We met Neecia while canvassing District 5 as part of our ongoing coverage of November’s supervisorial race.
Though she was born and raised in San Francisco, most of Neecia’s family has picked up and left the city for one reason or another. “I’m like the last of the Mohicans,” says Neecia one late morning in July.
But she loves this place and her place in it, and won’t be leaving anytime soon. Neecia doesn’t own a car, but she likes that from her home between Lower Haight and Alamo Square, she has easy access to bus lines — or can just get up and walk. The baptist church she attends is nearby, and she likes going around the corner to the Emporium arcade bar. And it’s not far from the city’s Human Services Department, where she is employed as a social worker.
“It’s just fun to be around.” And, she adds looking around, “You get beautiful days like this, most times.”
She ambles down tree-lined Scott Street in a jean skirt and a hoodie, munching on a mini-packet of Ritz Crackers.
“That was my breakfast of the morning,” says Neecia, who is off to an appointment, “because, as usual, I’m lollygagging on doing what I need to do.”
She turns onto Haight Street, and points out her go-to nail salon — “I’m local!” she emphasizes, and laughs out loud. Unhurried, she winds her way through the Lower Haight and Duboce Triangle toward Market Street.
For Neecia, life is good. She’s single and has no children, she says cheerfully, and mainly just has to take care of herself, and her pesky grays that poke through her brick-red braids and try to reveal her 40-something years.
“I find the positive, even if it’s not totally always positive. It’s how you look at things,” Neecia says. “I personally don’t really have problems that other people may actually have: I’ve been able to find a job, stay where I’m at … the things I need to do, I want to do, I’ve been able to do.”
Perhaps because of this, she’s spent more than 15 years giving back: Working with the city’s youth, a job she describes as simply hanging out with teenagers and young adults from 16 to 21 years old, many of whom find themselves involved in the justice system.
Neecia’s job is a more fun role than her coworkers’, she says, which involves more somber duties. To the kids, “I’m like aunty.” And recently, she took in her elderly mother, who she’s adjusting to caring for.
Despite her overall optimism, when the prospect of being in the paper and having her photo taken comes up, Neecia’s voice tone shifts, just for a moment.
“You’ve got to be careful; there’s so many evil people out there that want to hurt you,” she warns. “I try not to think like that, I really do, but sometimes you have to be, you know, cautious.”
Then, the moment passes, and she’s already applying lip gloss and smiling for the picture.
About the author
The Hayes Valley puppeteer, and his dragon treehouse
It’s not every day that one sees a dragon rising out of San Francisco’s fog. So when I saw a life-sized dragon puppet suspended from a treehouse in Hayes Valley, I knew I had to meet its maker. I slipped a note through the gate of the nearby Victorian and hoped the rain wouldn’t smudge my handwriting. Edward Winslow, a dad, dancer, and internationally-touring puppeteer of 20 years, responded. Winslow, now 64, had the Bay Area version of a storybook childhood: His mom, Marilyn, owned a toy store in Los Altos called Mud Pie and the Jester’s Eye, where she sold handmade Renaissance Faire toys.Winslow, at 11, would play with their stock of finger puppets, but it wasn’t until he moved to New York in the late 1980s that he picked up his first life-sized puppet. The rain did not deter Edward Winslow […]
One Of The Unhealthiest Beef Stock Brands Is Already In Your Pantry
We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.Stocks and broths are a cornerstone of any kitchen. Store-bought versions enable you to make a dizzying array of soups, sauces, and other dishes without the struggle of making your own stock or broth from scratch. But, the readymade varieties aren't created equal, with a few brands packing in unhealthy levels of some ingredients while containing little to none of the beneficial nutrients that a good stock should have.One of these health offenders comes from Nature's Promise. It's a brand known for otherwise healthy and organic food at good prices, which makes the appearance of its stock here all the more disappointing. Worse, the brand's beef-flavored culinary stock that landed it here gets double strikes for having both too much salt and not enough additional nutrients when compared to other brands of […]
The Holiday Markets are here
Nov. 23rd and 24th, Dec. 6, 7, 8, 14, and 15Holiday Mercadito Jaguar at Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts will hold a local artisan and small business market from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Nov. 23rd and 24th, 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Dec. 6th, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the 7th and 8th, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the 14th and 15th. Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 23rd and 24thWest Coast Craft will have a special holiday sale from local artisans for their winter craft fair leading up to the holidays. The craft fair is located at the Fort Mason Center and will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 23rd – Dec. 22nd The Great Dickens Christmas Fair at the Cow Palace is celebrating its 40th anniversary with […]
Philippine VP says she would have Marcos assassinated if she were killed
By Neil Jerome MoralesMANILA (Reuters) -Philippine security agencies stepped up safety protocols on Saturday after Vice President Sara Duterte said she would have President Ferdinand Marcos Jr assassinated if she herself were killed.In a dramatic sign of a widening rift between the two most powerful political families in the Southeast Asian nation, Duterte told an early morning press conference that she had spoken to an assassin and instructed him to kill Marcos, his wife and the speaker of the Philippine House if she were to be killed.Trusted news and daily delights, right in your inboxSee for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories."I have talked to a person. I said, if I get killed, go kill BBM (Marcos), (first lady) Liza Araneta, and (Speaker) Martin Romualdez. No joke. No joke," Duterte said […]
