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Can California’s Redwoods Be Saved by Shifting Them Out of State?

Daily SF News — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 15:24:58 +0000

California has some impressive distinctions when it comes to trees: The state is home to the largest, tallest and oldest trees in the world.

But some scientists are worried that the narrow range of conditions in which these trees thrive may be threatened by the effects of climate change. Take the giant sequoia, for example, which is found today only in scattered groves on the southwestern side of the Sierra Nevada.

Sequoias are facing a lengthening dry season because the snowpack that keeps their soil moist is melting earlier in the year. And in the span of just 15 months in 2020 and 2021, horrific wildfires in California killed as much as 19 percent of the world’s sequoias.

“It’s highly likely that many of the giant sequoias in their current groves may not make it for the next century,” Park Williams, a climate scientist at U.C.L.A., told The New York Times. He added, “We’re already pushing up against the boundaries of what these trees can tolerate.”

Moises Velasquez-Manoff, a journalist based in the Bay Area, recently wrote in The New York Times Magazine about a possible solution to this problem: planting the trees outside their current ranges, in areas that are now more hospitable — a process called assisted migration. The idea is to save threatened plant and animal species by helping them to take root in safer places that they might not have been able to reach on their own; Moises followed one group that is planting redwoods in the Pacific Northwest.

You can read his fascinating article here.

I spoke to Moises about what he learned in his reporting. Here’s our conversation, which has been lightly edited for clarity.

Are California’s redwoods and sequoias unusual in how limited their habitats are? Or are all plants and animals able to survive only in places where the climate is just right for them?

It’s not unusual for species to occur in very limited geographic areas. Some species are more generalist or “cosmopolitan” than others, and exist across a variety of habitats — the coyote, say, which has colonized New York City and San Francisco and a large swath of land in between — but many others can thrive only in a very narrow set of conditions. All that said, California has some unique environments that might give rise to species that are confined to very small geographic areas in the state.

Is that true because of how vast the state is?

California has numerous and very different microclimates, for instance, such as the damp coastal “marine zone” in which coast redwoods thrive. This region is characterized by moisture from the sea — even though the state doesn’t get much rainfall for two-thirds of the year — and relatively cool temperatures. And then as soon as you cross the hills and enter the Central Valley, temperatures increase dramatically — a totally different ecozone.

The other important thing to understand about lowland California is that, in contrast with the East Coast, it was never covered by glaciers. What that means is that ice sheets have not repeatedly erased ecosystems here, as they have in, for example, New York. More time in a place arguably allows plants and animals to specialize in ways that animals on the East Coast have not, leading to more speciation.

Thus, you have not only coast redwoods and giant sequoia — trees adapted to very specific microclimates — but also the Monterey cedar and Monterey pine, two trees that are native to just a few spits of land along the Central Coast. It’s thought that both trees had more extensive forests during glaciation, meaning they retreated to their current cool coastal refuges — presumably the only places left where they could survive — when the world warmed.

Do you think some of the pushback against assisted migration is simply because it feels unnatural? As in, we’re messing with the natural order of things?

Scientists, I think, object more to the potential disasters that could occur. They’re well aware of how moving plants and animals around in the past has led to irreversible problems — invasive species forever altering the ecosystems they were introduced to. As one scientist told me, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

But I do think that for some citizens, the worry is indeed that we’ve messed with nature so much that we shouldn’t be messing with it more. Basically, “Leave it alone already!” And there’s something to this argument.

One of the problems, though, is that what we think of as pristine nature in the U.S., particularly in California, is in fact a landscape that was shaped by Native Americans.

When John Muir and others were arguing for protecting nature in preserves in the late 19th century — a movement that led to some of the first national parks — the landscape they wanted to put off limits had in fact been shaped by Native Americans to produce the plants and animals they found useful. So, when people talk about leaving nature alone, it’s worth asking what their reference point is.

Did working on this article change how you think about responding to the effects of climate change?

It highlighted for me that in certain segments of the populace there is a deep desire to do something about this climate calamity that we’re all racing toward. These people don’t want to just sit there on the deck of the proverbial Titanic and listen to music as the whole thing sinks. This particular group of people, PropagationNation, has decided that planting the most massive — and tallest — tree species on the planet around Seattle is how it will scratch that “We’ve got to do something” itch.

And before you go, some good news

A new vaccine that protects birds against avian influenza is seeing promising early results in California’s endangered condors, giving wildlife officials new hope for the recovering bird species.

