Mission Creek runs through the Armory. Photo by Mabel Jimenez

Carl Nolte of the San Francisco Chronicle writes today about the Mission Creek community of houseboats and its history of survival. 

Two women had key roles. Ruth Huffaker stopped the city from evicting the boats in the 1970s and saved the community’s life.

Betty Boatright helped pull the community together and helped it get a long lease. She was a grande dame. Her houseboat was immaculate and she dressed to the nines, a lady on the waterfront. She could charm anyone, political leaders included. “She had a knack,” said Woods. “You could not resist her.”

Both women have passed away, but what emerged was a floating community, careful to preserve the aura of the houseboats and the creek. There are families there now, and a professor or two. De Andrade owns a string of restaurants. READ MORE

In 2010, Anrica Deb wrote about students kayaking down the creek. 

Follow Us

Founder/Executive Editor. I’ve been a Mission resident since 1998 and a professor emeritus at Berkeley’s J-school since 2019 when I retired. I got my start in newspapers at the Albuquerque Tribune in the city where I was born and raised. Like many local news outlets, The Tribune no longer exists. I left daily newspapers after working at The New York Times for the business, foreign and city desks. Lucky for all of us, it is still there.

As an old friend once pointed out, local has long been in my bones. My Master’s Project at Columbia, later published in New York Magazine, was on New York City’s experiment in community boards.

Right now I'm trying to figure out how you make that long-held interest in local news sustainable. The answer continues to elude me.

Leave a comment

Please keep your comments short and civil. Do not leave multiple comments under multiple names on one article. We will zap comments that fail to adhere to these short and very easy-to-follow rules.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *