A little help from my friends

[jadesfire]

I know for a fact that some of you out there will know the answer to this. From miss_zedem:

"Does anyone know San Francisco well enough to know where a 'bay area' market might be located? I'm talking the crafts and clothes style of market, not a farmers' market. Wiki tells me that the 'bay area' refers to a whole bunch of towns of cities, not a neighborhood in SF itself, so either a) Stargate LIED to me, damn them, or b) Stargate Wiki lied to me when they told me Lorne was from SF.

I'm not making much sense, am I? Basically, there's a scene in SGA where Lorne and Teyla are strolling through an off world market, and Lorne comments that it reminds him of the markets he used to sometimes go to back home.

LORNE: Hmm! Kind of reminds me of the flea markets they used to have back home. Every Sunday, stroll down to the Bay area, find pretty much anything you wanted.

He looks at the various stalls.)

LORNE: And a lot of things you didn't.

I don't think it's ever actually said in canon where Lorne's from, although Stargate Wiki says he's from SF so presumably they got that from somewhere? Does it come up in s5? (which has been dispatched from Amazon, whee! *wriggles*) If they're right about him being from SF, what neighborhood would he likely be talking about? I found this, but beyond helping me locate Russian Hill (Tales of the City ftw), it wasn't hugely helpful..."

Can anyone help out? Thanks, guys :)

Comments

[wildcat88.livejournal.com]

I don't know how much help I'll be, but I'll give it a shot. Typically the Bay area is San Francisco and the surrounding area. It's not a neighborhood in San Fran.

The comment about "And a lot of things you didn't." always makes me think of Haight-Ashbury.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haight-Ashbury

But as for flea markets, here is another link to some in the bay area. Note that only the first 2 are in San Francisco.

http://www.bayareaonthecheap.com/dates/flea-markets/

If I had to guess, I'd bet the writers meant Fisherman's Wharf. I've only been once, but if memory serves, there was a market area along the bay in addition to all the regular shops.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisherman's_Wharf,_San_Francisco

While the transcriber said Bay area, the writers might have meant bay area.

Hope that helps.

[miss-zedem.livejournal.com]

This is really helpful! The 'Bay area' thing had confused me, but your explanation makes sense - thank you kindly :)

[rivers-bend.livejournal.com]

Never having seen SGA, I don't know when he was supposed to have come from, but also, on the weekends, The Embarcadero (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Embarcadero_%28San_Francisco%29) turns into a market. (it's quite small, and not a flea market, but it is definitely clothes-y/crafty) It's the area across from the Ferry Building, which is on the bay (useful in a ferry building, I know *g*).

That area has changed a lot over the years, but is historically a center of commerce.

On the whole, though, I'm going to go with SGA created an amalgam out of several things that happen in San Francisco :)

[karaokegal.livejournal.com]

"Bay Area" is really the problem here. It's generally used to refer to Northern California, as far north as Marin and Sonoma counties and as far south as San Jose and Silicon Valley. No one would stroll to the "bay area." It's NEVER used to mean a part of San Francisco that's "by the bay." Just, no.

As others have mentioned there are various farmer's markets throughout the City on various days and flea markets on Saturday's but I can't think of anything that really combines both of those that seems to fit the imagery being provided here.

[variola-vera.livejournal.com]

The Bay Area refers to all the cities around the SF Bay. It's kinda amorphous but is generally regarded to comprise of 4 areas: the North Bay made up of Marin, San Rafael, Sausalito, etc up to Pt Reyes; the East Bay from Benicia and Vallejo (and sometimes all the way up to Napa) down South to Fremont or San Jose; The South Bay is San Jose/Mountain View to Los Gatos; and the Peninsula is San Francisco down Silicon Valley to San Jose. The borders of the areas are not well defined and I've had people in Santa Cruz tell me they were part of the Bay Area (they're not really).

If you're looking for "Bay Area" fashion, hate to break it to you, but there really isn't, simply because the Bay Area is so huge. There are a lot of independent funky shops in Haight Ashbury, the Mission District, and Valencia St. The main shopping area is Union Square but's all big name department stores that you can find anywhere. I'd also recommend going across the Bay to the East Bay (BART is really good if you're going to heavy traffic areas). Berkeley has good shopping on College Ave and Telegraph is still a major tourist/college student hangout. If you have a car, Berkeley's 4th St is kind of an up and coming area for clothes and food (the Pasta Shop is AMAZING), but it's hard to get to on public transit.

There is a massive flea market in the Berkeley Ashby BART station every Saturday. The market on the Embarcadero (not the farmer's market) is kinda shitty standard tourist crap. I recommend going to the Ferry Building, though, and looking at all the amazing food. Fisherman's Warf is a tourist trap, but if you're in SF you should probably go. It's mostly sea food and restaurants. Pier 39 is also a tourist trap. Sorry if I sound bitter, but I grew up in the East Bay and that's all visitors ever wanted to go see. It...gets old fast.

The SF Chron has an SF Guide and a Neighborhood Guide that would probably the most useful to you. http://www.sfgate.com/travel/

Hope that was helpful and I hope your friend has a good trip. =)

[lorr54.livejournal.com]

I only just heard about your question. If you still want info about SF itself, I may be able to help. I have lived in downtown SF for more than 20 years.

The Lorne quote is actually a little nonsensical. There aren't too many flea markets of note in the city that I know of, apart from Alemany Flea Market in Bernal Heights. There are also a couple of lower quality flea markets in the SOMA (South of Market Street) area. The Civic Center has something on Thursdays (I think), but it isn't big.

Garage sales abound, in actual garages and just on the sidewalk in front of apartment buildings. You quite often see them in the neighborhoods when street fairs are on.

I wouldn't call the thing at the Ferry Building in SF a flea market. It is a bunch of arts & crafts booths that sell new, handmade stuff every day.

Now, if the quote was about street fairs, it would really have meant something. The city has some great street fairs.

The writers didn't do their homework on this one.