It was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, back home in the neighborhood and seeking fortification just days before she engineered passage of health care reform.

In some spots, employees would be rushing to find a camera to capture the moment or pen and paper to get an autograph. But for the guys at the Mayflower Market, it was just another regular customer getting lunch.

Located at 2498 Fillmore Street, the neighborhood market has been serving the community since the 1920s. Three brothers, Angelo, Lefty and Peter Prongos, who emigrated from Greece in 1972, have owned and operated the market for the last 13 years. The small corner market holds some gourmet surprises among the snacks, drinks and other expected items.

But it’s best known for delivering customer service that goes above and beyond.

“The staff is friendly and someone almost always greets me by name as soon as I walk in, which is always nice and comforting,” says Angela Riley, who recently moved into the neighborhood. “Sometimes they know what I plan to order at the deli counter before I even open my mouth.”

Another draw is the sandwiches — made to order and piled high with Boar’s Head meats and other fresh ingredients.

“We have a very good deli and our sandwiches are very, very good and well known in the area,” says Angelo Prongos. “I have customers who’ve moved out of the area and still stop by.”

It’s the classic neighborhood spot where everybody knows your name.

“I recognize most of our customers,” Prongos says, “and the ones who are visiting from far away usually say, ‘Man, I was in town and had to have one of your sandwiches.’ We carry the freshest meats, the freshest breads and the freshest ingredients— and it really makes a difference.”

In addition to the classic deli offerings such as BLTs and tuna melts, the Mayflower Market also serves up some unique creations — including a Cordon Bleu sandwich, roasted garlic on turkey and a Texican Melt with roast beef, cheese, barbecue sauce and bacon. Comedian Robin Williams and former mayor Joseph Alioto have been among the market’s sandwich fans. So are students from the private schools on Broadway.

Unlike most other corner markets with standard decor and shelving, the Mayflower Market owners livened up the store a while back and lined the windows with original artwork.

“We thought, ‘Let’s spice it up with something unique,’” says Angelo. “It worked out because a lot of people stop by just to look at the murals.” The inspiration came a decade ago. Kimberley Jones, a customer with an Ivy League architecture degree who painted as a hobby, had moved to California in 1997, drawn by the natural setting and beautiful views.

“I would haul my paintings everywhere with me, walk around the area with these giant canvases and then sit down and paint,” says Jones. Some of her work is extremely local, including paintings of Alta Plaza Park and the Mayflower Market itself.

“I knew the brothers from buying their great sandwiches,” says Jones. “The three brothers are warm people and they extend their family warmth to the folks they employ and to the community.” Jones says Lefty Prongos came up with the vision of filling the store’s windows with her paintings — scenes from inside the market focusing on the fruits and vegetables displayed there. She credits showing at the Mayflower Market as her turning point in the art world. Through the years she has sold many of her paintings to people who’ve seen them at the market.

Although she’s since moved out of the neighborhood, Jones stops by for a Mayflower sandwich every Tuesday, when she teaches art to about 70 seniors at the Calvary Presbyterian Church just across the street. She also creates art with patients at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View and teaches art to seniors in a variety of other settings. Jones still shows some work in the Mayflower’s windows, but the brothers also invite other artists to participate in their grocery gallery.

Even though another neighborhood market, Gino’s Grocery, sits directly across from the Mayflower Market, Angelo Prongos is quick to point out that there is no rivalry between the two.

“We don’t really step on each other’s feet, since we sell a lot of different things from one another,” he says. “We coexist
nicely and both make a living. It’s a nice, friendly competition.”

Longtime Fillmore resident Danielle Gordon says locals depend on both spots.

“Unlike most other corner markets that are nearby one another and sell the exact same thing, the Mayflower Market and Gino’s seem to complement one another,” she says. “I can go to Gino’s and get drinks and beverages, then walk across the street to the Mayflower and get food and snacks.”

The neighborly feel is what attracted the Prongos to Fillmore Street. “The area’s nice, the people are nice and you have no problems,” says Angelo. “It’s a clientele we enjoy catering to.”

