Next Three Events:
Download the Spring 2026 calendar as a pdf here.
Sat., April 4, 2026, Noon-2 pm
Lost Golden Gate Park
A Walking Tour
Three events created most of the map of contemporary Golden Gate Park: the Midwinter Fair of 1893, the building projects of the WPA, and the construction of Highway 1. Our guest guide, Nancy Botkin, creator of the walking tours in the new book, Discovering Golden Gate Park: A Local’s Guide, leads us on a walk of “Lost Golden Gate Park”. With few entry points, this semi-secret area is arguably the least visited section of Golden Gate Park, much of it unchanged since the Depression. We explore a 20-acre section that was cut from the rest of the park by the creation of Crossover Drive/ Park Presidio Bypass / Highway 1 to speed traffic from 19th Ave to the Golden Gate Bridge. You’re pretty much guaranteed to see things you’ve never noticed before, including special views of the Bridge.
Distance: 2-3 miles, expect rugged dirt trails with uneven surfaces.
RSVP to shaping@foundsf.org
We welcome donations. Donate now!
Sunday, April 12, Noon-3 pm
Ocean Beach Then & Now Photo Hunt
Special Event
Explore Ocean Beach in a treasure hunt and photo-taking exercise. We welcome you to join us in an exploration of the human and environmental changes along the Pacific seashore. Historic “Then” images will be posted from Sloat Boulevard to the Land’s End; you are encouraged to find them and match them with “Now” views of the City and present ecology. The best contemporary photos submitted from the day’s journey will be added to Shaping San Francisco’s digital archive, FoundSF.org. Participants will receive a keepsake specially designed for the event.
Knowledgeable local guides on various topics will be on hand at designated sites to address your curiosities and offer a deeper dive into life at the edge of the continent. With Ocean Beach Institute, Western Neighborhoods Project, and Problem Library
RSVP to shaping@foundsf.org
We welcome donations. Donate now!
Thursday, April 16, 7:30pm
San Francisco: A Liberal Oligarchy?
Public Talk at 518 Valencia
New tech oligarchs have thrown their money around to shape city politics for the past decade. We now have a billionaire bluejeans heir for mayor. We explore how organized money and corporate power managed to steer San Francisco going back through the post-WWII cold war, the long decline of Catholic morality, and the explosion of social movements and the sexual revolution the city is known for. Join historian Lincoln Mitchell, former supervisor and Mayoral candidate Tom Ammiano, and neighborhood activist and writer Romalyn Schmaltz for a spirited romp through the tangled and conflicted histories of the past few decades.
We welcome donations. Donate now!
Explore Shaping San Francisco:
Ecology Emerges
Discussions and reflections on the history of Bay Area ecological activism, based on oral histories documenting the past 50 years.
Ecology Emerges is an oral history gathering project to explore the past 50 years of ecological activism in the Bay Area and the role that individual and institutional memories play in the development, policy proposals, and interrelationships that together make up the existing networks of ecological politics. We document the living ecological activist movement, in their own words, but also in a larger context of urban growth and globalization.
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 them out here.
"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.