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
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 ...