Above the law
Above the law Source: missionlocal.org
Man loses 300 lbs by walking and cutting this 1 food from his diet
Welcome to Start TODAY. Sign up for our Start TODAY newsletter to receive daily inspiration sent to your inbox — and join us on Instagram!About 25 years ago, Rick Salewske weighed 538 pounds. “When I was gaining weight, my world just got smaller and smaller. I couldn’t fit in chairs. I couldn’t go to restaurants. My knees hurt. The steering wheel in my car hit my stomach. I couldn’t put on my shoes. I quit going to college because I couldn’t fit in the desk,” he tells TODAY.com.In 2000, three things happened that motivated him to change:He dreamed that he died, and saw his brothers and sisters lowering him into the ground.He skipped his 20th high school reunion because he hadn’t seen his classmates over the years, and he was embarrassed about his weight.He got hired for a new job, over the phone, […]
Related
The Hayes Valley puppeteer, and his dragon treehouse
It’s not every day that one sees a dragon rising out of San Francisco’s fog. So when I saw a life-sized dragon puppet suspended from a treehouse in Hayes Valley, I knew I had to meet its maker. I slipped a note through the gate of the nearby Victorian and hoped the rain wouldn’t smudge my handwriting. Edward Winslow, a dad, dancer, and internationally-touring puppeteer of 20 years, responded. Winslow, now 64, had the Bay Area version of a storybook childhood: His mom, Marilyn, owned a toy store in Los Altos called Mud Pie and the Jester’s Eye, where she sold handmade Renaissance Faire toys.Winslow, at 11, would play with their stock of finger puppets, but it wasn’t until he moved to New York in the late 1980s that he picked up his first life-sized puppet. The rain did not deter Edward Winslow […]
The Holiday Markets are here
Nov. 23rd and 24th, Dec. 6, 7, 8, 14, and 15Holiday Mercadito Jaguar at Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts will hold a local artisan and small business market from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Nov. 23rd and 24th, 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Dec. 6th, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the 7th and 8th, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the 14th and 15th. Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 23rd and 24thWest Coast Craft will have a special holiday sale from local artisans for their winter craft fair leading up to the holidays. The craft fair is located at the Fort Mason Center and will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 23rd – Dec. 22nd The Great Dickens Christmas Fair at the Cow Palace is celebrating its 40th anniversary with […]
Above the law
Above the law Source: missionlocal.org
‘Like a teddy bear’: Bob Lee’s friends testify to drug use, character
Two former colleagues and friends of Cash App founder Bob Lee testified today that while the homicide victim used drugs, Lee was not aggressive or erratic. The testimony countered a narrative from his alleged killer that Lee first drew the knife that killed him. Nima Momeni, the man on trial for Lee’s murder, has testified that Lee attacked him with a kitchen knife over a “bad joke,” about spending more time with his family rather than going to a strip club and that Momeni redirected the weapon toward Lee. Momeni’s defense team rested its case earlier this week. Prosecutors today called three rebuttal witnesses to testify to Lee’s character, as well as a San Francisco police captain intended to discredit a former sergeant who on Tuesday testified in support of the plausibility of Momeni’s self-defense claim. Kristina Champion, who worked with Lee when […]
Judge denies motion to ease house arrest of Jon Jacobo
A San Francisco judge on Thursday denied a motion to loosen the home detention conditions forJon Jacobo, a once-rising star in San Francisco’s politics who was arrested on Aug. 5 for alleged sexual assault. “The motion is denied to the extent that it asks for relief from home detention and [ankle] monitoring,” said San Francisco Superior Court judge Kenneth Wine this morning. “It’s the seriousness of the charges that’s really driving my decision. There are a number of victims with very serious charges.”Jacobo, a longtime Mission District community leader, was first publicly accused of rape in 2021. This April, he resigned from his executive position at affordable-housing developer TODCO, soon after three women accused him of rape and abuse in a San Francisco Standard story. He was arrested on Aug. 5, 2024. Jacobo today showed up in the courtroom in casual clothes […]
Mission Local bags two Society of Professional Journalists awards
This here publication last week took home two more awards from the Northern California branch of the Society of Professional Journalists for in-depth coverage and analysis of the sort you expect — and demand — of us. Senior editor Joe Rivano Barros and former data reporter Will Jarrett were honored in the “Explanatory Journalism” category for the mammoth effort of tracing and documenting the Russian dolls-like series of interconnected organizations funneling billionaires’ dollars into San Francisco politics. Joe Rivano Barros, who with Will Jarrett won for the Big Money SF work. Photo by Abigail Van NeelyThe series, titled “BigMoneySF,” included Rivano Barros’ profile of Neighbors for a Better San Francisco, the largest donor over the last several election cycles, and Jarrett’s interactive chart, a stunning accomplishment requiring months of work unearthing reams of financial data structured in a manner so as to render it […]
