San Francisco's smell (Gilroy: to live, restaurant, kitchen)

[sav858]

It has the same smell as pretty much any CA city on the coast imo.

[bigdumbgod]

Smells like ganja in the Haight, fish on the wharf, money in the financial district, poo in the Tenderloin.

[sliverbox]

I don't particularly like large cities which is why I live in the East Bay. To me what I think of as far as what SF smells like is bird crap along the piers. That and the smell of garbage and all the various food smells blending together. I think its the same for almost any city. I thought a lot of old East Coast cities smelled like coal or something-probably because people heated their houses with thick fuel oil. I did notice a more floral smell when I first moved here though. Guess I've gotten used to it.

[Tallysmom]

If you drive up Redwood Road to Redwood Regional/Chabot Park, and turn up Pinehurst, park up there somewhere -- anywhere -- and there is a scent that I can't describe. It's a bush of some sort -- all over Coastal California and slightly inland. It's spicy and earthy and smells so gooooood....and I really need to find out what it is, so I get some where ever we end up. To me -- that's the smell of California.

[stateofgreen]

Civic Center smells nasty. I've been to other metrops round the country and don't know why S.F. can't keep the downtown City unsmelly, though really it's hard to control every single homeless or not person....

Otherwise the ocean and fog helps do air cleaning.

[sonarrat]

I like going through Burlingame and Belmont because of the eucalyptus smell. South San Francisco had a crisp sea scent to it. That's about all I really noticed anywhere.

[rah]

some smells you can experience in SF:

-eucalyptus
-pine
-flowers, etc, of course (are they really more "fragrant" here? I've never noticed that)
-a nice ocean breeze (gotta be near the ocean/bay for that, obviously)
-weed (vicinity to haight street, groups of teenagers, Parks, weed dispensaries, and ghetto areas increases the chance of encountering it)
-anise (anise grows like a weed in more neglected parts of SF, there are masses of it around some of the city's industrial areas for example)
-cooking food (of course, but lets say it leans more towards Asian and Latin food smells than your average American city)
-smoke from fireplaces/stoves, when it's cold at night
-sewage, in some locations near storm drains/manholes (mostly in the northeast part of the city, which is the oldest)
-urine (near concentrations of bums and drunks, nightlife areas, etc...also, why is "P i s s" censored on city-data?)

[andyadhi01]

Originally Posted by rah

some smells you can experience in SF:

-eucalyptus
-pine
-flowers, etc, of course (are they really more "fragrant" here? I've never noticed that)
-a nice ocean breeze (gotta be near the ocean/bay for that, obviously)
-weed (vicinity to haight street, groups of teenagers, Parks, weed dispensaries, and ghetto areas increases the chance of encountering it)
-anise (anise grows like a weed in more neglected parts of SF, there are masses of it around some of the city's industrial areas for example)
-cooking food (of course, but lets say it leans more towards Asian and Latin food smells than your average American city)
-smoke from fireplaces/stoves, when it's cold at night
-sewage, in some locations near storm drains/manholes (mostly in the northeast part of the city, which is the oldest)
-urine (near concentrations of bums and drunks, nightlife areas, etc...also, why is "P i s s" censored on city-data?)

I smell Eucalyptus a LOT!! I also smell food in Inner Sunset a lot and I get too tempted to eat! Luckily I dont have to deal much with the bad smell because I dont use public transit and a brief part of my bike commute thru civic center is smelly-

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by bigdumbgod

Smells like ganja in the Haight, fish on the wharf, money in the financial district, poo in the Tenderloin.

Ya forgot the urine!

[legal_eagle]

When the wind is not blowing one can often get a strong whiff of raw sewage or stagnant bay water around the Embarcadero between Mission and Howard. Check it out sometime!