Storied: San Francisco

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Supervisor Connie Chan (S4E40P2) Mar 10, 2022

Show notes

In this podcast, Connie picks up where she left off in Part 1. After living in San Francisco for about five years, she decided to go to UC Davis. While at college, she rode a bike for the first time, a story she shares with us. She majored in religious studies and classical Chinese. Both subjects were of interest for Connie; they didn't necessarily constitute a post-graduation or career plan. After her time in Davis, she came back to The City and spent some time trying to figure out her direction.

Initially, translation work drew her in. She found a volunteer gig translating for the SF Bar Association, and one of her first jobs was translating for a pro-bono tenants attorney. She shares the story of her work that day, and, as you'll see, it ended up setting her off on a purposeful path.

Having that experience of helping people bridge differences with the context of deeper cultural understanding, Connie now had a reason to wake up in the morning—in her own words, she "loves" to sleep.

Connie worked on a few campaigns here in town over the years—in 2007 to help get Kamala Harris re-elected district attorney; in 2015, she helped Aaron Peskin resume his old office of D3 supervisor, which is Chinatown, North Beach, and a few other neighborhoods.

She met her partner (they'd known each other since they were 16) when she was 26. He was a bartender at North Star and Connie lived next door. Today, they have an eight-year-old son.

Around the time then-D1 Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer was up for re-election, she called Connie. Connie thought Sandy was going to tell her that she was running for mayor. Instead, Sandy asked Connie if she wanted to run to replace her on the Board of Supervisors in District 1.

She talks about the process of deciding to go for it, all the people, friends, family, and community members she talked with, and the actual work of fighting a tough battle. Ultimately, she prevailed, narrowly, and assumed office in January 2021.

We end the podcast with Connie's thoughts on what it means to still be here.

Photography by Michelle Kilfeather

Supervisor Connie Chan (S4E40P1) Mar 08, 2022

Show notes

Connie Chan used to love listening to music at Tower Records.

In this podcast, we get to know Connie, who's beginning her second year as supervisor of San Francisco's District 1 (more or less the Inner and Outer Richmond). She and her brother were born in Hong Kong and raised in Taiwan. Connie shares the story of how her parents met: Her dad was a Hong Kong cop who worked with youth; Connie's mom was a social worker who also spent a lot of time with kids. They met through their work.

When Connie was 5, the family moved to Taiwan. It was the Eighties and Connie and her brother were very much latch-key kids. Connie was exposed to plenty of pop culture, although it took some time for music and movies to reach eastern Asia.

She talks about how members of her family had various trades and interests in Asia (piano teacher, opera singer, university professor) that they had to give up when they immigrated to the US. An aunt and uncle came over before her own family, and they landed in San Francisco's Chinatown. Her aunt served dim sum and her uncle worked as a bookkeeper for the famed Empress of China restaurant.

Connie talks about the well-established immigrant and Chinese-American community in Chinatown and the role they played in her family's move there when she was 13. The networks that existed, the opportunities that opened to newcomers ... it all played a part in establishing a trust that was almost always paid forward. Her mom moved Connie and her brother there, where the three lived with her aunt and uncle in a not-very-big apartment.

But she got her first impression of San Francisco on a trip here the year before. Connie plays the mandolin and visited as part of a band that toured the US for two weeks, SF being one of the stops. It was also the beginning of her really learning English. Her family speaks Cantonese, but from an early age, Connie learned Mandarin in school.

She talks about some racism and bullying she experienced at school shortly after her arrival here. But Connie adjusted and made the most of her new circumstances. She would stop at Tower Records and visit their listening stations, where she would read along to the music and learn even more English.

As a teen, Connie felt she had everything she needed in Chinatown. But when she returned to San Francisco as a 21-year-old after college, The City really opened up for her.

Check back Thursday for Part 2 and the story of how Connie ended up running for and becoming a supervisor in San Francisco.

Related Episode D9 Supervisor Hillary Ronen Part 1/Part 2

We recorded this podcast at San Francisco City Hall in February 2022.

Photography by Michelle Kilfeather

Urban Compassion Project CEO/Founder Vincent Ray Williams III (S4E39P2) Mar 03, 2022

Show notes

Trigger warning: Vincent's story is a difficult, painful, and traumatic one that involves several tales of violence, crime, and drug abuse. Please be warned that these episodes contain potentially triggering content.

In this podcast, Vincent picks up where he left off in Part 1. He describes a week-long crime spree he went on when he was 15. As he fought sentencing and was holed up in Oakland juvenile hall, he got some visits. First, his sister and her baby came. Then, Vincent's mom visited him.

