#district 5

[April 16, 2025]

Greetings to all who celebrate anything right now: Easter, Passover, Spring, 420...like the proverbial hidden Easter egg, you just need to know where to look. And, failing that, maybe you'll just get lucky and stumble across something that will brighten your day. Like the re-vamped Divisadero Halloween House, now sporting a hot pink blow-up bunny.

All energies are going into the Divisadero Corridor first-ever photo walk taking place this Friday evening - April 18. As someone who has photographed this part of San Francisco for more than 20 years, I've long enjoyed sharing images made by other photographers with different styles and talents. For several years I have featured the work of some well-known local shooters and top Instagrammers and that's how I met Baidi Kamagate, who will lead this walk around the neighborhood starting at 5pm.

We've had a lot of interest in the photo walk, so I hope I'll see some of you there. The most common question has been, "Can I shoot with my smartphone?" Of course! I'm all for losing the stigma that iPhoneography or Mobiography is not real photography. C'mon! We've all been recording what we see with our smartphones for years now.* I'm a firm believer in the old adage that "the best camera is the one you have with you." Quite often, it is all I have when I'm traversing the Corridor. That said, all types of cameras and photographers are welcome, and everyone who does the walk will have the chance to have their work featured on the Divisadero Corridor feed.

Two additional important notes about the photo walk: If you'd like to grab a coffee from The Mill before we start, please arrive around 4:30, since The Mill shuts at 5. And, depending on where the walk ends (around 7pm), let's grab a drink at the closest bar.

The new mural on the side of Rare Device by Jas Charanjiva is coming along. The Pink Lady is a symbol to empower, uplift and inspire. This is a collaboration between Jas and Rare Device, so if you have a few dollars to donate to help the artist with supplies and the incredible amount of time that goes into this, you will be entered into a raffle to win a prize package of vouchers good at several local Divisadero businesses. This link will fill you in.

Several folks have noticed some activity at the long-empty 777 Divisadero. A construction worker told me he thought it might be a bakery, and a look inside kind of corroborated his story.

It's a fancy fit-out, so I'm not just expecting any bakery. A search of the property only tells me that there were plans back in 2021 for a Oui Oui Macaroon (and Basque cheesecake shop) to be opened by Ju-Ni pastry chef Cathleen Li. Ju-Ni, as you know, has recently expanded beyond its well-deserved omakase rep into smashburgers over at Hamburger Project in the 800 block, so could I be onto something? Watch this space!

Thanks, as always, for reading - and your Community Corridor support. It allows me to bring you this news, curate images from talented photographers and dream about Basque cheesecake within walking distance. See you out there!

[March 30, 2025]

Grief, they say, comes in waves. While many of us are still coping with the loss of Little Star Divisadero* last year, 2025 has wasted no time dropping us on our head all over again. Walking along the 300-block of Divis less than two weeks ago, I saw a sign in the window at Ragazza. And I knew it wasn't going to be good.

After 15 years on the Corridor, the owners decided to go out on a high note. Citing decreased customer volume since the Pandemic and being asked to commit to a new five-year lease, they chose to close down the popular restaurant that specialized in thin-crust gems. You could eat inside the cozy, high-ceiling'd dining room or out in the back inside the fog-protected gazebo. Or, if you lived around the corner like I did, you could still get a couple of pizzas home while they were hot.

That's our last to-go order up top. We went with the Moto and the New York, New York and pulled slices out of the box before I could snap a quick photo - causing me to do a little emergency food-styling. It doesn't do justice to the whole experience, whether dining in or taking it home. If you ever walked inside Ragazza on a chilly San Francisco evening, you will never forget the warmth of the pizza oven filling the entire restaurant, coupled with the friendliness and warmth of the staff.

The sad post about Ragazza to the Divis Instagram feed was one of our most "liked", and also one of our most shared. And the comments paint a picture of just how special a long-standing restaurant can be to a community. It was the go-to for a romantic evening as much as it was a place to catch up with friends. It was the local place you took your out-of-town guests. People with teenagers fretted that their children knew no other pizza. Many a tourist staying at the Metro Hotel spent their first jet-lagged evening in San Francisco with a comfort meal of pizza and red wine. Alex M. said it best, "Close to a perfect restaurant."

And, as our second source so aptly titled their story, Arrivederci, Ragazza.

We know there are a few other places for slices and pies up and down the Corridor. There's those amazing special occasion $32 pizzas at Che Fico (the one with the pineapple is pretty dang awesome). There's the super affordable Apizza that now shares space with Loving Cup. We've got to consider ourselves fortunate to have a second location of San Francisco standard Beretta and to have the brick and mortar of Sunset Squares (which, btw, also does round) in the 'hood. Don't forget Primo Pizza, especially if you 're up in the northern part of the neighborhood. And there's even something pizza-like from Little Brother's Pizza inside the Foghorn Taproom, which took over the Little Star Divisadero space.

But I do ask you to grab a slice and give some love to the pizza joint that has outlasted them all - Bus Stop Pizza, aptly situated in front of the 24 bus stop on Divis near Haight. It's been there since 1986. If you ever grabbed a slice after school or in the midst of a night of partying - Bus Stop will remind you of all those no-frill occasions when you needed something to fill the gap between meals or beers. It's consistent, and we are lucky to have them!

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[December 12, 2024]

One of the saddest stories I've followed for many years on Divisadero Corridor was the senseless drive-by shooting of high school student Aubrey Abrakasa, Jr. at the corner of Baker and Grove streets in 2006. Aubrey's mom, Paulette Brown, has spent the past 18 years advocating to keep this case open until the killer is found and brought to justice. Along the way, she has become a tireless advocate for other women like herself, single moms who have lost children to gun violence.

The momentum of Paulette's quest for justice for her son has built, not faded. She has worked with our local politicians and appointees, no matter how many times they have changed in the past two decades. And yesterday, the connections she has forged with Mayor London Breed, Supervisor Dean Preston, Police Chief William Scott, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins and many others revealed itself...so to speak. This small section of Grove Street has been renamed Aubrey Abrakasa, Jr. Street. Perhaps his name on this sign will at last bring the lead Paulette and her family have been waiting for.

It was a celebratory event, despite the sadness of the occasion. And also the fact that we will be saying goodbye to Mayor Breed and Supervisor Preston at the end of the year as both lost their recent elections. But let this video show for the record we are losing a resilient and calm-in-crisis mayor, who keeps the event together in spite of a minor malfunction.

With the new chapter of 1QQ out by @kald-dal-write i have decided to share this artwork of genderbent isak lol.

I did not know at the time that D5 was going through droughts and based the first outfit on his reaping one. Would imagine it would be one of her sisters though. I made it so girl looked like she got in a gang fight (Lost btw)

The second is meant to be the parade outfit but i think it looks more like D4 😭. Being pissed and judging everything ig.

وقّع بنك QNB مصر، التابع لمجموعة QNB الرائدة في الخدمات المالية في الشرق الأوسط وإفريقيا، اتفاق تمويل متوسط الأجل بقيمة 5.5 مليار جنيه مصري مع شركة مراكز، إحدى أكبر شركات التطوير العقاري متعدد الاستخدامات في مصر. ويهدف التمويل إلى دعم جزء من الاستثمارات المرتبطة بالتوسعات السكنية والتجارية لمشروع District 5، الذي يمتد على مساحة 268 فدانًا في شرق القاهرة، ويُعد أحد أبرز مشروعات مراكز المتكاملة…