In the last decade of the 19th century, San Franciscans were fed up with the physical condition of their city. Parks were neglected, and schools were falling apart. The shopping district had become so decrepit that merchants were hiring workers to repair the streets. The city’s architecture also came in for harsh criticism. The manager of the St. Francis Hotel, Allan Pollock, spoke for many when he blasted the city’s ubiquitous, ornate Victorians as “hideous in design and flimsy in finish – architectural shams of lumber and paint.

Source: SF’s lost opportunity to be reborn as ‘Paris, with hills’ – San Francisco Chronicle