“Spring has sprung,
Fall has fell.
Winter is here,
and it’s cold as Hell!”
We thought that was funny when we were kids, even though it doesn’t make sense; if you go by the weather reports, Hell isn’t supposed to be cold! However, San Francisco has been for the past two weeks.
Looking down California Street from Powell in the 1960ss: I would rather to have gotten a cable car coming up instead of heading down, but you can’t stand in this spot too long without getting honked at or worse!
Although, that didn’t seem to bother this cutie an awful lot!
Sacramento Street looking down from Powell Street: It’s a long way from the spring of 1983 to January 5th 2019 when I took these two pictures.
Two images of Grant Avenue at Sacramento Street in 1968: These were taken last week toward the end of December. It was still sunny out, but you needed a jacket. Old St. Mary’s Church is on the left side of Grant Avenue in the four pictures. (skyscrapercity.com)
A little further north on Grant Avenue at Commercial Street in 1968: (skyscrapercity.com)
Mission Street between 4th and 5th Streets looking east in the 1940s: No personalized license plates, no “SHIT HAPPENS” bumper stickers, and a lot more traffic. Probably every building in the vintage photo is gone now except the building with the Denny’s Restaurant and the building with the arched windows to the right of the Denny’s building. (oldmotor.com)
Van Ness at Jackson Street heading north in 1964 and New Year’s Day, 2019: It’s a mess driving along Van Ness nowadays! ‘RICHFIELD BORON’, I had to look boron up. It’s a chemical element with the symbol B and the atomic number 5, produced by cosmic ray spallation and supernovae, and not by stellar nucleosynthesis. Hey, I knew that! (skyscrapercity.com)
San Francisco Film Locations Then & Now 
Those Metrosideros excelsa trees on Sacramento Street below Powell street really are the same trees. They grow slower and do not get very big. They are an excellent street tree for confined spaces in San Francisco. The sycamores on the left in the first picture also seem to be the same. Pollarding limited their size.
That’s pretty cool to know, Tony! They block the view a little, but who minds?
It is probably way more information than you need. I tend to get carried away. In Los Angeles, such trees really would be a problem, and commonly get disfigured by ‘clearance’ pruning.