Special Project: City Budget Cuts
Seniors and people with disabilities fight down to the wire to save programs that serve them
As Yogi Berra once said, "it ain't over till it's over." The baseball legend was referring to sports, of course, but the adage...
Life in the Later Lane
Following in the footsteps of heroes: My visit to the cradles of Civil Rights
SF SENIORBEAT COLUMN – March 17, 1886. A date you probably never considered. Carroll County, Mississippi. A...
Nonprofit director is happy to bug you, whether you’re 2 or 92, about saving the wild
If you grow up in Los Angeles, where do you find the wild? Norm Gershenz is not...
Bass playing lawyer takes on the landlords when seniors call for help
During the day, you’ll find Thomas Drohan in court or at his law office on Mission Street....
Former SFSU teacher shifts to helping union workers build leadership abilities
Like some people need coffee, Joan Wong needs to walk – and talk. Mornings, she puts in...
Joe Edley, a three-time national champion, has been racking up great Scrabble scores for decades
Joe Edley tucks his co-authored book, “Everything Scrabble,” under his arm and surveys the room. Around him,...
Robert Wachter, the doctor who is pioneering the use of artificial intelligence to treat patients
Robert Wachter is the doctor who oversees all the other doctors at the University of California, San...
Couple beat ‘fast furniture,’ pandemic and other challenges to keep upholstery shop going for nearly 50 years
J & G Upholstery stretches back farther than it looks from the sidewalk on Balboa Street. Stacks...
As the city’s older population swells, seniors who can no longer live at home face high costs, limited choices
EDITOR'S NOTE: See full profiles of the seniors interviewed by clicking links within the story. A panoply...
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...
All Posts
Nonprofit worker/consultant championed community improvements through collaboration with schools and juvenile services
Some people like to fix cars, children’s toy, or broken furniture. Bruce Marcus likes to fix nonprofit organizations. Over a 38-year career in nonprofit work, management and consulting, he initiated innovative programs in juvenile justice and drug and alcohol education, championing partnerships between nonprofits and public schools. Hoping to share his vision of nonprofit managers ...
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 ...
