The Broken Alphabet of SF's Westside Streets

The Broken Alphabet of SF's Westside Streets

From Bay Curious by KQED

April 13, 2026 · 14 min

About this episode

This episode explores the unique and sometimes confusing naming pattern of the streets on San Francisco's west side.

On the west side of San Francisco, the streets running east-west follow a bit of a pattern. They seem to be alphabetical, starting in the middle of the Richmond and going south, across Golden Gate Park, and into the Sunset District. Except, there are some anomalies in the pattern. Most of the names seem to be Spanish, but not all, and most of the alphabet is represented, but not all. What's going on? Additional Resources: From Anza to Yorba: The Messy History Behind the Richmond and Sunset’s Street Names Read the transcript for this episode Sign up for our newsletter Got a question you want answered? Ask! Your support makes KQED podcasts possible. You can show your love by going to https://kqed.org/donate/podcasts This story was reported by Katrina Schwartz. Bay Curious is made by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and Olivia Allen-Price. Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on Team KQED. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People in this episode

Host: Olivia Allen-Price

Topics covered

  • society
  • culture
  • history
  • places
  • travel

Keywords

  • San Francisco
  • street names
  • alphabetical pattern
  • Richmond District
  • Sunset District
  • Spanish names
  • anomalies

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Bay Curious

Places: SF, Westside Streets, San Francisco, Richmond, the Sunset District, Richmond, Sunset

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