Top tour guide

On June 2, Gordon Wilson, a long-time children's walk and adult walk docent, led his 1,000th tour at the SF Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park.

Gordon has been leading tours for the past 17 years. Since 1993 he has led approximately 500 walks for visitors to the Garden, 400 walks for children and 100 special group tours.

Wilson has also assisted in the bookstore, the library and at plant sales as an intern at the Garden. He has also been a staunch supporter of the SF Botanical Garden Society's Children's Education Program and library for many years.

"We thank him for revealing the wonders of the Garden to literally thousands of children and adults over the years - his most lasting gift of all," said Thomas Laursen, the volunteer services manager at the Garden.

Laurel Heights pet store OK'd

After a contentious meeting, the SF Planning Commission voted 4 - 3 to allow a Pet Food Express store at a small shopping mall in Laurel Village at California Street and Presidio Avenue.

There were numerous residents and proprietors of local pet stores in opposition to the plan to locate the store at the site of a closed Hollywood Video store because there are 20 pet stores in a two-mile radius from the site. More than 2,500 people signed a petition in opposition to the plan.

Park Boathouse Vendor Chosen

The SF Recreation and Park Department has chosen Ortega Family Enterprises to run the food and boat rental concessions at the historic boathouse at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park.

The choice will now go to the SF Recreation and Park Commission, which is scheduled to hear the matter at its mid-August meeting.

The decision releases long-time boathouse operator Bruce McClellan and his family from running the operation. Many Richmond and Sunset district residents support McClellan, who has been operating at the site for five years with a month-to-month lease.

Ortega Family Enterprises will sell organic and locally-grown food and sink about $250,000 into renovating the building. The proposed lease, for 10 years with an option for 10 more, would generate about $200,000 a year or more for the Rec. and Park Department.

Judge Rules Alioto-Pier Can RunAgain

A Superior Court Judge ruled July 22 that incumbent SF Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier can run again for another four-year term in District 2, which includes Lake Street and the Seacliff and Laurel and Presidio heights neighborhoods, as well as the Marina District.

City Attorney Dennis Herrera ruled that Alioto-Pier was unable to run again because she had served a portion of former supervisor Gavin Newsom's term. The judge disagreed.

Seacliff resident Janet Reilly has already announced her candidacy for the position and received a lot of endorsements from sitting city and statewide politicians.

The election will be held Nov. 2.

Arrest Made in Golden Gate Park Homicide

Police arrested 65-year-old transient Richard Ray in the stabbing death of another transient, 25-year-old Adam Noyes, in Golden Gate Park on July 4.

Ray claimed he killed Noyes in self defense after a bloody brawl near the Conservatory of Flowers.

Ray suffered a cut on his head in the incident, which his public defender said was caused by Noyes. A five-inch knife was found in the dead man's hand when police arrived at the scene.

Noyes reportedly moved to San Francisco from Vermont about two months ago. The fight occurred at about 9:30 p.m.

Girl Scouts Clean Academy

The Girl Scouts of Northern California spent a couple of hours on July 24 cleaning up the main entrance to the California Academy of Sciences in Golden Gate Park.

The scouts teamed up with Safeway's "bright green clean team" for the effort, which featured eco-friendly Bright Green cleaning products. The San Francisco effort was the fifth clean-up effort, out of seven planned, by the clean team to demonstrate environmental responsibility for creating a cleaner world.

Annual "Fun Day" Coming for Youth

The 17th annual "fun day" for children and adults with developmental disabilities will be held at Serra Bowl in Daly City on Aug. 11.

Participants will get free bowling, arcade games, lunch and entertainment.

The event is sponsored by the Bay Area Knights of Columbus Foundation, Lions Club International and Serra Bowl, which is located at 3301 Junipero Serra Blvd. Uniformed police officers and fire fighters from Broadmoor, Colma, San Bruno and Daly City are volunteering to help make the day a success.

For more information or to register for the event, call Cindy at (415) 213-8507.

Lifelong Learning Expands to SF State

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at San Francisco State University expands this Fall to the main campus on 19th Avenue, offering 14 new courses on an array of arts-related subjects. Classes begin Sept. 13 and registration is now open.

OLLI is a learning community for people age 50 and up who are interested in enriching their lives before and after retirement. The institute offers small, interactive classes as well as interest groups and discussion groups. With an annual OLLI membership, each four- to six-week course can cost as little as $26.

"These new courses are tailor-made for the most vibrant population in America today: the Baby Boomer," said Debra Varner, OLLI director.

