Anza Vista: The Small San Francisco Community that Hosts a Big Skateboarding Event.

Stairs Makes a Community

The community of Anza Vista is relatively small, even for San Francisco’s standards. It comprises more than a dozen residential streets and is cordoned off in a rectangular grid between four major boulevards. Much of it is boxed in by other residential neighborhoods such as Jordan Park, North of the Pan Handle, and Inner Richmond.

Seemingly, it appears to be quaint. However, on the campus of one of the schools in the community, there’s an attraction that not only appeals to local skateboarders, it has become a major attraction to skaters across the country.

It’s known as the Wallenberg Set or the Wallenberg Four. It consists of “four tiers of curbed pavement” found at Raoul Wallenberg Traditional High School.

Brief Description of the Community

While these steps may be the main attraction for this community, Anza Vista has much more to offer. Despite its size, it is located in a prime area of the city. It is within proximity to Golden State Park, The Presidio, the Golden Gate Bridge, and downtown. Also, the neighborhood has several parks, hospitals, and educational facilities in or near its borders.

Anza Vista is bound by Geary Boulevard to the north; Divisadero Street to the east; Turk Boulevard to the south; and Masonic Avenue to the west. Its main road is the L-shaped Anza Vista Avenue which connects the shopping center near the northwest corner to the residential streets within the community.

Another distinguishing feature in Anza Vista is its proximity to San Francisco’s major hospital. One hospital, KFH San Francisco (part of Kaiser Permanente) is near its borders on Geary Boulevard. Near the corner of Geary and Divisadero -- and just northeast of Anza Vista -- is the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center at Mount Zion. A block north of UCSF Medical Center is Presidio Surgery Center. In addition,

Other nearby hospitals are Pacific Surgery Center off of California Street in the neighborhood of Pacific Heights and California Pacific Medical Center further west on the same street.

In addition to hospitals there are there are several K-12 and higher educational facilities nearby. To the west is the University of San Francisco’s Lone Mountain Campus. The campus is situated between Anza Street and Turk Boulevard. This campus has on-campus living arrangements Lin the nearby community of Loyola Village as well as having tennis courts, an ROTC building, the USF Presentation Theater, and the Blood System Research Institute.

The School Within Its Borders

Anza Vista has one school within its borders. Wallenberg Traditional High School on Anza Vista Avenue. This particular school was established in 1981 and is part of the San Francisco Unified School District, which is one of the largest school districts in the nation. It was established as a high school offering college prep courses, a dress code and signed commitment statements by parents/guardians and the students.

Its evolution as a high school actually started in 1952. At first, it was an elementary school that occupied the former Lone Mountain Cemetery complex. After being cleared for development, the school district built and opened the elementary school and named it after noted Swedish, architect, diplomat and humanitarian, Raoul Wallenberg. He was believed to have saved approximately 100,000 Jews through diplomatic means during World War II.

In 1981, the school was converted into a high school. As part of this conversion to expand the school size and mission, it received a new title Raoul Wallenberg Traditional High School.

The added "Traditional" was supposed to indicate that the school was a "back-t0-basics" school that emphasized academics and discipline. However, it was also a public relation tactic by SFUSD to designate itself from private schools that they were competing with at the time, as well as with critics that complained that the school district was not aligning itself with strong academic rigors.

The school has a distinctive architectural design, in particular a large 4-step staircase known as the “Wallenberg 4 or the Wallenberg Set”. These steps dimensions are as follows:

• 4 ft. and 4.8 inches in height (1.341 m).
• 16 ft. and 6 inches in length (5.03 m).

According to its Wikipedia page, its history as a skateboarding attraction began in 1991 when it was featured in a skateboarding documentary. In 1999, skateboarder Danny Gonzalez performed a move called a kickflip to melon grab on the sets for a documentary. This garnered more attention to the Wallenberg Set.

Finally, in 2009, Thrasher Magazine hosted the first contest at the stairs. From that moment, the magazine and numerous filmmakers dedicated to the skateboarding scene to the Wallenberg Set.

The school district did take notice, and cut off a vital passage to an area where skateboarders can build up speed to jump the set. As a result, the competitors and organizers used their own ramps. Most likely, this move was to prevent lawsuits and liability in case somebody got seriously hurt jumping this set.

Other Attractions in the Community

The third school in the area is Gateway High School. It is east of the community off of Geary Boulevard near Raymond Kimbell Playground, Western Addition Branch Library, and the Hamilton Recreation Center Playground and Pool.

There are several parks and sports facilities near the community. To the east, off of Divisadero Street, is Beideman and O’Farrell Mini Park. Off of Geary to the east is Raymond Kimbell Playground. To the north on Broderick Street is Bush and Broderick Mini Park.

Further west is Golden Gate Park, the largest park in the city as well as one of the largest urban parks in the country. Covering 1,017 acres, this park averages 13 million visitors per year, making it the third most visited park in the United States. It stretches from Stanyan Street to the east to Great Highway and the Pacific Ocean to the west. The park has several lakes, ponds, sport facilities, playgrounds, nature preserves, and conservatories.

Anza Vista might be a small community; however, it's located in the middle of vibrant city and is also a Mecca of sorts for skateboarders.

Work Cited

1. Wikipedia Writer: "Wallenberg Set": Wikipedia.org (Retrieved 2026)
2. Google Map: "Anza Vista: San Francisco": (Retrieved 2026).
3. Raoul Wallenberg Institute: "About Raoul Wallenberg" (Retrieved 2026)