“When foster youth turn 18 years of age, they no longer qualify to stay in the group or foster home that they’re placed in,” said Gail Gilman, the executive director of CHP, a nonprofit housing development broker that helps put together supportive housing projects for the formerly homeless in San Francisco. “So all of the funding that’s attached to those youth and follows them through the system completely ends. That’s why most foster youth have a high rate of homelessness, because they have nowhere to turn to or go.”

According to Gilman, the Edward II Inn was chosen because it fit many of the criteria that CHP was looking for. Typically, CHP responds to a city request for housing development. The plan is then sent to the Mayor’s Office of Housing (MOH), which has dedicated funds collected mostly from the hotel tax.

“The Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) has guidelines in it that the Mayor’s Office of Housing put out,” said Gilman. “This is based on research and a couple of recommendations by the [S.F.] Youth Commission that just published a report on how to provide quality housing for this age group. This property needs to be small – somewhere between 20 to 30 units – because research shows that these kids do better in smaller environments. It needs to be a property that’s vacant and in a low-crime neighborhood. Based on crime statistics, the Lombard Street corridor within the Marina has really low crime rates compared to other parts of the City. It needs to have access to community amenities, which is mass transit corridors, libraries and open space. So all of those factors are why we made an offer on Edward II.”

The total cost of the project is $8.4 million – $4.2 million will be provided by MOH, the remainder will be provided by a tax credit investor and state funding.

The inn currently has 29 hotel rooms, but the goal is to create 24 apartments with private bathrooms and a communal kitchen to promote a dorm-like feel. To do that, the zoning needs to be changed through a Special Use District to change the use and density of the project. The rezoning application has been submitted to the Planning Department and is currently under review.

The proposed facility would have a resident manager for building operations, a centralized maintenance crew, and a janitorial staff. There would also be an on-site social service worker to help with goal setting, community building, and any other goals the residents may map out.

CHP is planning to team up with Larkin Street Youth Services (LSYS) to help choose who will occupy the apartments. The two have teamed up before on smaller-scale community projects, but none of this caliber, especially pertaining to transitional housing.

“When we’re dealing with a specialty population such as kids that are 18 to 24, who are either exiting foster care or who have experienced homelessness, we decided that we’re not the experts in providing those services, but we decided that Larkin Street Youth Services is,” said Gilman. “So we approached [LSYS] and told them we’d like to do this partnership with you. CHP will purchase the building, we’ll develop it, we’ll manage it and own it, and we’d like you to become our service provider. And it’s something that we don’t do often, but we felt particularly with this population that we wanted someone who knew how to successfully have these kids transition into an independent life.”

Not all of the youth will be coming from the foster care system. Some will be kids who fell through the cracks and ended up homeless, but have been living in a trial-based transitional housing setting through LSYS for some time (between 18 to 24 months) and have shown that they are ready for housing that’s on a more permanent level.

Regardless of whether they were in foster care, each applicant will go through an individual screening process before being referred by LSYS. CHP will then check their backgrounds and hold their own interviews before an individual is chosen for an apartment.

“All of these kids have made a really conscious choice that they want to turn their life around or they want something different in their lives,” said Gilman. “They’re really serious about the opportunity of having this housing. They’ll be going to school, they’ll be in training programs, or they’ll already be working. They are very aware of the consequences of not paying their rent or not abiding by the house rules.”

Many within the community are not on board with the entire project, however. No one in particular is against CHP’s expressed purpose, but rather, its execution.

“It’s easy and unfortunate to just say that we don’t want this in the neighborhood,” said John Millar, president of the Marina Community Association (MCA). “That’s completely disingenuous. We never said, ‘Don’t you dare bring this into the Marina.’ We just said, ‘Why don’t you engage the community?’”

“Part of [the problem] is just the level of interaction with the community,” said Millar. “We have gone to all of the meetings, we’ve made efforts to reach out to the Mayor’s Office of Housing, CHP and LSYS, and none of our recommendations on the project have been incorporated. We have some concerns on how it’s all coming together. We’re prepared to work with [CHP] to make it work; our concern is that all of those efforts so far have fallen on deaf ears.”

