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BoConcept opens on Fillmore

Home furnishing stores — which took a big hit during the last decade — are seeing a resurgence on Fillmore, especially in the block between Pine and Bush, home to Zinc Details, Design Within Reach, the Shade Store and newcomer Ruby Living Design.  Today the block got something new in modern home design when BoConcept…

Garden tour coming up

The roses in Susan Meyers’ garden will be in peak bloom on Saturday, May 22, for the Garden Conservancy’s garden tour. The tour is from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and this year the starting point is Meyers’ “playful Pine Street garden” at 2418 Pine Street.

The art of flowers

F loral designer Kaori Imaizumi is preparing for a museum exhibition this month, as she has every spring since she opened her flower shop in the neighborhood in 2006. She’s participating once again in “Bouquets to Art,” the annual extravaganza in which floral arrangements interpret and comment upon works of art in the DeYoung Museum in…

Urban forest gets local friends

Friends of the Urban Forest will mark a major milestone in the neighborhood on Saturday, February 20: For the 1000th time, a team of volunteers will plant trees on city streets. Environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill will address the volunteers when they gather at 9 a.m. at Rosa Parks Elementary School at 1501 O’Farrell Street,…

Extinct manzanita saved in the Presidio

A rare Franciscan manzanita long thought to be extinct was transplanted to a protected location in the Presidio this week after it was discovered along the Doyle Drive rebuilding project by a biologist who happened to be driving by. “It’s an incredible find, like Christmas morning when you’re five,” says Mark Frey, an ecologist with…

The end of a design era

LOCALS | THOMAS REYNOLDS In the springtime came the annual invitation to stop by the corner of Alta Plaza Park and tour the elegant home of interior designer John Wheatman. Hundreds of current and former clients walked through on May 3, a cool, grey Sunday afternoon, to admire the treasures Wheatman has acquired and the…

The story of a magical plant

Story and photograph by JEAN COLLIER HURLEY This is a story about kindness, determination, beauty — and an unusual bougainvillea plant. Over the years, the front yard of the little house at 1923 Webster Street had become a junkyard, its wooden fence a dilapidated eyesore. The kindly owner, who had raised her family there, was too…

A foreclosure sets year’s highest price

Traditionally the housing market falls off significantly in the summer months, then picks up again from Labor Day through the beginning of the holiday season. This summer, however, the market is showing unusual signs of strength, due to three factors: increased inventory, a stabilizing economy and continued low interest rates. Ironically, the highest priced home…

Local home sales down 65%

The number of sales in March 2009 increased slightly, from nine to 10 properties. However, we are still well below the number of sales recorded during the same time last year, when 31 properties closed. This is more than a 65 percent decrease in volume. The change can largely be attributed to buyers’ fears about…