods, and to my knowledge, none have set up their tents on the sidewalks. Therefore, the homeless mainly plague the flat areas of San Francisco, like the Mission or South of Market. However, professional criminals have discovered that they can sometimes break into the expensive houses on Liberty Hill at night without being disturbed, as the police rarely show up in this area. On neighborhood forums on the internet, one often reads about nighttime break-ins, which, according to published surveillance videos, are often committed by prowling Prius drivers.

The houses vary greatly between "old (money) aristocracy" and "newly rich internet whiz," and some old ramshackle huts are marked with warning signs indicating they are slated for demolition, likely to be replaced soon by more modern "iPods," as a NIMBY recently called the increasingly common three-story apartment buildings hastily thrown up by real estate speculators. The streets are surprisingly clean, the cypress trees in front of the houses neatly trimmed; it's clear that the residents take care of their homes and keep them in top condition. For some properties, it might be difficult to bring larger vehicles like a moving truck up to the front, as these often get stuck at the transitions from flat to steep and vice versa, and yellow warning signs warn against driving heavy vehicles here. Also, carrying crates of drinks on foot is out of the question here, but Americans don't do that anyway.

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