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The passing of a generation of helpful aunts, and a few uncles. Frank Dunnigan, WNP member and columnist. -
Streetwise - The Generational Wave Goodbye
by Frank Dunnigan
February 2011
As you walk the neighborhood shopping areas in the western half of San Francisco, things are different lately. Up and down California Street in Laurel Village, inner Clement and outer Balboa in the Richmond, plus Irving and Noriega in the Sunset, Taraval in the Parkside, Ocean Avenue in Lakeside Village, plus up and down West Portal and all through Stonestown, certain faces are disappearing. And no, it s not the ethnic transformation that has been underway in San Francisco for decades now, but rather, a more subtle change that cuts across all racial lines.
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A violent death met on Merrie Way
The Cliff Road Chop House or Death at The Acropolis
by John Martini
In early 2012, the new Lands End Lookout Visitor Center began taking final shape on Point Lobos Avenue just east of Merrie Way. Few people, though, realize the site of the shiny new visitor center has a much darker history as the location of the ill-fated “Acropolis Chophouse.”
The chop house on Point Lobos Avenue was the largest of several vending stands located along what was then called “Cliff Avenue” between Sutro Baths and the steam train depot at 48th Avenue. These stands, originally built as informational and concession kiosks at the 1894 Midwinter Fair in Golden Gate Park, had been purchased by Adolph Sutro at the fair’s end. He acquired at least twenty, many going into his new Sutro Baths to serve as display cases while others were re-erected around the grounds of Sutro’s mini-amusement park called (alternately) the Midway Plaissance, Merry Str