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
30th Street center takes steps to battle senior-on-senior bullying
But some seniors do bully. And it starts early. “Young bullies just become older bullies,” said Dr. Patrick Arbore, founder and director of Elderly Suicide Prevention & Grief Related Services at the Institute on Aging. “Bullying is a learned behavior. Unless someone called a stop to this behavior or the bully is fortunate enough to ...
Director of I.T. Bookman wants to widen community center’s embrace
Felisia Thibodeaux, the new executive director of the I. T. Bookman Community Center, had been on the job just over four months when we talked, and she had already developed some big plans. “We need to redirect I. T. Bookman … for the whole community, including people with disabilities,” she said. “We want to offer ...
From Tea Garden to internment camp to Berkeley degree: Fitness instructor now 80 and still teaching
After age 80, more people are attending classes than teaching them. Yet, Tanako Hagiwara, who joined City College as a sports coach in 1967, is still at it – 51 years later. “I have no plans to stop teaching as long as my health allows and students want my classes,” said Hagiwara, 80. She wanted ...
Most older adults want to give back to society; the trick is finding the right niche, new study shows
The majority of older adults want to contribute to society. And about a third actively do. That’s according to a collaborative study by researchers at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and the San Francisco-based non-profit Encore.org. Findings and recommendations from the Pathways to Encore Purpose Project were presented at the recent 2018 American Society on Aging ...
Chronicling seniors upended author John Leland’s notion of happiness in later life
After I read John Leland’s new book, “Happiness is a Choice You Make,” I went out and bought copies for my children. I don’t want it to take them as long to learn what he did: that the years after middle age are just another chapter in a long life. What happens to an aging body ...
Editor and reporter has written about her neighborhood for the past 20 Years
Rae Doyle has introduced her West Portal neighbors to a variety of local people they might never have noticed. As associate editor of the West Portal Monthly over the past 20 years, she has treated readers to a panoply of profiles of interesting neighbors and small business owners, from the Vietnam War dog handler Dr. ...
