The Regulars

Kathi Pugh sails near the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, Calif. on Friday, September 7, 2018.

Disabled sailor takes to the bay to navigate life’s choppy

By Scott Strazzante

On a sunny Saturday in the fall of 1991, attorney Kathi Pugh sat in her San Francisco office watching sailboats navigate the waters of the bay. Pugh had sailed as a kid because her father was an avid ...

Sam Gubera plays with Pin, an Arabian stallion she works on at Earthquake Arabians in Clayton, Calif., on Thursday, August 30, 2018. Sam Gubera has been working as a farrier, a profession largely dominated by men, for three years after having ridden horses since she was 6 years old.

Woman gains footing in male-dominated field of shoeing horses

By Carlos Avila Gonzalez

Sam Gubera holds the red-hot horseshoe with a pair of tongs in one hand and, with the other, quickly lifts the Arabian gelding’s foot up and back and deftly clenches it between her knees. Within seconds, ...

Keith �K-Dub� Williams converses with skateboarder Vanessa Touset at Town Park skatepark in West Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, August 15, 2018. Williams is a dreadlocked, 55-year-old 6�5� artist, educator, mentor, and former skateboarder who founded Town Park, a skatepark located at DeFremery Park. �I think my role in it in being that liaison and being that Pied Piper on that piece is really cemented what an artist can give back to a community," Williams said. "I think the fact that we were able as young people participating in elements in helping shape Town Park and the culture is another act of what the power of young people can do.�

Oakland artist harnesses power of young people to build skate

By Yalonda M. James

Sounds of reggae, Anderson Paak and Portishead pump through the speakers of Keith “K-Dub” Williams’ laptop, via YouTube, as he paints in his Oakland art studio. The 55-year-old artist, educator, ...

Downtown Street Team supervisor out with his teams near Union Square on Friday, July 27, 2018 in San Francisco, Calif.

SF street cleanup supervisor beautifies blocks, gives homeless

By Liz Hafalia

Downtown Streets Team supervisor Darryl Cage, 50, can often be seen speaking with San Francisco’s homeless and removing rubbish most mornings. Cage gets to know people and their needs while leading teams ...

Tim Snyder works on a painting in his apartment in the Tenderloin in San Francisco, California, on Wednesday, July 18, 2018.

Painting provides canvas for art of recovery

By Gabrielle Lurie

Tim Snyder is always busy creating. He walks around San Francisco wearing psychedelic shirts that he’s sewn together and bright accessories that he’s repurposed from vintage finds. ...

Glass bender Amy Palms works over an open flame as she bends and vacuums air and impurities from a neon piece in her studio at Neon Works in Oakland, Calif. Tuesday, June 26, 2018.

Glass bender melds art, science to create and restore neon signs

By Jessica Christian

Amy Palms has been perfecting her skills as a glass bender for more than 20 years. Palms, a Brooklyn native, studied glass blowing, neon and mixed-media sculpture at Alfred University in Upstate New York, ...

Olivia Byers-Straus teaches a dance class at Steppin� Out Dance Studio in San Francisco on Tuesday, May 15, 2018.

Dancer follows her heart, feet to inspire others with

By Guy Wathen, San Francisco Chronicle

Angela Rose Dorantes, owner of Steppin’ Out Dance Studio in the Mission District, was teaching a class for young children when she noticed a student’s younger sister dancing along on the sidelines. ...

Redwood Valley Railway chief engineer Ray Pimlott operates the No. 7 �Oak� steam locomotive while leading passengers on a train ride through Tilden Park in Orinda, Calif. on Saturday, May 19, 2018.

Tilden Park’s railway engineer rolls through decades of train

By Paul Chinn

The Redwood Valley Railway has been around for 66 years. Ray Pimlott has been around for 40 of them. Pimlott, 85, is the chief train engineer for the narrow-gauge railroad, which takes ...

Sita Bhaumik�makes a traditional west Bengali pastry made for special occasions known as Gayna Bori a decorative savory pastry made out of lentil flour.�Oakland February 27th, 2018.

