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
She had to choose between two loves, but one came back and now showing off at the de Young Museum
Corey Weiner was shocked when her portrait of an elderly woman was selected for exhibit at The de Young Open, an online celebration of the museum’s 125th anniversary. For one, odds were against her; 11,500 individual artworks were submitted by 6,190 artists from the nine Bay Area counties. The work of only 763 artists made ...
Educator wrings inspiration from chaotic childhood and a classroom failure to show the power of storytelling in teaching and in life
Kate Farrell stood behind a lectern – “her refuge” – at a San Francisco junior high school in 1967 and peered out at the ninth-graders in her stuffy, overcrowded classroom. It was a hot spring day, right after lunch. She had taken to reading to them from the assigned texts: The Arabian Nights, Old Yeller, ...
Pitching in to serve community needs a way of life for this Dragon lady
Cynthia Dragon’s mural on the front of Kwik & Convenient, the neighborhood market on Monterey Boulevard near Foerster, shouts “Welcome to the Sunnyside,” in large vivid yellow letters over a bright orange sun, with a colorful flower and bee off to one side. The mural is a labor of love, and it’s a vivid example ...
Find of 2,000-year-old coin puts Potrero Hill artist, author and neighborhood historian on path to explore ancient Silk Road empire
Little over a decade ago while visiting Córdoba, a city on the southern coast of Spain, Peter Linenthal stopped at a small shop to buy stamps. It was an errand that changed his life. He noticed a box filled with old coins. He bought one for just $10. It turned out to be much more ...
North Beach tour guide builds on her own unique experiences at center of neighborhood’s idyllic ’70s
Blandina Farley arrived in San Francisco in 1971 and fell in love – with North Beach. It was to be a long-term relationship, a kinship of spirits. Home of the Beats, Italian immigrants, musicians, artists, writers and the strip club industry, North Beach in its heyday was flamboyant, full of color and passion. Lenny Bruce, ...
Intrigued by her parents’ Communism, activist’s path led to San Francisco, where she and her husband have brought news to the Black community for nearly 30 years.
They thought she might become a professional flutist. When Mary Ratcliff was only nine, she joined the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra. But by the age of 15, she realized she didn’t have the drive it took to become a professional. More importantly, what she really wanted was to “be with people who discussed the big ...
