News from the Heart & Soul of San Francisco
NEIGHBORHOOD ICON Kelly Johnson, a steady presence on the corner of Fillmore and Sacramento for many years, plans to die in early May. Wracked by terminal illness, he has invoked California’s new End of Life Option Act. After a final few weeks of celebrating with friends, he says May 7 will be his last day…
Kelly Johnson, who established the S.F. Dance Theater on Fillmore Street, remembers his onetime neighbor around the corner, coppersmith Armenac Hairenian.
By SUSAN SWARD On a Friday in April of 1972, Charlotte Maeck got a purple postcard in the mail at her Pacific Heights residence that she initially thought was a hosiery advertisement from the I. Magnin department store. On closer look, she saw it was a city announcement of a hearing the following Tuesday on…
ONE OF THE best-known and longest-operating businesses on Fillmore Street is shutting its doors at the end of April. Zinc Details, at 1633 Fillmore, will end its 28-year run and its space is expected to become an outpost of Orange Theory, a nationwide fitness club. “I’ve met amazing people through our store,” says Vasilios Kiniris,…
REAL ESTATE | PATRICK BARBER Continuously tight supplies and robust buyer demand have pushed up real estate prices in San Francisco’s most desirable neighborhoods over the past few years, making properties that sell for less than $1 million an endangered species. Between mid-February and mid-March, 19 condominiums changed hands in Lower Pacific Heights, Pacific Heights,…
LANDMARKS | BRIDGET MALEY Major portions of the Western Addition were wiped out in the name of redevelopment in favor of new plans that began to take shape in the late 1950s. This is reflected in the complex history of Japan Center, bounded by Laguna, Geary, Fillmore and Post, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary…
BOOKS | SABRINA MOYLE When I was a teen I loved being creative, but I didn’t think creativity could change the world. We were told that the arts were frivolous. I didn’t think my voice mattered and, as a result, I didn’t speak up. Fast forward to today: We’re riding a rising wave of youth…
CULTURE BEAT | PAMELA FEINSILBER Susan Roemer’s second act began before she completed act one. A dancer for nine years with Smuin Ballet, she started designing and sewing costumes for dancers, collaborating with choreographers within and outside the group, even before she retired from the company in 2016. This month her work is on view…
By BARBARA KATE REPA I met Mary Kuei Boyer a decade ago at an art exhibition at the Sequoias, the high-rise senior community on Geary near Gough. “I think you would like to get to know me,” she said, and she was right. We shared many long lunches and talks. She provided the entertainment, with…