‘Photos of the Month’: August 2023
NEIGHBORHOOD INFORMATION
The Richmond District is located in the northwest corner of San Francisco, nestled in between Presidio National Park and the city’s Golden Gate Park. The neighborhood, which includes Sea Cliff and Laurel and Presidio Heights, is home to about 80,000 people. About half of Richmond residents are of Asian ancestry, primarily of Chinese and Korean descent. There is also a large Irish population and many recently arrived Russian immigrants.
Several vibrant commercial areas, including California Street, Clement Street and Geary Boulevard, serve the neighborhood. The 1,400 merchants and small offices in the Richmond District offer a wide range of goods and services.
Local landmarks include the Cliff House and the Beach Chalet at Ocean Beach, the V.A. Hospital at Fort Miley, University of San Francisco and numerous holy houses, including Temple Emanuel, St. John’s Orthodox Church and St. John’s Presbyterian Church. There are numerous attractions in Golden Gate Park, including an American Bison pen, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, California Academy of Sciences, Strybing Arboretum, the oldest children’s playground west of the Mississippi River and a 9-hole golf course.
NEWSPAPER INFORMATION
Distribution by Neighborhood: Presidio and Masonic Avenues to the Pacific Ocean, Golden Gate Park to the Presidio, Sea Cliff
Distribution by Zip Code: 94118 and 94121
Circulation: 25,000
Prom on the Prom to bring fun, joy and dancing to Car-Free JFK Promenade on Saturday, Aug. 19
The billboard looms large over the mid-Richmond. For those who might have missed it, the brightly colored sign takes a swipe at the City’s response to the fentanyl crisis. Its banner teases, “That’s Fentalife!” The billboard is part of a $300,000 advertising campaign funded by Michael Moritz, a technology venture capitalist who is only the latest in a long line of business leaders willing to spend lavishly to influence San Francisco politics.
I’m disappointed to learn that after all the pleading from our small businesses and community members along Geary Boulevard, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) Director Jeff Tumlin is moving forward with the flawed Geary Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) “quick build” project, ignoring the concerns strongly expressed by the merchants and community members.
On Aug. 14, a group of Geary merchants and supporters staged an event using a COFFIN on the sidewalk in front of my business. I was not asked permission; the landlord was not asked permission.
The written announcement and subsequent information pages this group distributed to the very large group of media and merchants, distorted the Geary Boulevard Project plans.
The promoter of Outside Lands has so magnanimously granted us residents of the Richmond and Sunset $35,000 each in so-called Community Benefit Funds from Outside Lands profits. Researched that the Richmond itself has about 35,000 residents, so each of us get a “benefit’ of exactly ONE DOLLAR for the lost weekend of noise and air pollution, heavy traffic, etc. Can assume the Sunset residents “benefit” about the same.
I joined a family really into staging large reunions, where everything had to be documented with snapshots – in front of bodies of water, sitting around a massive table at restaurants (“Everybody, stop eating for a second!”) and posing in front of mountain ranges.
Simply put, the continuous third lane down Geary, a.k.a. the Red Carpet Lane, is going to be possible by converting the current angled parking to parallel parking. This is not only going to make the bus faster, but it is also going to alleviate some congestion for people who need to drive to the Outer Richmond since they won’t get stuck behind a bus.
Geary merchants and other neighborhood leaders will carry a coffin mourning the loss of Thom’s Natural Foods and other local businesses that have recently closed due to economic hardships.
Call it what you may, a government-sanctioned and subcontracted facility for addicts of illicit drugs is illegal. Safe Injection, Safe Consumption, Overdose Prevention, all are terms dreamed up by the imaginative advocates to generate public support, while concealing violations of federal and state law.
“Child of the 1960s: A Day in the Life” is a memoir of the coming of age of an adolescent boy in San Francisco in the turbulent 1960s. You get glimpses of beatniks, hippies, Gypsy Joker bikers, race riots, rowdy 49er football games at venerable Kezar Stadium and other epic events of the times along with an overview of the cultural zeitgeist of the decade.
This photo of Trad’r Sam, the Outer Richmond District Polynesian-themed bar on Geary Boulevard at 26th Avenue, was taken circa 1950. The bar was opened in 1937 by Sam Baylon. SF Heritage called it the “longest continuously running tiki bar in the world.”
Giving people greater flexibility to stay in their homes isn’t something that can happen overnight but requires fixing policies that currently make it difficult to enact even small changes.
For the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department’s Therapeutic Recreation Inclusion Services Team, this outdoor adventure does not serve as a movement activity alone. Instead, its greater purpose called for inclusivity for people with disabilities soon entering the workforce.
Cartoon by Paul Kilduff.