Artist, educator uses food to tell stories of migration

By Manjula Varghese

Slowly dipping a silver ladle into a jar filled with plums swirling around in amber-colored shochu and sugar, Sita Kuratomi Bhaumik carefully draws out a plum and pours it into a glass goblet containing ...

Jim Motch sets up a music stand for his tablet containing pdfs of music before playing from the cliff above Ocean Beach on Friday, May 4, 2018 in San Francisco, Calif. Motch began learning to play the bagpipe when his mother became ill as a way to give back to her.

Bagpiper inspires Ocean Beach visitors by playing eternal ode to

By Lea Suzuki

The beach breeze swirled around Jim Motch’s head as he plodded through the sand, stepping between ice plants to conduct his ritual. Since he learned to play bagpipe, he’s visited Ocean Beach regularly ...

Scout Tran, left, and Cordelia Millerwhite, right, prepare for kickboxing class at Four Elements Fitness in Oakland, CA on April 20, 2018.

Oakland fight gym opens its doors for all

By Emily Harger

From the street outside Four Elements Fitness in downtown Oakland, one can hear sounds of boxing gloves against polyester punching bags, feet shuffling across the mat during warm-up laps, and heavy ...

Golden State Warriors' fan Natalie Palos of Corning kisses Draymond Green's bicep on a mural in the upper concourse at Oracle Arena before the Warriors play San Antonio Spurs in Game 1 of NBA Western Conference First Round playoff game in Oakland, Calif., on Saturday, April 14, 2018.

Warriors: Focused on the Finals

By RJ Mickelson

It was a tumultuous 2017-2018 regular season for the Golden State Warriors. The team experienced a number of key injuries (Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry), emotional flare ...

Mill Valley Seniors for Peace's Helen Anderson heads back to her apartment after the group's weekly protest outside Redwoods Retirement Community in Mill Valley, Calif., on Friday, March 16, 2018.

Singing for peace gives Mill Valley senior energy, hope

By Scott Strazzante

Every Friday, shortly before 4 in the afternoon, Helen Anderson, 92, gets on her motorized wheelchair, grabs a cardboard sign from her closet, leaves her Redwoods senior community apartment, and motors to ...

Self-taught mycologist Alan Rockefeller removes fungi samples from a log on the Berkeley Fire Trails in Berkeley, California.

The Regulars: For East Bay mushroom hunter, it’s not simply fun

By Nani Walker, Robin Simmonds and Lauren Schwartzman

Most people dread rainy days, but Alan Rockefeller revels in them. Rockefeller, 40, works in cybersecurity to pay the bills. But his true passion emerges after a downpour, when the wooded areas of the East ...

Master Craftsman Luis Ferreira shapes a piece of wood for a window frame at the SFMTA Woods Division Cable Car shop Wednesday, March 14, 2018 in San Francisco, Calif.

The Regulars: Carpenter crafts cable cars’ beauty

By Jessica Christian

Luis Ferreira moved to San Francisco over 30 years ago from Madera, Portugal, with ambitions to follow in his grandfather’s footsteps and become a master craftsman. Today, he serves as one of four ...

Ahmet Ustunel, 37, with his navigation stick and kayak at Lake Merced, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018, in San Francisco, Calif. He was born in Turkey with Retinoblastoma, a type of eye cancer, but no one noticed until it was too late. He�s fully blind. He is now training to kayak the Bosporus, a natural strait that separates Asian Turkey from European Turkey.

The Regulars: Lifelong passion for water keeps blind kayaker

By Santiago Mejia

Ahmet Ustunel unfolds his 12-foot deflated kayak that was neatly tucked in a large rolling bag. He sets the yellow kayak at the edge of a dock at Lake Merced. He begins to fill the three chambers of the ...

Jay Van Arsdale marks the segments of a platform he's making from western red cedar in his home wood shop in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, February 14, 2018. The stands will replace crumbling ones at the Bonsai Garden in Oakland near Lake Merritt. Van Arsdale, who comes from Kentucky and is descended from a long line of blacksmiths dating back to the revolutionary war, is a teacher at Laney Community College in Oakland where he has been teaching Japanese wood working and joinery. He and his students have restored or built various pieces in the Japanese style for cultural centers around the Bay Area.

