By Joel P. Engardio -- In an effort to save San Francisco from itself, the Emmy-award winning director behind the PBS hit "Saving the Bay" is producing a new series called "Saving the City." It will highlight successful cities that know what to preserve and what to let go: "Cities change, and if they don't, they die."
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- Tech bros get a lot of bad press for self-absorbed and jerky behavior. How did they become our best hope against the superbugs that threaten to kill 10 million people a year?
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- To understand how a sleepy suburb spawned start-ups like YouTube and food truck restaurants like Curry Up Now, it helps to know where San Mateo’s economic development manager learned about cities. Marcus Clarke lived in San Francisco -- branded by SF Weekly as “The Worst-Run Big City in the U.S.” He knows what not to do when it comes to planning San Mateo’s future.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- My favorite Muppets are Statler and Waldorf, the cantankerous yet lovable old men shouting wisecracks and hard truths from the balcony. I get to see them regularly because I go to a lot of neighborhood meetings in San Francisco, where there’s never a lack of Statlers and Waldorfs in the audience.
Read MoreJoel Engardio speech on why moderates are the true progressives in San Francisco. Engardio was the guest speaker at the Golden Gate Breakfast Club in August 2014.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- Consider how Detroit went from being the nation’s most innovative boomtown a century ago – much like San Francisco and Silicon Valley today – to the bankrupt, abandoned shell of itself now. And what cautionary tales we can learn.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- The short walk from Twitter's headquarters to Assessor-Recorder Carmen Chu's office might as well be light years. Consider the 204,562 paper files that represent San Francisco's 204,562 properties. Keeping track of that many physical files means Chu never knows if the day will end in comedy, frustration or disaster.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- There must be others like me in San Francisco who embrace liberal values but also crave a city that runs on common sense. Forward-thinkers who believe in progress and aren’t afraid of change. True progressives.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- For seven years, 64-year-old Janet Kessler has been voluntarily observing and photographing urban coyote behavior throughout San Francisco’s parks. She regularly logs six hours a day, taking up to 600 pictures. “People think coyotes are vermin, dangerous or the big bad wolf,” Kessler said. “But they’re wonderful animals we can live with if we treat them with respect and take the right precautions.”
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- Elementary school graduations are cute, yet they hardly match the hat tossing euphoria of the U.S. Naval Academy or the pomp of an Ivy League procession. But don't tell that to the first-ever graduates of the Chinese Immersion School at De Avila this month. With the mythological phoenix as their mascot, they deserve a celebration fit for rising from the ashes of public education in San Francisco.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- There isn’t a millennial or hoodie in sight at GemShare. The app is great, but what really stands out is that most employees of the startup are over 40 and women lead them.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- What if a startup helped single moms find social services as easily as you pick a restaurant on Yelp? Rey Faustino is building an app to prove that San Francisco’s tech boom doesn’t just benefit the rich. "If Yelp was anything like the websites that poor people rely on for assistance, everyone would be up in arms about the crappy service,” he said.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- Supervisor Katy Tang's approach to San Francisco's housing crisis is very different from her colleagues who are focused on stricter tenant protections without addressing the underlying supply problem. "I don't need to introduce quick-fix legislation five times a week," she said. "I'm trying to offer a different solution that addresses root causes."
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- Students of history know that “Nixon in China” is a metaphor for difficult change that requires a push from an unexpected advocate. Maybe “Seniors on the Westside” will become a similar catch phrase for solving one of San Francisco’s most vexing problems -- not enough housing for everyone who wants to live here.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- Based on the venture capital dollars flowing into San Francisco, we’re already being called the “new” Silicon Valley. But we deserve a unique name. Welcome to the Cloud Corridor.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- It’s easy to romanticize the Barbary Coast because that was historic debauchery. But what about today’s sin and sizzle on Broadway? Consider the dive bar with a porn shop next door and an illegal brothel upstairs. An 88-year-old woman living in Hawaii currently holds the title, which made it easy for tenants to trash the property. When her grandson Jordan Angle found out, the 34-year-old made it his mission to save his family's building -- and Broadway along with it.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- If you are excited about bike sharing coming soon to San Francisco, the best advice is to be patient. If our experience is anything like New York's version, expect plenty of glitches.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- Gays are discovering the historically conservative San Francisco Westside as a nice place to settle down. “A traditional neighborhood is blending into a 21st Century version of Mayberry,” said Mark Norrell, a business owner on West Portal Avenue. “We haven’t lost our small town feel. We’re just updating it. You could call it Gayberry.” But there’s some resistance to Norrell’s push to modernize the area's shopping experience. "Our meetings can be soap opera dramatic," said Maryo Mogannam, president of the West Portal Merchants Association. "Get the popcorn."
Read MoreJoel Engardio introduces end-of-life care topic for the Harvard Law School negotiation workshop as an example of handling a difficult conversation. January 2012.
Read MoreJoel Engardio's NPR essay "Learning True Tolerance" broadcast on Weekend Edition Sunday as part of the "This I Believe" series.
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