By 1880 the wealthy started to leave Rincon Hill for more up-and-coming parts of San Francisco, with the entire area east of the 2 nd Street Cut evolving into a gritty swath of industry and commerce. While the Cut facilitated commerce between downtown and the docks at South Beach, the change scarred the neighborhood and it lost its cachet. Then in 1869, city planners decided to flatten the center of Rincon Hill along 2nd Street, creating the 2nd Street Cut. After the Gold Rush, Rincon Hill, one of the seven original hills of San Francisco, became one of the City’s most elegant and fashionable neighborhoods. While building a sense of place and pride today, the East Cut also harkens back to a time when our community was an indelible part of San Francisco. The East Cut is a local effort to unite the Rincon Hill, Folsom Street, and Transbay areas under a new banner and identity befitting our neighborhood. This unique part of San Francisco has experienced significant change and growth in the past few decades, including the removal of the Embarcadero Freeway, the most dense concentration of new home construction in the Bay Area, and the creation of thousands of new jobs.

But as our neighborhood has redeveloped and come into its own, residents, businesses, and community organizations are embracing a new identity to distinguish our home from the rest of the City.

For years prior to its rebirth, our area was lumped in with SOMA, South Park, South Beach, the Financial District, or the Embarcadero. The East Cut is San Francisco’s fastest-growing and most exciting new neighborhood.

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