…it isn’t?
Clearly I wasn’t paying attention. Well-played. 
Frankly, you are unlikely to find anything like that in San Francisco. SF is a very small, compact, and expensive city - it’s the second most densely populated city in the US, after New York. Everyone lives pretty much on top of everyone else. There are a few very ritzy neighborhoods where people have large houses and maybe some garden around the house, but even they would have neighbors in close proximity. There aren’t any rolling estates or sprawling grounds or anything like that. People in the Bay Area who want to live like that live in the suburbs. If that sort of housing description is more important than actually being in the city itself, I can make some recommendations for suburbs to consider.
Called Cesar Chavez these days… not really Army Street anymore. And not that much rush hour traffic leaving the city in the AM… but then again, you didn’t say how heavy it was.
Only tryin’ to help the story along… 
I’m SURE this has already been covered but I’m having fun!
Nope. No hills anywhere near SF. Thank God! Keeps the damn skaters away!
Expect more pointless posts soon…
In all seriousness, I’d try putting them in a penthouse at the top of a apartment building in Pacific Heights. Likethis guy.
That’s a very San Francisco type of home for rich folks. Manor homes not quite so much. We’re pretty dense here, if you catch my drift.
Immediately made be think of the house in Full House… http://www.zillow.com/blog/full-house-house-is-for-sale-4-million/2010/02/02/ GEEZ, SCOOT OVER
Sorry. One last post.
To me, in terms of creating interesting plot twists where the main characters are confined or stuck someplace for some reason;* a Penthouse trumps (pardon the pun) a Manor, as a Submarine trumps a mere Ship.
And again–it’s so SF, and has the best views in more directions than anyplace else it the City. (A penthouse apartment at the top of Pac Heights, that is.) I should know: I live in the neighborhood with the second best views in SF–the Tenderloin!
Second part’s a lie–the Tenderloin is a bad part of town, but the first part is true. I actually live in the heart of the TL.
- You already know a blizzard is out, but an earthquake would be perfect. Especially because the top floor of an old building is the very last place you’d want to be. Kinda ratchets up the ol’ stakes, ya know?
Do the gay people smoke pot as well?
No. Gay people are specifically prohibited from smoking pot, by city ordinance.
your closer than me, go ask
Why last? Feel free to ramble on for as long as you like 
Can’t say that’s not a good point, but maybe for another story. These characters have lived inside my little head for over a decade, and they live in a mansion
Again a nice idea, but I’m afraid that doesn’t go with the mythology of my story.
Also, I’d like to point out that I never wanted to have the mansion in the city, but outside it. My characters won’t mind driving a mile or two Ideally, I would’ve situated it on Angel Island, but there are no bridges going there, am I right?
If that’s the case, then I would recommend setting the mansion either in Tiburon/Belvedere (15-30 min drive depending on traffic into San Francisco and a great view of the city, as well as yards - which still tend to be very steep hillsides) or the Berkeley/Oakland Hills (some very expensive places can have views of the city/G.G. Bridge and yards, I guess about 30-60 min drive into SF depending on traffic.)
Did someone upthread say the Berkeley Hills get snow every year? I lived near downtown Berkeley for 5 years and never saw any snow except a light dusting on Mt. Tamalpais and Mt. Diablo, in very rare years there would be lower-elevation snow that never seemed to last more than a couple hours on the ground.
Yet your OP said
I like the Belvedere idea a lot.
BTW, no one lives on Angel Island. It’s part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
This is not quite correct. There are resident rangers and their families. I wouldn’t do it, but it would definitely have its upside.
Really? Wow. That would be awesome.
Well, for about two weeks.
After spending some time on Wikipedia and Google Maps, I’m really liking Yerba Buena Island.
Whether or not that house was on Alamo Square, Alamo Square is a good place to visit, with a park that lets you see the Painted Ladies. We stayed at the Archbishop’s Mansion across the street, the former residence of the Archbishop of SF which survived the quake and became a B&B, but it closed for renovations and still seems to be closed.
Ah, Chinatown. As teenagers we went there to by firecrackers! Cheap and available… Cir. 1957.
Also cherry bombs and assorted other fireworkie stuff.
I lived in the East Bay, and still miss The City. Even remember the fog horns and the stink of SF sewage polluting the bay.
Good old San Francisco! (Don’t call it FRISCO!!) (Herb Cane) 
But you said…
San Francisco is a tiny city that encompasses only 49 square miles. (That’s seven miles on a side!) The area that covers Marin, Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and other counties as well as San Francisco is the Bay Area. You can see our confusion.
When I was a teenager I’d occasionally get tourists asking where I lived. When I told them Westwood Park (a neighborhood near City College) they’d want to know if that was a city down the Peninsula. I didn’t know that, to the rest of the world, San Francisco meant the whole Bay Area. Just as, to tourists, L.A. means the entire LA Basin, not just the city of Los Angeles.
If it is important to have a view of the city, parts of Marin or Berkeley would work, but don’t call it San Francisco.
Why don’t you make use of Google maps or Google Earth or one of the other mapping services with satellite/airplane/street view photos. Pick a couple of potential spots then we could tell you if that would work. Also look up San Francisco, Marin, Berkeley and any other locations in Wikipedia. You seem unusually unaware of the area for someone who is setting a book there. Is this homework?