News from the Heart & Soul of San Francisco
After 26 years of buttery croissants and sweet treats, today is the final day for Patisserie Delanghe. With no notice or fanfare, Dominique and Marie-Jeanne Delanghe will retire and take their delayed annual vacation to France. But while they’ll spend more time in their apartment on the Ile St. Louis in Paris, they will continue…
“THIS IS THE GHETTO. You gotta carry a gun.” So Ruth Dewson was told when she opened Mrs. Dewson’s Hats on Fillmore Street. For decades she has been the unofficial mayor of Fillmore Street. But she has been missing from the neighborhood in recent months, sidelined by ill health. We caught up with her at…
By Mark J. Mitchell You may have read recently that New York author Pete Hamill’s new book is going straight to digital format, skipping print altogether. But the Fillmore’s own Arthur Bloomfield has beaten him to it. Bloomfield latest book, “More Than the Notes,” made its debut online a few weeks ago and is available…
Q & A | ARTHUR BLOOMFIELD What motivated you to write “More Than the Notes,” your new e-book on legendary conductors of the 19th century? When I was 11, my mother started taking me downtown once a month to the White House department store. It was where Banana Republic is now. Up on the fourth…
A few months ago we told the story of Saralee, a remarkable neighborhood cat who gave birth to 11 kittens. One of them was quickly named Walter Cronkite for what looked uncannily like the pencil-thin moustache of the legendary television anchorman. It turns out Walter was a girl cat, and now comes word of a…
Stuart Hall High School, the all-boys Catholic school at Pine and Octavia Streets, in recent weeks has experienced its own death and resurrection. In early June, word spread rapidly through the school community that a move was afoot to shut down the school because of declining enrollment and dwindling finances. Supporters quickly mobilized their resources…
By FRAN MORELAND JOHNS Contemplating moving from her Cow Hollow home, Jeanne Lacy checked out retirement communities of all sorts — from medium range to posh — but couldn’t find a fit. Some apartments seemed great, but she was unsure about group dining, or turned off by long narrow hallways, or vexed by one thing…
The Bay Citizen — the new nonprofit news website financed by neighborhood investor and philanthropist Warren Hellman — launched today. Its lead story focuses on the wildly varying property taxes paid by the owners of the mansions on Outer Broadway. Included is an interactive graphic that is something of a star map to Pacific Heights,…
President Obama stopped by the neighborhood for dinner this evening. After a fund-raiser for Senator Barbara Boxer at the Fairmont Hotel, Obama motorcaded to Ann and Gordon Getty’s double-mansion on outer Broadway. Price of admission: $17,600 each, cocktails, dinner and photo included. But the looking was for free, and lots of locals lined Pacific Avenue…
Longtime Fillmore resident and noted artist Bill Shields died Wednesday, April 14, just a week shy of his 85th birthday. Shields and his wife Denise in recent years have owned and operated the Artists Inn at 2231 Pine Street. The inn is housed in his former studio, which faces a sunny patio behind their home.…