The vaccine, administered in a trial this past summer to condors at several West Coast zoos, was developed to protect the birds from a dangerous strain of avian flu that wiped out 21 free-flying condors in Arizona this year. Protecting the state’s fragile condor population from such threats is important, wildlife experts say; the wild birds nearly became extinct in California in the 1980s because of hunting, pesticides and lead poisoning.

Early results from the trial show that the new vaccine, which has so far been approved only in the U.S. for use in condors, elicits an antibody response in 60 percent of the birds that received a vaccine and represents an important step forward in continuing efforts to rehabilitate California’s condors.

Wildlife experts hope further results from the trial will prove similarity successful, paving the way for a vaccination program that could protect wild condors, too. “We’re all kind of waiting with bated breath to see what the final results are going to be,” Tiana Williams-Claussen, the director of the wildlife department for the Yurok Tribe in Northern California who has been involved in conservation efforts, told The Associated Press.

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Christian McCaffrey finally saved 49ers season and extra

Daily SF News — Thu, 21 Sep 2023 11:28:02 +0000

While it’s a bit of hyperbole to say Christian McCaffrey is the biggest get for the 49ers ever, there’s little doubt he turned the Niners’ season around.

Trailing 14-10 at halftime in what was essentially a must-win road game against the Los Angeles Rams, the San Francisco 49ers desperately needed someone to take over the game and more.

A year ago, this would have been asked of wide receiver Deebo Samuel. However, due to a hamstring injury, Samuel wasn’t available for Week 8 and was watching from the sidelines.

Instead, all the Niners needed was for their new and shiny midseason addition, All-Pro running back Christian McCaffrey, to have his own “do it all” performance where he’d take over a game.

Three touchdowns later — a rushing one, a receiving one and even a passing one — it’s safe to say McCaffrey delivered.

Yes, the cost San Francisco spent to get McCaffrey from the Carolina Panthers was expensive. However, in one game that could have seen the 49ers fall to an abysmal 3-5 or climb back to 4-4, this awe-inspiring performance essentially turned the Niners’ season around.

Both in terms of on-field production and the momentum needed to carry head coach Kyle Shanahan’s squad beyond the bye week and through the second half.

Sure, San Francisco overcame a 3-5 start a season ago. But it took some tremendous desperation and a good deal of luck for the 49ers to get into the playoffs before managing to work up to the NFC Championship game where those same Rams ultimately pulled off a rare victory over Shanahan and Co.

Perhaps McCaffrey will be the difference now, but it’s a lot better trying again with a 4-4 record in the book than a 3-5 one.

Let’s take note of some other Niners news from around the league.

“While the three scores are going to capture most people’s attention, McCaffrey’s presence was felt in myriad ways.Against the Rams, the Niners converted 5-of-9 third downs. McCaffrey was responsible for two of the conversions. On first down, McCaffrey touched the ball 16 times and averaged 5.6 yards, setting up manageable and ideal play-action situations for quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo.To that point, it’s no coincidence Garoppolo enjoyed the most efficient day of his season, completing 21-of-25 passes for 235 yards (9.4 YPA) and two touchdowns with zero turnovers.”

Last rank: 19th, This rank: 13th

“Kyle Shanahan’s club was looking to sweep the Rams during the regular season for the fourth consecutive year. The 49ers spotted Los Angeles a 7-0 lead and then it turned into the Christian McCaffrey Show.He would throw a 34-yard TD pass to Brandon Aiyuk, total 18 carries for 94 yards and one score and caught eight passes for 85 yards and another touchdown. Down 14-7 in the second quarter, the Niners scored the final 24 points of the game.”

“Should Beckham join the Niners, he’d be a third-fiddle player behind Samuel and Aiyuk, and that doesn’t even include McCaffrey’s own pass-catching prowess.However, at least based on how San Francisco handled Los Angeles in Week 8 to the tune of a 31-14 victory, Beckham could easily have a better shot at winning another Super Bowl with the 49ers instead of the Rams.”

“The well-documented history between the Shanahans and the McCaffreys made it so there were never going to be many surprises after Kyle acquired Christian—even if his ability to get himself up to speed was eye-opening. By now, you’ve probably heard that the coach, as a teenager, used to babysit his new tailback, and that Kyle looked up to, and modeled himself after, Ed as a Broncos ball boy and aspiring high school receiver, to the point where he wore No. 87 in college in tribute to him.”

“John McVay, the executive who helped launch the San Francisco 49ers’ dynasty and grandfather of Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay, has died. He was 91.The 49ers announced Tuesday that McVay had died.”

““One of the things Mike [McDaniel] wanted to share is he knows how special Jeff is to us,” Lynch said. “He wanted to assure us that he’d take good care of him. Mike’s a great dude. And part of this is you have to make great decisions for your team, but you also try to take care of guys that take care of you.”“I’m not saying that Jeff demanded to be traded or anything, but I think, given the situation, if we could find the right situation for him … he wanted that opportunity.””

