Senior Isolation

Thanks for covering our community and neighborhood – including our seniors. There are wonderful resources for seniors in the Mission – Bethany Center on Capp is a national model for low-income senior living. “La Trenta” (30th St. Senior Services) is a lifeline for so many of our neighbors. Because of our multi-unit housing stock there are Residential Care Facilities providing “board and care” to seniors around the Mission, Centro Latino getting seniors to dance…SF General, St. Luke’s, Mission Neighborhood Health Center and more offering excellent, culturally competent health care. The elder law project at La Raza Centro Legal on Valencia helping seniors with legal issues.

I visited an elderly man in his home in the Mission who told me about his chilhood in the Yucatan. His parents were slaves until he was almost a teenager, and he told me about he medicinal qualities of the plants he was growing in his yard.

And I love places in our neighborhood that welcome multiple generations: at L’s Caffe on 24th St. there can be a mom helping her young kid with homework, twentysomethings blogging on laptops, a middle-aged playwright talking with someone from Brava about workshopping a production, and a small group of seniors showing slides to their friends of their recent group trip to Europe.