Initially, Vincent was upset. But then he allowed her to share her side of everything that had happened. She told her son that she was broken, that she had trusted her husband (Vincent's dad) and he had abused her. He didn't believe her, but a guard got the police report from that day, and for the first time, Vincent understood what happened. But he couldn't let go of guilt-tripping his mom.

Many years later, still not able to move on from that emotion, his mom put her foot down. She was ill and he realized that there was no one to take care of her. This kicked off a spiritual journey for Vincent. That was seven years ago, and he and his mom are tight today.

He says his whole life story, which you've been hearing and reading about, played a part in his starting Urban Compassion Project.

If you missed Part 1, please go back and listen. And if you'd like to donate or get involved with Urban Compassion Project, please visit their website today.

Photography by Michelle Kilfeather

Urban Compassion Project CEO/Founder Vincent Ray Williams III (S4E39P1) Mar 01, 2022

Show notes

Trigger warning: We're extremely grateful to Vincent for sharing his life story. But it's a difficult, painful, and traumatic story that involves several tales of violence and abuse against women and children. Please be warned that these episodes with Vincent contain potentially triggering content.

Vincent Ray Williams's ancestors on both sides moved to the Bay Area for a better life.

In this podcast, we get to know Vincent, the founder and CEO of Urban Compassion Project, a nonprofit "committed to the health, welfare, and empowerment of the unhoused." His dad was Black and from the South; Vincent's mom is Puerto Rican. His dad was a Marine vet who brought trauma home with him and succumbed to the crack epidemic in the 1980s. Vincent never knew him.

Vincent's mother also suffered from drug addiction. The couple met in Oakland and had Vincent's older brother. Eleven months later, in 1987, they had their second son: Vincent. His parents weren't only addicted; they also sold drugs. Big time.

An Oakland poet named Hershey Hill joined us by coincidence the day we recorded with Vincent. During the recording, Hershey asks Vincent if he speaks Spanish. He shares that, in fact, it's his first language, but, as he explains in the podcast, there's some trauma that comes along with that. His father had physically abused his mom so badly that she asked CPS to come and take Vincent and his brother. Now in a foster home, the two boys would be beaten and locked in a closet for speaking their native tongue. The situation was bad enough that Vincent ran away at age 8.

The police handed him over to CPS and CPS put him in a group home. He thought he had escaped the nightmarishness, but it turned out to be a facade. More physical abuse ensued, and so Vincent ran away from the group home. He'd do his best to alert teachers or even the police to what was happening, but to no avail. Because he was so often in trouble at school, Vincent didn't have many friends.

Despite all this, he graduated from high school in Oakland.

At this point in the conversation, Vincent takes us back to when he was 9 years old and started doing and selling drugs. Between the streets of San Francisco and the streets of his hometown of Oakland, he was also selling himself. He also started committing crimes.

Eventually, Vincent reconnected with brother, Willie. Around 2010, Willie inspired him to try Narcotics Anonymous and it worked. After a relapse, Vincent has been sober for more than nine years.

We end Part 1 with Vincent sharing what it was like living and walking around the streets of Oakland and San Francisco before he got clean.

Photography by Michelle Kilfeather

WeXL CEO/Founder Arabella DeLucco (S4E38P2) Feb 24, 2022

Show notes

In this podcast, Arabella picks up where she left off in Part 1. She was in New York working various journalism jobs but still not totally fulfilled. This is when her self-described "Goldilocks Era" began. She shipped herself back out West to live with family again, this time in Santa Clarita. From there, it was down to Orange County. Summoning her experiences writing online, she cold-called the web editor at The Orange County Register and got a job there. But after a year-and-a-half, she felt lost again. In 2007, Arabella started a webcasting company, producing content for non-profits and some government agencies. It blew up and she got the content onto early streaming sites like LiveStream. This work brought her up to San Francisco and other parts of the Bay Area regularly. At this point in the recording, Arabella briefly shares her first visit to The City when she was 14. She moved to San Francisco and her company was doing really well. But then their biggest client pulled out and Arabella scrambled again. Her cousin convinced her to get back into spokesmodel work, which she did. This is how she met the man she'd later marry. She credits her husband with having made her fall in love with San Francisco. Arabella shares the story of launching WeXL. It's the story of her no longer accepting seeing creators, especially creators of color, being manipulated by powerful media companies. To learn even more about the non-profit, please visit their website. We end the podcast with Arabella's thoughts on what it means to still be here. We recorded this podcast at the WeXL media lab in the Presidio in February 2022. Photography by Jeff Hunt

WeXL CEO and Founder Arabella DeLucco (S4E38P1) Feb 22, 2022

Show notes

Arabella DeLucco was raised by a village.

In this podcast, we get to know Arabella, beginning with the story of her Filipino family. Her grandfather fled to the hills outside Manila during World War II, a story Arabella learned shortly before he died.