“History is not much of an indicator as to how the Niners will look in two weeks against the Chargers. Kyle Shanahan is 2-3 after the bye in his career. Yesterday he acknowledged that while it might be frustrating to have to take a week off after that kind of offensive performance, it’s probably best for the team as a whole.”

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Saving a Constructing That Saved A whole lot of Youngsters

Daily SF News — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 08:04:41 +0000

At the age of 13, Fanny Ben-Ami – himself a refugee from the Nazis – saved 15 children during the Holocaust. Her epic survival story has touched audiences through a children’s book, a feature film, sketches, paintings and countless testimonies. More recently, however, a contractor’s passion project thrust a chapter of Ben-Ami’s saga from literal ruins into the social media spotlight.

Ben-Ami, now 93, is one of the few living beneficiaries of the World War II-era efforts of the Oeuvre de Secours aux Enfants – the Children’s Aid Society. During the Shoah, this Franco-Jewish humanitarian organization, commonly known as the OSE, rescued Ben-Ami in the French countryside. For several years, the OSE has raised more than 200 refugee children in the towering Château de Chaumont, a grand, seven-story mansion – including Ben-Ami’s younger sisters Erika, now 91, and Georgette, who died in 2015. They never saw her parents again.

The property fell into disrepair after a fire devastated the building in the mid-1980s. It lay in ruins until 2022 when it was sold to a British expatriate named Daniel Preston, a trained chef. Preston filmed a visit to Chaumont in 2021 for his Escape to Rural France YouTube channel, where he also renovates a stone farmhouse. The self-taught builder has since posted more than 100 videos showing the careful removal of Chaumont’s rubble. Trees, bees and bathroom fixtures are perched at dangerous heights.

“I really appreciate what he’s doing,” Ben-Ami said after watching clips of Preston’s videos. “The castle was part of my life. And not just me – 72 children,” she lived there at the time. (During the war, the number of children fluctuated until a newly appointed village chaplain betrayed them to Nazi officials.)

As of 2021, Preston’s channel has racked up more than 34 million views. Replacing floors, laying bricks, and solving structural issues drew more than 850 Patreon subscribers who searched for additional content. Arborists and friends from another channel, The Château Diaries, where Preston starred as a gardener, make cameo appearances. With YouTube ad revenue and “cups of coffee” tips, total monthly income exceeds $8,000.

“I really didn’t expect it to come to this,” said Preston, 33, who also posts on Instagram.

Chaumont is one of 14 castles that the OSE operates as children’s homes. “Most war homes are still in a more or less run-down state, most of them privately owned,” said Dominique Rotermund, archivist at OSE in Paris. “After these homes had to be closed in 1943, the association provided many different hiding places for the children. The number of children saved is around 2,000.”

During the war, Chaumont provided his young transplants with a surrogate family. “We forgot about the war,” said Ben-Ami, now a widowed grandmother of six and great-grandmother of two. “And what we always say: During the day we laughed. And at night we cried.”

Through underground networks, the OSE brought spirited children to Spain, Switzerland and the United States. Many of them, like Ben-Ami, link their survival to the Château de Chaumont. Among them were Ralph Moratz and Wolfgang Grajonca, the last to be placed in foster care after a harrowing trip to New York. The friends eventually lost contact. Moratz was unaware that Grajonca had Americanized his name: he picked a name from a Bronx phone book and became Bill Graham, the renowned promoter of shows for Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix and other rock legends. Graham’s milestones include the 1985 LiveAid concert in Philadelphia and several Amnesty International tours, which raised millions in charitable donations and raised awareness of political injustice.

After Graham died in a helicopter crash in Vallejo, California in 1991 at the age of 60, the media reported on his origins. Moratz, a Hollywood actor-turned-loan officer-turned-computer programmer, rediscovered his lost friend and documented their connection in a blog and subsequent videos for a multicity exhibition entitled Bill Graham and the Rock & Roll Revolution. Although Moratz died soon after, his blog is still accessible, as are his archives at the Leo Baeck Institute in New York City.

“Ralph’s enthusiasm to connect with Bill was inspiring because Bill didn’t remember the first ten years of his life, but Ralph did,” said Graham’s son David, 54, from his home near New Hope, Pennsylvania .

He was posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and his father’s legacy continues through the Bill Graham Memorial Foundation and an autobiography.

