Sue Fisher King runs one of San Francisco's most popular home design stores.

By CYNTHIA TRAINA

After more than four decades on Sacramento Street, luxury home goods retailer Sue Fisher King is moving her business to 1913 Fillmore Street. She will take over the store space south of Florio restaurant, recently vacated by wellness brand Saje.

Instead of retiring, she is looking forward to a new chapter.

“Fillmore is a wonderful street with interesting shops,” says King. “It's a busy place and it was the only viable location for us.” She adds with a smile, “And our employees are excited about all the new dining options.”

King looked at several locations on the street before settling on the corner of Fillmore and Wilmot. She particularly liked the block's Victorian architecture and mix of interesting shops.

She is planning the move as she prepares to celebrate her 45th anniversary in business. “The most important thing is not to think about it. I'm just not a bored person, and I still want to contribute. I need something concrete to do every day – and besides, everyone here is so nice to me.”

In fact, many of her core staff were hired directly from San Francisco State University, and some are still with her after 25 years. “I've been fortunate to hire great people who are smart and high achievers,” she says.

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Sue Fisher King's crew is gearing up for an early to mid-May opening. Remodeling is underway. Saje's iconic green plant wall is gone, but the herringbone floors remain. The interior arches of the space are being modified to divide the store into three sections.

Shelves have already been set up for her bestselling handmade ceramics from Astier de Villatte. This milky white ceramic was a brand she discovered in Paris in 1996 and introduced to the US market. Since then, the brand has spread worldwide.

The store will also experiment with new inventory and continue to collaborate with new artists. Sue Fisher King's staples include handmade and traditional items, including hand-painted porcelain by Richard Ginori and Marie Daage, Fortuny light fixtures, Porthault linens, and glassware from Murano, Italy.

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When she was 16, King's parents insisted that she find a job in her hometown of Portland. She began working in retail and, to her surprise, fell in love with the diversity of people she met on the job. After graduating from UC Berkeley, she entered Joseph Magnin's leadership training program, where she specialized in selling high-end home goods. Determined to share finds from her personal travels and visits to creative designers' studios, she opened Sue Fisher King at 3067 Sacramento Street in 1978. The store quickly built a following for its sophisticated and high-quality home goods, including a line of luxurious tabletop items, decorative accents, fine European bed and bath linens, handcrafted jewelry, furniture and unique gift items.

In addition to the retail store, Sue Fisher King operates a thriving online business and a warehouse near Polk Street. The company is currently hiring sales associates for the new location.

Cynthia Traina is a lifelong resident of the neighborhood and a real estate consultant with Vantage Realty.

Filed under: Retail Report

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The Pittsburgh Steelers completed what many see as the ideal offseason from a personnel standpoint at the end of the preseason, signing DB Desmond King II after he was released by the Houston Texans. King was the proven veteran presence Pittsburgh needed to add at nickel corner to solidify its secondary, adding an experienced defender with inside/outside versatility to its secondary.

Still, King was officially signed on Aug. 30, giving him just over a week to prepare and get the playbook down in-time for Pittsburgh’s Week One contest against the San Francisco 49ers. DC Teryl Austin was asked if King has been able to “hop on the moving train”, as Mike Tomlin would say, getting up to speed fast enough to play in Pittsburgh’s home opener against San Francisco. Austin wouldn’t commit to King playing a lot this week but mentioned that he’s doing everything he can to contribute this weekend.

“He’s getting himself ready” Austin told the media Thursday, per official team transcript. “If he’s going to be ready this week, I can’t say for sure. But he has jumped on a moving train. You can see he’s a good pro. He understands NFL ball. He’s played a lot of football. He’s getting himself up to speed as fast as he can.”

Josh Carney of Steelers Depot detailed what Pittsburgh was getting in King shortly after he signed in a film room breakdown of the defensive back, commending his motor and ability to play all facets of the game against the run as well as in coverage. Still, picking up all the coverage looks, schemes, and checks can be difficult for even a veteran like King, who has been in the league for awhile, let alone get it all down in less than ten days’ time.

It may be a tad optimistic to expect King to play all the snaps at nickel corner right away as he tries to get a firm grasp of everything the Steelers are asking him to do in their system. It would make more sense to ease King in, allowing him to play in packages where he is comfortable and continue to use DBs Chandon Sullivan and Elijah Riley, who battled for Pittsburgh’s starting nickel job during training camp.

The Steelers are carrying seven cornerbacks on their active roster, suggesting that a cut may be coming once King is fully up to speed. Riley can play both as a safety and nickel corner, which may deflate that case for having to part with a cornerback, but once King is fully up to speed and ready to rock as the team’s starting nickel, it will be interesting to see if Pittsburgh looks to make a move in its secondary.

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The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco is pleased to announce the appointment of Aimee King as Director of Sales and Marketing. King brings extensive knowledge in the San Francisco Bay Area’s hospitality sector and a proven track record of spearheading impactful marketing campaigns with her hands-on leadership, which will play a pivotal role at this landmark hotel.

As an experienced Director of Sales and Marketing, King has established an impressive background across a variety of esteemed San Francisco Bay Area hotels, including the Omni Hotel, Hotel Adagio, St. Regis and more. Most recently, she was the Director of Sales and Marketing for San Francisco’s Palace Hotel where she oversaw the revival and repositioning of the hotel post-pandemic. Her achievements extended to the creation and execution of a strategic partnership with AC Brands by Ayesha Curry, resulting in the hotel’s buzzy Afternoon Tea and Pop-Up shop programming.

Growing up in Yosemite National Park, Aimee enjoys spending her free time outdoors hiking the San Francisco Bay Area trails, and skiing Lake Tahoe with her husband and two sons.

Sales & Marketing San FranciscoCaliforniaUnited States

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Tony Bennett, the legendary singer whose smooth singing and timeless classics won the hearts of millions, has died in his native New York at the age of 96.

Though best known for his musical accomplishments, his tireless campaign for civil rights has left an indelible mark on history.

Bennett’s journey into activism began early in his life.

As a teenager, he was drafted into the army in 1944 during World War II. He served on the front lines in Europe and witnessed the horrors of war and its devastating impact on lives.

“The first time I saw a dead German, I became a pacifist,” Bennett revealed in a previous interview with Howard Stern.

“Every war is crazy, no matter where it takes place or what it is about. Fighting is the lowest form of human behavior. No one should have to go to war, especially an eighteen-year-old boy.”

His time in the military exposed him to the grim reality of racial segregation within the US armed forces.

After being caught dealing with a black soldier, Bennett was spat on by a senior Army official who gave him the unenviable job of digging up the bodies of dead military personnel.

He said the encounter motivated him to campaign for civil rights.

In 1965, Bennett participated in the historic Selma to Montgomery 50-mile march, alongside Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to call for equality and justice for all.