According to Millar, there were three areas of concern that MCA felt needed a second look. The first was the total cost of the project, which MCA felt was too much; the second was the notion of fitting 24 individuals into a property that would normally be zoned for 16 in a group housing setting; and the third was the lack of interaction with the community. The last issue has concerned MCA the most. Millar noted that the community did not hear about the project from the City or CHP, but rather from a beat cop who had heard about it and told everyone in the neighborhood.

“In fairness, we should be allowed to know who’s living there if you want to put this project here,” said Millar. “We need to have a two-way dialogue and really understand what’s going on with this project.”

Millar noted that CHP, LSYS and MOH have all spoken at meetings so they could answer any questions the community had, but he felt the neighborhood’s concerns and suggestions weren’t being integrated into the project’s agenda.

Another concern expressed by the community is the close proximity of the Edward II Inn to the Bridge Motel. Situated on Lombard between Broderick and Divisadero Streets, the Bridge Motel is a notorious fixture in the neighborhood, known for drug dealing and prostitution. Many fear that a building full of illegal activity near housing full of impressionable youth could spell trouble.

“It raises concerns because it’s been a hotbed for criminal activity,” said Millar. “The City Attorney has already filed suit against them. Putting at-risk youth in that location could entice a criminal element, or vice versa.”

Gilman does not think the proximity is too much of a deterrent; however, she did offer to work with the community to help solve the issue.

“We have housing all throughout San Francisco,” said Gilman. “Just because there’s a property that’s not being managed well that’s nearby the property we want to own, to us is not a reason to not purchase a property. Our goal is going to be to work with the community to either come up with solutions for the Bridge Motel, or if the community feels that the Bridge Motel shouldn’t be operated, we’ll be alongside them.”

CHP is currently in escrow and moving toward a closing date on the Edward II property. To finalize the deal, the mayor needs to sign the loan documents and then give CHP the money it needs to complete the purchase. If everything is approved, the project could be operational in roughly three years.

According to Millar, MCA will formally ask the mayor not to sign the loan agreement, which is something that most of the other neighborhood groups have already done, along with District Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier.

“Some things need to be set in stone so that we as a neighborhood can sit down and effectively evaluate it,” said Millar. “[CHP] is a reputable organization and many of our members support them with their time and money, and we’re not opposed to a well-managed facility in the neighborhood. But you can’t push the project through and say ‘We’ll work on the programs later.’ Let’s put [the project] on hold, look at the program, look at what’s going to go in there – collectively as a neighborhood working with these organizations – and let’s put in something appropriate.”

According to Gilman, a project advisory committee will be formed, as is done with all of CHP’s projects. They plan to extend an invitation to the five community organizations they have identified in the Marina in hopes of spawning the two-way dialog Millar is hoping to achieve.

As he enters his cozy home, he rests his soaked shoes along the wall of his bedroom, next to his rain jacket and backpack that’s packed as if he just came from a camping trip. His bedroom also doubles as his personal office, which is evident by the utter mess, but he quickly notes that he’s neither lazy nor a slob. It’s just that he hasn’t had the time to fix his sheets, pick his clothes off the ground, or rearrange his cluttered mountain of a desk that hides his computer. Books for InDesign and WordPress storm the desk, and his school books meet the ground, showing you what’s more important at hand.

Then his cell phone beeps loudly, twice in fact. It’s a voicemail he says. He hasn’t had the opportunity to call his girlfriend all day, so she in turn decided to say something about that. The other beep was a reminder to call an artist’s manager to try and schedule an interview.

“This thing is my life,” said Weitz while grinning, holding up his Treo Smartphone. “I can’t be anywhere without it.”

About twenty minutes later, Weitz’s mom yells from the downstairs living room, asking him what he wants to eat for dinner. He doesn’t even specify what kind of food he wants, he just yells back saying that he doesn’t have any time to eat at all.

Everyone’s busy. Weitz is no different from any other person. So what could he possibly be doing where he can’t manage enough free time for anything? Even eating?

