Vol. XLVIII, No. 5
May 2024
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THE NOE VALLEY VOICE Generations of Love at Martha’s On Church
Visit a Green Glade Designed For a Blind Touch
Abuelita Ivonne Introduces a New Server With Dimples
Jerry Kuns’ Garden Among 10 on View May 18
By Matthew S. Bajko
By Kit Cameron
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hese days, there is a new member of the Guerrero clan to be found behind the counter at the Martha & Brothers Coffee Company on Church Street. And her name is Henley. Just nine months old, baby Henley is not quite ready to serve up customers’ caffeinated drinks. But she does like to snag their food orders and she’s fascinated by the lights at the register, noted abuelita (grandmother) Ivonne Guerrero. At least three days a week, Guerrero babysits Henley, her son Jaime’s first child with his wife Bri, while overseeing the coffeehouse in the afternoons. “Oh, yeah, we put her to work,” joked Guerrero, 59. “I will also sing to her when I am in the back of the counter. I just have been waiting for her my whole life.” Come the fall, Guerrero is set to welcome her second grandchild, as her daughter, also named Ivonne, is expecting her first child. The younger Ivonne’s due date is Oct. 4, which also happens to be her birthday, and which is two days prior to her mother’s 60th birthday (Oct. 6). “You love your kids, but it is twice the love, I think, for your grandchildren,” said Guerrero. In Henley’s case, “it is like loving your son all over again.” Longtime friend Gil Guillermo, who plays guitar and is known in the neighborhood as the maestro for music at the Noe Valley Town Square, had just finished performing at the coffeehouse the morning of April 19, when he stopped by the table where Guerrero was sitting, talking with the Voice. “What a gorgeous grandma,” Guillermo said. “Ivonne has been a
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Toilet Bowl Makes a Big Splash: Zach D’Angelo led a parade and served as Grand Poobah for the April 21 christening of the new public restroom at the Noe Valley Town Square. He and about 500 other people lined up to inspect the plumbing. Incredibly, the flusher worked! And the sink as well. And everyone finally washed their hands—of a year and a half of media frenzy. All except us. See our final wrap-up in Rumors, page 23. Top photo by Suz Lipman; photo below by Art Bodner
o walk with Jerry Kuns in his garden high up on 23rd Street is to experience the external world in a completely different way. Visually impaired since birth and completely blind following a middle school basketball injury, Kuns has reframed the concept of blindness, living independently since his teenage years, all the while helping to invent and adapt technology to assist blind and vision-impaired people. Kuns worked with John Steuernagel of Sculpt Gardens to create an oasis of fragrance, sound, and texture in his back yard. The garden will be among 10 on display in the Friends of Noe Valley Garden Tour on Saturday, May 18. (See details in story below.) Steuernagel came into Kuns’ life in 1990, after the now 46-year Noe Valley resident had run through a half dozen other designers, who treated him like, well, a blind guy who didn’t have anything meaningful to contribute. Steuernagel, by contrast, immediately asked Kuns to describe his hopes and dreams for the garden. “John, you can’t blow up my rock!” was Kuns’ first command. To satisfy that desire, the designer buried an outcrop of granite that had been sticking up in a patch of weeds, and created CONTINUED ON PAGE 9
blessing to our family,” he said, noting he had brought his children to the Church Street Martha’s as they were growing up in Noe Valley and that his son and daughter had both briefly worked there. “It is like family here.” Blanca Lewis, a professional CONTINUED ON PAGE 7
Would You Like a Cookie With That? Martha’s matriarch Ivonne Guerrero shows ninemonth-old Henley how to work the register in hopes that one day her grandchild will carry on the community traditions for which the shop has become famous. Photo by Art Bodner
Garden Tour a Perennial Favorite Friends of Noe Valley Hosts 18th Tour of Our Bloomin’ Dale By Kit Cameron
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here is a spring in your step, sidewalk garden plots have burst into greenery, and the time has come for the 18th Noe Valley Garden Tour, on Saturday, May 18, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The popular event, sponsored by Friends of Noe Valley, features 10 gardens, with owners on hand to talk about their horticultural vision. Tickets are $20 for adults and $18 for seniors. Kids are free. You can get tickets on the FNV website, friendsofnoevalley.com, or at the Saturday Farmers Market and at some 24th Street businesses. And don’t forget to buy raffle tickets, at $1 each or 30 for $20. Prizes include gift certificates from several florists, garden centers, and 24th Street businesses. As always, proceeds will go to a beautification project in the neighborhood. Check out an English country garden with a view, a sanctuary of sculpture and bees, and a serene Zen space with a stream. Or talk to students, parents, and volunteers at James Lick Middle
School, who have transformed a hunk of concrete into two inviting spaces featuring fragrant and drought-tolerant plants. You can swap cuttings or seedlings with like-minded neighbors at the Noe Valley Plant Swap in front of Noe Café. Or learn how to create your very own sidewalk garden with help from Friends of the Urban Forest, also in front of Noe Cafe. Contact FNV at info@friendsofnoevalley.com for more information.
Jerry Kuns’ garden (see story above) is filled with touchable plants placed at a comfortable height. Photo by Kit Cameron