From protests to progress: Can Black Lives Matter become an effective agent of change?

After Black Lives Matter activists disrupted a speech by candidate Bernie Sanders, one activist told reporters that she didn’t do it to get attention from white people. That ... Read More

Real Estate

Everyone has a price

By John Zipperer

MARKET REPORT CHECK-IN San Francisco’s residential real estate ended 2015 at or near all-time highs, according to a new market report by Paragon Real Estate Group. The median... Read More

Community News

S.F. homeless czar touts progress

Homeless numbers remain stubborn, but city performing better than peers in tackling the problem

By John Zipperer

In a geographically small but wealthy city where even some middle-class families are struggling to find housing, addressing the homelessness issue is a challenge. San Francisco has... Read More

Business, Finance

Phone the home

By John Zipperer

One day, about 15 years ago, my father told me about his desire to write a book about how to conduct a small business. My father was a piano tuner, traveling every day to his loyal... Read More

News

How to play in the Big Game: The Super Bowl is coming (almost) to town

By John Zipperer

Super Bowl 50 will take place down in Santa Clara, and the 49ers are highly unlikely to be on the field for the game, unless they’re singing and dancing during the half-time ... Read More

Real Estate

Airbnb tries to make nice after close call at ballot box

By John Zipperer

AIRBNB UNVEILS ‘COMMUNITY COMPACT’ Just a week after San Francisco voters rejected a ballot measure that would have dramatically increased regulation on home-sharing se... Read More

Book Notes

San Francisco is ready for its close-up

A new look at the city’s personalities is a biography of the ever-changing city by the bay

By John Zipperer

San Francisco is having an identity crisis. People are arguing and legislating and propositioning about what the city is and what it is becoming. Who are these new people filling u... Read More

Dreamhouse Showcase

Inner Mission cool

By John Zipperer

This Inner Mission home is a building that talks to you. On the outside is a mural by Susan Cervantes and students declaring “Be the Change You Wish to See in the World.̶... Read More

Real Estate Investor

The most-desired city

By John Zipperer

Before you even ask: No. “No” is the answer to your question about whether San Francisco’s real estate market has come down to Earth. It hasn’t. In fact, no... Read More

Election

What the props mean to you: From Airbnb to affordable housing and beyond — a concise overview of the key questions voters are being asked to address this November

By John Zipperer

Below is a guide to the key propositions on this fall’s ballot. For additional propositions not covered here, see the links at the end of this article. PROPOSITION A: AFFORDA... Read More

Election

Politics roundtable: Housing and Mirkarimi’s future

By John Zipperer

This November, San Francisco voters will vote on a long list of offices and ballot propositions (see voter guide below). The Commonwealth Club’s Week to Week political roundt... Read More

Dreamhouse Showcase

From sad to sleek

By John Zipperer

If you viewed an older photo of the home at 4173 Cesar Chavez Street, you might not be impressed. (Go ahead, do a Google Maps Streetview search.) It looks old, sort of a bit patche... Read More

News

The homeless health connection

Institutionalization returns as option as cities struggle with mental illness on the streets

By John Zipperer

In Feb. 2016, a number of strange things will happen in San Francisco. For one, the San Francisco 49ers, who no longer play in this city, will host the Super Bowl, and many thousan... Read More

Dreamhouse Showcase

Victorian reborn

By John Zipperer

Someone was very far-sighted back in 1887, when this Victorian mansion was built. That person or persons put in a whopping nine bedrooms, five fireplaces, wood floors, ornate plast... Read More

Northsider

Galileo’s dragon boat victory

By John Zipperer

The Galileo Academy of Science and Technology, a public high school located at 1150 Francisco Street, is charged with providing its students “with career pathways in biotechn... Read More

John Zipperer