In Part 2, we begin with the decision to open MBC. Molly had known her friend Sommer Peterson since high school, and Sommer had a long history in her family with bowling. The idea was hatched in 2010, and on Jan. 1, 2011, the two signed their lease. Molly acknowledges help they got from joints like Albany Bowl and Serra Bowl and we pay homage to Sea Bowl in Pacifica, which had announced its closing the day before we recorded. They had looked at a couple other spots around The City before settling in the Mission. The location was formerly Centennial Electrical Distribution, and it needed lots of work right off the bat to get it ready to be a bowling alley. Molly is quick to acknowledge that the vision was there from the beginning, mostly from Sommer. From the outset, they paid special attention to service and detail, wanting people to feel that they didn't necessarily have to bowl to have a good time at MBC. The kitchen was another new aspect of running a business for Molly, and they got Anthony Myint of Mission Chinese Food as a food partner early on. They opened their doors in March 2012, 14 months after signing the lease. The conversation then touches on folks who've worked at MBC then gone on to open places of their own. The partial list includes: Victory Hall and Parlor, Casements (S3E47), Brass Tacks, North Light in Oakland, and Mothership. Then we talk about the pandemic. Molly's background in public health helped, and they used time when they had to close to the public to clean and paint. Because MBC needs all four elements—food, drink, bowling, and events—to operate, they didn't fully reopen until March 2021. Molly credits her crew, who she says were great through it all. We end this episode with a tease of something we're cooking up for late summer, and then Molly's thoughts on what a rebirth of San Francisco could look like.

Photography by Michelle Kilfeather

There's an awesome little six-lane bowling alley tucked into the heart of the Mission. In this episode, we get to know Molly Bradshaw, owner of Mission Bowling Club. Molly traces her steps from coastal Mendocino to Citrus Heights when she was in second grade. She spent the rest of her youth in the Sacramento area, eventually going to punk shows in Sacto and at Gilman in Berkeley. Molly's grandparents came to California in the Great Migration to work in Richmond. Some of her ancestors lived in Berkeley, some in East Oakland, and Molly would spend summers in the East Bay. After high school, she wanted to go to college and be independent. She lived in what was then known as Squaw Valley (now Palisades Tahoe) for a summer, went to grad school from 1997 to 1999 in Seattle, then moved back to the Bay and started bartending. Around 2007/2008, Molly opened Mini Bar with some friends. In Part 1, she speaks fondly of Divisadero and its history. She and her fellow owners of Mini Bar did lots of community outreach before opening, and we think the fact that the bar continues to be a popular meeting spot 15 years later speaks to those efforts. Please join us for Part 2, when Molly will share the story of opening a bowling alley a little more than 10 years ago. That drops next Tuesday. We recorded this episode at Mission Bowling Club in March 2023.

Photography by Michelle Kilfeather

We're rerunning this episode we did with Isaiah and Dani from Dragonspunk about a year ago for a good reason. These two are spearheading an effort to bring a farmer's market to the new Southeast Community Center in the Bayview.

To learn more or get involved, please go to the Dragonspunk site. And enjoy getting to know Dani and Isaiah!

In Part 2, Kavitha and Byron talk about the nonprofit's relationship with and support of students from San Francisco public schools. We hear all about really cool projects that the kids engage in, from publishing books to producing podcasts.

Then we talk about the expansion that 826 Valencia has undergone over the years. In San Francisco, they've opened two new nonprofit learning centers that each have their own uniquely themed stores up front. And they've gone national, with spots in nearly 10 different cities around the US.

We end with some thoughts about the future of 826 Valencia.

They'll be at Spark Social every Sunday next month starting on April 9.

And we all know the address of their Mission District location. But these are the addresses for their digs in the Tenderloin and Mission Bay:

• 180 Golden Gate Avenue at Leavenworth
• 1310 Fourth Street at China Basin

Photography by Michelle Kilfeather

We've been wanting to do this episode for years.

826 Valencia is a non-profit whose aim is to help young people write creatively. They've operated out of the space at the address in their name since the early 2000s. For Part 1, we sat down with 826's Director of Volunteer Engagement Kavitha Lotun and Pirate Supply Store Manager Byron Weiss to discuss their respective stories of moving to San Francisco and the origins and mission of 826 Valencia.

Check back next week for Part 2 of our talk with Kavitha and Byron.

We recorded this podcast at 826 Valencia in March 2023.

Photography by Jeff Hunt

This story, as Caroline Cabading so elegantly frames it, is about the longevity of struggle.

Part 2 picks up with Caroline sharing the story of her grandfather moving her family out of Manilatown and into the Fillmore, where she grew up two generations later. To her, the neighborhood was family. This was post-"urban renewal," but she still found plenty of folks with makeshift music studios in places like garages. She credits the neighborhood with her own lifetime in music.

Then we do a deep dive into the history of the International Hotel. It was an SRO (single-room occupancy) hotel on Kearny at Jackson that was part of a de facto network of such spots running from wine country to the Central Valley. Seasonal, migrant workers (mostly immigrants) stayed in these SROs throughout the year. And at the I-Hotel, many FIlipinos eventually settled and made it their permanent home.