The Regulars: Kentucky woodworker teaches Japanese carpentry at

By Carlos Avila Gonzalez

Jay van Arsdale ambles around his workshop, his sandal-clad feet cutting through piles of wood chips, paper-thin wood shavings, and sawdust that he’s brushed off his work table onto old rugs that cushion ...

Robert Tacchetto, owner Camera Obscura, opens the door to the lens of the Giant Camera to clean it before opening for business that day on Monday, January 30, 2018 in San Francisco, Calif.

The Regulars: Camera Obscura still makes a big impression on

By Lea Suzuki

Robert Tacchetto, 62, nimbly climbs up a ladder and opens a small, oval hinged door to the lens that projects live images of Ocean Beach, Seal Rock, Cliff House and Point Lobos down to a parabolic table in ...

Brian Peron (left), Wayne Justmann (middle), and Lynette Shaw (right) talk about events taking place before Proposition 215 at a table where discussions took place in creating the California Compassionate Use Act on Wednesday, January 10, 2018, in San Francisco, Ca.

The Regulars: Pot advocate is the ‘Godmother of Ganja’

By Liz Hafalia

Cannabis activist Lynnette Shaw has been working to legalize medical use marijuana for the past 20 years. Her work advocating the benefits of marijuana has earned her the name the Godmother of Ganja. She ...

Gabriel Mata rehearses at ODC theater in San Francisco with SJ Dance company on November 3rd 2017. Mata came to the United States from Mexico when he was 5 years old.

The Regulars: A Dreamer and a dancer

By Manjula Varghese

Gabriel Mata, a 26-year-old slender framed man, moves his body with strength and grace across the stage, reaching his arms out and above his head. As Mata pivots on his feet, he arches his back while ...

A portrait of Will Wood, who is Father Christmas during the Great Dickens Christmas Fair at the Cow Palace exhibition halls on Thursday, Dec. 21, 2017, in Daly City, Calif.

The Regulars: This Father Christmas has embodied the holiday

By Santiago Mejia

Will Wood puts on his red robes and combs his long white beard and leaves the dressing room as a different yet very familiar person. “I have the privilege of having children tell me their wish for the ...

Vallejo resident Latashia Govan, who goes by the stage name Sgt. Die Wies, performs at DNA Lounge in San Francisco on Monday, November 20, 2017. Govan, whose performances often involve elaborate costumes, challenges body image stereotypes on stage. �It�s so much more than taking off your clothes and a lot of people don�t know that. They think that you�re just up there to be a sexual object,� says Govan, �They don�t think that you�re up there trying to break body stereotypes or type casts and all the different constraints that society tries to put on us.�

The Regulars: Burlesque performer aims to bust body stereotypes

By Guy Wathen, San Francisco Chronicle

For Bay Area performer Sgt. Die Wies, whose given name is Latashia Govan, burlesque is about more than taking off her clothes for an audience. “It’s so much more than taking off your clothes and a lot ...

James Mitchell shapes a surfboard at his shop Sunset Shapers in the Outer Sunset of San Francisco July 5, 2017.

The Regulars: Surfboards take shape in this Sunset shop

By Kat Duncan

James Mitchell starts his day by walking the couple blocks from his home to Ocean Beach. As he stands atop the sand dunes with his dog to watch the waves, other surfers appear, dotting the shore in small ...

David Hegarty sits down at the theater organ at the Castro getting ready to play music.

The Regulars: Organist at the Castro keeps musical tradition

By Manjula Varghese

Audience members pile into their seats getting ready to watch a show at the Castro Theater; on this particular day it happens to be a “Sound of Music” sing-a-long. The crowd becomes quiet as they see ...

Jesse Fink, left, co-owner of Toy Boat Dessert Cafe, chats with customers in his cafe in the Inner Richmond on Thursday, June 29, 2017. Fink and his wife, Roberta, have run the cafe for 35 years.

The Regulars: Toy Boat Dessert Cafe serves ice cream,

By Guy Wathen, San Francisco Chronicle

Toy Boat Dessert Café in the Inner Richmond is a welcoming place, open to all people, and that’s just the way co-owner Jesse Fink intended it to be. “It’s a place for little kids, old people, ...