Classes scheduled on the main campus, at 1600 Holloway Ave., in the Creative Arts Building, include drawing and painting, Broadway musicals, ballet, improv, history of video games, calligraphy, political thrillers and art gallery tours.

Additionally, OLLI offers 21 courses at SF State's Downtown Campus at 835 Market St., sixth floor, including writing, neighborhood walks, body intelligence, meditation and spiritual practices, web design and investment.

The faculty is comprised of senior and retired professors from SF State and other universities, as well as expert professionals, artists and writers from the Bay Area.

All courses are open to the general public. OLLI was created at SF State in 2003 and is now based in the university's College of Creative Arts. It is one of more than 120 centers across the country for people age 50 and up, created with grants from the Bernard Osher Foundation.

For more information about classes, call (415) 817-4243 or visit the website at www.creativearts.sfsu.edu/olli. - Alan Brewer

Watercolor Exhibition Returns to Presidio

Oakland artist Karen Frey won first place in the California Watercolor Association's 2010 national competition. Her winning painting, "BART," is showcased along with nearly 100 portraits, landscapes and other works in Water+Color: California Watercolor Association's 41st Annual National Exhibition. The free exhibit opened in July at the Presidio Officers' Club and runs through Sept. 19.

More than 800 entries were received for this year's competition, some from as far away as India. Of those, 100 were selected by the Watercolor Association to be displayed in the exhibit. Last year's exhibition drew more than 10,000 visitors to the Officers' Club.

This year's exhibition once again includes two plein air "paint outs." Plein air is the act of painting outdoors - an artist packing up his or her easels, brushes and other equipment, trekking out to a scenic spot and braving the elements to paint.

The first plein air was held July 25 and the second one will be held on Sunday, Aug. 29, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The exhibition runs from July 14 through Sept. 19 at the Officers' Club Exhibition Hall, located at 50 Moraga Ave. It is open Wednesday through Sunday, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.

New ways to tell a story

The 30th annual San Francisco Jewish Film Festival (SFJFF), which started July 24 and continues through Aug. 9, is featuring the New Jewish Filmmaking Project's Half-Remembered Stories, a new multi-media exhibition co-created by young adult filmmakers, who explore their Jewish past by combining new digital media formats with traditional storytelling forms.

The festival teamed up with San Francisco based production company Citizen Film and 11 Bay Area emerging artists, ranging in age from 15 to 25, to explore "half-remembered" aspects of Jewish history from the digital generation's point of view. The result is 50 short films, several of which premiered on the big screen at the festival, and 11 multi-media collages presented online at www.njfp.org and at interactive kiosks in theatre lobbies throughout the festival.

Some of the themes expressed include: "A Zombie Day of Atonement;" a great-grandmother's infidelities; an escape from Czech nationalists on the road to Manchuria; and time-travel with a Medieval Moroccan sage.

The storytellers attempt to fill the voids in their own family stories, using a combination of original motion pictures, illustrations, photos, graphic designs, audio and text to spark conversation about what it means to come of age on the border between Jewish identity and mainstream American life.

Filmmakers Sam Ball, Sophie Constantinou and Kate Stilley Steiner started Citizen Film in 2001.

"This exhibition is a chance to learn from our new generation of Jewish storytellers as they set out to reclaim their past," Ball said.

Fort Scott wins award

The Presidio Trust is the recipient of the prestigious California Preservation Foundation's 2010 Preservation Design Award in the Cultural Resource Study category. The Trust is being recognized for the Cultural Landscape Assessment of the Fort Scott District in the Presidio. The awards ceremony will be held at the Getty Villa in Malibu on Oct. 16.

The highly-competitive awards program honors exceptional historic preservation projects for excellence in design, construction, planning and technology. The Trust partnered with the architecture firm Perkins & Will and CMG Landscape Design, which acted as consultant on the team.

"We are honored along with our partners to receive the 2010 Preservation Design Award from the California Preservation Foundation," said Craig Middleton, the Presidio Trust's executive director. "It is tremendously gratifying to be recognized by an organization that is so highly respected in this field."

Fort Scott was developed in 1912 as the headquarters for the Coastal Artillery Corps and served as a preeminent training facility until the Army's departure in 1994.

The core of Fort Scott consists of 11 Mission-style barracks organized around a central green space (formerly a parade ground). Previous planning efforts have pointed to the importance of maximizing the site's contemplative, prestigious and retreat-like setting.