London Breed Says BaHo Best SF Neighborhood
Actually, we lie. She never said that. But we're trying to keep up with upstart Balboa-Hollow community site, balboahollow.org (a site that strangely features a hero image of the Cliff House?!).
All fibbing aside, the good mayor did drop into the undeniable heart of BaHo social activities, Cinderella Bakery, where she was promoting her small business challenge initiative. You can listen to the resulting parklet podcast with Chronicle pop-culture critic, Peter Hartlaub, and intrepid City-Hall columnist, Heather Knight, here.
Heather's excellent write up of the BaHo visit is here.
And by all means, take the mayor's recommendation and stop by Cinderella's for the best beef piroshki you'll find in the city.
Join Us for Friday Afternoon BaHo Ho Hos!
Dear Friends and Neighbors
If you haven't realized it yet, most Friday's a group of BaHo-izens regularly meet at Cinderella's (Balboa and 6th) parklet from 5-7 pm. Things are pretty much back to pre-pandemic levels, although, of course, social distancing is courteously maintained.
People from all neighborhoods are welcome to join! Except, of course, Lone Mountaineers... those people are animals.
Tea, piroshki, kharcho soup, blini, house pickles, pelmeni, cakes, Fort Point and Lagunitas beer are avaible at reasonable (for San Francisco) costs. Alternative food and wine are right next door. Stylish Cinderella blankets are available for weather insurance.
See you there!
BaHo's Russian Culture is Not Just Pelmeni, Hamentaschen and Kvas...
On the sunny side of Balboa Street between 4th and 5th Ave lies Globus Books, which has served a community of Russophone readers with a mental diet of literature, poetry, history and politics, both classical and contemporary. Only in Russian, however, as we discovered a few years ago when we curiously wandered in and asked for recommendations for contemporary Russian novels in translation. The serious woman who we asked, more librarian than salesperson, seemed perplexed by our question, as if it made no sense, and sent us packing with a "this place is a Russian bookshop for Russians".
New owners took over last year and it has recently exploded with interesting offerings in Russian and English from and about Russia, the Russophone world and former Soviet empire. KQED did a very nice profile here. The owner is Russian, an established antiquarian bookseller with stores in Moscow and Tbilisi, Georgia.
They have an amazing YouTube channel, including everything from literary festivals "Defining Russian Literature" to the history of White Russians from Harbin to Queer Russophone Poetry to the Underground Soviet Rock Scene to more poetry from Russia, Lithuania and Belarus. Check it out here.
BaHo News
Fake News! NY Times Dares to Question BaHo Authenticity
In a sprawling "Technology" piece from August 2nd, The Times, we think, cast doubt on our burgeoning neightborhood, going so far as to label us "little-known"!
"LITTLE KNOWN!" we spit back at them in an all-caps Trumpian-style belch. For godsakes we have t-shirts!
Meanwhile, the article touched off a global media circus... Soon after the article was published we've been covered in the Spanish language press...
Balboa Hollow, un distrito de cincuenta manzanas al norte del Golden Gate Park, proclama en su sitio web que es un vecindario diferente.
and on the French interwebs...
Et certains quartiers peu connus de San Francisco, tel que Balboa Hollow, ont été marqués par Google Maps après des revendications régulières sur le web.
Overall, we must say we're rather shocked by the Times' performance here.
How the hell did they ever find us?
Tastebuds from Jahmal Holland on Vimeo.