“The mood was angry,” singer and activist Harry Belafonte said in an interview he and Bennett did in 2013. “The mood on the part of the movement, on the part of the civil rights movement, was rebellious, and the question is, what do we do in the face of this kind of anger and this kind of chaos?” And there was just… the bottom line was we’re going to come back as often as we need to.”

To rally the crowds during the march, Bennett performed “Just In Time” on a makeshift stage composed of dozens of empty coffins, a powerful symbol of the lives lost in the struggle for civil rights.

“I didn’t want to do it, but then Harry Belafonte told me what happened,” Bennett recalled. “Some black people were burned and petrol was thrown at them. When I heard that, I said, ‘I’ll go with you,'” he said.

Bennett continued to campaign for humanitarian causes throughout his life and championed equality.

He has been an outspoken ally on various social issues, using his platform to raise awareness of pressing global challenges, including the plight of refugees.

Bennett also refused to perform in South Africa during the apartheid era and later received the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ Humanitarian Award for his unwavering commitment to humanitarian work.

In addition, his services to civil rights earned him a place of honor as an inductee on the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame.

Beyond his engagement, Bennett was a prolific musician with an impressive discography that spanned over 70 albums and earned him 19 Grammy awards.

His rendition of “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” became a timeless classic and earned him a legion of devoted fans, including fellow artists Frank Sinatra and Lady Gaga.

Bennett is a Kennedy Center honoree and National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master. He is survived by his wife Susan, daughters Johanna and Antonia, and sons Danny and Dae.

He also had nine grandchildren.

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• “Sorry it took so long,” Morgan said [Lennie James] when he heard a growl coming from his old home in King County, Georgia
• Morgan left his son Duane chained in the attic after being bitten and returned at great risk to kill and bury him
• Grace and Mo surprised him there, and Morgan later agreed to join Dwight and Sherry in their war against Padre after Grace was bitten

Morgan Jones risked everything to return to King County, Georgia to kill and bury his zombie son, Duane, on Sunday’s episode of Fear The Walking Dead on AMC.

“Sorry it took so long,” Morgan said [Lennie James] when he heard a growl coming from his house.

The Season 8 episode, titled “King County,” began with Morgan walking through King County, returning to his old house, and breaking down crying.

“I’m sorry, Duane,” Morgan said.

Suddenly Grace [Karen David] pulled up in a truck.

Final Season: Morgan Jones risked everything to return to King County, Georgia to kill and bury his zombie son, Duane, on Sunday’s episode of Fear The Walking Dead on AMC

‘How did you find me?’ Said Morgan.

“You asked me to come,” Grace said.

Morgan said no one knew he came here.

Mon [Zoey Merchant] She then emerged from the back of the truck she was hiding in and admitted she was the one who sent the SOS message, knowing full well that King County meant something to Morgan.

“Does this have anything to do with Jenny and Duane?” asked Mo.

Morgan said it was his wife and son and that he had come to bring his son to rest after leaving him chained in the attic of his home after being bitten.

Mo told them that Daniel helped her get away from Padre.

“Daniel is still alive?” Morgan said.

Zombie Son: Duane was locked in the attic by Morgan after being bitten. Family reunion: Grace [Karen David] and Mon [Zoey Merchant] Met Morgan at King County Old House: Morgan went to his old house in Georgia where he was living with his family when the zombie apocalypse broke out. Message sender: Mo admitted she was the one who sent the SOS message, knowing full well that King County meant something to Morgan

“He’s building an army to take Padre down,” Mo said. “We can help him with that.”

Morgan said he would do it, but first he had to kill Duane, who turned into a walker after his wife Jenny became infected and bit him.

“I left my boy to be one of them,” Morgan said.

A flare rose into the air and Dwight [Austin Amelio] and sherry [Christine Evangelista] approached on horseback and told Morgan they would take him back to Padre.

“Padre has your son and he’s using him against you,” Morgan said.

“He’s damn right about that,” said Sherry.

“You sold us seven years ago to save your child,” Dwight said. “We’re just getting revenge.”

Together again: Dwight [Austin Amelio] and sherry [Christine Evangelista] Morgan said they would take him back to Padre

Then, when Dwight saw Mo and Grace, he decided to help them escape instead.

Dwight told him that they were also followed by two guards that they had to take care of, but Morgan said he had to do something first. Morgan, Mo and Grace ran into an abandoned house and Morgan told Grace to get a gun that was up by the window.

“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me how you know where everything is in this house,” Grace said.

Morgan said he used to live in the house. As the walkers streamed outside, Grace told them they had to go. Morgan declined.

“I need to get my boy to rest,” Morgan said.

Dwight radioed from outside that they knew they were hiding inside the house. Morgan said he came back to bury his son.

“I’m sorry Morgan, but we have to think of our son, too,” Sherry said.

Dwight’s soldiers fired a flare into the air to lure more walkers to the house. Then Mo called Morgan upstairs and showed him that the walls of the room were covered in writing.

Feeding Frenzy: Walkers were outside in the midst of a feeding frenzy. Plans changed: when Dwight then saw Mo and Grace, he decided to help them escape instead

“I don’t remember ever coming back here after Duane died,” Morgan said.

Mo found Morgan’s family photo album and flipped through it while Morgan picked up a rifle Rick Grimes had given him.

“What have we been doing for the last seven years?” Grace said.

“We did what we felt was necessary,” Morgan said.

“I’m sorry we wasted all this time, Morgan,” Grace said.

Dwight told Morgan they had five minutes to surrender or they would send walkers to set them on fire.

“This is your second chance, dad,” said Mo.

“Rick, he gave you this gun for a reason,” Grace said. ‘Use it.’

Difficult Situation: Morgan struggled with Dwight and his commitment to his zombie son, Duane

Grace kissed Morgan.

“I’m so sorry we wasted so much time,” Grace said.

“Me too,” Morgan said.

Then Morgan opened the door and everyone started killing strays in their path. Then he saw his walker outside and froze. Dwight and Sherry rode up and said Padre needed to know why he was really there and insisted on going inside to see if Morgan was telling the truth.

A Padre soldier traveling with Dwight told them that Shrike wanted answers.

“If he doesn’t tell you why he’s there, kill him,” Shrike [Maya Eshet] said over the walkie-talkie.

Morgan grabbed the soldier’s gun and aimed it at his own head.

“Do it,” Morgan said.

Hard line: “If he doesn’t tell you why he’s there, kill him”, Shrike [Maya Eshet] said over the walkie-talkie

Dwight and Sherry intervened and knocked out the Padre soldiers. Grace hugged Morgan.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Morgan said.

“I’m not just going to stand here and watch you get killed in cold blood, Morgan,” Dwight said.

Morgan said that Padre would kill her son.

“Not if we have anything to do with it,” Dwight said.

Shrike called for them to answer and Dwight answered. Shrike demanded to speak to her soldier named Oriole.

“You can talk to him after I talk to my son,” Dwight said.

Then Shrike put the microphone in front of Finch [Gavin Warren]. Dwight asked him how he was feeling.