George Sherikian gets set up to begin his work repairing shoes that customers have dropped off to be fixed June 21, 2017 at Westfield Mall in San Francisco, Calif.

The Regulars: Cobbler believes that with good shoes, ‘life will

By Manjula Varghese

A rhythmic cacophony of buzzing, hammering, and sewing sounds emerge out of a unassuming small shoe repair shop located at the back of the bottom floor of Westfield mall in downtown San Francisco. ...

Kira Mei Herrera, 6, collects eggs from the chicken coop at home May th, 2017 in San Francisco. Her parents Jamie Chan, 37, and Blas Herrera, 38, grow their own food, raise chickens and have bee hives at their San Francisco home.

The Regulars: Family of four farms in urban spaces

By Kat Duncan

Jamie Chan walks slowly from terrace to terrace to water the many plants to the sounds of soft clucking from her chickens and buzzing from the bee hives at her home in San Francisco. Her backyard garden, ...

Security guard Mike Burt laughs as a customer enters Doc's Clock bar in San Francisco, California, on Tuesday, May 23, 2017.

Last call at Doc’s Clock dive bar with its bouncer

By Gabrielle Lurie

Glasses clink as security guard Mike Burt and bartender Lisa Francis cheer the start of their evening at Doc’s Clock, the classic Mission District dive bar with the distinctive neon sign. ...

Three harbor seals gather around a curious elephant seal at Chimney Rock Wednesday May 24th, 2017. Four harbor seals were rescued, nursed back to health and released by the Marine Mammal Center.

The Regulars: Pacifica volunteer’s lifelong love of the ocean

By Kat Duncan

Marie Kazan-Komarek’s childhood summers were spent digging in the flats for mussels and quahogs in Massachusetts. Her love of the ocean has been an undying passion of hers for as long as she can ...

San Francisco Bird Hotel owner Birgit Soyka poses for a portrait with Diamond on top of her motorcycle in the warehouse of the bird hotel in South San Francisco, Calif. on Wednesday May 17, 2017. Soyka fell in love with birds because they represented the same feeling of freedom she felt while racing motorcycles in Germany and southern California.

The Regulars: S.F. Bird Hotel owner finds freedom in creating her

By Emily Harger

Birgit Soyka doesn’t seem to mind the bird sitting on her head as she stands in thought, remembering which guest enjoys cheese with his breakfast and who needs milk thistle extract once a day. She is up ...

Robert Tyler, 59, of Hayward, performs on the pedestrian bridge outside of Oakland Coliseum on Thursday, April 20, 2017. For over three decades he worked on and off in the communications field but was unable to keep a steady job. �Somehow it don�t last,� says Tyler, �Always have good jobs, but they don�t last.� Now Tyler survives as a street performer and can often be found outside Bay-area sporting events.

The Regulars: Mr. Rob Bass plays sweet music outside the Coliseum

By Guy Wathen, San Francisco Chronicle

Even above the din of Hayward BART station you can hear the wheels of Robert Tyler’s dolly clicking on the tiled floor. The 59-year-old pauses to give money to a man singing for change before ...

Shelia Ash, owner of Noe's Nest bed and breakfast, talks to her friend Barbara at the Bouquets to Art exhibit at the de Young museum in San Francisco, Calif. Tuesday, March 14, 2017.

The Regulars: Colorful San Francisco B&B; owner lives as

Emma Marie Chiang

Combing through her racks of eccentric vintage dresses, embellished purses and patterned pantaloons, Sheila Ash tops off her selected outfit with the perfect hat before heading up the stairs to greet her ...

The Regulars: S.F. chorus group sings their hearts out

By Kat Duncan

When Patricia Glasser was 22, she visited the San Francisco Soundwave Chorus for the first time and was instantly hooked by their enthusiasm. Now, 29 years later, she is still thrilled to rehearse with ...

Above: Maurice Ford plays “Duck Hunt” behind his 1991 Honda Accord at 19th and Mission streets.
Below: Ford shows customers pictures of his game car during his job at the Halal Guys restaurant.

The Regulars: ‘Magic’ video game car roams S.F.’s streets

Emma Marie Chiang

On a Thursday night at the corner of 19th and Mission streets in front of the Beauty Bar, a smiling man standing next to a car full of flashing video consoles hollers: “Free to play, no ...

