Vol. XLIX, No. 7
July 2025
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THE NOE VALLEY VOICE Noe Girls Film Fest Turns 10 In September
Old Meets New In Reopened Laundromat
It’s Time to Hit Record and Make Your Mark
Business From ’80s Boasts New Machines, Free Soap By Emily Hayes
By Pat Rose
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alling all girl filmmakers! The Noe Valley Girls Film Festival (NVGFF) is accepting submissions for its 2025 showcase. The rules are simple: Films should be G-rated and five minutes or shorter and created by a girl (ages 16 or younger) who is the director, editor, cinematographer, or scriptwriter. The deadline is Aug. 20, so start making your movie magic. Winning entries will be screened at the festival’s 10th annual celebration, held Saturday, Sept. 6, at 4 p.m., in the concert hall at the Noe Valley Ministry, CONTINUED ON PAGE 7
A Blockbuster Bake Sale in June yielded $350 for Noe Valley Girls Film Fest fundraisers Wilson (left) and Blaney Haljun. The event is set for Saturday, Sept. 6. Photo courtesy Alison Haljun
Sailing Into Uncharted Waters
istory meets modernity at a resurrected self-service laundromat in Noe Valley. The family-run Sea Breeze dry cleaners at 1420 Castro St. near Jersey has reopened its adjacent laundromat with all new washers and dryers, a few perks, and a dash of oldfashioned hospitality. The coin-operated laundromat reopened on June 14, after sitting empty for 16 years. It features a fleet of new machines: 12 jumbo washers and 16 dryers. Alas, with the modern machines come modern prices—$8.50 per wash in a 30-pound-capacity Dexter Laundry T-400 machine and 25 cents per four minutes tumbling in a dryer. That compares to $1.75 for a standard wash and 25 cents per eight minutes to dry back in 2002 (according to a Voice survey of “Coin-Op Contenders,” March 2002). However, a range of laundry detergent products are on the house, including All Free & Clear liquid soap, Kirkland Oxi Powder, and Downy fabric softener. Owner and operator Justin Kyle Yip, 50, explains that the laundromat historically offered detergent for free, per the preference of his mother, Lisa Huie Yip, and he is keeping that tradition with the reopening. “She wanted to help the customer out any way she could,” Yip said. Sea Breeze Cleaners has a long CONTINUED ON PAGE 9
Adrift on Romance: The Kini-Davis family charts a course through the Andaman Sea in Thailand in 2024.
Caribbean Trip Inspires Father, Son to Pen Teen Novel By Matthew S. Bajko
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he storm is quickly transforming the blue Caribbean into angry, darkened waves. She needs to turn back now, head for the safety of the French West Indies behind her. Instead, she twists the throttle and
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accelerates into the storm.” So sets the scene of the first chapter of The Uncertainty Principle, written by Noe Valley father-son duo Joshua Davis and Kal Kini-Davis. The book focuses on Mia, a troubled 17-year-old who has been plucked out of school by her family to go live on a sailboat off the islands of Anguilla and Saint Barthélemy. Though all she wants is to escape and return home, Mia soon
Photo courtesy Joshua Davis
finds kinship with two other ex-pats: Alby, who is living at sea with his Australian family, and Nisha, a tourist vacationing on her father’s yacht. The new friendships lift Mia’s spirits, but they also stir questions—and desires— she is only beginning to understand. “I brought a lot of my own feelings and uncertainties into Mia, and that CONTINUED ON PAGE 11
Clean Slate: To honor an old tradition, Justin Yip poses with wife Kay Astorga and son Felix, 3, while holding a 1982 family photo in front of Sea Breeze Cleaners at 1420 Castro St. In June, the couple reopened a freshly remodeled coin-op laundromat next door. Photo by Art Bodner