Life in the Later Lane
Three generations of a San Francisco family thrived running popular oceanside eatery overlooking Sutro Baths
It was, you might say, the last breakfast. On a summer Saturday in 2020, dozens of family...
Art and science vied for Sarah Young’s heart: Both found a place
Few who end up in the hospital are likely to be thinking about whether there’s a sufficient,...
Baking for bodily autonomy: Nan Wiener tackles controversial end of Roe v. Wade with brownies, macaroons, muffins and more
SENIOR BEAT GUEST COLUMN – Many years ago, I spent a year baking desserts in a restaurant...
New author and former drinker embracing alternative therapies to help others break the habit
Seated in the backroom of a café on Polk Street, Kevagne Kalisch leans against the wall and...
From fisherman to cook to inmate to owner: Frankie Balistreri’s odyssey to opening his dream restaurant
When his mother, Lucrezia, was diagnosed with cancer, then 25-year-old Frankie Gaetano Balistreri cared for her at...
Wisdom of the Japanese Tea Garden helped volunteer Chrisie Giordano come to accept a child’s absence
It’s an overcast summer morning, and Chrisie Giordano is leading a tour of Golden Gate Park’s Japanese...
It’s the little things that count for Margaret Lew, swept up in the world of miniature craftmanship
If you think dollhouses are just for children, you haven’t met the artisans and collectors, like Margaret...
Desire to learn mah-jongg helped Stephanie Riger overcome her own biases toward seniors
SENIOR BEAT GUEST COLUMN – Even though I’m 78 years old, I have resisted seeing myself as...
Retirement can be scary. Library worker hoping the end of his career will be the start of a happy new chapter
Seventy-one-year-old Richard Marino is on the cusp of retirement. And it’s making him anxious. He’s gone through...
German Gonzalez, the maestro of Golden Gate Park, has spread music and joy for more than 50 years
He was in the sixth grade and really wanted to be in the school band. But his...
At 67, Lauren McNamara has embarked on a new career and she’s charming customers at a downtown hotspot.
Lauren McNamara makes sure to remember where the regular clientele at Sam’s Grill like to sit. She...
You can get — almost — anything you want at Joseph Omran’s Nob Hill grocery store
LeBeau Market calls itself Nob Hill’s Community Grocery Store, where you can get almost everything: from Lay’s...
Deborah Drysdale: social justice evangelist, bridge instructor, and amateur mixologist
Summers for Deborah Drysdale meant idyllic days at her grandparents’ cattle ranch in the Blue Ridge mountains...
Jonah Raskin: Tireless Bay Area peace activist, prolific writer, and educator
Jonah Raskin was 10 in 1952, during the height of the anti-communist fervor of the Cold War....
She brought the magic to the screen, finding the perfect San Francisco location to shoot movies, TV shows, and commercials
If you’d been walking along one of the steepest streets in San Francisco one sunny afternoon in...
She relives history as a guide on the SS Jeremiah O’Brien, one of the WWII Liberty ships that brought troops and cargo to Normandy beaches
Eve Maher hands out programs to visitors boarding the SS Jeremiah O’Brien for a tour and memorial...
Pen pals from afar build rich relationship over 60 years through old-fashioned correspondence – no WhatsApp about it
A SENIOR BEAT GUEST COLUMN – My correspondence with Jutta Mengersen (now Brockhaus), the “World’s Ideal Pen...
This Mexican immigrant fought in the ring, started a dozen restaurants, raised five children, and never let defeat wear him down.
When 17-year-old Jose Heriberto Garcia came courting the young girl who’d become his wife, his future mother-in-law...
The ghosts of San Francisco’s past are still there if you only look and listen
SENIOR BEAT COLUMN: I got my first job in San Francisco nearly 40 years ago, in the...
Mutual support but separate hobbies and workshops keep crafty couple’s marriage going strong
A stained glass window by Bill and a "fishing" quilt Etta made for him adorn a hallway...
All Posts
Like a Santa Claus for dogs of the homeless, he travels miles, his cart loaded with food, blankets, medications and toys
It’s a chilly January morning, and Paul Crowell is pulling a heavy steel wagon up a street in the Bayview. It’s loaded with hundreds of pounds of pet food, animal medications, blankets and pet toys. He turns south on Selby Street, a desolate stretch of road under the elevated 280 freeway. He’s there to drop ...
Emigre sheds shame of early surgery scars through founding of Chinatown performing arts center, writing scripts and poetry
Clara Hsu is sitting at a studio upright piano in her office at the Clarion Performing Arts Center in Chinatown. There’s a box of crayons and a stack of children’s books on the piano bench. She’s wearing a black and white print dress over long black sleeves, a contrast to her reddish, bob-cut hair She ...
Colorful crates carry arts and communications retiree’s tools to better the brains of children
If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales. Albert Einstein Suzanne Korey loves giving away books to kids. By her latest count, she’s handed off 22,650 over the last two years. She loads her silver, 6-foot-long van with ...
Longtime Laguna Honda Hospital residents hang on under cloud of relocation from their longtime home and safe haven
When forty-five-year-old Felipe Martinez suffered a massive stroke that left him unable to stand, walk, swallow or handle any of the activities of daily living, the one thing he was certain of was that Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Center wasn’t for him. “That’s for the elderly, that’s not me,” he thought at the time. ...
My fashion wants are clashing against the lure of fast clothing and my need to be a good environmental steward
A SENIOR BEAT COLUMN Several recent online purchases of clothing that turned out to be flubs got me to soul searching. Maybe if they had been winners, I wouldn’t but they weren’t. As a woman who enjoys fashion, I want new clothes, but thought: Do I need them? I remember becoming aware of the difference ...
Vibrant B&B owner transcended constricted, somber childhood as partygoer and planner, vintage costume designer and decorator
Growing up in a strict Orthodox Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, Sheila Ash almost never had a birthday party. Celebrations were reserved for the High Holy Days observed in the fall. So, when this youngest daughter grew up, she became a partygoer, a party thrower, an event and wedding planner, hostess, costume designer and ...