�If i'm really concerned about a cat that has aggression towards strangers, i'll put these on. You can't bite through this.� Said Daniel �DQ� Quagliozzi as he slipped on a pair of kevlar gloves in his apartment in San Francisco on February 1st, 2017. As a cat behavior consultant, DQ uses a variety of tools to help his clients and their troubled cats better live in harmony.

The Regulars: Touching humans’ hearts through feline friends

By Max Bouvette

It’s an overcast Tuesday morning and Daniel “DQ” Quagliozzi is listening to a voicemail left by one of his clients as he sips a hot cup of green tea. The woman speaks quickly, her short sentences ...

Emilia Stoica, 7-months, right, smiles up at her mother Renata Stoica as she rolls chocolate in their home in San Francisco January 7, 2017.

The Regulars: Three Chocolatiers spread the love of Brazil

By Kat Duncan

Renata Stoica stands at her living room counter carefully creating little spheres of cooled chocolate and then rolling them in flakes of almonds before placing them individually into wrappers. Her ...

The Regulars: Female boxer paves the way for young women

By Kat Duncan

Raquel Miller’s last training day before her professional fight on Jan. 21 was not just sparring in the ring with her coach Basheer Abdullah, but greeting friends, family and supporters who came to ...

The Regulars: 30 years of magic, balloon twisting

By Kat Duncan

“Wiggle those fingers!” Robert Shapiro yelled to a room of entranced children and their parents as he made a card disappear into a balloon and then out again at the Potrero Recreation Center. ...

Christina Moretta sorts through photos to archive at the San Francisco Public Library where she works as photo curator in the San Francisco History Center December 6, 2016.

Historical detective on the case at SF Library

By Kat Duncan

Christina Moretta is the exuberant person whose careful, white-gloved hands discover and sort historical materials for San Francisco. More than 2 million photos and other visual materials are taken care of ...

Joel Phmah, owner Piazza Wholesale, hands Darren Fanelli,activity director SteppingStone Mission Creek Day Health,, bouquets of flowers he donates to be used in an activity for the seniors at SteppingStone on Friday, October 21, 2016 in San Francisco, California.

The Regulars: Relationship blooms among seniors, activity

By Lea Suzuki

Darren Fanelli paced back and forth in the courtyard outside of SteppingStone Day Health as he called Joel Phmah to let him know he was ready to come over. “I have the best job in the ...

Gary Shields, owner of God's Gym located at 2501 Broadway in Oakland, takes a moment to pray before he opens up up his business to the early morning workout crew which arrive at 4:30 A.M. December 2nd, 2016

Oakland’s Regulars: Meet the heart and soul of God’s Gym

By Max Bouvette

It’s 1 a.m. Friday morning, and while most businesses in downtown Oakland are closed and silent, there’s a building at 25th and Broadway whose lights are on. Uptempo gospel music can be heard playing ...

Dr. James Hutchinson, 93, listens to Diego Ope�a's heartbeat during a checkup at Hutchinson's office of 63 years on Tuesday, October 18, 2016 in San Mateo, Calif. Hutchinson, who was San Mateo county's first African American doctor, is now seeing three generations of patients.

San Mateo doctor, 93, has simple prescription: Keep on working

By Erin Brethauer

The morning that Dr. James Hutchinson opened his family practice in San Mateo in a large house on a corner of a tree-lined street nicknamed “Doctor’s Row,” he received what he refers to ...

Bill Graham n his old office January 30, 1980 Photo, ran 11/3/1991, P. 39, Sunday Datebook

Celebrating Bill Graham’s legacy on death’s anniversary

By Bill Van Niekerken

Rock promoter Bill Graham’s influence reaches far beyond the Bay Area music scene. He forever changed how fans and musicians come together and how concerts are organized. Oct. 25 marks ...

Vladimir Vitkovsky discusses technique with examples from an art text with his student, Polina Lushova, 10, of Hunters point, as she paints in his studio in the outer Richmond district in San Francisco September 15, 2016.