“I think the treatment worked,” Finch said.

Dwight told him to do the chimney sweep he taught him in class. Finch knocked Shrike unconscious. Dwight informed Finch that there was a morning supply boat that would be leaving the Padre compound in 20 minutes and that he should sneak aboard and that he would meet him on the mainland.

Chimney Sweep: Dwight told him to do the chimney sweep he taught him in class and Finch knocked Shrike unconscious

“Look Morgan, whatever happened here, all I know is that you have a chance to change things for Mo,” Dwight said.

Morgan radioed Mo and she told him that one of the torches had set her house on fire.

“Listen baby, I’m coming for you,” Morgan said.

Morgan killed the walkers in front of the burning house and then told Mo to go to the attic. Mo heard a walker in the attic and saw a chained boy walking. Mo then fell through the floor and was trapped. Morgan climbed the stairs and saw that his son, now a zombie, was trying to attack Mo. Morgan pulled the trigger and killed Duane.

Morgan buried him the next day. Morgan then told Grace to help Madison and Daniel take over Padre.

“We reunite every child that still has a parent,” Morgan said. “We do what we say, we’ll spend as much time together as we can.”

Mo took Morgan’s charred family photo album and told him he needed something to remember his family from when they were normal. Suddenly, a walker jumped out of the ashes and grabbed Mo. Grace and Morgan jump in and kill the walker, but Grace is bitten during the fight.

Meanwhile, Sherry and Dwight waited for Finch to appear ashore. When he did, they hugged him. Morgan then pulled up in a truck and killed two Padre soldiers.

Complete determination: Morgan was determined to bury his son. Headshot: A walker was killed by Morgan with a sharp blow to the head. Familiar Territory: Morgan was back in King County, where the story of Rick Grimes in the original series The Walking Dead began

“I need your help with Grace,” Morgan said. “She was bitten. The treatment June used on your boy. It works?’

Sherry said that was the case. They all boarded a transport boat to take Grace to June. Morgan told Grace to hold on.

“Wait a minute, June will be fine,” Morgan said to Grace.

“You don’t know,” Grace said.

“No matter what, we have to live,” Morgan said.

Fear The Walking Dead will return on AMC next Sunday.

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Club Ebony, a famous Indianola, Miss. blues venue that was part of the Chitlin circuit — a loose network of black-owned clubs and venues in segregated American cities — has hosted hundreds of memorable moments. Bobby Rush, the 89-year-old blues singer, recalled one of his favorites in a recent interview: a scene from BB King’s 2014 homecoming concert.

As King weaved through a lengthy version of Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine,” he noticed that Rush had nodded off. “‘Ladies and gentlemen,'” he began, according to Rush. “‘I have my best friend in the house. i play this music And he’s lying over there sleeping on top of me.’”

The audience giggled, and Rush joined King on stage with his harmonica to cap off his friend’s last performance, ending a tradition of annual concerts that began in 1980. King died a year later.

Club Ebony was more than King’s home club. Upon opening in 1948, it provided Indianola’s black community with a gathering place for dining, dancing, and socializing, and provided generations of blues, rock ‘n’ roll, and soul artists with the enthusiastic crowd they needed to make a living.

King purchased the venue from its third and longest-serving owner, Mary Shepard, in 2008 and donated it to the BB King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center. But after his death, it slowly deteriorated due to the effects of time and disuse. The bill of keeping the 6,400-square-foot club in a city of 9,000 people open four nights a week proved too high in the midst of the vast delta.

“The traditional format wasn’t financially viable — times had changed,” said Malika Polk-Lee, the museum’s executive director. The organization turned Club Ebony into an events venue, but when the tourism industry began to reopen after the pandemic-related closures in 2021, museum staff found that the condition of the timber-frame building was poor.

“We found that there was structural damage. The roof and walls deteriorated and water got inside,” she said. “The senior year was tough on the building.”

The museum had no choice but to keep the club closed while it sought support for its rescue, which it secured through public and private funds, including a grant from regional National Endowment for the Arts-affiliated organization South Arts and a City of Indianola, received city tax. Its dormant period ends Thursday, when the venue is scheduled to reopen its historic doors after spending $800,000 on repairs.

Before mainstream America first saw Ike and Tina Turner when they brought the 1960 rave-up “A Fool in Love” to “American Bandstand,” and before Ray Charles’ four Grammys that same year with “Georgia on My Mind.” won — and long before King stunned a crowd of white hippies and sealed his mainstream success at San Francisco’s Fillmore West in 1967 — they were all regulars at Club Ebony.

Indianola entrepreneur Johnny Jones opened it in 1948 when the post-war economy was in full swing. New industries like the Ludlow Textile Mill had brought money to the city, and workers plonked much of their wages in the jukerooms on Church Street, the city’s notorious home of gambling and vice.

But Club Ebony offered a different experience. Jones’ new club was large and designed to house the big bands of the 1940s, including the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra and the Count Basie Orchestra. Revelers in khakis and pinstriped suits could buy bonded whiskey and bootleg corn whiskey, and men and women danced to jump blues and mingled on the ballroom floor.

“There wasn’t much socializing in the houses,” said Sue Evans, who was married to King from 1958 to 1966 and lived in the back of the club after her mother, Ruby Edwards, bought it in 1958. The houses were small, she remarked: “Families were big, so nobody was going to anyone’s house at that time to sit down and be entertained.” The club became a social outlet.”

Venues on the national chitlin circuit have included glittering palaces in major cities like Indianapolis and Houston, and lavish juke restaurants in smaller towns. If a club was not available, promoters rented halls; Some shows took place in private homes. Live performances lasting just one night bolstered the music scene’s ecosystem, while clubs, recording studios and record labels sprung up to capitalize on and fuel the celebrations.

The cycle arose from the need for self-sufficiency. Black musicians, promoters and audiences needed places where they were welcome and could be themselves. Even the musicians in King’s band would travel around with cookware and canned goods if they couldn’t find a restaurant that could serve them.

Although some black musicians, as Rush said, “crossed over” to white audiences and had “crossed out” black clubs, artists could make a living in those venues when they weren’t welcome elsewhere. The closure and decay of Club Ebony posed a bigger problem, Evans says: the loss of the black common spaces that once held it together.

“There isn’t a club left in the Delta that could offer music like this,” she said. “So to speak, a large part of our culture goes south; it is no longer there. And this is a continuation of that culture.”

As of December 2021, the museum has raised and invested nearly $1 million in electrical, plumbing, kitchen appliances, furniture, and painting to help bring the club up to date with modern regulations and compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act. Some elements, such as the sheet metal ceiling panels, are original.

The exterior sports a new pea green livery, color-matched to the historic record at least since it was acquired by Shepard. On a warm afternoon in early May, a team installed information boards inside to give visitors the background story of the club. Museum staff compared their work to old photographs to ensure historical accuracy.

