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
Unable to get a real job, a young Marty Nemko set about to reinvent himself; now the career advisor is famous
Marty Nemko was on a fast track to become a professor. He earned a doctorate in educational psychology from the University of California-Berkeley, was nominated for the school’s “Dissertation of the Year” and was looking forward to a long and storied career. But after sending out over 100 resumes, he only got offers for temporary, ...
Searching for ways to cope, twice laid-off worker envisions role for community libraries
Mimi Tong, 67, didn’t plan to stop working when she was laid off from her job as an administrative assistant at the University of California San Francisco, but after three years in the job market, she became what economists call an involuntary retiree, a pushout. With the job search behind her, Tong started building ...
Kaiser manager took early retirement to lock in changing benefits and look for new job
John Edmiston knows what it’s like to look for work and be rejected. At 66, he’s savvy enough to know that seeking “someone with less experience” was a way of saying he was too old. But that experience has proven valuable in the job he eventually found. He’s now a job placement specialist for SF ...
Seniors Say … senior? elder? old person? What’s in a name?
EDITOR’S NOTE: In this series, we get the thoughts and reactions of people 50 and older to a variety of everyday issues. If you or anyone you know would be willing to field some questions, email maryhunt@sfseniorbeat.com or rebeccalum@sfseniorbeat.com. Story and photographs by Mary Hunt and Rebecca Rosen Lum Question: You’re over 55 – old ...
Employment lawyer fighting to ‘balance the scale between the powerful and powerless’
Roderick P. Bushnell never faced age discrimination himself. But he has dedicated the latter part of his legal career to defending people who have. Still, he has experienced what it does to older workers when they lose their job. He was a teenager when his father was fired at the age of 50. “My father ...
Foster grandparent goes extra mile to help at-risk children – whose determination ‘never fails to amaze’
When Carol Chuo retired in 2017, she decided to “take what I know and turn it into pure fun.” Having spent 23 years working and playing with children as a teacher’s assistant for the San Francisco School District, raising two daughters along with five grandchildren, she volunteered to be a foster grandparent. She said it was ...
