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: Full profiles of the seniors interviewed will be published each day after today's introductory story. Publishing dates are noted in the...
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
Coping with Covid-19: Futon maker shifts SF factory production to masks; and she’s ‘frankly overwhelmed’
During World War II, auto plants stopped making cars and instead churned out tanks. Factories designed to produce washing machines retooled and started manufacturing aircraft parts, and clothing manufacturers turned out uniforms by the millions. That’s what a country does when it faces an existential crisis. Now there’s another crisis: the coronavirus pandemic that has ...
Coping with Covid-19: A previous disease flattened him; helping create the Sunset Neighborhood Help Group lifted him up
Covid-19 has changed everyone’s life in some way. But Frank Plughoff’s most life-altering experience dates back two years – to another disease. It was a bad experience. Little did he know that the disease currently ravaging the world would provide him with a good one. Two years ago, a rare neurological illness robbed the 63-year-old ...
Summers of Love and a once unlikely relationship: Couple bonded over rhythm & blues and music nightlife
When a black man asked her out in San Francisco in 1960, interracial dating just wasn’t being done and Marty Harper was no pioneer. But as the ’60s rolled on, things were being done that hadn’t been before. Young people were bucking the establishment’s war, work and cultural ethics. The Civil Rights movement spotlighted racial ...
Acting was her desire; burlesque jobs kept her employed, honed her theater skills and earned her respect in the industry
Judy Roe didn’t choose stripping; it chose her, she says. It was the fallback that filled the gaps in much of her working life. Gigs in burlesque and nightclubs, along with other work, kept her fed and helped her hone a wide array of stagecraft skills that garnered respect and credibility in what was once ...
Work remains a passion for labor activist, union organizer and community builder
We are living in difficult times, said Conny Ford. So, at 70, she has no intention of sitting back and putting her feet up. “I continue to work because it is what I have done for almost 40 years and what I believe in.” Nationally, things are pretty messed up, but locally, she said, “I ...
‘Mostly’ retired photographer shoots for meaning after hurly-burly of Grateful Dead concerts
One of the best things about his work as a cameraman and sound engineer was that it enabled him to “meet people and go places other people don’t,” said Dennis Minnick. A self-acclaimed “Deadhead,” Minnick was on the crew filming those New Year’s Eve concerts with the Grateful Dead, and at the 1982 show, Vietnam ...
