Frank Dunnigan, WNP member and columnist. -
Tourism has been a growing business in San Francisco ever since the Midwinter Fair of 1894 lured visitors to the temperate climate and scenic attractions in Golden Gate Park and nearby areas. Most people who visit today will end up seeing the usual tourist spots the city has to offer Fisherman’s Wharf, Chinatown, cable cars and Lombard Street but when you want to show off the beauty and charm of San Francisco a bit closer to home, keep in mind that there’s plenty to see and do in the western half of town.
Frank Dunnigan, WNP member and columnist. -
A few months ago, we looked at some long-gone neighborhood businesses whose owners lived among us. Today we look at even more favorite places, including some owned by people or corporations from beyond the Avenues.
Adeline Bake Shop A West Portal fixture (plus downtown locations) for fifty years. Owned by the Lembo family, living nearby on Wawona Street, Adeline had the best Danish pastry in the neighborhood, but their last shop closed in the late 1990s.
Bino s Northwest corner of 32nd Avenue and Noriega Street: Classic tablecloth-style “dinner house” restaurant, operated 1951-1981 by 30th Avenue residents Anita Bino and her husband Louis (formerly of Grison’s).
Frank Dunnigan, WNP member and columnist. -
Streetwise - School Rules
September 2010
Now that it s September, my thoughts have been drifting back to my own school days in the Outside Lands, beginning 53 years ago this month in Mrs. Beckerman s afternoon Kindergarten class at Parkside School. Following that, it was off to St. Cecilia s, then to St. Ignatius (both Stanyan Street and 37th Avenue), plus University of San Francisco, and a brief post-graduate stint at San Francisco State.
Now I ll admit to being somewhat out of the loop when it comes to school rules that govern this second decade of the new millennium. Recently I was shown a copy of S.I. s Parent-Student Handbook, which convinced me, once and for all, that my own high school days took place in a massive time warp, on the most remote galaxy of some distant, uncharted solar system. I could not believe that so many new rules were now in place at my old high school.
Streetwise: Alive and Well at 50+
by Frank Dunnigan Frank Dunnigan, WNP member and columnist. -
Many of us are shocked when we read or hear about beloved old San Francisco businesses and landmarks that have vanished in fact, such losses tend to be a recurring theme in this column. This month, though, it’s time to recall just a few of the many great places that still remain splendid survivors from another age, all of them 50+ years old and filled with memories that draw us back again and again to enjoy good times and to share our experiences with others.
It still feels as though it all happened just yesterday.
Fall of 1968: a new school year had just begun, and all of us in my St. Ignatius High School Class of 1970 were juniors, and exactly halfway through our time on Stanyan Street. The “new school” still called that today by many in my generation had been in the planning stages for years, with students selling candy bars and raffle tickets as fund-raisers since the time JFK was in the White House.
Work at the 37th Avenue site began in 1967, though financial difficulties and construction delays all but guaranteed that the Class of 1970 would finish out our high school days on Stanyan Street, with the new school serving as home only to younger generations of S.I. students and that was just fine with us.