Editing South San Francisco, California (section)

==Recreation and places of interest==
===Sign Hill===
{{Main|South San Francisco hillside sign}}

[[File:SSF Hillside Sign 2.JPG|thumb|right|The "South San Francisco The Industrial City" sign]]
South San Francisco has a landmark visible to travelers along the [[San Francisco Peninsula]] or through the nearby [[San Francisco International Airport]]. Sign Hill, near San Bruno Mountain State Park, displays huge letters on its mountainside <ref>[https://maps.google.com/maps?ll=37.663406,-122.418026&spn=0.004284,0.007094&t=k&hl=en Google Maps]. Maps.google.com (January 1, 1970). Retrieved on July 21, 2013.</ref> which reads "SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO THE INDUSTRIAL CITY." The letters are made of painted concrete and sit flush along the hillside. The sign was put up in the 1920s, and in 1996 was given a place in the National Register of Historic Places as an outstanding example of early 20th-Century "civic boosterism", a tribute to the past importance of heavy industry to the regional economy, and recognizing significant contributions the area made during World Wars I and II.<ref>{{NRISref |version=2013a |dateform=dmy |access-date=November 11, 2019 |link=no |refnum=96000761 |name=South San Francisco Hillside Sign}}</ref>

Sign Hill is a city park which provides hikers with access to the letters; the park includes {{convert|30|acre|ha}} of open space and almost {{convert|2|mi|km}} of hiking trails. During the 2020 pandemic, when access to many state and county parks and trails became restricted, the number of hikers climbing to the top of Sign Hill rose to more than thirty per day.<ref name="ssf">{{cite web|url=http://www.ssf.net/index.aspx?NID=183|title=Sign Hill|work=City of South San Francisco|access-date=April 2, 2013|archive-date=March 23, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130323083737/http://ssf.net/index.aspx?NID=183|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===City Hall and major public buildings===
The SSF City Hall is located at 400 Grand Avenue ({{Coord|37.656|-122.413|name=South San Francisco City Hall}}). The City purchased the Civic Center site in 1913 for $10,000 from the South San Francisco Land and Improvement Company. This property had been marked for nineteen prime home sites. The City Hall design was modeled after Philadelphia's Independence Hall's neo-colonial Georgian design. The city's Mayoral Office, City Manager's Office, City Clerk, Economic and Community Development, Finance and Human Resources services are located in City Hall; the Building department is next door (in the former Police department). A Municipal Services Building on Arroyo Drive near El Camino Real houses the Council Chambers, as well as event spaces.   The Police Department is (starting 2022) housed in a dedicated newly constructed building at Chestnut Avenue and Antoinette Lane. Public Works is located on North Canal Street. There are five Fire Stations, with the headquarters in Station 61 on North Canal Street.

===Other parks===
South San Francisco has a number of other parks: [[Orange Memorial Park]] ({{Coord|37.653|-122.427|name=Orange Memorial Park}}) offers baseball/softball fields, soccer fields, indoor swimming, picnic grounds, a sculpture garden, children's play equipment, tennis courts, basketball courts, [[bocce ball]], and a skate park. It hosts a Saturday farmer's market (May–October), as well as the annual "Concert in the Park" in September. Alta Loma Park, Buri-Buri Park, Monte Verde Park, Paradise Valley, Sellick Park ({{Coord|37.643|-122.450|name=Sellick Park}}), and Westborough Park all include facilities for sports as well as picnics, and the Terrabay Recreation Center has a gymnasium. SSF Unified School District facilities are also available for sports, and the Boys and Girls Club of Northern San Mateo County is headquartered adjacent to Orange and Centennial Parks.

The city also has a park and marina along the shore of [[San Francisco Bay]], named [[Oyster Point Marina/Park|Oyster Point]], which is also home to the private Oyster Point Yacht Club. South San Francisco has walkways and bike trails adjacent to the [[San Francisco Bay]], from which runners are able to view [[San Francisco International Airport]] operations, fishermen may try their luck, while wind-surfers and kayakers may launch their watercraft. South San Francisco is home to many hotels as well, since it is close to San Francisco and next to SFO.