In the 15 years since the museum acquired Club Ebony, music tourism has given Delta towns like Indianola hope for a future, based in part on an interest in their past. In front of the club is a historic marker for the Mississippi Blues Trail, a network established in 2006 of more than 200 sites important to the development of music and its culture.

“It’s important that Black-run clubs are supported,” said Dr. William Ferris, a blues historian and author who spent summers touring the Delta in the 1960s. “Just as black people own their land and farms, it gives business people and families the independence and stability that is very important, and music is a way to achieve that.”

For today’s young black blues musicians, like 24-year-old Christone “Kingfish” Ingram of Clarksdale, Miss., who is widely credited as the heir to the King’s Delta blues crown, historic venues like Club Ebony are still places to celebrate be able to relax away from the pressure of top-class performances at festivals and theatres.

Like King before him, Ingram occasionally frequents his hometown clubs, such as Red’s Lounge in Clarksdale, where he plays three or four sets, often finishing in the wee hours of the morning. Club Ebony, where he performed at the beginning of his career, will certainly be back on his schedule.

“Every time I’ve been there, I’ve always hung out with the OGs of the blues, guys like Mr. Rush and Kenny Neal, and absorbed some history,” Ingram said. “It takes me back to when I started and I feel like it keeps me humble.”

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This story originally appeared in the March/April 2013 issue of Guitar Aficionado magazine.

Albert King was a giant among bluesmen, and not only for his immense talents on the guitar. A 250-pound giant of considerable bulk, King stood between six-four and six-seven and made any guitar he held in his massive hands look like a child’s plaything.

But the notes and tones he tore from the instrument were anything but small. In the middle years of the 20th century, King grabbed hold of a Gibson Flying V and boldly went where no blues guitar player had gone before, or has gone since.

A left-hander, he flipped a right-handed guitar upside down, put it in an unorthodox tuning, and forged a style steeped in steely drama and epic note-bends that evoke the vertiginous blood rush of powerful emotions.

King’s impact on the blues and rock guitar legacy is prodigious. Eric Clapton, Mike Bloomfield, Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan have been among his greatest admirers. Each drafted huge chunks of King’s fiercely original style into his own playing. Clapton famously nicked the solo from King’s Oh, Pretty Woman and inserted it in Strange Brew from Cream’s wildly influential 1967 album, Disraeli Gears.

Jimi Hendrix cited King’s Crosscut Saw as one of his favorite tunes. Mike Bloomfield covered King’s Don’t Throw Your Love on Me So Strong, and Cream recorded their own version of King’s signature tune, Born Under a Bad Sign. As for Stevie Ray Vaughan, he outdid his King-crazed predecessors by recording an In Session television special with his hero in 1983.

His influence on many of the world’s most revered guitarists is sufficient to make him a national treasure of American music. But in many ways, his own achievements outshine those of his acolytes. After all, he did it first. And he certainly did it his way.

True to his name, King is arguably the monarch of upside-down-lefty guitarists, a distinguished company that includes Otis Rush, Doyle Bramhall II, Elizabeth Cotten, and Coco Montoya in the blues-folk realm, and everyone from Babyface to Bob Geldof in other genres.

The barbed-wire minimalism of King’s searing leads makes an ideal counterpoint to his husky, gospel-inflected vocal style. It’s a true call-and-response passion play. King was nicknamed the Velvet Bulldozer, a name that resonates once you realize that he once made his living driving a bulldozer. Albert King lived the blues. That’s why he played and sang them so beautifully.

He had a remarkably wide perspective on the blues as well, crossbreeding more traditional 12-bar forms with everything from sweet Stax soul to big-band balladry.

Like a lot of left-hand/right-brain creatives, Albert King didn’t play by any rulebook but his own, nor would he suffer fools gladly. Possessed of a notoriously bad temper, he would lay into band members onstage if things weren’t going his way. In one famous public display of anger, he chewed out John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, who were backing him, for playing too loud.

(Image credit: David Warner Ellis/Redferns)

Luthier Dan Erlewine, who made King one of the Flying V guitars that he played throughout his career, had a few occasions to witness the Velvet Bulldozer in high dudgeon.

“The first time Albert was playing at the Grande Ballroom, I was backstage after the show,” Erlewine says, referring to Detroit’s legendary Sixties rock venue, just a few miles from the bridge to Windsor, Ontario. “And Albert was pissed at the promoters, who were trying to pay him with Canadian bills. He wouldn’t take them. ‘I don’t want none of that funny money,’ he said. And they got him what he wanted.”

King was known to pack a gun, so people were reluctant to cross him. But his hot temper was only one aspect of a complex and gifted artist. Erlewine puts the anger down to a combination of impatience and competitiveness. 

“I’d say Albert was more competitive than some, certainly more so than the older folks out there, like [his blues contemporaries] Mance Lipscomb and Johnny Shines. As a person, though, Albert had a softness and kindness inside. But he kept it hidden a lot.”

Along with B.B. and Freddie, Albert King is one of the three kings of the blues, although the man born Albert Nelson was related to neither of those great bluesmen by blood. He was, however, born in B.B. King’s hometown – Indianola, Mississippi – on April 25, 1923. 

While he may not have literally been born under a bad sign, his birth date does put Albert King in the contentious and creative zodiacal house of Taurus. Later in life, he would assume the regal surname King as a stage name, some say in homage to B.B. King.

King’s family moved to Forrest City, Arkansas, when he was eight. He spent some time as an agricultural laborer, picking cotton, but set his sights on making a life for himself in music early on. He once joked that he didn’t learn from studying any other guitarists, saying, “Everything I do is wrong.” But that isn’t strictly accurate. King also spoke often of being influenced by Lonnie Johnson, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Elmore James.

“I listened to the slide guitar of Elmore James and a couple of more people I knew way back there,” he told one interviewer. “Then along came T-Bone Walker, and that did it. So I just mixed it all together, and I couldn’t get it exactly like they had it, but I just put my own thing to it.”

It may have been the open slide-guitar tunings of players like Jefferson and James that inspired King’s own use of alternate tunings. He is mainly associated with an E minor tuning (low to high, C B E G B E). But he also tuned to the same intervals in both C# and D. He was known to use open F (low to high, C F C D A D) as well.

For guitarists accustomed to playing in standard, none of these tunings are as intuitive as, say, open G or E. But remember that Albert King was holding a right-handed electric guitar the “wrong” way around. This yields a different perspective on the instrument, one that is, in a way, more in tune with nature, with the low strings closer to the ground and the high strings nearer to the sky. But even upside down, some of King’s open tunings are mighty strange, which also accounts for the unique beauty embodied in some of his phrasing.

“I knew I was going to have to create my own style,” he told guitar journalist Dan Forte, “because I couldn’t make the changes and chords the same as a right-handed man could. I play a few chords, but not many. I always concentrated on my singing guitar sound – more of a sustained note.”

(Image credit: David Redfern/Redferns)

King also enjoyed what’s known as the “lefty advantage” when it comes to bending notes. With the strings’ vertical arrangement flipped, you bend notes on the critical higher-pitched strings by pulling the string downward, which is much easier than pushing upward to execute a bend. 

King exploited this capacity to particularly dramatic effect, sometimes bending notes as much as four tones up. His huge hands were another factor in this aspect of his style, as was the slackness of the strings in the low-slung tunings King favored.

As if all this weren’t unconventional enough, King didn’t use a pick. He mainly used his thumb to pluck the notes. But his first finger would also sometimes come into play in helping shape the steely pinched tones that are another hallmark of his style.

“I never could hold a pick in my hand,” King explained to Forte. “I had started out playing with one, but I’d be really gettin’ into it, and after a while the pick would sail across the room. I said, ‘To hell with this.’ So I just play with the meat of the thumb.”

The core elements of King’s riveting style are all evident, albeit embryonically, on his first recording, Bad Luck Blues, recorded in Chicago in 1953 for Parrot Records. 

By the time he cut this disc, King had paid plenty of dues, singing lead tenor with gospel quartet the Harmony Kings, fronting his own group – the Groove Boys – in Osceola, Arkansas, and playing drums for seminal blues guitarist and singer Jimmy Reed. But Bad Luck Blues lived up to its name by not providing King with the hit he might have been hoping for.

King didn’t score big until eight years later, when he released Don’t Throw Your Love on Me So Strong in 1961. The record climbed to Number 14 on the R&B charts and put him on the map. It also became a featured track on his very first album, The Big Blues, in 1962.  

A study in pinched, plucked passion, the lead guitar intro to Don’t Throw Your Love on Me So Strong makes it clear from the start that Albert King ain’t about to do things in a small way. 

This is the lowdown slow blues at its finest, and the guitar-and-vocal interplay is exquisite. King’s biting leads alternate with a vocal performance that scales the full emotional range, from a mournful croon to a high-pitched gospel wail. The symbiotic relationship between King’s guitar and voice is one of the blues’ greatest treasures.

By the time the disc was released, King had found his instrument: a 1958 korina wood Gibson Flying V. There has been much speculation as to why he favored this particular guitar, but upside-down lefties tend to seek out instruments with symmetrically shaped bodies and headstocks, as they look much less awkward when flipped. And among symmetrically shaped guitars, a Flying V certainly has far more flash and panache than, say, an SG or 335. 

Along with Lonnie Mack, King was one of the earliest guitarists to popularize Gibson’s angular, V-shaped masterpiece.

(Image credit: Jordi Vidal/Redferns)

Like many archetypal bluesmen, King was often on the move, particularly in the early phases of his career. By 1966, he was down in Memphis and had been signed to Stax, the premier mid-Sixties R&B label, then riding high with hits by Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Rufus Thomas, Carla Thomas, Eddie Floyd, and Wilson Pickett. 

The marriage of King’s 12-bar blues with the funky Stax backbeat is a true revelation on his 1967 hit, Born Under a Bad Sign. On it, he is supported solidly by Booker T. & the MGs and the Memphis Horns as well as Isaac Hayes, whose piano vamp sets the groove strutting at a pimp-crawlin’ pace. 

The deep, dark Memphis Horns reinforce the driving bass line, and funky off-beats walk up to the V chord. King’s guitar sounds crisper and more incisive than ever, his voice plumbing the desperate depths of this ultimate hard-luck narrative.

Stax had one of the greatest-sounding recording rooms of the period as well as a brilliant pool of staff musicians, producers and tunesmiths, including Hayes and Booker T. & the MGs – consisting of organist Booker T. Jones, guitarist Steve Cropper, bassist Duck Dunn, and drummer Al Jackson Jr. 

It was at Stax that King’s maverick talent found an ideal home. His Stax years yielded the lion’s share of his signature recordings, including Laundromat Blues, Crosscut Saw, Personal Manager, and As the Years Go Passing By, all of which were collected on King’s first album for Stax, also titled Born Under a Bad Sign.

This was a new sound in the blues – urgently contemporary, no mere exercise in the kind of purist reconstructionism that had come into vogue at the time. The Stax tracks helped King cross over to a wider audience than he’d ever reached before.

By this point, his original 1958 Flying V had gone missing, allegedly lost by the guitarist in a game of craps. It was replaced by a 1966 Flying V presented to King by Gibson. This instrument accompanied the guitarist onto the stage for his many appearances at Bill Graham’s legendary Fillmore venues in San Francisco and New York City. 

These shows found King sharing bills with rock and blues titans like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Byrds, the Allman Brothers Band, Van Morrison and B.B. King. After years of hard work, Albert King found an appreciative audience among the era’s blues-crazed rock fans.

One of these incendiary Fillmore nights was captured on King’s seminal live album Live Wire/Blues Power. In many ways, King is best understood through his live recordings. The spontaneity and uninhibited abandon of live performance, as compared with studio recordings, seemed particularly suited to the man’s blues muse.

But one aspect of King’s work that typically drew a puzzled response from his new young fans was his love of schmaltzy balladry. His cover of the American songbook standard The Very Thought of You that closes Born Under a Bad Sign was easily the disc’s most frequently skipped-over track. It probably still is, for that matter. But King refused to conform to anyone’s notion of what he, or the blues, should be. 

(Image credit: David Redfern/Redferns)

In 1969, he performed with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Why shouldn’t a bluesman have full symphonic backing? Albert King was the first to go there. And why shouldn’t a bluesman record an album of Elvis Presley covers, should the mood take him? King went there too with 1970’s Blues for Elvis: King Does the King’s Things.

In the early Seventies, King acquired his third iconic Flying V, the instrument custom-built by Dan Erlewine. This was his only truly left-handed guitar, with the tone controls and output jack on what would be the lower bout for King. With his previous, flipped-over right-handed Vs, the volume tone controls were awkwardly located on the upper bout. 

Erlewine recalls King mentioning that it was annoying for him to reach up to adjust his tone or volume. “That was one of the reasons he wanted a lefty,” he explains. “He also wanted his name on the fretboard in pearl and abalone, so it would flash under the lights.”

Fashioned from a 125-year-old piece of black walnut, this guitar would be King’s main ax from 1972 until his passing, 20 years later. ’72 was an especially good year for King, witnessing the release of another landmark recording, I’ll Play the Blues for You, a soulful minor-key outing much in the vein of B.B. King’s The Thrill Is Gone. 

On I’ll Play the Blues for You – both the song and entire album of the same name – King is backed by members of two other great Stax outfits, the Bar-Kays and Isaac Hayes’ backing group, the Movement.

King stuck with Stax throughout the company’s decline in the early Seventies, moving on to several other labels after the company went bankrupt in 1975. 