San Francisco artist, surrounded by art, constantly produces it

By Kat Duncan

Walking down a hall lined with paintings and up the creaky wooden stairs, Vladimir Vitkovsky enters his Richmond studio each day to paint the afternoon away. The sounds of his brush strokes are accompanied ...

Lisa Thomas, 38, left, and Kristin Hembree, 38, pose for a portrait with their recent set of headbands before attending the Giants game against the Rockies Sept. 28, 2016 in San Francisco, Calif. The twins have been going almost monthly to Giants games since 2011 when their father helped to get them hooked on the sport. Over time, they began making matching headbands to wear and they now do it for every game they go to.

East Bay twins show double the love for the Giants

By Leah Millis

The surface of the kitchen table was barely visible under an assortment of supplies including orange tubing, wire, miniature lights, tiny playing cards, a sheet of black foam board, scissors and a hot glue ...

Tim Blevins, at right, sings in the 24th St. Mission BART station on June 9, 2016. Blevins' opera singing career took him to big stages in New York and Europe, but struggles with addiction, health and housing has left him living on the street.

Underground ‘Opera’ mesmerizes, despite his pain and poverty

by Tim Hussin

“Hey, what’s up ‘Opera,’” a man calls out as Tim Blevins pushes his walker down Sixth Street. “I’m good. I’m in the program,” he says, referring to ...

San Francisco Giants Game 1 action from 1962 playoff series against the Los Angeles Dodger 10/1/1962

54 years ago, a Giants-Dodgers series for the ages

By Bill Van Niekerken

The Giants and Dodgers have had their share of memorable series through the decades, but 54 years ago fans were treated to the most memorable of them all. With the baseball season in its ...

Anton Komarov, 10, center, raises his hand to make a suggestion during the start of a LARPing mission at Mitchell Park on Wednesday, September 21, 2016 in Palo Alto, Calif. Christopher Melville, who started leading the junior league at the park 10 years ago, says the live-action role playing helps kids develop critical thinking skills while using their imaginations.

Kids LARP into action armed with foam weapons, imagination

By Erin Brethauer

As a gentle breeze sweeps over Mitchell Park in Palo Alto on Wednesday evening, Christopher Melville sits below a large tree and gently plucks a harp. He sports a green frock with a belt around it paired ...

Carolyn Harvey, 70, leads a pickleball game at the Golden Gate Park Tennis Courts on Wednesday, September 14, 2016 in San Francisco, Calif. Pickleball is a racquet sport that combines elements of tennis, ping pong and badminton. Harvey started groups playing several times a week at the tennis courts after retiring and learning the sport two years ago.

Pickleball picks up some new fans in the park

By Erin Brethauer

Pickleball. “I’d never even heard of it,” shrugs Carolyn Harvey, 70. “I had no idea what it was.” Harvey wasn’t the only one. Mentioning the game often results in ...

Leonardo Perez Gonzalez, 63, originally from Cuba, parks on Market Street and dances while playing loud Latin music from the speaker he carries on his motorized wheel chair on Thursday, August 25, 2016 in San Francisco, Calif.

S.F. man rolls with Latin jams: ‘A lot of people like it’

By Erin Brethauer

If you have the sudden urge to start dancing the salsa, mambo or merengue while walking down Market Street in downtown San Francisco, chances are you have Leonardo Perez Gonzalez to thank (or blame). ...

Chloe Shively (l to r) and Angie Leonenko, both of San Francisco, rehearse for an upcoming performance at Al-Masri Egyptian restaurant on Monday, July 25, 2016 in San Francisco, California.

Restaurateur, dancer teaches others how to move like an Egyptian

By Kat Duncan

Sausan Molthen calls out, “Shimmy shimmy!” as she leads the room of exuberant women through Egyptian dance moves while surrounded by hieroglyphics, gold statues and upside down chairs on tables in the ...

Mike McGill, collections coordinator for the Aquarium of the Bay, dives with Cate Vaz, a volunteer diver and interpretive naturalist, on August 15, 2016. McGill has been working at the aquarium for 20 years.

Marine biologist follows his bliss at S.F. aquarium

By Erin Brethauer

As a child, Mike McGill remembers gathering around the TV with his family every Sunday night at 7 p.m. to watch “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau.” Watching the beloved French ...

