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
Her anger broke dishes: Former legal secretary cherishes newfound calm and new life path through practice of Buddhism
Something she said on a date jolted Cindy Fong. And it tossed her onto a path that would change her life. “A few years after my divorce, I was dating a man and I said something profoundly hurtful to him. I shocked myself. I couldn’t stop thinking about what made me say something like that. ...
From the Kennedy assassination to New Age practices to medical issues to San Francisco and the Coast, Lithuanian emigree covered it all
Rasa Gustaitis was among 900 other displaced persons who arrived in America in September 1947 on the SS Ernie Pyle. With her own long career in journalism, it now appears serendipitous that she entered the country on a ship named for a Pulitzer-winning war correspondent. Gustaitis touched all the bases in her journalism career —she ...
Family separations the price Burma native paid to escape war, reach the U.S. and finish her medical degree
The hardest decisions Eng Ng ever had to make – though they meant family separations – turned out to be the right ones for herself and her family, she said. Four years after she was born, in 1948, Burma shed British rule to become a newly democratic socialist country. Her father and a partner started ...
Potrero Hill Neighborhood House director in a line of generations looking after community’s wellbeing
Turning 60 is often a time for reflection, a time to consider the next phase of your life. The day after that landmark birthday, Edward Hatter, the longtime neighborhood activist and executive director of the Potrero Hill Neighborhood House, sat in his spacious office and pondered: “I’m still trying to define who’s a senior. I ...
Camera, celebrities, presidents and Panama Canal adventures mark photographer’s extraordinary career
Casinos like the Tropicana, the Sahara and the Sands sprung up in Las Vegas in the 1950s. Big bands backed top entertainment like Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland and Elvis. In this heady environment, Tom Zimberoff came of age. “My father played violin in the big bands at the time when big bands had string ...
Coping with Covid-19: Keeping one another safe generates flurry of informal, neighborhood mutual-help groups
Ninety-five-year old Molly McSweeney was recuperating at her daughter Julie’s house in Cole Valley when the Covid-19 shelter-in-place order came through. “My mom had been hospitalized for pneumonia twice since October. I knew I’d be risking her health if I went shopping, I’d feel so guilty if I brought the infection home.” That’s when Julie ...
