News from the Heart & Soul of San Francisco
By CYNTHIA TRAINA The Fillmore Jazz Festival, traditionally held over the Fourth of July weekend, has been canceled for 2025. Tim Omi, president of the sponsoring Fillmore Merchants Association, announced the cancellation tonight at a neighborhood meeting. The festival, which has attracted more than 100,000 attendees annually to what was billed as the largest free…
STREET TALK | CYNTHIA TRAINA KC Paris Desserts has opened at 1365 Fillmore Street in the former Merchants Roots space. Owner and pastry chef Khadidiatou Camara — known as Didi — is a classically trained graduate of the prestigious Ferrandi pastry school in Paris, where she co-owned a bakery. Her family is from Martinique, but…
Leather shop known for innovation, craftsmanship By NIKKI COLLISTER At West Coast Leather, style takes center stage. Located in the heart of Cow Hollow at 2060 Union Street, the specialty clothing shop is equal parts boutique and museum. Inside, shoppers browse racks of stylish leather jackets, vests and dresses while surrounded by a curated display…
STREET TALK | CYNTHIA TRAINA Nordstrom Local is facing new opposition to its bid to lease the long-vacant space at 1919 Fillmore Street formerly occupied by Minted. The Pacific Heights Residents Association has voted to oppose the store, citing increased traffic and parking concerns on an already congested block. “What the Upper Fillmore needs,” said…
REAL ESTATE | CYNTHIA TRAINA Where have all the single-family home sales gone? In February, only one single-family home closed in Pacific Heights, Lower Pacific Heights, Presidio Heights or Cow Hollow. The 1,763-square-foot Victorian home at 1829 Scott Street sold for $2.9 million and set a record per-square-foot price south of California Street at $1,645…
WOODY LaBOUNTY traces the circuitous history of a little wooden building on the 1800 block of Eddy Street — which turns out to be the oldest frame church in San Francisco, moved twice since it was built on Market Street in 1854 as the first St. Patrick’s Church. In 1873, the building was moved west…
STREET TALK | CYNTHIA TRAINA If you’ve been on the 2200 block of Fillmore lately, you may have noticed new signage in the windows of the boarded-up storefronts bought last year with funds from investor Neil Mehta. It’s the branding of what they’re billing as the Upper Fillmore Revitalization Project. Emptied storefronts now display the…
THE TALK OF the neighborhood is on the front page of today’s New York Times. It’s the fallout from a lawsuit filed by Jesse Powell, the crypto pioneer and founder of Kraken. He’s suiting the residents of 2500 Steiner, the tower at the corner of Jackson and Steiner, who don’t want him as their neighbor.…
“THERE’D BEEN A rainstorm,” says longtime neighborhood resident Monte Travis, a respected San Francisco attorney. “I looked out the living room window and saw this. I grabbed my camera, opened the kitchen window and took the picture. My timing was very lucky, as the rainbow proved quite ephemeral.” Travis is far more than an amateur…
By TAM PUTNAM & FAITH HANNA “Forty years ago,” Vicki Evans says, “I could have sold you a $100 Hoover you would have kept and passed on to your firstborn.” Evans, who runs Phil’s Electric in Cow Hollow — and serves many in the neighborhoods along Fillmore Street — remembers that back then, almost every…