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
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, ...
