News from the Heart & Soul of San Francisco
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…
ON THE HEELS of news that one of Alta Plaza Park’s neighbors — William Benjamin Bobo of 2580 Clay Street — left $3.2 million in his estate for more benches, now comes a report of another neighbor’s bequest to the park. Park leaders learned over the weekend that Jeanette Ann Goldstein, who resided a block…
WHATEVER THEIR FUTURE plans or potential, the buildings on the 2200 block of Fillmore Street acquired with funds from investor Neil Mehta have already brought back one piece of Fillmore’s recent past: boarded-up empty storefronts. • SOME EXISTING BUSINESSES on Fillmore Street have gates, especially those with recessed doorways. More have been added recently, both…
STREET TALK | CYNTHIA TRAINA Restaurateur Kevin Chen has quietly opened Ninniku, a ramen bar at 1730 Fillmore. This new spot takes over the former location of his izakaya NoNo, which is relocating to the old Pizza Inferno space — both larger and more prominent on the corner of Fillmore & Sutter. Ninniku — “garlic”…
REAL ESTATE | CYNTHIA TRAINA Typical of the holiday season, there was a slowdown in sales in December. Only four single-family homes closed in the neighborhood in December, compared to seven homes in November and 12 in October. Sales ranged from $2.4 million for 2660 California, which needs significant renovations, to $8.35 million for 2610…
ST. DOMINIC’S CATHOLIC CHURCH is celebrating 150 years in the neighborhood — and 100 years in its landmark Gothic home — with the publication of a new book, Radiating the Joy of the Gospel in the Heart of the City. The book captures key moments in the life of the church in words and photographs.…