Well…besides being in the Biotechnology program at Skyline College (a full-time program at that), besides working two part-time jobs that equate to one full-time gig, he comes home for the thing he’s been looking forward to the most: IllerClip.

No, not the warmth of his home, not the authentic Filipino food his mother has waiting for him, not the precious time to relax, but time to cater to his underground and local hip hop magazine he’s been working on for a solid two years.

For this 25-year-old San Francisco native, he was unsure of what he wanted to do with his life while he was at George Washington High School. Figuring that school wasn’t for him, he later dropped out and started working a couple of odd, short-term jobs here and there for a while, but nothing prominent or fulfilling.

And then a couple of years later, opportunity came right around the corner. Weitz’s cousin, Krishtine De Leon, received the opportunity to work for the now defunct Ruckus magazine, a free, hip hop publication based out of Burlingame.

“I got my first journalism job freelancing for [Ruckus] for a year and a half,” said Weitz. “But prior to that, I had nothing really. I really liked writing, I always wrote creatively, but journalistically, I really didn’t think too much about it. But I was always really into hip hop. [Krishtine] knew I could write, and she said I knew more about hip hop than most of these people who call themselves ‘journalists.’ It was just a match made in heaven. The job was just so easy for me, not in the sense that it didn’t take any work or effort, but easy in the sense that it came naturally.”

The saying goes, “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” and Weitz seems to depict this quote perfectly. He’s half Caucasian, half Filipino, with business-like glasses rested across his eyes. He’s always wearing the latest Nike Dunks (a popular shoe among hip hop culture), fitted jeans and t-shirts with the funkiest colors, ranging from neon green to light purple. He has a tattoo that gracefully runs across his chest with the phrase “Kill Them With Class,” which is his own personal credo of beating your enemies with skill, bravery and intelligence, not with your fist. Another emblazons his right arm, this time it says “My Dreams Are Your Nightmares,” which Weitz felt perfectly depicted the rough times he went through when he stayed in France for two years to help recollect his mind and to get out of the bad things he was doing in the city. Amidst the smorgasbord of colors, ink and swagger that surround his body, he doesn’t let what other people think of him bother him at all.

Weitz was with Ruckus from its inception to the end, and unfortunately, it only lasted a year and a half. Weitz cited that the editors were constantly bickering over the direction of the publication. Some leaned more towards mainstream hip hop, constantly putting someone on the cover who’s on every other music magazine, but others wanted Ruckus to cover local, Bay Area artists, especially those who hadn’t even been mentioned before anywhere else.

“Money and creativity sometimes conflict with each other,” said Weitz.

The feud split the publication into two factions, and unfortunately, Ruckus soon folded after a paltry two issues, and Weitz was quickly out of journalism, sent back into the countless cycle of working dead end jobs. A low point in his short journalism career.

Weitz’s cousin, De Leon, would later graduate from San Francisco State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism. Then she left Weitz behind when she became a contestant on the show I’m From Rolling Stone, where she won at the end of the season and was awarded the chance to serve as a contributing editor in New York for Rolling Stone magazine.

But monitoring closely what De Leon accomplished on her own ignited a spark in Weitz’s mind.

“My cousin definitely inspired me a lot,” said Weitz. “She and I grew up together, and I saw that if she could do it, I knew that I could do it. I could definitely do it because she and I have so much in common, we share so much, and have the same fire and drive.”

And that’s where Weitz got the inspiration for IllerClip (the name comes from The Jacka, a local, hip hop artist who has a song titled “Iller Clip” on his album, The Jack Artist), his magazine that will focus on underground and local hip hop artists from the Bay Area, profiling not only those artists who have made it, but also spotlighting those that are trying to break through. Basically, it’s what Ruckus couldn’t become.

His cell phone rings again. It’s his online editor telling him that IllerClip’s name is finally spelled correctly, which frustrated Weitz immensely when he’d search through Google and see how his magazine’s name was missing an “R” in the link.

As of now, his staff is fairly small. There’s Weitz, who will serve as a publisher, two writers, one of whom will play the part of both a managing editor and copy editor, three photographers, an editor who’s currently working on the website, and De Leon, who is more than willing to help, but will only be available on a limited basis due to her commitments to Rolling Stone.