“We look forward to telling his story because there are so many remarkable events that no one knows about,” said David Graham, who is considering making a documentary and other projects with his brother Alex. “He was a master of mass gathering. Peter Coyote called him a cross between Mother Theresa and Al Capone. If you add up all the tickets to his shows, he touched more people with music than died in the Holocaust.”

In 1975, Graham sparked a global phenomenon by sponsoring the first public menorah lighting outside of Israel. “When Chabad asked Bill Graham to build a 22-foot ‘Mama Menorah’ and light it each year in the heart of San Francisco, he supported the whole thing and never looked for credit,” said SF Chabad Rabbi Yosef Langer. “It was only after his death that we gave him the name Bill Graham Menorah. That one menorah spread its light far and inspired thousands more, from Buckingham Palace to the shores of Oahu.”

Like Moratz, who appeared in the blockbuster Independence Day and many other projects, Graham also earned Hollywood roles in Bugsy, The Doors, and Apocalypse Now. Her love of theater can be traced back to Chaumont. Led by resistance fighter Lotte Schwarz, whose room was on the fourth floor, the caregivers asked the children to hide their Jewish identities outside the castle. But at Chaumont, they occupied themselves with everything from sports, foraging for herbs, and other survival techniques to music, literature, and Purim mirrors.

“We thought we were going to stay there forever,” said Ben-Ami, whose room with the older kids was on the third floor.

English television is currently reporting on Preston’s refurbishment for future broadcast. With a building this large, his goal is to remain off-grid to reduce costs. An on-site well provides water and a sponsor provided solar panels, but 40 windows, stairs, wiring and plumbing need to be reinstalled, not to mention a roof and turret. Preston estimates that it could take five years to complete 90% of the work. “I don’t think it will ever happen,” he added.

This isn’t the first time Chaumont has needed reinforcements. The OSE also repaired windows and plumbing, as quoted in “Rescuing Jewish Children While the Nazi Occupation in OSE Children’s Homes 1938-1945.”

A 2022 process photo documenting Preston’s restoration Courtesy of Daniel Preston

At the entrance to Rue de Chaumont, a plaque commemorates its importance. “Preserving authentic sites, structures and artifacts from the Holocaust underscores their historical relevance and is a way of connecting the past with the present,” said Yad Vashem spokesman Simmy Allen.

Years ago, OSE vice director Eric Ghozlan, then director of the Department of Childhood, visited Chaumont to review the purchase for a summer camp “in keeping with the château’s heritage,” said OSE historian Katy Hazan. “The project was not feasible due to the extensive renovation work and the high financial outlay. If the place welcomes children again and brings them benefits, that would indeed mean a lot to us.”

Preston hopes to bring children back, too. Chaumont hosted a summer camp for underprivileged children in the 1950s and 1960s. “With all the support we have online, we could support some kind of academy — for kids to come over the summer and learn skills,” Preston said.

87-year-old French comedian Popeck was four years old when the OSE accompanied him and other young refugees to Chaumont. “I am pleased to learn that the castle is being renovated by a developer who wants to turn it into a summer retreat for children in need,” said Popeck, aka Judka Herpstu, who is remembered by Ben-Ami from Chaumont. He returned to Paris, as did noted psychologist Claire Meljac, 89. (She could not be reached for comment due to health complications.)

Fanny Ben-Ami at home in Holon, Israel earlier this yearWith kind permission of the author

While he’s renovating by day and editing at a nearby Airbnb by night, Preston’s departure is a signature YouTube action, a cheeky high-five with the lens. As the father of two young boys, he recently split from their mother, his partner of 14, which makes the project “deeply personal,” Preston said. “I save the building, but the building saves me too. If one day I don’t make a video, I feel so lost. It’s like keeping a journal, but instead of writing down what you do each day, you go back and see the day in its best light.”

Cinematic footage features stunning aerial and close-up views of the majestic landscape, the ruin itself and the machines that revive it. Dense forests surround the castle in a green cloak, fitting the metaphor of a storybook legend brought back to life. “It struck me as soon as I saw it,” said Preston, who dates the castle to 1886. “It was just magical.”

Ben-Ami felt something similar when she visited the neglected property with other survivors in 1995. “We walked through the gate and it was like a slumber,” she recalls.

In 2019, Yad Vashem recognized Ben-Ami’s war heroism. Escaping German troops in 1943, she led children across the Swiss border on foot, identifying an informant who saved the lives of 150 members of the French underground.

Next, Ben-Ami writes her memoirs. Of course she said, “The lock is in.”

The post Saving a Constructing That Saved A whole lot of Youngsters appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

How the San Francisco Giants saved dive bar Tempest

Daily SF News — Fri, 12 May 2023 14:13:37 +0000

“You still get a lot of writers in here?” I asked the barman as I worked on my beer.

“Yes and no,” he said, “But I don’t really give a f—k anyways. I sold this place and I’m moving back to Kansas.”

That was back in 2010. The fact that the owner had just sold the place was disconcerting news. Too often, we’ve seen legendary local dives get bought and turned into something bougie or worse — something bougie that tries to channel the grittiness of the thing it replaced, like a doomed peep show-themed cocktail bar in the former Lusty Lady space.

But as anyone who’s ever been to the Tempest knows, that sure as hell didn’t happen. In fact, it may even be divier than it was back then. And I mean that as the highest form of compliment. Old bicycles dangle from the ceiling while local art and SF Giants memorabilia fight for wall space with hundreds of stickers. Pool players of every imaginable variety hover around the billiards table to the staccato rhythm of shot glasses landing back on the bartop. Neon beer signs illuminate the room with almost as much color as the graffiti in the bathroom. Yes it’s divey alright, and that all thanks to a group of fellas who go by Pour Guys.

Details of Tempest in San Francisco’s South of Market (SOMA) District as seen on May 7, 2023.

Kevin Kelleher & Emily Trinh/Special to SFGATE

Alessandra Goldsborough of San Francisco hands over a fresh Tempest Mezcal Margarita at the South of Market (SOMA) District bar on Sunday night, May 7, 2023.

Kevin Kelleher & Emily Trinh/Special to SFGATE

Old friends Abby Tornquist of Seattle, left, and Cassie Simpson of Chaska, Minnesota catch up at Tempest while visiting San Francisco on Sunday night, May 7, 2023.

Kevin Kelleher & Emily Trinh/Special to SFGATE

An interior view Tempest, in San Francisco’s South of Market District, as seen on Sunday evening, May 7, 2023.

Kevin Kelleher & Emily Trinh/Special to SFGATE

Inside the Tempest: Bartender Alessandra Goldsborough, upper right, serves up a fresh Tempest Mezcal Margarita; Old friends Abby Tornquist of Seattle and Cassie Simpson of Chaska, Minnesota, lower left, catch up at Tempest while visiting San Francisco. (Kevin Kelleher & Emily Trinh/Special to SFGATE)
Inside the Tempest: Bartender Alessandra Goldsborough, upper right, serves up a fresh Tempest Mezcal Margarita; Old friends Abby Tornquist of Seattle, left, and Cassie Simpson of Chaska, Minnesota, lower left, catch up at Tempest while visiting San Francisco. (Kevin Kelleher & Emily Trinh/Special to SFGATE)

“Yeah, we didn’t come in and rip everything apart and change it aesthetically,” Joey Christensen tells me as I sit in the office-slash-storage area in the basement of the Tempest. Instead of just bulldozing in with what they thought the Tempest should be, they asked themselves, “Does this fit the Tempest?”

“We wanted it to be gradual as well,” Tony Cooney, one of Christensen’s business partners, chimes in. “So, it wasn’t shocking, like, ‘Hey my home bar just changed. It’s going to suck and ruin everything.’” One weekend they might paint a wall. Another they might hang up some cool artwork they found.

Cooney, Christensen and their partner Justin Trujillo took over control of the Tempest on the night of Game 4 between the San Francisco Giants and the Phillies in the October 2010 National League Championship Series. If you were around San Francisco in October 2010, then you know how incredibly fortuitous it was to own a bar at that particular moment.

“It was really lucky,” Christensen smiles. “It kind of slingshotted us in. I think when we took over, we had just literally a couple hundred bucks left in the bank. Not even enough money to restock the shelves.”

That wouldn’t be a problem again. The Giants beat the Phillies in the playoffs, and then went on to defeat the Texas Rangers and win their first World Series since 1954. San Franciscans danced and partied in the streets, but nobody was as jubilant as the city’s bar owners. Multiple publicans I know paid off all their debt that year thanks to Los Gigantes, and while I doubt that was the case for Cooney, Christensen and Trujillo, it certainly put them in a far better place than most people when they first take over a bar. And then of course the Giants won a few more World Series rings, making things even better.

Glory days of the home Bay Area squads line the walls at Tempest in the SoMa District, May 7, 2023.

Kevin Kelleher & Emily Trinh/Special to SFGATE

Within a few years, they teamed up with Stephen Crawford and Eric Mejia and officially became Pour Guys, ultimately purchasing three more bars together, Connecticut Yankee, Louie’s Bar, and the Showdown. And with each new bar the philosophy was the same: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Just make it smell a little better. (The Showdown is the only bar where they started from scratch — the spot was formerly a Thai restaurant, so it came with a much less divey set of smells.)