When she was 5, Arabella came to Los Angeles to live with aunts and uncles who were already there. It was a cramped house, but she was a happy kid who immersed herself in school. She was especially drawn to science, but soon discovered that she enjoyed the writing of scientific reports more than the science itself.

When she was in fourth grade, she moved to a much smaller town in New Jersey than she had been used to in Southern California. Junior high was tough for Arabella, both schoolwork-wise and also in terms of the racism she encountered. She ended up going to a small private high school that was a 40-minute train ride away. She loved the journey as much as she did the schoolwork itself. Arabella ended up the school's valedictorian.

She went to Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ, and spent a lot of time in New York City after she turned 21. First, she was a spokesmodel for a beer company and later, she worked a journalism internship in the city. Arabella shares the story of seeing the first plane hit the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.

She moved to NYC after college and worked various journalism jobs, searching for her true calling.

Join us for Part 2 on Thursday, when we'll hear about Arabella's move to San Francisco and founding of WeXL, the non-profit that empowers diverse creators to tell stories over many different media.

We recorded this podcast in Presidio at the WeXL media lab in February 2022.

Photography by Jeff Hunt

Fredo Uribe+Lucia Ippolito-Gonzalez (S4E37) Feb 14, 2022

Show notes

Alfredo Uribe and Lucia Ippolito-Gonzalez's love story revolves around milk. In this special episode of Storied: SF, we get to know Fredo and we reconnect with Lucia, our guest on Season 3, Episode 42 (Part 1 / Part 2). First, we hear from Fredo.

He was born in Oakland and grew up in Pinole. His neighbors there had a dairy delivery company and San Francisco was a big part of their route. Young Fredo and Robert Frangieh were pals, and Fredo soon found himself running routes in The City with his buddy Robert and Robert's dad's company. They'd head out in the dark to a mostly quiet, empty city. But Fredo was hooked.

Eventually, they gave him the Mission route. He felt like San Francisco, and specially, the Mission, had it all. Fredo talks about the changes he's seen in San Francisco over years, especially around the South of Market/Oracle Field area. He reminisces about going to Giants games back in the Barry Bonds days. He was falling in love with San Francisco.

From there, we hear the story of how Lucia and Fredo met. It's a charming AF city love story involving the two of them doing what they do: art and milk delivery.

(At this point in the recording, their very young daughter appears on screen and distracts Jeff with her infinite cuteness. Please excuse.)

Fredo obviously knew a little about Lucia. But on that first date, they walked through Balmy Alley and other areas around the Mission where Lucia's murals live vibrantly. He was blown away that much more.

We hear the story of how Fredo decided to start Los Lecheros, his label. He was teased by folks he delivered milk to, so he decided to own it by putting "Lechero" on a T-shirt. For Fredo (and Lucia), the lechero symbolizes the hard-working folks who got up way before everyone else and actually came to people's houses to deliver their goods. That connection and community is what they're going for with Los Lecheros. They have dreams of turning it into a place in the alley to get coffee.

We talk a little about the Balmy Alley event that took place on Feb. 12, 2022. It marked the official product launch for Los Lecheros. But "Lovers Lane" was so much more. There were vendors galore: face-painting, clothing, food, drinks, DJs, and more.

We end this podcast with Fredo's and Lucia's thoughts on what it means to still be here in San Francisco.

We recorded this podcast on Zoom in February 2022.

Photography by Michelle Kilfeather

SF Mortgage Broker Jim Argo (S4E36P2) Feb 10, 2022

Show notes

In this podcast, Jim picks up where he left off in Part 1. He didn't care for grammar school much, but he enjoyed his time at Sacred Heart High School, where he spent a lot of time playing saxophone in band. He says that, being a musician, he was accepted by just about every clique.

Jim's house was a serious one. His dad worked to support four kids going to private school while his mom stayed home to take care of them. But Jim didn't like that somber environment, and so, he would often be the one making everyone in the family laugh.

When Jim was going to college at SF State and still living with his parents, his dad passed away. He had never wanted to leave The City, and this furthered that notion for him. He ended up with two degrees from State and graduated in 1981. It was at SF State that Jim realized, as much as he loved playing, musician wasn't gonna be the career for him. Instead, he studied economics.

He spent some time in Italy during college and shares those stories. Jim also talks about experiencing the Jonestown Massacre and Milk/Moscone murders around the time that his dad abruptly passed away.

After college, he played sax around town in various venues and did some cooking in restaurants. He loved food, but soon realized that he didn't want to do that full-time. Around this time, a friend recommended mortgage brokery, and to Jim, it was a "Why not?" situation. He's been in the business now for 38 years.