His Seventies recordings didn’t have quite the same impact as his Sixties work, although there are some fine tracks to be discovered among the 10 or so albums that King released between 1970 and 1978. And while King remained active as a recording and touring artist throughout the Seventies, he began to slow down in the Eighties, moving into semiretirement from the studio but continuing to play select festivals and other live dates. 

Constant touring under far less than five-star circumstances was one of the things said to exacerbate the guitarist’s irritability and bad temper. But one very important gig he was able to perform – and which seemed to put him in quite a good mood – was a 1983 date with Stevie Ray Vaughan for the Canadian music television series In Session. 

It is a true passing-the-torch moment, two guitar legends from very different generations seated comfortably side by side and trading licks on blues standards and some of their own most-loved tracks. Vaughan’s admiration for his six-string idol is palpable, and King really shines in this welcoming environment. The DVD document of the performance is highly recommended.

Fortunately, and unlike many of his peers, King lived to see his work embraced by several generations of blues and rock guitarists. How much this meant to the irascible bluesman is hard to say. 

At times he seemed more interested in going fishing and smoking his pipe, two of his favorite leisure-time pursuits. But he was a road warrior to the last: Albert King died of a heart attack on December 21, 1992, at age 69. He’d played his last show two days earlier, in Los Angeles.

Albert (left) and B.B. King, seated together backstage in Cleveland, Ohio on February 20, 1991 (Image credit: Paul Natkin/Getty Images)

It was fitting that the Memphis Horns, who had backed King on some of his greatest musical triumphs, accompanied his body on its journey down Beale Street and across the Mississippi River to King’s final resting place in Edmondson, Arkansas.

They played When the Saints Go Marching In. One likes to think that SRV, Hendrix, Bloomfield and many of King’s other gone-beyond acolytes were lined up to greet him at the Pearly Gates – or whatever serves as the musicians’ entrance to heaven.

The post Customized Flying Vs, unusual open tunings and large bends: how Albert King created his personal pressure of the blues – and impressed Hendrix, Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Community Development Research Briefs

Author(s): Jackelyn Hwang, Stanford University; Bina P. Shrimali, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco; and the Public Health – Seattle & King County Assessment, Policy Development and Evaluation Unit

Download the full report (pdf, 2.12 mb)

Executive Summary

• From 2002-2017, moderate and middle socioeconomic status (SES) King County residents exhibited greater rates of moving compared to the lowest and highest SES residents. Geographically, movement rates were highest in East King County and North Seattle. High-SES residents were the least likely to move during all years.
• The percentage of King County residents in the high-SES group increased by 8.9 percentage points between 2002 and 2017, while the percentages of middle-, moderate- and lower-SES residents decreased (by 3.3, 3.2, and 2.4 percentage points, respectively).
• Neighborhoods in Seattle and East King County have seen the biggest percentage increases in high-SES residents from 2002 to 2017.
• Low-SES residents in all regions were the most likely to move out of the Puget Sound area. High-SES residents were most likely to move within their neighborhood.

Introduction

Context

A healthy and sustainable regional economy allows for residents across the income spectrum to live in good-quality neighborhoods that enable economic opportunity. Counties with less concentrated poverty, less income inequality, better schools, and lower crime rates tend to enable better outcomes for children in low-income families; these phenomena are associated with residential stability (Chetty and Hendren 2018).

Residential stability, or the ability of individuals and families to stay in one neighborhood long-term if they choose to do so, has implications not just for the wellbeing of the individual, but also the community. Residential stability can reinforce family, educational, and neighborhood stability (Evans 2004). High levels of residential instability have been linked to social and health disparities (Jelleyman and Spencer 2008; Sharkey and Sampson 2010), including lack of access to healthcare (Kirby and Kaneda 2006), higher crime rates (Sampson, Raudenbush, and Earls 1997), and poor mental health (Ross, Reynolds, and Geis 2000). Low-income Americans disproportionately experience residential instability. Between 2005 and 2010, half of all United States (US) households below the poverty line moved at least once (Ihrke and Faber 2012; Phinney 2013) and low-income children are almost twice as likely to experience acute residential instability than their wealthier counterparts, moving more than six times before adulthood (Wood et al. 1993).

Residential instability in low-income communities is partly driven by the growing lack of affordable housing across the US. Many low-income residents of the Seattle metro area, including King County, have struggled with housing affordability brought on by rising housing costs, insufficient wages, and other structural factors. These constraints have likely been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic (PHSKC, 2020). Pre-pandemic roughly a third of King County households paid more than 30% of their household income for housing.i

Community accounts have indicated growing displacement and neighborhood change may be disproportionately affecting low-income residents in the region, but quantitative analyses of moving trends are lacking. Understanding moves prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and through the course of the last recession enables greater understanding of areas and populations vulnerable to additional financial stressors in the face of the recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Rising housing costs, lack of a living wage, and frequent moves contribute to low-income residents being stuck in a cycle of poverty; exposure to poor neighborhoods, regardless of individual and family background, can diminish economic outcomes and social development (Ellen and Turner 1997; Brooks-Gunn, Duncan and Aber 1997; Sampson, Morenoff, and Gannon-Rowley 2002).

Implications of Frequent Moves

Those who are forced to move may face difficulty affording basic needs and dealing with the educational challenges that arise when children switch schools. Movers may also encounter longer and costlier commutes, as well as disruptions to social networks and access to cultural resources. In this way, residential instability impacts not just social relationships (Sampson and Groves 1989; Sampson et al. 1997), but access to opportunities based on a social/communal network

Due to well-documented historical policies and practices that discriminated on the basis of race and ethnicity in the US, socioeconomic status and race/ethnicity are deeply linked, meaning that people of color are more likely to belong to a low-income household and to experience residential instability and the associated harms (Mattiuzzi 2022). This reinforces patterns of segregation in urban areas (Sampson 2008) and has negative implications for future economic prosperity in communities of color. Residential segregation also impacts mental and physical health through the limitation of access to care, healthy food options, and social capital, among other things (Crowder and Krysan 2017.

As more people are ‘priced out’ of their neighborhoods, fewer affordable options may push low- and moderate-SES residents to neighborhoods with fewer opportunities and resources and/or to outer areas of the region or from the Pacific Northwest altogether. Promoting residential stability by building affordable, sustainable, and vibrant communities has wide-ranging potential for the success and wellbeing of King County residents.

Report Roadmap and Research Questions

This report describes residential moves by King County residents within the three-county Seattle metropolitan region in the Puget Sound from 2002 through 2017. Data from large individual-level data sets were analyzed for trends over 15 years to see how people in King County, Washington moved within the region, and compare trends by SES level and neighborhood/geography. Short moves and long-distance moves were examined within King County and to neighboring Snohomish County to the north and Pierce County to the south. Analyses presented in this report offer insight into four questions about residential moves by King County residents:

• Who is moving in King County? We sought to assess whether SES was associated with frequency of moving, whether people at different SES levels move more often during economic boom or bust years, and whether different parts of King County are becoming more economically segregated as a result of these moves.
• How have these moves changed the profile of who lives in King County? Is King County becoming a region of greater SES inequality where fewer middle-SES people live? Does economic segregation vary by the four subregions within King County—the City of Seattle, North King County, the Eastside, and South King County?
• Where are people moving to? How far away do people move? When people move, do they stay in King County, move to a neighboring county, or leave the Seattle metro area? Are these patterns the same for different SES groups?
• When people move within King County, how does the neighborhood they left compare to their new neighborhood on socioeconomic measures? Does this differ by SES?