The Tempest is born

When I sit down to do these interviews with bar owners, I never really know what I’m gonna get. Other than the rumors, fables and urban legends that drunks pass around the barroom, usually the only information I have is my own personal stories with a place. So, it was an absolute stroke of luck that, while I was sitting there asking Cooney and Christensen about the history of the bar, media industry veteran Margo Brenes walked into the basement.

“I was drinking at Hanno’s when I was 17 — when I started at the paper — and then celebrated my 21st birthday there,” Brenes laughs while regaling us with the history of the Tempest and its previous incarnations. And she knows quite a bit.

Joey Christensen, left, and Tony Cooney, co-owners of Tempest, kick back at the SoMa District bar after catering a private party on Aug. 25, 2022.

Kevin Kelleher & Emily Trinh/Special to SFGATE

She worked at the San Francisco Newspaper Agency from 1974 to 1992 (the agency was the group that owned the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner until 2000 when they were run under a joint operating agreement). Then she came to work for the San Francisco-Oakland Newspaper Guild (now called the Pacific Media Workers Guild). The guild owns the Tempest building and is thus the bar’s landlord. Between talking to Brenes and doing some of their own research, Cooney and Christensen pieced together the history of the building and the bars who’ve inhabited it.

-The edifice at 431 Natoma St. was built in 1914.

-It’s not clear what went on for the next 54 years it existed

-In 1968, it was bought by the San Francisco-Oakland Newspaper Guild.

-The first lease Team Tempest found with a bar or restaurant was in 1969, owned by a man named Roger Aguilar. It was called Page One, an obvious reference to the building that SFGATE and the San Francisco Chronicle share just a short stumble away (The Chronicle and SFGATE are both owned by Hearst but have separate newsrooms).

-A fair amount of drama and changing hands over the next decades, but then a man named Hank Cheeke really put Page One on the map. It was apparently a big gay bar at the time, just rather quietly.

-At the time, there was a bar even closer to the Chronicle building called Hanno’s, at Minna and Mary streets, but Hearst bought the building and tore it down.

-In 1983, Joseph Bourne and Harry Horton signed the lease at 431 Natoma St. and changed the name from Page One to Hanno’s in the Alley.

-In 1995, Darla Kubala and Eric Berman took over and started Tempest Bar & Grill.

-Then one day in 2010, I sat at the bar while Eric told me “I don’t really give a f—k anyways. I sold this place and I’m moving back to Kansas.” The Pour Guys have had it ever since.

Decor details of Tempest in San Francisco’s SoMa District as seen on May 7, 2023.

Kevin Kelleher & Emily Trinh/Special to SFGATE

The story goes that in the heyday of Page One and Hanno’s years, newspaper writers would drink at M&M, a bar that was where the Chieftain currently is on 5th and Howard streets. Journalists were such a fixture that the San Francisco Chronicle reportedly put a direct phone line into M&M so that reporters could file their stories from there (I’ve heard many a tale of Warren Hinckle doing this from a plethora of bars). It was the blue-collar guys who would hang out at Hanno’s after loading up the newspaper delivery trucks in the very early morning.

The cheapest PBR in town

By the time I started hanging out there, it was popular with a different group of blue-collar workers: bike messengers. While the Tempest would fill up with baseball fans to watch the Giants have an incredible run, it was really bike messengers, service industry people and Moscone Center workers who were the bar’s bread and butter. And of course, a smattering of writers, too.

Longtime Examiner and Chronicle columnist Al Saracevic was a regular right up until his untimely passing in 2022. He’d reportedly drink a double Dewars on the rocks, and the Pour Guys would honor the price that Eric and Darla used to charge him: $5. In fact, there are a handful of loyal customers that are grandfathered in to their pre-2010 prices. Cheap drinks are one of the things the Tempest is known for.

“We always want to be priced on the lower end of the market. To be your everyman’s bar,” Cooney explains. 2010 is when fancy cocktail bars started to really make a splash in San Francisco, and the Pour Guys wanted to buck that trend.

“We did $2 Pabst forever,” Cooney continues. “We were top 10 in the country with Pabst sales.”

Shots of Fernet-Branca were also always cheap. For many years, they were only $4, which meant you could get a shot of Fernet and a PBR for $6. I know people who pretty much lived off that combination for years.

The Box Burger ranks high on the Tempest menu, as seen fresh off the grill on May 7, 2023.

Kevin Kelleher & Emily Trinh/Special to SFGATE

Cole G. brings another ready order to The Box window outside Tempest bar, on Sunday night, May 7, 2023.

