People love to knock the Sunset District for its telephone poles. They’re everywhere, right out front, not tucked neatly in the backyards. Wires crisscross the sky like a forgotten spiderweb.

Even when you stumble on a row of stunning period revival homes like the Rousseau brothers’ beauties with castle turrets and French Provincial windows, there they are. Poles. Wires. Spoiling the postcard view.

Why? Because the Sunset was built for the working class. In the 1920s and ’30s, homes went for $5,000. Affordable enough for butchers, bakers, and shoemakers. But to keep costs low, they were built wall to wall. No room for utility trucks in the back. So everything went up front.

Here’s the twist: that’s actually been a gift.

Because everything’s right out in the open, upgrades are easy. Fast. In the ’80s, we got cable TV before other neighborhoods. In the 2010s, we got Gigabit fiber. Some undergrounded neighborhoods are still waiting.

I’m a tech worker. I move big data every day. Thanks to those poles, I’m pushing 900 Mbps straight to my Mac. No waiting. No lag. No problem.

So yeah, telephone poles aren’t pretty. But they’re powerful.