The analyses add to findings from analyses in other major cities showing that housing unaffordability has created residential instability, that low- and high-SES residents move less than moderate- and middle-SES residents, and low-SES residents are more likely to move out of the neighborhood (in this case, out of the county) than other groups (Hwang and Shrimali 2021; Ding et al. 2016).

Data Sources

This report uses data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Consumer Credit Panel (CCP) and from the American Community Survey (ACS).

Federal Reserve Bank of New York Consumer Credit Panel/Equifax Data: This analysis uses quarterly information on a 5% sample of adult consumers from January 2002 to December 2017, with census block group-level information on where individuals live, as well as their age, loans, mortgages, financial issues (e.g., delinquencies, bankruptcy, foreclosure), and Equifax Risk Scores (credit scores that indicate financial stability). These data are used to analyze individuals’ financial health and moving patterns over time. The data is comprised of adult consumers with at least one credit account or collection/public record (such as bankruptcy or foreclosure), as well as those with closed or authorized user accounts. Nearly half of adults who do not have credit scores are represented in the data because they do have credit history, however those without any credit score or credit history are not included in the analysis, so low-SES residents are likely underrepresented.

The following analyses include residents ages 25 to 84 years old. Data from 2004 and are not included because geographic data were inconsistent due to changes in the geocoding procedures by the data vendor. Data points for 2004 are shown as an average of 2003 and 2005. Residents younger than 25 are underrepresented in the data and can have inaccurate address reporting due to moving for reasons related to higher education during this period. Residents older than 84 years old are overrepresented in the data, likely due to a lag in registered deaths in the data.

U.S. Census and American Community Survey (ACS): These publicly available datasets provide information for several variables to characterize neighborhoods people are moving to and from, including health (life expectancy), socioeconomic (poverty), and housing (home value) indicators.ii

Key Definitions and Measures

Socioeconomic Status (SES) Levels: Individual-level measures of SES are defined using Equifax Risk Scores, a credit score that ostensibly reflects the likelihood that an individual will pay their debts without defaulting. These scores are a proxy of financial stability and reflect a distinct dimension of SES from other measures, such as income or wealth, and are particularly relevant to the housing market, where landlords often use credit scores to screen tenants and lenders use credit scores to distribute mortgage products and make lending decisions. We define the SES categories in the following way by their Equifax Risk Scores, which range from 280 to 850iii:

• Low-SES: < 580 or no Score (too few accounts or new credit)
• Moderate-SES: 580-649
• Middle-SES: 650-749
• High-SES: 750 or higher

Housing Periods: The results are separated by four economic housing periods based on market trends from the Standard & Poor Case-Schiller Home Price Indices for WA-Seattleiv (years represent the initial year of each annual sample of the CCP data): 

• Boom: 2002-2006
• Bust: 2007-2011
• Recovery: 2012-2015
• Post-Recovery: 2016-2017

Health Reporting Areas: Results are reported by cities and neighborhoods in King County using Public Health – Seattle & King County-defined “Health Reporting Areas.” These 48 areas were designed in collaboration between Public Health – Seattle & King County, local jurisdictions, and community groups in 2011 to facilitate reporting of health metrics and other related data. Where possible, Health Reporting Areas match local definitions of neighborhoods within large cities, political boundaries of smaller cities, and locally understood places within unincorporated areas of King County. For confidentiality and data reliability, some smaller reporting areas were combined.v A map of Health Reporting Areas is in Attachment B.

Regions: Results are also reported by larger geographic areas—the four subregions within King County. These are North King County, South King County, the City of Seattle, and the Eastside of the county (also called East King County below). These regions are defined either by combined postal ZIP codes or by city-based Health Reporting Areas. The North Region includes the areas of Bothell, Cottage Lake, Kenmore, Lake Forest Park, Shoreline, and Woodinville. South King County region contains Auburn, Burien, Covington, Des Moines, Enumclaw, Federal Way, Kent, Maple Valley, Normandy Park, Renton, Tukwila, SeaTac, White Center/Boulevard Park, and Vashon Island. The Eastside Region includes Bellevue, Carnation, Duvall, Issaquah, Kirkland, Medina, Mercer Island, Newcastle, North Bend, Redmond, Sammamish, and Skykomish.vi

The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco or the Federal Reserve System.

Jackelyn Hwang, PhD

is an assistant professor of sociology and director of the Changing Cities Research Lab at Stanford University. Her research examines the relationship between how neighborhoods change and the persistence of neighborhood inequality by race and class in U.S. cities. Dr. Hwang received her bachelor of applied science degree in sociology and mathematics from Stanford University and her PhD in sociology and social policy from Harvard University.

Bina Patel Shrimali, DrPH

is vice president of Community Development at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and serves as the Bank’s community affairs officer. In this role, she provides leadership and strategic direction for the Community Development team’s research and engagement initiatives to advance economic opportunity for low-income people and communities of color. She oversees the team’s efforts in priority areas of racial and economic equity, healthy and resilient communities, a thriving labor force, and inclusive financial systems. Dr. Shrimali received her bachelor’s degree in economics and English, her master’s in epidemiology and biostatistics, and her doctorate in public health, all from UC Berkeley.

The Public Health – Seattle & King County Assessment, Policy Development and Evaluation Unit

assesses and evaluates of population-based data and interventions, integrating qualitative analysis, and policy development. They are a multidisciplinary group of epidemiologists, social research scientists, and policy specialists. They collaborate with community and other Public Health — Seattle & King County divisions, using and developing state-of-the-art techniques for data collection and analysis. The unit’s goal is to provide leadership and technical assistance for population-level health assessment, data-driven program planning, program evaluation, and policy.

Acknowledgments

This report was undertaken as a partnership between the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Community Development staff led by Bina Shrimali, the Changing Cities Research Lab at Stanford University led by Professor of Sociology Jackelyn Hwang, and Public Health – Seattle & King County staff in the Assessment, Policy Development, and Evaluation section. The authors would like to thank Vineet Gupta who provided analyses for this work and Maxine Wright for subject matter input and writing for this report.

