Tag: art

The true San Franciscan will never forsake this City’s downtown.

SAN FRANCISCO – DOWNTOWN

Liz and Lee Heidhues 6.20.2025

The true San Franciscan will never forsake this town.

The temperature was a windy 59 degrees at noon on Montgomery and Sutter Street

On the Summer Solstice, a cold day in San Francisco, we ventured downtown to the place we have spent our time and money boosting the city’s economy and seeing the sites for decades.

Patrick & Co. a historic 150 year old business on Market Street.
Liz stretches out her purchase of hard to find large size rubber bands at Patrick & Co. on Market Street.

Fortunately, despite the economic tumult impacting this international city brought on by the pandemic there are still businesses which have survived and still prosper.

Maxferd J&L which calls itself the “Oldest Pawn Shop in the Country” at the corner of Kearny and Sutter Street.

On this day we shopped at several of them and poured some money into the economy.

The Sherman Clay & Co. building on Sutter Street.

The 150 Patrick & Sons Stationery store; Cinta Aveda Beauty School and historic Macy’s in Union Square

Liz holding her purchase from Aveda as a smoker eyes the blogger.

Sadly there are too many boarded up businesses which gives downtown a somewhat morose feeling. Which proves that the City’s full recovery from the pandemic will always be problematic.

People got accustomed to sitting at home and shopping on-line.

Liz disembarks the 38R Muni bus to begin her Summer Solstice shopping trip.

Market Street which has been car free since 2020 has become a pedestrian, cyclist and public transit thoroughfare making it a much friendlier place to shop and dine.

Brick and mortar shopping has been dealt a serious blow. Not just in San Francisco. But countrywide in America.

A 4th of July display at Patrick & Co., the 150 year old brick and mortar store, awaits the intrepid shopper
The Wilkes Bashford store. The place for the well connected politically and socially in San Francisco to shop for clothes.
Teuscher Chocolates of Switzerland on Sutter Street.
A local citizen takes a nap on the Union Square steps.

While downtown Liz chatted up the store clerks in Macy’s. One clerk in “The Cellar, where foods and housewares can be found, is May, a native daughter. We traded stories about the schools both of us and our kids attended in our youth. An integral part of San Francisco lore is to learn which high school you attended.

Everyone shops at Macy’s. Even an SFPD officer on his break.

Upstairs on the the 7th floor we found the same sales associate who helped us during a holiday shopping trip in December 2023. She is stationed right next to the Cheesecake Factory and, as decades long Macy’s shoppers, she made sure we got the best sale prices for our purchase.

The well stocked shopper on the way home after pouring several hundred dollars into the local economy. Proof that people of all ages still appreciate what San Francisco has to offer.
The final stop. Liz and Lee toted our haul into the lobby of the Union Square Building where Liz renewed acquaintances with the concierge Andre. A venue where Liz taught ESL as a Berlitz Language School instructor.

Before catching the Muni 38R bus home in front of the Westin St. Francis Hotel Liz chatted up the longtime Concierge “Andre” at the historic Union Square Building at the corner of Geary and Powell Streets. Liz taught ESL at the Berlitz Language School in this building and explained San Francisco’s vibrant street life just outside their classroom window which enthralled students from all over the world.

Liz and Union Square Building concierge Andre renewed acquaintances.
Who says downtown is a ghost town? There’s people everywhere. It’s vibrant. Customers line up at the Nintendo Store across the street from Union Square and around the corner from the bus stop which brings us home.
The popcorn stash purchased for a bargain price at The Macy’s Cellar
Downtown is lively and vibrant. It’s nice to come back to our neighborhood just blocks from the Pacific Ocean.
The San Francisco anthem. “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” – Tony Bennett https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Left_My_Heart_in_San_Francisco

Again. Thugs and punks vandalize Sunset Dunes Park at Ocean Beach

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 6.15.2025

The Open the Great Highway losers will undoubtedly decry this latest act of wanton vandalism. But the pathetic unmistakable reality is there for all to see. They are loving every act of vandalism and destruction.

These motorists and their ilk refuse to accept the will of the 55 percent of San Francisco voters who used the ballot box to create Sunset Dunes Park. The unending public tantrum has given flaccid criminal loonies and wingnuts license to destroy The People’s public property.

These are the entitled motorists who by design or unwittingly are responsible for the bringing out the wingnuts. Their goal is to destroy Sunset Dunes Park and bring down those who are its sponsors.

Excerpted from The San Francisco Chronicle 6.15.2025

A community piano beloved by visitors to San Francisco’s Sunset Dunes has been destroyed amid a spate of vandalism targeting community property at the recently opened park, advocates said. 

This is the latest in a series of acts of vandalism targeting Sunset Dunes since the 2-mile, 50-acre park opened in April, months after San Franciscans created it by voting to close a section of the Great Highway to cars. The measure has been highly controversial, and the supervisor who championed it, Joel Engardio, will face a recall election in September driven by groups opposed to the Upper Great Highway’s closure.

An Outer Sunset resident who went to play the instrument, known colloquially as the “wave piano” due to its proximity to the ocean, found that almost none of the keys worked early Saturday, said Lucas Lux, president of the volunteer nonprofit Friends of Sunset Dunes. Lux was also the campaign manager for Proposition K, the measure voters approved in November 2024 that closed the Upper Great Highway to cars and opened the park.

A vandal destroyed the community piano at San Francisco’s Sunset Dunes park by ripping off most of the felted hammers that control the keys. Friends of Sunset Dunes

All the evidence points to someone “very intentionally” damaging the piano, ripping off the felted hammers controlling all but 10 of its keys, political communications consultant Catie Stewart told the Chronicle. Piano maintenance experts have since confirmed the instrument is damaged beyond repair. 

The vandalism, Lux said, has largely occurred in two separate waves. The first occurred right after the Upper Great Highway closed on March 14, with murals and asphalt marred by graffiti, and the second began shortly after Engardio’s recall qualified in late May. 

Sunset Dunes Park mural. Vandalized by entitled motorist punks and thugs

On Thursday, just two days before the wave piano was found destroyed, park visitors discovered heavy damage to the nearby “Ocean Calling” exhibit — a public art installation consisting of a phone booth that visitors can use to make symbolic phone calls to deceased loved ones. Someone had ripped the phone from its cord, tossed dirt and rocks into the booth and damaged its wooden frame, according to photos and videos taken shortly after the discovery. 

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/sunset-dunes-vandalism-great-highway-20378038.php?utm_source=marketing&utm_medium=copy-url-link&utm_campaign=article-share&hash=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2ZjaHJvbmljbGUuY29tL2JheWFyZWEvYXJ0aWNsZS9zdW5zZXQtZHVuZXMtdmFuZGFsaXNtLWdyZWF0LWhpZ2h3YXktMjAzNzgwMzgucGhw&time=MTc1MDAzNjczNTgxOQ%3D%3D&rid=OTJhM2RhZWItNDMzYy00ZjMxLTgyMTQtZTU2ZjE2NDIzNDRl&sharecount=Mw%3D%3D

Top photo: Opponents of Sunset Dunes Park revved their motorcycles and gunned their engines at Noriega and Lower Great Highway. Disrupting the opening of the Park. The City shut down the street to bring an end to this temper tantrum. April 12, 2025