The Castro: Harvey Milk's neighborhood
The rainbow crosswalks, the camera shop that started it, a giant marquee, and the pink-triangle hill. This is a Claude-drafted route awaiting the editor's walk.

1. The rainbow crosswalks
Start where the Muni surfaces, at Castro and 18th — the intersection painted in full rainbow stripes in every direction. Stand on the corner a moment before you cross; this is the centre of the neighbourhood in every sense.

2. 575 Castro Street
Harvey Milk ran a camera shop here and his campaigns out of the back of it; he became the first openly gay man elected to office in California in 1977, and was assassinated the next year. The storefront is a stop on the Castro's memory map. Read the plaque.

3. Castro Theatre
The 1922 movie palace with the blade sign and the Mighty Wurlitzer that rises before screenings. You may not catch a show, but the marquee is the neighbourhood's front door — check what's billed before you assume it's closed.

4. Pink Triangle Park
A small wedge at Market and 17th marking the pink triangle the Nazis forced gay prisoners to wear, reclaimed here as a memorial. Quiet, easy to miss, worth the two-minute detour.

5. The Castro Victorians
Climb a block or two up toward Liberty Hill — Noe, Hartford, the side streets — for the bay-windowed Victorians painted in colours no preservation board would have allowed. The Castro wears its houses brightly; this is where to see it.

6. Harvey Milk Plaza
Back at the station entrance, under the enormous rainbow flag that's flown here since 1997. End where you started, the flag overhead, the Muni back down into the city beneath your feet.

The Castro: Harvey Milk's neighborhood