The Inner Mission is a mixed residential, commercial, and light industrial neighborhood in SFAR’s District 9 (Central East). It is bounded on the north and east by CA 101, Cesar Chavez Street to the south, and Valencia Street to the west. It is one of the city’s densest and most diverse neighborhoods, and its oldest.

Prior to Spanish occupation, the area was occupied by native Ohlone Indians, who had settlements along the now-buried Dolores Lagoon and along creeks that fed to the Bay. Spanish-Mexican missionaries and explorers arrived in the late 1700s, engulfing the native settlements, and building the existing old Mission Dolores in 1791. The Mission was effectively abandoned by 1833, and given its relative distance from the greater population center near Portsmouth Square, the area became a rough-and-tumble center for gambling, horse racing, and other activites.

Starting with the Gold Rush, and accelerating through the 1860s to the 1890s, San Francisco’s population ballooned, and development encroached through the Mission, becoming home to predominantly German, Irish, and Italian immigrant communities. After the 1906 quake and fire, the fire hydrant at the top of Dolores Park famously helped the city’s firefighters from halting the burn from pushing south, saving the Mission District. This is why there are so many Victorian homes still standing there today.

Through the 20th century, layer upon layer of new communities washed over the area. From the 1940s through the 1960s, it became largely Latino. In the 1970s and 1980s, Valencia Street became home to one of the most notable lesbian neighborhoods in the country, and also a significant punk scene. Starting in the mid-1990s, the Mission became popular with the influx of new, young tech workers drawn by the area’s vibrancy. Today, tech shuttles are de rigueur on its streets.

Evidence of all these populations remains visible in the area’s eclectic mix of bars, restaurants, and shops clustered along Mission, Valencia, and 24th Streets, and peppered throughout the side streets as well. It’s impossible to encapsulate all the wonderful restaurants, bars, and shops in the neighborhood, but we’ve highlighted some favorites in the map at the bottom.

All that said, the neighborhood’s density and wildly mixed house stock contribute to it remaining comparatively affordable, as shown in the chart below.