Vol. XLVIII, No. 7
July 2024
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THE NOE VALLEY VOICE Artist Vows to Keep Repainting Gaza Mural
Trade Secrets of A Tech Survivor Sharon Gillenwater Tells How She Built and Sold a MultiMillion-Dollar Business
Provocative Message Brings Range of Responses
By Jeff Kaliss By Matthew S. Bajko
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thing from a “spare room” in someone’s home to a small “inn” near Dolores Park. The retired owner of the latter, Bernie Vielwerth, says, “I still miss it. I get letters from guests.” In those days, would-be guests telephoned the hosts directly. Now they start their journey tapping into the vast online marketplace known as Airbnb. And how does that work for hosts and guests? “I love hosting. I love giving parties. It’s nice to have this sense of community,” enthuses Airbnb “super host” Kruthika (last name withheld by request). Kruthika has been renting a guest suite in her family home “a block from Noe Café” for a year and a half. “There are lots of moms out there who have a huge gap in their lives after kids are grown. I looked at the regulations and applied for a permit. I could build up a business in the house with a separate entrance to make it a B and B.” She says she gets a fair amount of support from host platform Airbnb.com, with which she lists space downstairs in the home. “It has been quite lovely,” she says. “We attract a certain kind of people with my write-up.” More specifically, she adds, “we are not attracting a party kind of people.” Her guests are respectful. “Lots of
he story in Sharon Gillenwater’s new book, Scaling With Soul, is right there in the subtitle: How I Built and Sold a $25 Million Tech Company Without Being an A**hole. And now that it’s been two-and-ahalf years since that tech company sale, and a few weeks since the publication of the book, Gillenwater can allow herself to sit down at the Valley Tavern, a few blocks from her home, and share some of that story. Gillenwater had gotten used to the fast and lucrative lane, but she hadn’t always been there. “I’m not the tech person you’d expect,” she asserts, taking a sip from her cocktail. “I didn’t go to an Ivy League school. I didn’t have wealthy parents—my parents didn’t even go to college!” She’d grown up in San Diego County and had gone to UCSD, waiting tables in nearby Del Mar and later writing for San Diego Magazine. “I got some really nice mentors on my first couple of jobs,” she reflects. “They really led with kindness and empathy and didn’t take themselves too seriously.” She channeled these qualities when she became a consultant to big tech companies. While still in San Diego, Gillenwater met a fellow freelance writer and UCSD alumnus, Andrew Keeler, who impressed her as “the kindest person I’d ever met. And I can tend to be not so kind, so he pulled me in the right direction. I get upset about injustice going on in the world. I get very angry and emotional.” Keeler and Gillenwater got married, moved to Noe Valley in 1997, and four years later acquired their current home on 26th Street, where they raised their two sons, Carlos and Felix. Gillenwater worked two jobs, learning more about the tech companies she consulted for and their dependence on venture capital. Keeler “was one of the first people to do online banner ads, back in the ’90s. He had a thriving business prior to the crash of 2000.” But departing from typical gender roles, he also took on the job of attending to household needs and scheduling and transporting the kids to activities at Miraloma Elementary School. “Occasionally, I would have to do those things, and I’d screw them all up,” his
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ver the last eight months, a mural that Palestinian American artist Chris Gazaleh painted on a Noe Valley storefront to protest Israel’s war in Gaza has been repeatedly defaced. At times, the graffiti has been Islamophobic; at other times, antisemitic. In May, someone drew swastikas on the faces of two Palestinian figures depicted in the mural, on the building at 4018 24th St. They also scrawled in black ink above the figures’ heads, “Kill Jews 4 Allah.” An earlier incident saw someone write “Stop Hate” on the mural. Another time, someone splashed white paint over a family depicted in the mural looking up at a falling bomb. Gazaleh, who lives in the Mission, has repainted the artwork each time it has been defaced. In June, he said he had repainted it at least half a dozen times since the start of the war, triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack on Israeli settlements by Hamas militants. “It is hard to keep track. [The graffi-
Sunset Over Noe: The skies, like this one from June of several years ago, were cinematic last month, luring hikers to balcony seats on Bernal Hill. Photo by Najib Joe Hakim
ti] has happened many, many times,” Gazaleh said. “Sometimes I don’t even say anything. I just fix it.” Gazaleh was invited to paint the mural by Samir Salameh, who lives in the building, which Salameh’s family owns. As the Voice reported in its March issue, Salameh has been working to open a Palestinian restaurant in the ground-floor space, previously occupied by La PanotiQ Bakery. (It closed in 2017.) Each time the mural has been dam-
aged or graffitied, Salameh has been the one to file a report with the police, Gazaleh said. Salameh did not respond to the Voice’s inquiries about the latest incident, and a spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department in late June had no news of any arrests or other developments related to the mural defacements. Rabbi Gedalia Potash, of Chabad Noe Valley on Cesar Chavez Street, CONTINUED ON PAGE 7
A Peek Into Places for Short Stays in Noe Airbnbs and Classic B&Bs— They’d All Love to Have You By Kit Cameron
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s the summer fog rolls in, it’s a pretty sure bet you are going to be getting visits from family, friends,
friends of family, and maybe even family of friends. Hopefully, by now, you have discovered that there are some delightful local alternatives to the futon on the living room floor. Before there were online travel platforms, there were bed and breakfast accommodations in Noe Valley, every-
A Vintage Welcome: Sheila Rubinson Ash, proprietor of Noe’s Nest on Guerrero Street, has been hosting in San Francisco for more than 30 years. Photo by Kit Cameron