Vol. XLVIII, No. 12
December∫ 2024
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THE NOE VALLEY VOICE Merchants Ask Santa for a Very Merry Christmas
Church Street Clinic Helps Ease Post-Election, Pre-Holiday Blues
Holiday Window Displays Hope to Inspire Noel Shopping
Advanced Students Provide Low-Cost Therapy
By Matthew S. Bajko
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estooned in the two windows of the boutique When Modern Was are female French courtesans decked out in lavish costumes that spill open to showcase the store’s home décor merchandise. “It is Marie Antoinette on steroids,” marvels store owner Dona Taylor of the creative displays imagined up by her friend and collaborator Victor Rivera. “Let an artist be creative, and this is what he does. I trusted him 100 percent,” says Taylor. Rivera, also known as the drag queen Pat N Leather, first befriended Taylor as a customer of her store and began dressing its windows six years ago. Now housed in a corner storefront at 4001 24th St. at Noe Street, the shop’s Parisian aesthetic inspired his theme for the holiday window displays he installed in mid-November with an assist from fellow drag queen Katya Smirnoff-Skyy. “I want to attract people and have them say, ‘I got to look at this.’ You can’t get more lavish, rich, or more flamboyant than with Marie Antoinette,” says Rivera, who began his career in visual merchandising and costume design back in New York City CONTINUED ON PAGE 9
By Emily Hayes
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Notre Dame: A lovely French courtesan and a sharp-eyed rabbit in When Modern Was prepare to wink at the judges to win the Noel Holiday Windows Contest. Photo by Jack Tipple
Two New Pastors Seek to Engage The Neighborhood Both Churches Continuing Food And Other Services This Winter By John Ferrannini
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wo Noe Valley churches have seen new pastors appointed in recent months—and both told the Voice they are seeking to guide their flocks toward greater involvement with the surrounding community. The Reverend Rob Herrmann, 59, became the pastor at Bethany United Methodist Church at 1270 Sanchez St. on July 1, and the Reverend Dr. Peter Choi, 50, became pastor at the Noe Valley Ministry, a Presbyterian church at 1021 Sanchez St., in late September. For Herrmann, it’s a homecoming of sorts. He’d been a pastor up in Sonoma County for the past three years at churches in Rohnert Park and Petaluma, and in Oakland for the two years before that, but he had been a member at Bethany when he’d first moved to San Francisco some years ago after giving up a hospitality career in New York CONTINUED ON PAGE 13
Nights to Remember: Noe Valleyans of all shapes and sizes journeyed to the Town Square on 24th Street on a clear Sunday night, Dec. 1, to see the annual lighting of the Christmas tree and sip hot chocolate and eat cookies. Many may return on Sunday, Dec. 29, 3:30 to 5 p.m., to light the menorah in a Chanukah Wonderland and watch a firetruck spill sweets into the hands of happy children. Our cup runneth over. Photo by Art Bodner
ot the blues over the November elections, money worries, or the holidays coming up? If so, you certainly aren’t alone. Maybe it really is time to talk to someone. An affordable option right in your back yard is the Church Street Integral Counseling Center, a nonprofit clinic that offers therapy at sliding-scale income-based rates from $25 per session. Based at 1780–82 Church St. in an Edwardian residential building, the clinic provides a safe, homey place to confidentially share your concerns while sinking into a comfortable couch decked out with soft, thick pillows. Therapy is provided by about 30 advanced graduate students who are fulfilling the practical training requirements of a master’s degree in integral counseling psychology from the affiliated California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). The Church Street clinic runs about 200 in-person and online sessions per week for clients, most of whom live in Noe Valley and adjacent neighborhoods. People who seek services reflect the diversity of the area and include Latinx, queer, and trans clients, as well as marginalized community groups. The clinic has been providing services for more than 40 years, but its mission may be especially important now. The outcome of the presidential election in November was “terrifying” for some queer clients, says Quest Carrizales (they/them), a therapist trainee at the center. “It really has had an impact on people's sense of safety and security in the world,” Carrizales says. People are more anxious and are taking steps to take care of themselves, such as dropping off certain social media platforms to avoid encountering upsetting information, Carrizales says. During the holidays, a client may be spending time with people who they know voted Nov. 5 in ways that are a rejection of their identity or values, says Ava Benezra (she/her), also a therapist trainee. Benezra worked through Thanksgiving and plans to do the same through Christmas to accommodate those who need help. Some clients are doubling up on sessions during the holiday weeks, she says. Carrizales adds that on top of the election and the holidays, the latter of which can be wonderful but challenging for some, it gets darker earlier, it’s often wet, and people typically don’t CONTINUED ON PAGE 11