"Don't call it Frisco." This is more than a cute, Herb Caen phrase. He was dead serious. In the latter half of the 19th century from the Gold Rush (1849) on San Francisco had a place in its NE quadrant called the Barbary Coast (now North Beach). It was populated by the very lowest forms of human life including British prisoners released from its prison in Sydney Australia. Sailors called it "Frisco" usually referring to the Barbary Coast and the many opportunities for gratification (and mugging and murder). SF cleaned the area up beginning in the 20th century and turned itself into one of the most respectable cities in the world. Please don't call it Frisco. Btw Jack Kerouac called it that; he was one of Frisco's denizens.