Nob Hill: why the cachet has outlived reality

The Chronicle is retracing a series it ran back in 1958 called “Hills of San Francisco,” and today, alas, John King focuses on a self-evident truth about Nob Hill: it isn’t what it used to be. Although the view is spectacular and the cocktails at the Top of the Mark are $14, the locus of San Francisco wealth and power long since moved elsewhere. Elegant still, as King points out, but, hey, now they’re talking about a farmer’s market to liven things up.