Kevin Kelleher & Emily Trinh/Special to SFGATE

Gilberto Cinta fires up an order in the kitchen of Tempest, on Sunday evening, May 7, 2023.

Kevin Kelleher & Emily Trinh/Special to SFGATE

The Potato Cheese Taquitos at the Tempest, on May 7, 2023.

Kevin Kelleher & Emily Trinh/Special to SFGATE

Clockwise from top left: The popular Box Burger at Tempest; Cole G. brings another ready order to The Box window outside Tempest bar; The Potato Cheese Taquitos; Gilberto Cinta fires up an order in the kitchen of Tempest. (Kevin Kelleher & Emily Trinh/Special to SFGATE)
Clockwise from top left: The popular Box Burger at Tempest; Cole G. brings another ready order to The Box window outside Tempest bar; The Potato Cheese Taquitos; Gilberto Cinta fires up an order in the kitchen of Tempest. (Kevin Kelleher & Emily Trinh/Special to SFGATE)

Unlike the vast majority of dive bars though, what really sets the Tempest apart is the food served by their kitchen, Box Kitchen.

Right about the time their original chef was moving on, Stephen Crawford — a regular at the bar who cooked at Michael Mina — made a proposition: “I could take the food I’m doing at Michael Mina, make it approachable bar food, and launch this to another level.” And that’s exactly what he did.

Suddenly a dive bar that sold $2 PBRs was getting written up by national publications for their eats, and foodies were flocking to sit elbow to elbow with the bike messengers, writers and off work service industry people. The elevated bar cuisine like mac and cheese egg rolls, asparagus fries, and potato skins with pork belly and quail eggs was an immediate success. Crawford went on to be the executive chef for all the subsequent businesses, too. It also helped that in a city with diminishing late-night food options, the Tempest served until midnight — which it still does.

A dive bar empire faces uncertainty

For 10 years, things were really humming at the Tempest. So much so, that Pour Guys were able to open a few other places, including the Showdown in 2019, and then … well you know what happened.

“2019 was a perfect year to start a new restaurant,” Cooney laughs. Considering the immediate and astounding success of the Tempest, it becomes a bit of a yin and yang story with The Showdown. Opening a new place just before a global pandemic shuts the world down is never good for business. But the Tempest and all the Pour Guys spots survived.

The Tempest at 431 Natoma St., an alley at the cross of Mary Street in San Francisco’s SoMa District, as seen on Sunday night, May 7, 2023.

Kevin Kelleher & Emily Trinh/Special to SFGATE

“We did whatever we could,” Cooney explains. “It was ‘come inside, don’t come inside,’ ‘sit down, you’re not allowed to sit down.’ It was like every day they changed the rules and we would just do it.”

Luckily, having a great relationship with the landlord helped the Tempest stay afloat. “They had our back,” Christensen says of the Pacific Media Workers Guild. “We are on the same team for sure. They love that we’re a blue-collar bar, a workingman’s bar. I mean, they’re a union.”

And that’s not just good for the Pour Guys, it’s good for San Francisco.

“We’re not leaving here anytime soon,” Cooney tells me. “The lease is up in a couple years. And we’ve already been discussing with the landlord. They want us to stay and we want to stay.”

While prices have had to go up to reflect economic realities — I think a PBR is now $4 and a Fernet is $7 or $8 — it’s heartening to know that there will still be a working-class bar in the heart of downtown San Francisco where writers, bike messengers, service industry folks, and general weirdos can hang out and hope the Giants might just do it all again this year.

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How Joseph Pulitzer Saved the Statue of Liberty

Fri, 16 Jul 2021 09:43:44 +0000

It’s hard to imagine what New York City would look like without the Statue of Liberty. Yet there was a time in American history over a century ago when Lady Liberty almost ended up in Philadelphia or San Francisco. The fact that she still holds up her torch on Liberty Island in New York Harbor is a testament to the will of the American people – although the call to action came from Joseph Pulitzer, a Hungarian immigrant who came to this land and himself destitute to a new a successful newspaper publisher.

Pulitzer’s name is linked to many things: the sensational style of his newspaper’s reporting, sometimes referred to as yellow journalism; the bitter rivalry he had with William Randolph Hearst, another newspaper mogul; and of course the Pulitzer Prize, which Pulitzer set up in his will through a foundation.

He was also a galvanist who believed that print media could be used to influence people for the good of society. Perhaps the best example of this “journalism of action,” as his rival Hearst called it, is how Pulitzer handled the news that the Statue of Liberty was in danger.