“[IllerClip] is still in its prenatal stages,” said Weitz. “But the entire process is going fast, and it’s going to go as fast as I want it to. Basically, I’ve got a Ferrari, I’ve just got to put the gas in it. Everything is in my fingertips. I was blessed enough to work for Ruckus, so all of my contacts are already in tact. I didn’t burn any bridges, so fortunately, I made a lot of connections and everyone likes me.”

Weitz held a launch party when he first announced the plans for IllerClip last year, but he plans to hold another launch party sometime within the next several months. For now, he’s been networking online, trying to make sure that as many websites link his site in any way possible, and fine-tuning whatever details of the website he deems necessary.

For those that are pursuing a career in journalism, Weitz stresses to neither be timid nor afraid of the profession, because the journalism industry is all about taking the initiative.

“Don’t be timid at all. Don’t be afraid,” said Weitz. “Go out their and chase down your stories and do plenty of research because you don’t want to look like an ass. And that’ll also help you with the whole nervousness factor. Just don’t be afraid to ask if you can interview people. That’s what made me realize that I could do my own thing and start my own project. People want to talk. It’s not hard; you just have to take the initiative.”

He’s confident, but also a bit cocky at times. The meetings the staff has held are infrequent and either hosted at Weitz’s home or at some restaurant. However, it hasn’t deterred him from achieving his goal, because he feels that he’s in a niche market that hasn’t been catered to properly, and that the potential has been untapped. He feels that IllerClip can be successful, because he won’t accept anything less than that.

“Underground hip hop publications have been pretty much just treading water,” said Weitz. “They’re not doing anything at all that’s new or that’s going to break new ground. There are a lot of entrepreneurs, but the entrepreneurial spirit, meaning that you’re doing something that no one has done before, is lacking.”

Weitz also noted that he intends for IllerClip to have a heavy online presence, which is exactly where journalism as an industry is going. He also plans to make his magazine free and occur on either a biweekly or monthly rate.

However, his peers aren’t necessarily is biggest fans.

“They don’t like me because they want me to work for them,” said Weitz. “People from other magazines in the Bay Area wanted me to work for them. I just felt that it would be a conflict of interest of being true to myself, because I’d be helping someone else out instead of myself. They see the potential in me, that’s for sure. I think they’re just praying that I just sit on my ass and do nothing. That’s what motivates me. I see the future as being bright, super nova bright. I have people from the music industry always calling me. They want me to succeed because they know that if I do, that I’m going to help them out too.”

“I’m Joshua Weitz, but I have to be IllerClip. There could be an exception to the rule that everybody that’s involved in the company is an exceptional bullet, or an exceptional person. And you load those into a clip and it makes an IllerClip magazine. And I have to personify that.”

His phone rings one last time. Thinking it’s probably his girlfriend giving him a mouthful of her mind, he answers, much to his chagrin.

It’s Weitz’s mother, this time threatening him to come down for dinner right now. Although his home doubles as his office, Weitz still has to live under his mother’s rules.

While some degrees seem far less fruitful than others (hello, B.A. in Poetry!), any college degree is useful, as long as you know how to transform it into a valuable commodity. Read on for tips on how to make the most of any degree — and sample jobs for some of the more “useless” degrees. (U.S. salary information provided by LiveCareer’s free salary calculator):

1. Think outside of your degree. You can’t always draw a straight line between your degree and a related job. Just because you graduate with a particular degree doesn’t mean that your job prospects are limited within that field. Think more broadly when looking for a job.

2. Supplement your degree. Your degree may be a good foundation, but, if it doesn’t help you get the job you want, you may need some additional training. Taking the right courses, or pursuing the right advanced degree, can greatly increase your marketability.

3. Use your unusual degree to set yourself apart. Financial institutions are usually staffed with employees with finance degrees; check out any IT department and you’ll likely find workers with technical degrees. For some jobs, there is no avoiding the fact that you need a particular degree. But, for other jobs, your differing expertise can set you apart — in a good way.

