Ask HN: Nice neighborhoods in San Francisco?

Asking this here since so many of you are in or near SF

My wife has to take on a year-long project in downtown San francisco, so we are relocating there, temporarily. We have to move quickly, so we don't have much time to research. But, since she's working in mission, we'd to find a place convenient to there.

We are also bringing our 3 year old, and our 11 year old will be coming for the summer, so it'd also be nice to be near other families / kids. I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet - maybe work on some side projects, take some temporary contact work, or maybe just parent. But, I'd like to get involved with local tech community, etc.

I did a brief search, and it looks like apartments near there are ~$5,500 / mo. I guess that's fine, if necessary, but of course we'd like cheaper.