BeyondChron

1 week ago | beyondchron.org | Peter Wong

Calling the 18-month period when John Lennon and Yoko Ono lived in a Greenwich Village apartment eventful would be an exercise in understatement. The time period covered by Kevin Macdonald and Sam Rice-Edwards’ new documentary “One To One: John & Yoko” was marked by the Attica State Prison riot, the first bloom of what would become the Watergate scandal, and President Richard Nixon’s visit to the People’s Republic Of China.

1 week ago | beyondchron.org | Steve Early

“Any city that doesn’t have a Tenderloin isn’t a city at all”– Herb Caen, longtime San Francisco Chronicle columnistFew San Francisco neighborhoods have had more ups and downs than the 33-block area still called “The Tenderloin”—a name which derives from the late 19th century police practice of shaking down local restaurants and butcher shops by taking their best cuts of beef in lieu of cash bribes.

1 week ago | beyondchron.org | Randy Shaw

Four of San Francisco’s longtime economic linchpins— Fisherman’s Wharf, Union Square, Downtown and the San Francisco Centre—no longer drive city revenue. These spaces are outdated. They require a radical makeover. The city should help make this happen. Union Square and Fisherman’s Wharf offer a 1950’s and 60’s environment in a 2025 world. Downtown office workers are not coming back. The San Francisco Centre cannot return as a successful shopping center. A radical remaking of these areas is required.

2 weeks ago | beyondchron.org | Randy Shaw

Refugees Build a Better TenderloinVien Do and Thai Cheng are Southeast Asian refugees who arrived in the Tenderloin in 1980 and 1981 respectively. Both have worked for the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, publisher of Beyond Chron, for over twenty years. Their stories embody the larger narrative of the positive impact of Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees on the Tenderloin and San Francisco. Vien DoVien Do left Vietnam in 1978. He was 17 years old. His uncle had to leave the country; he took Vien with him.

2 weeks ago | beyondchron.org | Randy Shaw

Will City Revive Little Saigon? The fall of Saigon brought thousands of Southeast Asian refugees to San Francisco’s Tenderloin. They rejuvenated the neighborhood. But the prior mayor’s policies has jeopardized this legacy. Saigon fell in April 1975. I heard cars honking and shouting from megaphones from my Berkeley dorm room. It was a celebration more associated with a winning sports team than the military defeat of the United States. We opened the Tenderloin Housing Clinic (THC) in February 1980.