Next Three Events:
Download the Fall 2026 calendar as a pdf here.
Saturday, September 12, Noon-3 pm
Sutro Forest
An Urban Walk & Talk
Led by Ildiko Polony of Sutro Stewards, we will explore the century-old paths and remarkable restoration work in one of San Francisco's most dense forests. Serious hill-climbing involved!
RSVP to shaping@foundsf.org
We welcome donations. Donate now!
Ghosts of Transit Past
Saturday, September 19, Noon-3 pm
with SF Bicycle Coalition and The New Wheel
Discover lost freeways, ghosts of train routes, and a vivid account of how San Franciscans moved around this peninsula through time. Hear about the violent strikes that shaped public transit, the graft and corruption that conquered the Outside Lands. It's a social, historical and critical tour through the city's transportation past and present.
RSVP requiredand click here to donate in advance!
Tuesday, September 22, 7:30 pm
(Yes Tuesday!)
TechBros Brew Bubbles:
Then and Now
Public Talk at 518 Valencia
A quarter century ago San Francisco was swamped by the first Dotcom boom and in 2001 it went ‘pop’. Two sharp writers were there and they each have books describing that era and providing vital information on how it shapes our world 25 years later. Paulina Borsook wrote Cyberselfish in 2000, with a newly reissued edition this September, and her prescience in describing the libertarian politics and dysfunctional personalities of the tech bro elite is stunning. Jonathan Weber's new book City on the Edge builds on his intimate knowledge of that tech boom and its investors, entrepreneurs, and the politicians who laid down the red carpets when he was editor of the Industry Standard, briefly one of the most successful magazines in history. Join them to plumb the depths of a cultural, economic, and political zeitgeist still reverberating through the streets of San Francisco today.
We welcome donations. Donate now!
Explore Shaping San Francisco:
Rethinking Memorialization
Shaping San Francisco, from March 2025–March 2026, was chosen as a Community Engagement Consultant by the San Francisco Arts Commission for the "Shaping Legacy: San Francisco Monuments and Memorials" project. For this case study, we examined memory and memorialization in relation to the Padre Junipero Serra monument (one of several public monuments toppled on Juneteenth 2020 in the wake of the May 2020 police murder of George Floyd) by facilitating artist activations, community history circles, and public events exploring this history. Four other monuments were explored by local community organizations: Christopher Columbus by California Migration Museum, Dewey Monument by SOMA Pilipinas, Francis Scott Key by Youth Speaks, and Ulysses S. Grant by American Indian Cultural District.
Oral Histories
Shaping San Francisco, as part of our ongoing work, sits down with people who have stories to tell and conducts oral history interviews.
Check out our full roster of interviews on Foundsf.org
"Editor's Pick Tour" from FoundSF.org
Comprised of over 1,400 pages, and 2,500 historical photos, the wiki-based archive FoundSF.org is the product of hundreds of contributors, regular people who were compelled by the chance to investigate some piece of this City's past.
Shaping San Francisco is fiscally sponsored by Independent Arts & Media, a California non-profit corporation.