Sam Stone rides a bus to play mandolin at an open mic in Alameda, Calif. on Wednesday, August 3, 2016. Stone has been homeless here on and off since 2007.

Alameda man chooses homelessness: ‘I just love sleeping

By Tim Hussin

For many homeless in the Bay Area, living on the street has come after a series of hardships. But for Sam Stone, it’s partially a choice. “I just love sleeping outdoors, that’s the ...

Tim Wong, a San Francisco Botanical Garden Butterfly Habitat Volunteer, works in the California Native Garden to improve the habitat of the California Pipevine Swallowtail, a locally-rare butterfly native to the area on Friday, August 5, 2016 in San Francisco, Calif. "What I really like is to raise awareness that we have these really beautiful incredible animals and native plants that are worth preserving even in a developed environment like San Francisco," said Wong.

S.F. biologist’s passion for butterflies soars on Instagram

By Erin Brethauer

Tim Wong’s fascination with butterflies started when he was seven and his kindergarten class raised Painted lady butterflies. “I was completely fascinated by the complete metamorphosis from ...

Curt Robinson has been a train operator for Bay Area Rapid Transit System for 17 years. He operates a train out of the Richmond train yard on Thursday, August 4, 2016 in Richmond, Calif.

BART operator is the train’s eyes and ears: ‘You have to be

By Tim Hussin

As the tunnels blur past the BART train windows, Curt Robinson admits he never dreamed of becoming a train operator. “All kids like trains,” he says. “I took them for granted. ... I ...

Suu Ngo, 67, cleans the sidewalks and streets along Irving Street on Thursday, July 21, 2016 in San Francisco, Calif. Ngo, who is originally from Vietnam, has been cleaning the streets for the Department of Public Works for the past five years since leaving the restaurant business after 27 years. "I'm happy here," she says of her cleaning route which starts at 9th and Irving, "Everybody is nice to me, respects me." Ngo works to help support her three grandchildren who she raised after her daughter died.

S.F. street cleaner, 67, is ‘Grandma’ at home and on the job

By Erin Brethauer

It’s an early morning in Chinatown and Suu Ngo, 67, is cooking potstickers on her kitchen stove. They sizzle in the oil as her pet dog, a small black mutt named Ellie, watches her from the floor. Outside ...

Keith Barbarino helps Tony Fazule fix a leaky toilet at Happy Hound Play & Daycare on Thursday, July 21, 2016 in Oakland, Calif. Barbarino, 25, recently moved to Oakland to apprentice with Fazule.

Plumber spreads optimism even if job is sometimes ‘rotten’

By Tim Hussin

In the artistic depiction of Tony Fazule's world of plumbing, which hangs outside his office building in Fruitvale, chickens smoke cigarettes and critters wave hello as a smiling cartoon Tony fixes the ...

Amoeba Music employee Allen Lewites, right, gives customer Daniel Prada some music suggestions at the Haight Street location on Wednesday, July 13, 2016 in San Francisco, Calif. Lewites has been working at Amoeba for 25 years.

At Amoeba Music, obsessives always hunting for music

By Erin Brethauer

Allen Lewites, 63, stands behind the counter of Amoeba Music’s information desk on Haight Street sipping his coffee, waiting for the next customer to approach. “That’s the fun, ...

Dan Kuppe, 56, prepares to bend neon tubes at his workshop on Treasure Island on Wednesday, July 6, 2016. Kuppe has been blowing and bending glass for 36 years.

For glass bender, neon’s beauty is a ‘creative blast’

By Tim Hussin

Dan Kuppe stands alone in his Treasure Island workshop, hovering over a neon glass tube. He marks the tube above a sketch of the letter “O” and turns to heat the tube with a torch. Quickly but ...

Salim Hasae watches his kite soar during the evening commute on Mission Street on Wednesday, June 15, 2016.

Getting tangled up in urban kite flying

By Erin Brethauer and Tim Hussin

On a recent Wednesday afternoon on Mission and 8th Street, during the height of rush hour, a red kite could be seen hovering over the buses and cars passing below. It was a brief moment of beauty amid the ...

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