End Notes

i. Retrieved from Public Health – Seattle & King County, Community Health Indicators.

ii. Census Bureau, “Glossary,” Block Group, May 10, 2021.

iii. These cutoffs are based on common credit underwriting thresholds for mortgage products. Separate analysis of the distribution of residents in the San Francisco Bay Area by these SES categories are similar to the distribution of adult residents in the following income categories, respectively: < 50% of the US median household income; between 50%-100% US median household income; between 100-200% of the US median household income; and 200% of the median household income. These categories are not directly comparable to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Area Median Income (AMI) categorizations, which are based on metropolitan area, family size, and income. The Changing Cities Research Lab’s analysis of population distributions using data from the Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy (CHAS) for the City of Oakland show that the SES categories are similar to the following HUD AMI categories, respectively: <30% AMI (“extremely low”, as labeled by the States of California and Washington), between 30% and 50% AMI (“very low”), between 50% and 100% AMI (“low” and “moderate”), and above 100% AMI (“high”). Seattle and Oakland have similar AMI profiles: Oakland’s 2019 30% AMI was $26,040, while Seattle’s was $24,300.

iv. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, FRED S&P/Case-Shiller WA-Seattle Home Price Index.

v. Public Health – Seattle & King County, “Health Reporting Areas,” May 10, 2021.

vi. Public Health – Seattle & King County, “Region,” May 10, 2021.

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Article Citation

Hwang, Jackelyn, Bina P. Shrimali, Daniel C. Casey, Kimberly M. Tippens, Maxine K. Wright, Kirsten Wysen. 2023. “Who Moved and Where Did They Go? An analysis of residential moving patterns in King County, WA between 2002–2017.” Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Community Development Research Brief 2023-01. doi: 10.24148/cdrb2023-01.

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The San Francisco Bay Area will experience exceptionally high tides and minor flooding along the bay’s shoreline on Saturday and Sunday mornings, the National Weather Service said. Extremely low tides will occur on Saturday and Sunday evening.

“Tide poolers and beachgoers should be familiar with the times and heights of local tidal levels to avoid hazards that may arise from rapidly shifting water levels,” the weather service warned.

David King, a forecaster with the weather service, warned that people at the beach can get into trouble by walking out to exposed tide pools during low tide and not returning to shore before the tide comes back in.

Water from San Francisco Bay spills onto the Embarcadero on the morning of Thursday, Dec. 2, 2021, during the week of the King Tide.

Courtesy of Twitter user @Burritojustice

The astronomical tides, or king tides, usually occur in December and January, when the sun and moon reach their closest points to Earth, aligning the celestial bodies like a perfect cue shot to create maximum gravitation pull.

“We usually get two rounds of king tides in the winter time,” said King. “There’s usually one that happens in December. This is happening pretty much generally speaking when we expect.”

King Tides will impact the area the next 3 days & bring some of the highest & lowest tides of the year.

These tides will bring localized flooding to several low lying areas along the SF bayshore during high tide during the mid to late morning each day. https://t.co/TZ4mWUYPEf pic.twitter.com/jC4kQWSZVF

— NWS Bay Area (@NWSBayArea) December 2, 2021

The high tides will be on Saturday at 10:30 am (7.13 feet) and Sunday at 11:16 am (7.11 feet), while low tides will occur Saturday at 5:23 pm (-1.7 feet) and Sunday at 6:13 pm (-1.76 feet). The level of the sea will shift some eight feet in a little over seven hours each day.

King tides are a preview of how sea level rise will affect coastal places in the future, the Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Ready Estuaries program said.

“As time goes by, the water level reached now during a king tide will be the water level reached at high tide on an average day,” the program said.

The California King Tides Project is encouraging anyone near the coast to send in photos of the high tides, as part of its effort to increase understanding of what the state will experience as climate change causes sea level to rise.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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Nearly 100 people turned out for a town hall rally outside City Hall on Friday to honor Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and draw attention to the stubborn distance between his dream and reality for many of San Francisco’s black residents.

The three-hour event, organized by Bay Area grassroots organization Wealth and Disparities in the Black Community, featured a variety of speakers — including local politicians, civil rights attorneys, community organizers, city workers and residents — who hammered out a unanimous conclusion:

On the eve of the civil rights leader’s 93rd birthday, being black in San Francisco hasn’t gotten much easier.

“The big question is, how are Black San Franciscans doing right now?” said Phelicia Jones, founder of Wealth and Disparities. “I would say not too well.”

African Americans moved to San Francisco in large numbers during World War II to work in shipyards amid segregation, increasing the local black population from less than 5,000 to 32,000 in 1940, or 5% of the city’s population. According to recent city data, blacks still make up just 5% of San Francisco’s residents, but that’s down from 13% in 1970. And today, they make up 35% of the city’s homeless.

The average income for a black household is $31,000 compared to $110,000 for white families, and about 19% of black children in the city live in poverty.

“We’re the exact same people who fled the South’s lash, only to face housing discrimination, over-policing and mass incarceration,” said Adante Pointer, a civil rights attorney. “They unleashed the gates of hell on the church to repel our pride.”

Supervisor Shamann Walton said the Board of Supervisors is trying to fill some of these systemic gaps. The city established a redress task force in May and, starting last year, diverted $120 million in funds for local law enforcement agencies (about 7% of the sheriff’s and police department’s budget) to the city’s black neighborhoods. Funds are earmarked for small business grants and loans; educational and social justice programs for youth; and assistance with drug and mass incarceration rehabilitation, among other services.

“We’ve accomplished some things, we’ve channeled resources to the black community,” Walton said. “But even with these steps, there is still a long way to go.”

Walton said he doesn’t think it’s a coincidence that sensationalized petty crime coverage increased after the board agreed to shift funds from law enforcement to the black community.

“Every step we take forward, they try to hold us back,” Walton said. “It’s not surprising, it’s not new.”

The rally comes as Mayor London Breed is pursuing a controversial strategy to crack down on crime, drug use and public nuisance in the Tenderloin, an area home to homeless people who are disproportionately black and brown.

Supervisor Matt Haney, whose district also includes the tenderloin, said it was important to continue King’s fight.

“Black people continue to face inequalities in many areas of life, whether it’s education, housing or dealing with law enforcement,” he told The Chronicle. “This is a time to recommit to the work of civil rights and social justice for every black resident of our city.”

Police Officer Domingo Williams said he attended the event to show solidarity with his black community and to establish himself as an “access point” for local residents who mistrust his profession.

“I’m here to build confidence and I understand it’s going to take a while, and for good reason,” Williams said. “Black people have every reason to distrust law enforcement. I’m here to let people know I’m an option and a resource.”

Other Bay Area residents such as Dellfinia Hardy, Lynn Westry and Ramona Massey, all City of San Francisco workers, said they were at the event to show their support and agreed that the pitch that night would be a long-distance effort .

“Two years isn’t enough to fix that,” Westry told The Chronicle of the city’s black neighborhood investment plan. “Yes, funds have been diverted and that’s great, but we need to make sure we approach change in a systematic way if we want real change to reach the next generations. That would have dr. King wanted.”

Shwanika Narayan is a contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: shwanika.narayan@sfchronicle.com Twitter/Instagram: @shwanika

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