Studies shows that any degree can increase your salary, give you more job options, secure your job, or help you transition to a new career. To make the best educational and career decisions, take the free career test to identify the right careers — and career path — for you.

Check out LiveCareer’s free education test for help deciding if going back to school is the right decision for you.

Here are some examples of “useless” degrees and what you can do with them.

* Bachelor’s in History

As a history major, you’ve undoubtedly acquired a wide-range of skills that will serve you well in many jobs. With effective research and critical analysis skills, you could look outside of education to find a good job match for your most transferable skills.

Possible jobs (with median salary):
Archivist: $55,421
CIA agent: $63,381
Economist: $93,898
Film editor: $60,503

* Bachelor’s in English

If your bachelor’s in English isn’t landing you that dream gig writing for the New York Times, you may want to explore other ways to make a living with your strong writing and people skills. With just a few strategic courses to complement your core degree, you could have a great new career.

Possible jobs (with median salary):
Lobbyist: $89,613
Marketing specialist: $59,482
Public relations assistant: $44,068
Technical writer: $65,467

* Bachelor’s in Psychology

With your degree in psychology, you’re not just destined for a life as a psychologist or some related field of human service. With your knowledge of human behavior and strong data analysis skills, you could find your niche in any number of different industries.

Possible jobs (with median salary):
Human resources manager: $90,951
Immigration officer: $97,112
Market analyst: $70,536
Wage analyst: $43,519

Use LiveCareer’s new free college and university search for help finding the best degree program for you.

Just follow these tips for a caffeine-free work day:

1. Strut your stuff. Studies show that taking a 20-minute walk can boost your energy levels and decrease fatigue. Low-impact exercise seems better than higher impact exercise for fatigue levels, so you don’t have to be a power walker to see benefits. Another plus is people who exercise tend to sleep better (and not at work!).

How: Just put on some comfy shoes and take a decent-paced walk! Only 20 minutes should rev up your energy levels.

2. Involve your ears. Listening to music while you work can help keep you awake and increase your concentration levels, experts say.

How: Pop on some comfy headphones — nothing with speakers if you work with other people — and see what kind of music works best for your productivity. For some people it’s Bach. For others it’s Lady Gaga. It’s a highly individual thing, and can even vary for you depending on the task at hand.

3. Give your eyes a break. If you don’t take breaks from your computer you can end up with headaches, tired and sore eyes — and fatigue. A brief, well-timed eye break can keep your eyes happy.

How: About every 20 minutes, look far in the distance for 20 to 30 seconds. Distance vision helps relax your eye muscles, which stops eye fatigue in its tracks. For the ideal eye break, get to a window and look far off. The view will surely beat the view of your far-flung coworker’s cubicle.

4. Stretch it out. Being stuck in idle in front of a computer all day can be a pain in the neck (literally) that can lead to stiffness and feeling wiped out. Stretching helps keep you from getting in a pooped-out knot.

How: You don’t have to be a yogi to benefit from stretching. Just do gentle stretches for each part of your body. Shoulder shrugs are a great stretch for stiff shoulders: Sit or stand, and lift your shoulders up toward your ears. Squeeze them as hard as you can, and hold for one or two seconds. Then roll them back as you relax your shoulders down. Repeat eight times.

5. Fuel up with healthy snacks. Large meals can make you drowsy. (Think Thanksgiving, only on a smaller scale.) Try eating smaller meals and more healthy snacks throughout the day for sustained energy.

How: Instead of rummaging through the vending machine and getting junk food, bring something from home, like nuts, fruits, or vegetables. And rather than one large lunch, pack a couple of smaller meals.

6. When all else fails, use cold water. There’s nothing like a splash of cold water on your face to revive you. Who needs coffee when you have water?

How: Don’t forget to drink liquids throughout the day. Staying hydrated can result in increased oxygen levels which boost energy and can keep your mind sharp.

If you do all these things and you’re still tired, it may be a sign that you’re just bored with your job. Take the free career test to find a job that you will love and that will give you energy.