But as so often happens, especially around here, greedy developers wanted to raze the building to make way for ... a parking lot. After years of organizing and fighting the effort to displace them, scores of people were evicted in the middle of the night on August 4, 1977.

The group that tenants had formed to fight eviction stayed tight, gathering every August at Kearny and Jackson to commemorate. Nearly 20 years later, as an opportunity to rebuild on the site became more and more realistic, the group morphed into the Manilatown Heritage Foundation.

In 2005, the new building opened. Today, on the ground floor, there's a living museum dedicated to Manilatown and I-Hotel history. Above that is housing for low-income seniors. And this is where that longevity Caroline emphasizes comes into play.

We end the podcast with Caroline's telling us what all goes on in the space at 868 Kearny. In addition to the museum, she says that it's a space to learn Filipino art, music, and culture. The foundation invites the public to visit and share in the rich history that is Manilatown, San Francisco.

Photography by Michelle Kilfeather

Sound design by Kayla Anchell

Nearly 100 years ago, the stretch of Kearny Street from Jackson south all the way down to Market was filled with Filipino shops, restaurants, and SRO hotels. Perhaps most notably, the International Hotel (I-Hotel) was located at the intersection of Kearny and Jackson. Today, that space is occupied by a residence for older folks, some of whom have connections to the last of the mostly immigrant population who were evicted in the middle of the night from their homes at the I-Hotel in 1977. It's also home to the Manilatown Heritage Foundation. In Part 1 of our podcast, our guest, foundation Executive Director Caroline Julia Cabading, guides us through her own fourth-generation Filipina history in San Francisco. Caroline lays out the history of U.S. imperialism and capitalism that sought cheap Asian labor and therefore brought Filipinos, mostly men, to this country for migrant work in Northern California. As they aged, those young men later settled in the I-Hotel, forming a community and chosen families until they were unjustly thrust from their homes by a real estate developer (sound familiar?). Check back next week for Part 2 and more of our chat with Caroline Cabading. We recorded this episode at the Manilatown Heritage Foundation in February 2023.

Photography by Michelle Kilfeather

Sound design by Kayla Anchell

Welcome to this bonus episode! There was just way, way too much good stuff we cut for time out of Parts 1 and 2 to just let lie on the cutting room floor.

We begin with Jeff's suggestion about what Good Vibrations' mission is and Carol Queen's expounding on that. Carol discusses what Good Vibes stands for and against in this world. We chat about how the stores welcome folks of all sexual and gender expressions. And we end with topics like Masturbation Month (May) and how Carol is, indeed, in the Masturbation Hall of Fame.

"San Francisco is miraculous," according to Good Vibrations staff sexologist Carol Queen. We couldn't have said it better ourselves.

This episode picks up where Part 1 left off, with our chat with Carol. We cover topics like the founding of Good Vibes and its creator, Joani Blank. Blank, who appeared on several enemies lists for her feminism and activism (hello, good trouble), and started the tiny sex-toy shop in the Mission as a direct response to women learning more about their own sexuality and feeling more comfortable in their bodies. The business grew and grew and now has shops on both coasts.

The rest of Part 2 really has too many topics to cover here (keeping in mind your limited time), so please have a listen and enjoy!

Photography by Jeff Hunt

Happy Valentine's Day!

This episode is all about San Francisco's Good Vibrations because, well, duh. It's also about Good Vibes' Antique Vibrator Museum.

To guide us, we meet Carol Queen. Carol is the staff sexologist, a title she earned with her PhD in the subject. Carol grew up in small-town Oregon, just south of Eugene. She says she was interested in sex as long as she can remember, despite what those in her community might have thought about that.

Childhood and early adult visits she made to the "big city" of Eugene helped her find community and solidify her outsider, activist status. Eventually, she went to college there, although she had graduated high school early and arrived in Eugene at 16 years, far too young to go to bars.

Despite that prohibition, Carol found her people, though it wasn't always easy. She considered herself queer, but folks in LGBTQ circles cast her out, claiming her bisexuality meant she didn't belong. It was another hurdle to work hard to overcome.

Eventually, she met likeminded folks who slowly branched out into different areas of study. But they all had one thing in common—a desire, through whatever avenues, to change minds and laws and bring about more acceptance and equality for their fellow LGBTQ folks. She credits the backlash to Anita Bryant as well as eventual mainstream acceptance of AIDS as a real threat to everyone with helping her and her friends win some early victories.

Carol and I do a short sidebar on some of the more recent efforts by the right in this country to ban books and legislate language, including so-called "don't say gay" laws in places like Florida.

We return to the conversation to hear that enrolling at Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality is what brought Carol to San Francisco. And we end Part 1 with Carol's impressions of San Francisco, first upon visiting, and then later, when she went to IASHS, moving here.

We recorded this episode at the Good Vibrations/Vibrator Museum on Polk Street in January 2023.

Photography by Michelle Kilfeather