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: See full profiles of the seniors interviewed by clicking links within the story. A panoply of health issues, including slow-moving Parkinson’s,...
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
La Playa Park neighborhood activist coins a counter to NIMBY – ICABY, I Care About My Back Yard
San Francisco often seems divided into opposing camps: the NIMBYs and the YIMBYs. But Steve Ward, the 69-year-old sparkplug of the La Playa Park Coalition, thinks of himself as a partisan of a third way: the ICABY. That odd acronym stands for “I care about a backyard,” and as Ward pointed to a series of ...
This Sister of Perpetual Indulgence added playwriting to street improvisation: His next piece will be on the iconic sisterhood
I met 73-year-old Cass Brayton when our virtual group, Drama with Friends, had the pleasure of reading three of his short plays last month. Brayton’s plays have been performed by local amateur and professional theater groups around the city. His most recent, “The Boy Who Didn’t Listen to His Mother,” was included in the 2008 ...
S.F. poet laureate promotes citizen poems every day on the city library website; we share three that reflect on aging
In 2020, when Kim Shuck was selected the San Francisco Poet Laureate, the San Francisco Public Library wanted to publish a poem of hers every day during her tenure. Shuck proposed they use the library’s website instead to give voice to lesser-known Bay Area poets. Calls to former poet laureates and poetry instructors brought in ...
At ease with older people, she found a career in senior center management; now she’s a senior and walking the talk
Sue Horst believes everyone has a North Star — hers was her mother, who showed her that age is no barrier to creating a new life. Her mother had been a homemaker, raising Horst and her older brother. She volunteered but never had a paid job. Yet at age 61, she studied to become a ...
‘Great Plates’ helps keep local restaurants open during Covid while feeding seniors who might fall through meal delivery gaps
By Mary Hunt and Judy Goddess In the summer of 2020, Rosa Elena Rivera was fast approaching the end of her rope. She’d had to close her restaurant, Golden State Grill in the Excelsior, twice in the face of the Shelter in Place order and a Covid scare in her own family. Over in Stonestown, ...
SPEAK TO US: Here’s what I love about San Francisco. What about you?
I’ve lived in San Francisco for 35 years. The one thing that has been a constant pleasure is the weather. Where else can you enjoy the outdoors year-round in the U.S. without freezing in the winter or sweating to death in the summer? I covet my temperate climate where many sunny days, in the 60s, ...
