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
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 ...
Retired Fortune 500 development consultant brings home her lifelong interest in improving cities and communities
Renee Berger’s childhood was full of ice cream and Yankee games and parents who had “great faith and trust in me.” They were the first of many who were to guide her on her way to and through a career as a management consultant for Fortune 500 companies, top public and private foundations, government agencies ...
Love of food and baseball frame a life of service to the city of San Francisco
Ricardo Hernandez, a die-hard fan of both the San Francisco Giants and food of all kinds, had no idea that after retirement, he’d have a change of heart. From his youth in Puerto Rico through moves to other countries and settling in San Francisco – where he held positions as city Rent Board director and ...
Urban Alchemy helps the formerly incarcerated find stability while as ‘practitioners,’ they help stabilize the Tenderloin
It’s the day after Thanksgiving and Chris Purcell’s corner of the Tenderloin is uncharacteristically quiet. There’s a couple of young men sitting in the gutter smoking weed, a few homeless people pushing loaded shopping carts, and the occasional loud argument on the street. “The weed smokers don’t bother us; we’re not here to bust chops,” ...
Before ‘Riverdance,’ Irish dance school owner was learning the steps as soon as she could walk
“Riverdance,” the phenomenal stage performance of floor-pounding Irish stepdance hit American shores in 1996. But Irish dance had been in Mary Jo Murphy-Feeney’s bones for half a century. “My mother taught me to step dance as soon as I could walk,” she said. For the Irish, step-dancing has been as much a part of life ...
Not inclined to settle down, world traveler has lived from far north to far south and sometimes in between
Brenda Joyce travels light. Her one piece of luggage – a black suitcase – at the ready, the peripatetic 82-year-old divides her time between San Francisco and Chiang Mai, Thailand. They’re just two of the stops on a global itinerary that has taken her to the literal ends of the earth – the Arctic and ...
