Why Northwest District faces sewage backup risk
Built for Nob Hill’s mix of century-old homes-turned-apartments and the commercial strip running through it.
The Northwest District (Nob Hill) is known for well-preserved Victorian and early-1900s residential architecture.
Many single-family homes in the area have been subdivided into apartments over the decades.
The NW 21st and 23rd Avenue commercial strips run directly through the residential grid.
Original or minimally-updated clay and cast-iron laterals from the Victorian era, combined with single-family homes now carrying apartment-level plumbing demand, raise real backup risk — and commercial-restaurant grease discharge along the strips shares the same neighborhood grid.