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‘Pet Pix:’ Sunset District
From the Editor: Reflections Ahead of the Fall Season
It’s hard to believe that it’s already August. As we inch closer to the fall season, there is a lot of activity happening in the Sunset District. Students will soon return to classrooms, thousands of tourists will visit our neighborhoods as they attend concerts in Golden Gate Park – and we all find ourselves on the precipice of a divisive election cycle.
Everything Nice: Sit, Sip and Slow Down at Jandii
The fog reaches Taraval Street early and stays late. This far west, where the L-Taraval train slides toward the ocean and the marine layer settles over the Avenues, the Parkside keeps a tempo all its own, a step slower than the rest of the City. Since June, a bright, two-story cafe at 1100 Taraval St. has leaned all the way into that slower pace. Jandii is built around a single idea, that the time between meals matters as much as the meals themselves.
Real Estate: John M. Lee
I’ve been asked several times this month whether it makes sense to pay extra each month to pay off a mortgage sooner. It’s a good question, and the answer depends on your personal financial situation.
Sunset Happenings: Enhancement in the Sunset
The Inner Sunset is about to become even more attractive thanks to a number of beautification and improvement initiatives. The nonprofit SF New Deal launched the Inner Sunset Neighborhood Vibrancy Fund, a program that supports new and existing small businesses in the commercial corridor. Made possible with generous support from Inner Sunset neighbors, the fund will provide grants in three categories: up to $10,000 for storefront beautification, up to $5,000 for technical assistance and up to $20,000 for businesses taking over a vacant storefront. Applications will be reviewed by a central team and a community advisory group of Inner Sunset neighbors, the Inner Sunset Merchants Association and Inner Sunset Park Neighbors (ISPN). The grant is open to small businesses located between Fifth Avenue and 19th Avenue, bounded by Lincoln Way and Kirkham Street. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis, with priority given to applications submitted by Aug. 28. Learn more and apply at sfnewdeal.org/inner-sunset.
Bay Area Singer Destani Wolf Will Bring Her Genre-Defying Music to Stern Grove
The vocals of the 45-year-old resident of Kensington (just north of Berkeley) are as smooth as charmeuse, confidently improvisational and seemingly effortless, although her perfectionism leads to a lot of tinkering with songs before Wolf is willing to put them out into the world.
Frank McGinn’s Amazing Fantasy Keeps Love for Comics Alive
When Frank McGinn opened Amazing Fantasy in August 2000, he thought it would take weeks of painting, cleaning and stocking before the comics shop would open. But on the Sunday he took possession of the storefront, Irving Street neighbors poked their heads in to see what was replacing the old Comics and Comix location. They immediately dove into to help: cleaning and painting, whatever it took. One neighbor brought his truck to take away loads of rubbish. On the following Saturday, the shop opened. Community, it seems, has always mattered here.
Michael Durand
Michael Durand, the former Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of the Richmond Review and Sunset Beacon newspapers, passed away on May 30 following a diagnosis of metastatic melanoma. He is greatly missed.
How This Documentary Filmmaker Found Home and Community in the Outer Sunset
“Being in the ocean is like breathing,” Sachi Cunningham said. “If I’m not in the ocean for a period of time, I feel like I’m not me. It basically allows me to be who I am, which is an ocean lover.”
Neighbors Frustrated With Increasingly Delayed Street Repairs in the Inner Sunset
When asked why it takes a full decade to fix up one ragged block of Ninth Avenue between Kirkham and Lawton streets, the City’s response could be summed up as something akin to “it’s complicated.”
‘Then and Now:’ Judah and La Playa streets
Comparison photos of Judah and La Playa streets 42 years apart.
Wong’s Legislation Proposes Change to Building Rule
District 4 Supervisor Alan Wong has introduced an ordinance to change a decades-old building rule that housing advocates say has kept thousands of existing housing units off the legal rental market. The change would make those existing homes legal without requiring expensive renovations, and could make new construction more affordable, since lower ceilings require less material to build.
History Becomes a Form of Resistance to Family Zoning
Three San Francisco Supervisors are pushing to give structures with a significant past “landmark” status, to protect them from changes coming through the Mayor Daniel Lurie’s Family Zoning Plan.
Lawsuit Attempts to Halt Great Highway Ballot Measure
Just as it was announced that a proposed measure to reopen the Upper Great Highway to vehicle traffic will make the November ballot, a lawsuit has been filed by supporters of Sunset Dunes to try to stop it.
Commentary: Quentin L. Kopp
Last month we learned from a reported City Hall audit that a wily operator, former Chief Assistant Treasurer Tajel Shah, ignored procurement rules to ensure that a $7 million City Hall contract for a new tax collecting system went to tech corporation Mechanical Orchard. The system handles billions of dollars in San Francisco‘s infamous business taxes. City Attorney David Chiu, City Controller Greg Wagner and the Controller’s Auditor of City Services uncovered Shah’s perfidy. Shah never revealed her friendship with the chief revenue officer of Mechanical Orchard whose subcontractor (Ratio PBC) then hired Ms. Shah’s niece. A complaint was thereafter filed by a knowledgeable citizen with the Ethics Commission in late 2024. The San Francisco Standard reported such malefeasance on Sept. 25, 2025. Mechanical Orchard pulled out of contract talk the day before Shah’s perfidy was revealed. Shah resigned on Nov. 21, 2025.
