The San Francisco neighborhood of SoMa – “South of Market” – is located on the east side of the city, bordered by Embarcadero Street, Market Street, 11th Street and Townsend. With a total population of 23,000, SoMa is an extremely diverse neighborhood.
Less than half white in a city that is 75 percent white, SoMa is made up of a collection of ethnicities – 12 percent black, 23.7 percent Asian and 25 percent Hispanic or Latino. Nearly 50 percent of all SoMa households speak a language other than English. Thirty-nine percent of the population is foreign born.
Among SoMa’s highest immigrant groups are Irish, Greek and Italian, with Filipinos as the most populous group. Filipino culture is so prominent in the area that St. Patrick’s Church celebrates mass in Tagalog.
Home to many tech companies during the dot-com boom of the 1990s, 2000 data shows SoMa’s population to be slightly higher educated than the total population of San Francisco – nearly 30 percent of SoMa residents held bachelor’s degrees, compared to 24 percent of the entire city of San Francisco.
Compared with San Francisco, SoMa has an extremely high rate of rented versus owned housing. In San Francisco, 66 percent of homes are owner-occupied, but in SoMa, only 11 percent own their own homes – 88 percent of homes in the area are renter-occupied.
The earning power of SoMa residents also sharply contrasts with that of greater San Francisco. Median household income in the neighborhood is more than $10,000 less than the San Francisco average with SoMa residents earning $31,131. Twenty-two percent of the neighborhood lives below the poverty level compared with 12 percent in San Francisco as a whole. Just 57.6 percent of the population is employed, compared with 64 percent throughout San Francsisco.
Notable attractions in the neighborhood include the San Francisco Giant’s stadium on the Embarcadero, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Yerba Buena Gardens, the Moscone Center and the popular Folsom Street area.
Home to much of the gay population of the neighborhood, the Folsom area is known for its fetish, S&M nightlife and the famous Folsom Street Fair which takes place annually at the end of September.
