Herb Cain had a column for 40 years titled, 'Don't Call It Frisco'.

My Mom would go ballistic if she heard anyone call it 'Frisco'.

I would admonish anybody who called the city I was born and raised in 'Frisco.'

Now I don't care anymore.  Call it whatever the hell you want.

https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/sf-fishermans-wharf-food-scene-22257991.php

Noel

What are we meant to call it?

As a foreigner who visits semi regularly, I used to call it San Fran but a few years ago someone said only tourists call it that, it should be called Frisco. What was the objection to Frisco?

What is the culturally acceptable, universally unoffensive shortening for San Francisco? Or, at least, what do the locals call it?

I use the proper name........San Francisco.

It was mean to be called 'San Francisco'. That's what it was originally named, after St Francis. But it is no longer the San Francisco I grew up in. I haven't lived there since 1951. I have been back to see my family and when I was a weather forecaster in the Colorado Air National Guard I made quarterly trips to the 6th US Army HQ at the Presidio. I've noticed the decline.

For we older San Franciscans (not Friscoans) it started when the TransAmerica building destroyed the old skyline. Then the tourist traps across the street from the old Fisherman's Wharf with the fishing boats and the the restaurants like Scomas and Aliotos and the crab pots boiling on the sidewalk in front of the fish shops. The spirit of old Italian fisherman who docked their boats at the pier and delivered their catches is gone.

After I had gotten out of the Marine Corps I got a job with the Southern Pacific Rail Road at their headquarters at the foot of Market Street. Friday afternoons it was customary for a group of us to go to Fisherman's Wharf and buy a couple of fresh boiled crabs and a six pack or beer and take a two hour lunch on the Marina Greens,

There was an old Fisherman's Wharf song that used to be played down there sung with an Italian accent:

Allo, I am a Joe,

I a work at Fisherman's Wharf you know,

A Halibut, a Tuna Fish, A barracuda, she delish,

We catch em fresh at the crack of dawn,

So ow about a shrimp, a prawn.

Toot, toot (a boat whistle)

Ah here she come, my heart's delight,

She come to see me every night,

The finest ship that sail the sea,

My darling Rosalie,

A Halibut, a tuna fish, a barracuda she delish......

Please excuse this old man's lament. Like Thomas Wolff wrote, "You can't go home again". Are the slick new fast food eateries and gift shops and even a 'Ripley's Believe It or Not' a proper substitute for it it was...a real fisherman's wharf? I think not.

Noel

I just call it .....home! It's just fine, Noel! I haven't been down to Fisherman's Wharf since A few years before I retired
in 2012. And that was to take service calls, not to see the sites. Nothing wrong with the Transamerica Pyramid. I
took service calls there and even rode the elevator up to the observation floor! Great views! I'm in the Glen Park
area of the City and it's fine for walking around. Bought my house here in 1983.

I can understand Noel's comment about "tourist traps". There is a small town in Yorkshire (England) called Castleton that I visited maybe 35 years ago on a camping holiday with a couple of friends. It was lovely and quiet, and a joy to walk around. I returned maybe 15 years later, and now there are tourists everywhere. Totally ruined the place ☹️

Edited Monday at 01:15 PM1 day by Christopher Low

4 hours ago, iwebber said:

What are we meant to call it?

As a foreigner who visits semi regularly, I used to call it San Fran but a few years ago someone said only tourists call it that, it should be called Frisco. What was the objection to Friso?

I have a friend who met his wife 'in a disco...on the outskirts of 'Frisco'😁

I grew up in the Russian Hill district Charlie. Walking distance from Fisherman's Wharf and Aquatic Park and North Beach and China Town. I fished with a hand line from both Muni Pier at Aquatic Park and Fisherman's Wharf. Sometimes my brother and I walk all the way to Telegraph Hill and Coit Tower. A friend of my Dad's ran the small printshop at the Fairmont Hotel and he would let us in to swim in the hotel swimming pool. I had a paper route. I delivered the Shopping News down Lombard Street from Hyde...the crookedest street in the world...on Wednesday afternoons and Saturday morning.

I like to watch movies filmed in San Francisco like Steve McQueen in Bullit and Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry and see all the familiar places.

It's sad to see the things you loved torn down and replaced by modern glitz.

Noel