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Four Glen Parkers lead tours of the City with San Francisco City Guides

October 11, 2023 by Renee Berger

Enjoy walking? Learning? Curious about your surroundings?  San Francisco has a free resource for you: San Francisco City Guides, (SFCG) a 45-year-old nonprofit organization that offers walks throughout the City that take you on journeys through its endlessly colorful history.  Each year about 30,000 people from the Bay Area and beyond walk with us.

There are just two staff and nearly 300 volunteer guides.  Four of them, including me, live in Glen Park.  I recently reached out to learn more about them and to hear about their experiences as guides.

First, an introduction: The foursome is Armando Fox, Chrisie Giordano, Liz Hewlett, and me!  Three of us are transplants from the east coast, with Liz tilting the scales as a 3rd generation San Franciscan.  All became guides to share their love of the City and help people discover something they didn’t know.  Joy for us is hearing walkers say “Wow!” when looking at the Women’s Building mural or learning that Caruso sang before 3,000 people the evening before the 1906 earthquake.

Prior to becoming a guide, Chrisie taught junior high and high school students.  She jokes that she loves guiding because, unlike her students, the walkers come to listen.  Given that Chrisie has been a guide since 2010 and now leads four different walks, there have been hundreds of listeners.  Her Japanese Tea Garden tour, she shared, has special meaning because her daughter is a Buddhist monk and giving the tour has deepened her appreciation of spirituality.

Chrisie Giordano (in white shirt) leading Mission Dolores Neighborhood walk.

Armando is the newbie, having started in 2019.  A very busy professor of computer science at the University of California at Berkeley, Armando has lived in big cities and loves learning their histories.  In San Francisco he went on loads of walking tours which inspired him to become a guide.  Armando does the Ferry Building tour when there is often a buzz from shoppers at the farmers market and always great views.

Liz had seen some of the saddest days in San Francisco up close as a nurse in the emergency room during the AIDs epidemic.  After nearly four decades tending to others, she became a city guide, another form of giving.  She started guiding in 2017 and leads the Alfred Hitchcock walk, featuring scenes from Vertigo and other films.  She once had a walker who was an extra in Family Plot (Hitchcock’s last movie) who told the group inside stories of his experience.  She also had Hitchcock’s estate lawyer, confiding that she was glad she didn’t know until the end because she would have been intimidated.

And, my story, I am hooked on cities.   For me, San Francisco is like a giant theater with beautiful (and occasionally not) sets, and a limitless cast of characters and stories to tell.   I became a guide in 2014 and do three tours.

Renee Berger guiding a walk of Mission Murals, January 2022.

All are wonderful, but the newest for me is special.  It is called Applause! SF’s Performing Arts Hub and it dives into the truly extraordinary history of our performing arts—jazz, ballet, opera, and symphony.   We are continuously surfacing gems, most recently learning that when Davies Symphony Hall was completed, the first concert was for the hard hats, the people who constructed the building.   Join this walk to hear about this and see a photo of people in line waiting to enter  the concert, drawings made by Caruso when he fled the city, and much more.

My next Applause walk is October 15th. You can sign up here.

And an update: Jeff Harlowe, a resident of adjacent Diamond Heights, just completed his training and will be leading walks on the architecture of SOMA.

Walks led by our Glen Park contingent of guides include Applause: SF’s Performing Arts, Mission Murals, Mission Dolores Neighborhood, Golden Gate Bridge, Japanese Tea Garden, Ferry Building, and Alfred Hitchcock.  SFCG offers 79 different walks throughout the city.   Walks are free, but donations to the organization keep us walking!

Reserve a spot for a walk here.

SFCG is inviting applications from folks who are interested in becoming guides.   Deadline is December 1st.   Sooner the better.   The training is terrific.  Add on being a guide, meeting a great group of people, plus meeting folks from around the world ….lots of fun. Interested in becoming a guide? Click here.

Filed Under: Events, mural, Uncategorized, Volunteer

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100 block of Arlington at Charles
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Glen Park Association is at San Francisco Public Library Glen Park Branch.
2 days ago
Glen Park Association

Photos and Fun courtesy of the Glen Park Library!
It was a great turnout at the Glen Park Library Open House on Saturday May 17th!

Thank you to all who attended and a big thank you to Glen Park Branch Library Manager Darren Heiber and his staff for a fantastic day!! 🙌🏽

San Francisco Public Library Arion Press | Artist Books Museum of Craft and Design Rafael Mandelman 🏳️‍🌈 #glenparklibrary #arionpress #museumofcraftanddesign #glenparksf #sanfrancisco #InCommunity
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Photos and Fun courtesy of the Glen Park Library! 
It was a great turnout at the Glen Park Library Open House on Saturday May 17th!

Thank you to all who attended and a big thank you to Glen Park Branch Library Manager Darren Heiber and his staff for a fantastic day!! 🙌🏽

@sfpubliclibrary @arionpress @museumofcraftanddesign @rafaelmandelmand8 #glenparklibrary #arionpress #museumofcraftanddesign #glenparksf #sanfrancisco #incommunity
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Glen Park Association is at Glen Park Recreation Center.
2 days ago
Glen Park Association

Qi Gong & Tai Chi Thursdays at the Glen Park Rec Center!

Thursdays 2:00PM - 2:45PM
Room #1
Led by led by Ashima Sarin

Beginners and All Levels of Mobility Are Welcome! It’s FREE and drop-in!

(There will be no class the second half of June and July)

📍Glen Park Rec Center, 70 Elk Street

QUESTIONS? CALL 415-239-4007
... See MoreSee Less

Qi Gong & Tai Chi Thursdays at the Glen Park Rec Center!

Thursdays  2:00PM - 2:45PM 
Room #1
Led by led by Ashima Sarin

Beginners and All Levels of Mobility Are Welcome! It’s FREE and drop-in! 

(There will be no class the second half of June and July)

📍Glen Park Rec Center, 70 Elk Street 

QUESTIONS? CALL 415-239-4007
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Blog Roll

Coyote Yipps
Friends of Upper Noe Recreation Center
Glen Park Neighborhoods History Project
Open SF History
Sunnyside Conservatory
Sunnyside History
Sunnyside Neighborhood Association
Tramps of San Francisco
Upper Noe Neighbors

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