Special Project: Senior Housing
As the city’s older population swells, seniors who can no longer live at home face high costs, limited choices
EDITOR'S NOTE: Full profiles of the seniors interviewed will be published each day after today's introductory story. Publishing dates are noted in the...
Life in the Later Lane
Stephanie Ernst-Scott runs the last tackle shop in San Francisco. It’s been in her family for 60 years.
Walk through the doors of Gus’ Discount Fishing Tackle, and you’ll likely be greeted before you even...
City College café owner customizes and caters to make students, staff and professors feel at home
Thanks to Alberto Campos, students at City College of San Francisco’s Mission Campus can get an affordable...
One bold step opened up education and a career charting demographics in low-income countries
Sara Seims, an 18-year-old British girl, walked into the admissions office at New York University and knocked...
K.D. Sullivan: From Park Bench to Publishing House
At 15, K.D. Sullivan was homeless, hungry, and sleeping on park benches in Honolulu’s Aina Haina neighborhood....
Retired conference consultant embraces San Francisco and its history with tour of her own neighborhood
As she strolls toward the smallest park in San Francisco, Bonnie Wallsh calls back to the group...
Farm life couldn’t compete with the excitement of big cities and the challenge of the executive life
In college, Bob Britt worked as a night auditor at a roadside Holiday Inn in Southern Illinois....
Successful sous chef finds equilibrium and support after career sidetracked by health and hard times
Jon Insco has been a go-getter most of his life — always hustling for his next adventure....
Being an ‘old soul’ isn’t just about age but an attitude – best nurtured by intergenerational contact
SF SENIORBEAT GUEST COLUMN – There’s a corner of Gen Z internet culture that has popularized the...
How a dedicated teacher of young children became a dedicated civic volunteer.
Sharon Yow’s father drove a truck and tried his hand at farming. Her mother worked a switchboard...
Famed boogie-woogie pianist embroiders her performances with her own hand-crafted art
Caroline Dahl has never forgotten the glamorous, red-haired woman in a sequined dress she saw at a...
The biggest, best walk – and bath of a lifetime.
Tina Martin SENIORBEAT GUEST COLUMN – I love San Francisco, and I love to walk. So when...
‘So hard, all the losses and pain:’ Personal and world tragedies led daughter of Holocaust survivors to life of helping others help others
Juliet Rothman was living in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1992 when her 21-year-old son Daniel attempted a double...
Rock ‘n’ roll and diamonds shaped the life of Arthur Indenbaum
WRITER'S NOTE: Arthur Indenbaum died on November 28, 2025, with his wife and daughter by his side....
All Posts
‘Whatever happened to ‘that girl?’ Traveling while older offers challenges but nothing this former tour guide couldn’t handle
SENIOR BEAT COLUMN Whenever I go through airport security, I light up their machines like a Chernobyl chicken. “Female Assist!” the cry goes up for a pat down and I get that look. I explain that a car wreck in my youth left titanium holding my knee and hip together, but somehow my images show ...
Norms never held her back: Championship horsewoman, groundbreaking feminist, daring travel writer
Diane LeBow was a solo traveler when “one was an odd number for a woman traveler,” she has written. And she visited countries and people not on the typical tourist list: Libya, Morocco, Syria, Sulawesi, Indonesia, Mongolia, and Afghanistan. She stayed from weeks to months, got to know the locals, and had romances with some. ...
Buttons, strings and fabric scraps: Artist creates intricate designs and portraits from bits and pieces
Marie Bergstedt finds art in the everyday: buttons, fabrics, bits of discarded clothing, and string. She combines those mundane materials into expressive representations of a person she’s known or observed. Her subjects range from relatives, friends and associates to street people. A self-described fabric artist, she works with natural and synthetic fibers to create her ...
Senior dance troupe keeps cabaret alive in Chinatown; its director hit the world stage as a teen, after a surprise call from a famous landlord
Cynthia Yee’s mother got her started in ballet at the age of 10, getting advice on a teacher from their landlady. Yee practiced every day in her apartment building’s spacious lobby, dreaming of dancing on the world stage. Seven years later, the landlady, Dorothy Toy, called back. Toy was no ordinary landlord. She was a ...
Jerry Barrish had a knack for rustling: supplies in the Army, bail for ’60s demonstrators, and scrap plastics for his quirky art sculptures
On a glistening Sunday between January’s storms, Jerry Ross Barrish welcomed a throng of visitors to the opening of his sculpture exhibit at the M. Stark Gallery in Half Moon Bay. The lanky, 83-year-old San Francisco native and retired bail bondsman smiled broadly and said to a guest: “Usually, I know about 40 to 50 ...
Educator challenged the status quo at an early age, helped found SF Women’s Building and now active in California Senior Legislature
Anne Warren was never shy. In high school, she shocked school administrators at a public meeting. The integration they were proud to proclaim in her hometown’s sole public high school did not exist. As a young Black woman, she described deeply divided racial and economic divisions. “The kids who gathered in the front hall were ...
