SAN FRANCISCO CALIFORNIA, WALKING IN POLK ST, USA, [4K]

Polk Street (also sometimes referred to by its German name, Polkstrasse[1]) is a street in San Francisco, California, that travels northward from Market Street to Beach Street and is one of the main thoroughfares of the Polk Gulch neighborhood traversing through the Tenderloin, Nob Hill, and Russian Hill neighborhoods. The street takes its name from former U.S. President James K. Polk.
The street also has bike lanes, which were approved in 2002.[2] San Francisco bike route 25 runs along Polk Street, and is the only North-South route suitable for casual bicycle travel within at least a mile in either direction.[3] Some of the changes have been debated by residents and the improvements have continued as part of the SFMTA Polk Streetscape Project and Shared Spaces program, which has allocated outdoor street space for local businesses during the coronavirus pandemic.
Polk Street is named for James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795 - June 15, 1849) the 11th President of the United States (1845-1849). During the Mexican-American War, and after the Texas annexation, Polk turned his attention to California, hoping to acquire the territory from Mexico before any European nation. The main interest was San Francisco Bay as an access point for trade with Asia.[citation needed]
The street is sometimes still referred to by its German name Polkstrasse or Polk Strasse (German: "Straße" being the German word for "street"),[1] dating back to the time when it was the main commercial street for San Francisco's German immigrants.[5] In 1912, the German community built California Hall on the corner of Polk and Turk streets, a building resembling a German-style town hall (rathaus).[5]
Polk Gulch is the neighborhood around a section of Polk Street and its immediate vicinity, which runs through the Nob Hill and Russian Hill neighborhoods from approximately Geary Street to Union Street.[6] The name, somewhat humorous, arises because the street runs over an old stream at the bottom of a gently sloped valley.
Polk Gulch was San Francisco's main gay neighborhood from the 1950s until the early 1980s,[6] although around 1970 many gays began to move to The Castro (formally Eureka Valley) and SOMA because many large Victorian houses were available for low rent or could be purchased with low down payments[citation needed]. Only one gay bar, the Cinch, remains in the area.
As the original center of the city's LGBT community, it had remained one of the core centers along with The Castro and the South of Market (SOMA).