In 1885 the dismantled statue was shipped to America as a gift from France. It was meant to be a symbol of American freedom and democracy, as well as a sign of the bond that was forged between the two allies during the American Revolution. France had paid for the statue in full; All it needed was a pedestal to stand on. America was on the hook to design and build the pedestal at a cost of about $ 250,000 (about $ 6.55 million in 2019).

The American Statue of Liberty Committee, charged with raising funds for the monument’s construction, raised just over half of the funds. Both New York State and the US Congress refused to do the rest. The Lady Liberty pieces ended up in a warehouse, and at some point the fundraising committee threatened to send the statue back to France if it didn’t get the funds.

This was before the advent of American philanthropy, which began around the time Andrew Carnegie published his “The Gospel of Wealth” in 1889 – an article calling on other Gilded Age millionaires to donate some of their wealth for the common good . So, if the committee wanted to get the money for its pedestal, they had to get it from the average American. The committee publicly called for donations across the country, “any amount, how big or how small”. In return for their contribution to the statue fund, the donors were promised an illustrated certificate.

But convincing Americans outside New York to open their paperbacks proved difficult. As one Indian put it, the memorial was viewed as a “New York matter” rather than a “national matter”. Another person asked why the fundraising committee was trying to “get the people of Chicago and Connecticut … to pay for the expenses New Yorkers want to avoid,” according to newspaper reports.

Several cities offered to pay for the pedestal in exchange for the exclusive right to erect the statue on their territory. An article published by the Philadelphia Press said the city would welcome the statue to Fairmount Park. San Francisco said that Lady Liberty would look beautiful standing in front of the Golden Gate Strait (the bridge that would bear the name of the strait was not yet built). Boston and Baltimore have also made offers for the statue.

Pulitzer stepped in. He sponsored small fundraisers including boxing matches, theater productions, art shows, and mini-statue of liberty sales, and published several editorials in his newspaper, The New York World (later shortened to The World). to gain sympathy for the plight of the statue.

In his most famous editorial, Pulitzer wrote: “We have to raise the money! The world is the people’s newspaper, and now it appeals to people to come up and collect the money. “

He added:

“The $ 250,000 it took to make the statue was paid for by the masses of the French people – the workers, the merchants, the shop girls, the artisans – regardless of class or condition. Let us answer in the same way. Let’s not wait for the millionaires to give us this money. It is not a gift from the millionaires of France to the millionaires of America, but a gift from the whole people of France to the whole people of America. “

Remarkably, it worked. Pulitzer received small donations from 125,000 people, totaling $ 102,000 (or about $ 2.7 million in today’s dollars). The money was sent to the Statue of Liberty Fundraising Committee and the future of the monument in New York was secured.

As a thank you to the donors, Pulitzer printed their names in his newspaper, regardless of whether they donated a cent or a dollar. This early experiment in pre-internet crowdfunding proved to be a landmark example of what average Americans could accomplish without the support of the rich.

Pulitzer’s newspaper continued to publish news of the statue’s evolution, and it did so in a most peculiar way. “In one editorial after another, the editor spoke of the statue as if it were human, and went so far as to ‘question’ her about the 1886 New York mayoral campaign,” writes Edward Berenson in The Statue of Liberty: A Transatlantic Story (she chose eventual winner Abram Hewitt over future US President Theodore Roosevelt).

The Statue of Liberty eventually became a symbol of America and American values that stretch well beyond New York Harbor. And we owe it to Pulitzer and his persuasiveness.

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‘We did what we got here to do — we saved it’: Courtroom of Mysteries homeowners at peace with transferring on

Sun, 27 Jun 2021 19:03:07 +0000

Known as the “Court of Mysteries”, the Westside property has aroused curiosity in Santa Cruz and beyond for decades, and a massive renovation and construction project there in recent years has brought the historic space more into focus.

The news that it was on the market less than 15 months after its owners crossed the finish line on this marathon project started a new question: why?

Why in fact, after years of often granular detail work at 515 Fair Ave. on the restoration of the brick temple familiar to generations of locals and the construction of a 3,000-square-foot home and garage with an in-law unit and lap pool, are Artina Morton and Douglas Harr ready to move on?

The short answer, as it turns out, is that it’s just too much for the two of them.

“There was just something that told us that it just didn’t make sense that we should only do this with two people,” said Morton, a self-proclaimed jill-of-all-trade mix of British majors / artists / tech industry veterans / hairstylist, “because when you get older, looking after a property of this size by yourself, it becomes a lot.”

After purchasing the property in 2016, Morton and Harr – who also has the tech industry in his background – began to focus on building what is known as an “ohana connection,” with a home for them on one side of the courtyard and buildings for Friends on the other.

Detail of the gate of the Court of Mysteries estate on the westside of Santa Cruz.