This Week in Noe Valley: Shooter at St. Luke’s, The Wishing Tree Returns, and Why Don’t Tech Workers Vote?

The latest news from, about and for Noe Valley from around the interwebs:

• ICYMI: Drewe’s is now E&J Fine Meats [Bay Area Bites]
• Tour of a 4.3 million home on Cesar Chavez that was $4.8 million [CA Home & Design]
• The first dinner menu at HamletSF [@sportyspicesf]
• The Wishing Tree is back [#wishingtreesf]
• Active shooter nabbed at St. Luke’s [SF Examiner]
• Why don’t SF tech workers vote? [SF Examiner]
• K9 Scrub Club is closed and here’s why [K9 Scrub Club]
• Biggest regret from 1991: 'We should've bought that house in Noe Valley for 350K' [@madhill]
• Photos of the new retail/home development on 24th St at Church [SF Gate]
• The Louise Brooks Society started with a VHS tape rented at Video Wave [HuffPo]
• Notorious crooks: The story of the Gray Brothers who made millions running strip quarries in Noe Valley and Corona Heights in the early 1900s [SF Examiner]
• Local author and data scientist Kristin Henry’s adult coloring books arrive at Folio [artatomic]

[Photo: Fall view from Noe Valley via breadandbuttertheatre]

Local Author Alexis Coe Reads At Folio Books This Sunday

Alright so who is Alexis Coe? She's kind of a big deal, actually:

Alexis Coe has contributed to The Atlantic, Slate, the Paris Review Daily, The Hairpin, the Los Angeles Review of Books, The Millions, Modern Farmer, and many others. She is a columnist at The Awl and The Toast, and holds an MA in American history. Before moving to San Francisco, Alexis was a research curator at the New York Public Library.

And the book? It's her first, and it's garnering great reviews. Here's the description of Alice + Freda Forever from Amazon:

In 1892, America was obsessed with a teenage murderess, but it wasn't her crime that shocked the nation—it was her motivation. Nineteen-year-old Alice Mitchell had planned to pass as a man in order to marry her seventeen-year-old fiancée Freda Ward, but when their love letters were discovered, they were forbidden from ever speaking again.

Freda adjusted to this fate with an ease that stunned a heartbroken Alice. Her desperation grew with each unanswered letter—and her father’s razor soon went missing. On January 25, Alice publicly slashed her ex-fiancée’s throat. Her same-sex love was deemed insane by her father that very night, and medical experts agreed: This was a dangerous and incurable perversion. As the courtroom was expanded to accommodate national interest, Alice spent months in jail—including the night that three of her fellow prisoners were lynched (an event which captured the attention of journalist and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells). After a jury of "the finest men in Memphis" declared Alice insane, she was remanded to an asylum, where she died under mysterious circumstances just a few years later.

Alice + Freda Forever recounts this tragic, real-life love story with over 100 illustrated love letters, maps, artifacts, historical documents, newspaper articles, courtroom proceedings, and intimate, domestic scenes—painting a vivid picture of a sadly familiar world.

Alexis will be at Folio Books on Sunday, November 9th, at 4pm. She promises erotomania and murder:

Appetites will be sated @FolioSF Sun, 4pm. They'll have tea+cookies, I'm bringing erotomania+murder #books #NoeValley pic.twitter.com/qRAjmsmi7R
— Alexis Coe (@Alexis_Coe) November 7, 2014

[Official Site: Alexis Coe]

NVV Nov 2014: We Read It So You Don't Have To

The Noe Valley Voice is published ten times a year and has been a neighborhood fixture since 1977. Here are notable highlights from the latest issue. Links are to stories we've covered here on NVSF or other resources. Follow the NVV link at the bottom for full articles and all the ads.

November 2014

Front Page: Neighborhood jittery after a rash of serious crimes; Local author Ruthanne Lum McCunn self-publishes a new novel, Chinese Yankee; Local journalist Joshua Davis' new book Spare Parts launches Dec 2 - catching a reading at Folio Books.

Letters: Two condolence letters for Bruno, "a dog who loved food."

Feature: In memory of Nancy Roddick, esteemed member of the local community and wife of NVMPA President Bob Roddick, who died in August.

Cost of Living in Noe: $1.4 million to $3.7 million if you want to buy a house right now.

Store Trek: Blue Ova Health (1414 Castro St at Jersey and 24th)

Rumors: Pasta Pomodoro is no more - the owner is doing seismic upgrades and confirms that the building will reopen as a difference restaurant with a new operator early next year; The Hooters ABC License Application posted on the old Bliss Bar was a hoax - the location is being renovated and will become a restaurant that is "family-friendly with food and cocktails" but no word on timing; The rumor of the the fortress-like home at 801 Sanchez which hasn't been occupied for 40 years being sold for $10 million was just that - a rumor (it's not for sale and still owned by Jean K. Tinsley, a famous aviatrix that lives in Atherton and hopes to some day return); Peekaboutique has sold - the owner is not disclosing the buyer until the transfer is complete; Independent Nature has been evicted and is not planning to reopen a retail store - although the owner will continue her landscaping services [Ed.-- No mention of "greedy landlords"]; Tacolicious on Church St added to their sign - "Office" (no tacos are served there); A bomb threat on Sanchez in Oct turned out to be just training grenades; One-Stop Party Shop on Church St reports the most popular costumes this year were any character in Frozen and the Malificent Dragon Hoodie.

[The Noe Valley Voice]

This Week In Noe Valley: The Soda Tax War Kicks Off, Remembering The Winter Of Love, And More Photos Of Snow In The City

News from, about and for Noe Valley from around the interwebs:

• Scott Wiener and other supes support the Soda Tax ballot measure [scottwiener.com]
• Opponents of the Tax argue it makes SF more expensive; 6 people hired to canvass neighborhoods, including Noe Valley [SF Gate]
• Why housing costs keep rising in SF (short version: there isn't enough of it) [Michael Rhodes]
• Ellis Act perpetrators are the evil ones, not the Google bus riders says this op-ed [Beyond Chron]
• To be fair, the Ellis Act was a "problem" long before the Google Bus [NYTimes]
• It's the 10th anniversary of the Winter of Love [Bay Area Reporter]
• The Cesar Chavez project is wrapping up - and neighbors already feel safer [SF Gate]
• More reader photos of the great 1976 San Francisco snowstorm - including fun ones of Noe Valley [SF Gate]
• A profile of Noe resident Christine Schmidt, author of Yellow Owl's Little Prints and some photos of her charming apartment [SF Gate]
• The Tech Search Party returns to Noe Valley on Feb 8 [Tech Search Party]

[Photo: #blossom #spring via oiseaul]