A unique opportunity was created when [[BART]] expanded down the Peninsula to create a "linear park" on the swath of undeveloped land on top of the tube. Running from Colma to Millbrae, South San Francisco's portion is three miles long, running through the center of town from the South San Francisco BART Station to the San Bruno BART Station ({{Coord|37.658|-122.437|name=Centennial Way Bike Trail}}). The Class I bicycle and pedestrian trail is a 10' wide asphalt pathway with 2' decomposed granite shoulders, irrigated for low-maintenance landscaping, with safety lighting, signalized intersections where the trail crosses Spruce and Chestnut Avenues, and in-ground flashing lights at Orange Avenue. Centennial Way Dog Park is located adjacent to Orange Park along the pathway. The pathway is called Centennial Way to commemorate the city's 100th birthday in 2008.

===Other places of interest===
The downtown area along Grand Avenue has buildings from the city's earliest days. Galli's Sanitary Bakery operated from 1909 until it closed in October 2016, while{{spaced ndash}}a few blocks down{{spaced ndash}}the 1905 Plymire-Schwartz house ({{Coord|37.6565|-122.4169|name=Plymire-Schwartz House}}) was the North Peninsula's first hospital; it is now operated by the Historical Society. The 1920 city hall is modeled after Independence Hall in Philadelphia, while next to it sits the original 1916 Carnegie Library. The 1912 Metropolitan Hotel (built by the Meat Packers Consortium) now has a mural depicting SSF History high on its east wall. Bertolucci's is an Italian restaurant that has also been around almost since the birth of the city, located in close proximity to downtown South San Francisco and is easily seen from highway 101.

The [[South San Francisco Public Library]] (part of the Peninsula Library System) has served the city since 1917 with branches on Grand Avenue and on West Orange Avenue just off of Westborough. A new library facility is under construction at Chestnut Avenue next to El Camino Real; it is expected to open in 2023.

As well as the Plymire-Schwartz house, the SSF Historical Society operates a museum in a former Water Company facility on Chestnut Avenue; it houses a collection that includes artifacts, oral history tapes, historic documents, special exhibits, and has a database for researching historical photographs.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ssf.net/1292/Historical-Organizations |title=Historical Organizations &#124; South San Francisco - Official Website |access-date=August 9, 2017 |archive-date=August 9, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170809213403/http://www.ssf.net/1292/Historical-Organizations |url-status=dead }}</ref>  The City Library also houses a collection of documents and photos in basement-level offices at the historic landmark Grand Avenue Library. The former Historic Preservation Commission placed descriptive markers at fifty locations throughout the city.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.ssf.net/DocumentCenter/Home/View/284 |title=Archived copy |access-date=August 9, 2017 |archive-date=January 31, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170131064421/http://ssf.net/DocumentCenter/Home/View/284 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The South San Francisco Farmers Market is at Orange Memorial Park from May through November, 10:00&nbsp;a.m. to 1:00&nbsp;p.m.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.localharvest.org/south-san-francisco-farmers-market-M13248|title=South San Francisco Farmers' Market - LocalHarvest|website=www.localharvest.org}}</ref>  The market offers only California-grown products sold directly to consumers.

Every Holiday season residents of Parkway Estates (a three-street development built in the mid-1980s off Chestnut Avenue) decorate their houses and yards with Christmas lights. This display is open to the public, is well-known holiday attraction, and hundreds of visitors arrive every holiday season. Lilac Lane (off of Palm Avenue) was an earlier seasonal decoration cooperative which began in the 1960s, at one point it was the destination of the city's Santa Claus parade, and the spot where the local Chamber of Commerce Santa passed out toys from R. Dakin (formerly headquartered in SSF) to hundreds of children. Few of the original residents survive and decorative technology today has far surpassed the 1960s era, so, in the 21st century, Lilac Lane has become a backwater.

South San Francisco has one bowling alley now named Hometown Bowl on [[El Camino Real (California)|El Camino Real]]. There are several gyms which serve basketball, volleyball, and other indoor sports; both the high schools and the former Spruce Ave. high school open their gyms to the community when the school is not using them; Terrabay Gymnasium<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ssf.net/departments/parks-recreation/recreation-division/rentals/terrabay-gymnasium|title=Terrabay Gymnasium &#124; City of South San Francisco|website=www.ssf.net}}</ref> on San Bruno Mountain is also available. Tennis courts, outdoor basketball courts, and a bocce facility are maintained by the city. South San Francisco is also home to the private California Golf Club of San Francisco,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.calclub.org/|title=California Golf Club|website=California Golf Club}}</ref> next to its public library, bounded by Ponderosa Road and Westborough.