By Joel P. Engardio -- It’s easy to forget that hippies and gays were originally despised as invaders and displacers when they first arrived in San Francisco. Does this mean a time will come when tech workers are celebrated in The City’s folklore?
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- If Netflix wants to produce a “House of Cards” based on San Francisco politics, the race to win Chinatown has plenty of plot points.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- For a nation that prides itself on democracy, we sure make voting inconvenient and confusing. But what if there was a promise of voting nirvana on the other side of the madness?
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- My mom wouldn't go to my recent wedding, but the Supreme Court is hearing a big case this week that could make same-sex marriage legal nationwide by July. A personal take on what this means for families still divided.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- If San Francisco is able to solve its housing crisis and become a city where middle-income families can survive, we might celebrate the day Eugene Lew, 78, learned how to use a MacBook computer in the Apple store at Stonestown Mall.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- Are show tunes the best way to reach Americans on the fence about gay marriage? One San Francisco family – a gay couple, their adopted daughter and a goldendoodle – hopes their story will win over the remaining hearts and minds.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- San Franciscans don’t fear social media because it merely wastes time or reduces privacy. They’re scared of being pushed out by highly paid tech workers who move in, drive up prices and alter the community’s character. As long as these fears persist, there will be voters in San Francisco to fight against market forces and politicians to cater to them.
Read MoreBy 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 MoreJoel Engardio speaks to the wedding guests after marrying Lionel Hsu on February 21, 2015.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- Monsters are becoming as ubiquitous as Democrats in San Francisco. Like the million shades of blue that define our Democratic spectrum, multiple monster images now illustrate our housing crisis.
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- Critics driven by nostalgia versus a need to plan for the future want to keep Supervisor Christensen from getting elected in November. "Change is frightening for people who cannot imagine things another way," Christensen said. "But life is not a tableau. It is a parade. We can't stand frozen and expect everything to stay frozen around us."
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- “There is no humane way to eat a dog because the dog is our best friend – and that is not just a western slogan,” animal rights activist Andrea Gung said to counter the claim she is imposing her value system on people who live in China. “The dog has always been associated with the word ‘loyal’ in Chinese culture.”
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- Life got better for gay firefighters in San Francisco last year. The fact it took until 2014 for this gay awakening shows how long the journey to diversity has been for the San Francisco fire department.
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 -- Grandma’s old sayings were riddles I solved while trying to finish a double-scoop ice cream sundae (“Your eyes are bigger than your stomach”) or discovering the taxes in my first paycheck as a steakhouse bus boy (“Don’t count your chickens until they’re hatched”). But there was one idiom I never fully understood until moving to San Francisco: “Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face.”
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- Nick Josefowitz took a simple message -- Clean up BART -- and changed San Francisco politics. "We don’t have to accept that the crony insider is always going to win. We should live in a city where if we feel things aren’t working we can change them.”
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 -- Thanks to California’s system of direct democracy, get enough signatures and voters can decide anything. But why bother electing representatives if we’re going to determine everything by popular vote?
Read MoreBy Joel P. Engardio -- Seoul mayor Park Won-soon leads a city of 10 million people and has a good chance to become South Korea's next president. His staff invited me to meet with him during his recent San Francisco visit. I asked about his views on LGBT rights and Park made news in the exclusive interview.
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 More
