Its main selling point is its endless views-of the bay, the Golden Gate Bridge, the lush Presidio, the Marin headlands, Tiburon, Sausalito, and the island of Belvedere. Perched at the highest point above the bay, the Gold Coast is a hushed, two-and-a-half-block showcase of freestanding, stately mansions designed by such iconic 20th-century architects as Willis Polk and William Wurster. They are concentrated especially densely in the inner sanctum, called “Outer Broadway” or “the Gold Coast”-due largely to Traina’s efforts. David Sacks, Facebook designer Aaron Sittig, Michael and Xochi Birch, of Bebo. But now the tech elite has bought there en masse: Pincus, Ive, Stoppelman, Cohler, Yammer C.E.O. Two families ruled the roost 30 years ago-the Gettys and the Trainas-and they continue to do so today. As one Pacific Heights native puts it, “Imagine growing up on the Upper East Side and never leaving.” It all begins in Pacific Heights, a Waspy and conservative enclave to the north by San Francisco Bay, where the children of San Francisco’s “leading families” grew up, going to the same three boys’ schools (Stuart Hall, Cathedral, and Town) and the same three girls’ schools (Convent of the Sacred Heart, Hamlin, and Burke’s), attending the same cotillions as teenagers, the same fund-raisers as adults. I don’t go for this slob culture-leave me alone.”) ![]() Marissa has a handsome husband, in love, beautifully dressed, a lady. When they learn how to live, I would love to meet them.” (An exception, she says, is Marissa Mayer. New people eventually will learn how to live. I’m used to brilliant men in my life who leave their work, and they have many other interests. “They’re one-dimensional and can only talk about one thing. “They bore the hell out of me,” says Denise Hale, a Serb refugee who married Hollywood director Vincente Minnelli and then San Francisco department-store magnate Prentis Cobb Hale. As in mid-19th-century New York City, some from the Old Guard find the new breed well short of scintillating. Edith Wharton, had she lived in the time of instant messaging, would surely have found rich fodder in the collision of these worlds. Alas, San Francisco, with just 812,000 people, is one of the few American cities in which Old Money still carries formidable status, and traditions are entrenched. At the helm of companies that are focused on social media and commerce, as opposed to algorithms, this new generation of Silicon Valley titans has abandoned the Valley and made homes and headquarters in San Francisco. The high-tech elite has arrived, with more money than anyone knows what to do with. In every corner congratulations are in order-on initiatives, growth, valuations, and generally “killing it.” Over here is Sir Jonathan “Jony” Ive, head designer at Apple, who with Steve Jobs designed the iPhone, iPad, and iPod over there, Juliet de Baubigny, the fetching tech-talent recruiter from Kleiner Perkins. ![]() That would be her husband, Mark Pincus, founder and chairman of Zynga, the gaming platform on Facebook and elsewhere. “I only have eyes for one man,” Alison says. The bubbly Alison Pincus, co-founder of the online-shopping destination One Kings Lane, is contemplating the question of who is San Francisco’s most eligible bachelor: Stoppelman or Benchmark venture capitalist Matt Cohler, formerly a giant at Facebook. Dick Costolo is talking social media with Stoppelman. Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer is swanning through Wilsey Court in a blue Angel Sanchez gown, collecting total props for her recent call for telecommuting employees to work at the company headquarters. ![]() Tonight, though, the marquee names are the C.E.O.’s from your bookmarks bar. A few years ago, a major-league gala such as this would have starred a small and unchanging coterie of social powerhouses: Traina’s indomitable fund-raiser of a mother, Dede Wilsey, grande dame Denise Hale, and Vanessa Getty, one of the prettiest girls in town.
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