Jim talks about grappling with the fact that the San Francisco he grew up in isn't the affordable city we call home today. We wrap up this two-parter with Jim's thoughts on what it means, both personally and professionally, to still be here.

If you missed Part 1, please go back and listen to that now. If you'd like to get in touch with Jim, check out his website JamesArgo.com.

We recorded this podcast at the San Francisco Elk's Lodge #3 in January 2022.

Photography by Michelle Kilfeather

SF Mortgage Broker Jim Argo (S4E36P1) Feb 08, 2022

Show notes

Jim Argo's family has deep San Francisco roots.

In this podcast, we get to know Jim, a born-and-raised San Francisco mortgage broker. His grandparents on his mom's side met in the Marina, each a member of an immigrant family from Italy. Jim's grandfather played saxophone and met his grandmother at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition. His great-grandfather on his dad's side took his children and left his wife in Tennessee after learning of her affair. His paternal grandmother's parents were immigrants from Italy and Bulgaria.

Jim's dad's dad was a railroad clerk, eventually working out of San Francisco. The family lived off of Waller Street in the Lower Fillmore area. Jim's mom grew up in the Outer Richmond (near where Jim lives today). Her dad was a grocer in the then-new neighborhood, and he did pretty well.

His parents met when Jim's dad and a buddy, both students at Poly High, went on a double date with girls from a Catholic school in another part of town. His parents weren't paired with each other that night, but they met and the rest is history. It was the mid-1930s, well into the Depression but before the US's involvement in World War II.

Jim's dad worked for SFFD as a firefighter. It was a stable job, and, coming out of the Depression, that was a big deal. The young, newly married couple rented a place not far from her parents in the Outer Richmond. They lived there with their three daughters.

And then Jim, their only son, was born. This meant it was time to move. The family bought a house on 29th Avenue and Fulton, near Golden Gate Park. This is the house where Jim did most of his growing up.

He went to Catholic schools and, eventually, around the time of the Jonestown Massacre and Milk/Moscone murders, SF State. (We'll get more into that in Part 2.) Early in his childhood, looking to his maternal grandfather and his own dad, both of whom played, Jim picked up the saxophone. Playing sax is something he does to this day.

We end Part 1 with the story of how, at Sacred Heart high school, Jim ended up being the de-facto student director of the band. This was necessitated by the fact that many of the music teachers were professionals who played out a lot and might've had a hard time making it to school the next morning at 8 a.m.

Check back Thursday for Part 2 and the conclusion of Jim Argo's life story.

We recorded this podcast at San Francisco Elk's Lodge #3 in January 2022.

Photography by Michelle Kilfeather

Diversity Style Guide Editor Rachele Kanigel (S4E35P2) Feb 03, 2022

Show notes

In this podcast, Rachele picks up where she left off in Part 1. Her heart broke when she moved from San Francisco to Oakland, but it made sense given her new job as a reporter at the Tri-Valley Times.

Oakland has changed a lot in Rachele's nearly 40 years there, but she came to love it nonetheless. The paper became the Contra Costa Times and her editors assigned Rachele to the medicine beat. She went to work for a paper in North Carolina for a few years, where she covered Duke and the University of North Carolina's medical schools. After that, it was back to California to work for the Oakland Tribune.

She had met and married her husband here, and he had traveled east and back with her. In 1995, with a one-year-old at home, she had the chance to teach a class in SF State's Journalism department, and she took it. Instantly, she loved it. It turned into a regular job (as a lecturer), while she was also working as a reporter and raising an infant.

She had another kid a few years later and decided to get her master's degree. That meant moving her family to New York City, because she got into Columbia's graduate journalism program. The family had just arrived when the 2001 attacks happened in lower Manhattan. Rachele shares what it was like to be in New York in the aftermath of 9/11.

After a brief detour at CSU Monterey Bay, Rachele landed back at SF State, in 2004. This time, she was on tenure track. This is where Rachele and Jeff's paths intersect, as he was in the journalism program at state from 2003–05. She was back right where she wanted to be, doing what she wanted to be doing. The legacy of activism at SF State played no small part in why Rachele felt at home there.

The Diversity Style Guide essentially came out of the Journalism Department's work (the Center for the Integration and Improvement of Journalism). The Center was losing funding for a variety of reasons. As interim chair of the Center, Rachele took an existing style guide that had been compiled from various sources and revitalized it from a PDF to a searchable website, as it exists today.

Most of Rachele's time as chair of the Journalism Department has been during COVID. She uses those experiences as a basis of talking about what it means to still be here—our show's theme this season.

If you missed Part 1, please go back and listen. And visit her website: Rachele Kanigel.

We recorded this podcast at Rachele's home in Oakland in January 2022.

Photography by Jeff Hunt

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