Among the first to step into that void were Monetta White and David Lawrence, the community-minded owners of the elegant soul food restaurant 1300 on Fillmore, which opened a block south of the market at the end of 2007. With the restaurant already a neighborhood fixture drawing rave reviews, the couple decided to branch out to the farmers market.

This summer they’ve been onsite at the market stirring up individual portions of their savory grits with shrimp, wild mushrooms or bacon and egg. Now the neighbors can sample 1300 on Fillmore’s high-class soul food — and extend a hand to the youth of the Fillmore at the same time.

“David comes from very strong values of giving back, and I come from the same core foundation from my family,” says White. “When you’re coming to a community that’s going through its revitalization, as a business owner it’s your social responsibility to help people in your community. It’s about giving back.”

So they created two programs to help introduce neighborhood youth to the restaurant and hospitality business.

One is a summer cooking program enabling youth between the ages of 12 and 19 to shadow the chefs in 1300 on Fillmore and create some of the dishes from the restaurant’s menu.

Participants meet at the restaurant once a week for two hours. During the first hour, they prep and cook the meal, which has varied from sweet pea ravioli to fish and chips to fried green tomato salad. During the second hour, the kids clean up after enjoying the meals they made.

“One of the things I like is that the kids are looking forward to it every summer,” says White. “They go home learning how to cook healthier meals. Eventually, I want to take on more kids and possibly have it all year round to get kids interested in the hospitality business.”

The second program is already year-round: It’s the booth at the farmers market run by White, a chef from the restaurant and three teenagers who are a part of Mo’ Magic, a neighborhood organization that encourages collaboration between service providers, city agencies and local youth.

“1300 on Fillmore approached us and talked about how they wanted more people in the community to be involved with the hospitality business,” says Sheryl Davis, the program director of Mo’ Magic who has been there since its inception in 2006. “The culinary group, I handpicked those. As far as the farmers market kids go, they went through an interview process.”

Preparation is required to get the market booth ready for Saturday morning, beginning the day before. On Fridays, the food, utensils, marketing materials and other necessities are prepared, packed and made ready to go. On market day, all the energy is devoted to the booth, beginning with a commitment to show up at 6:30 on Saturday morning.

“They’re on time and they love it,” says White. “It’s like golf — one of those things where it starts early and takes all day. But once you’re out there, you have a good time.”

Michael Bolden, one of the youth from Mo’ Magic who helps with the booth on Saturday mornings, is on the verge of graduating from high school and dreams of going to culinary school. He’s a paid employee at 1300 on Fillmore three days a week, helping both in the restaurant and at the booth. But he often comes in on his days off to shadow and assist the chefs.

“I like to cook,” says Bolden, “so I figured I might as well try to get a job here so I can work closely with the chefs — and just to experience how it is in the restaurant business.”

Besides cooking, the youth also learn about the other aspects of the restaurant business, ranging from marketing to organizing and planning all the details that go into a day’s work.

“I was really interested in a place that was a black-owned, black-based restaurant,” says Ishanique Ritner-Gill, another youth from Mo’ Magic.

Gill is an office assistant and works closely with White, where she assists in business and administrative tasks. She’s interested in the behind-the-scenes work required to run a restaurant and hopes some day to open her own business.

“The biggest thing for me is going out to the farmers market on Saturdays and seeing the sense of pride and big smiles on their faces,” says Davis, the Mo’ Magic director. “It represents this idea of something bigger — an opportunity to grow, meet new people and engage with the community in a way that they never would have before.”

The participants have no doubts about the best part of working for 1300.“Eating the food,” Bolden and Gill say in unison with broad smiles on their faces.

“Credit the care and dedication of Monetta and David for what they’re doing” says Davis. “But it’s not just, ‘you come in, you get a cooking lesson and you leave.’ It’s all life lessons they’re learning.“They’re helping them understand that appearance, clothing, attire and attitude will translate and support them when they leave the program,” Davis says. “It’s starting to spill over into their day-to-day lives. It’s definitely impacting beyond the kitchen.”

Along with the restaurant 1300 on Fillmore, three more new arrivals have popped up at the farmers market in recent weeks with a wide range of offerings to eat on the spot on Saturdays while marketing, listening to jazz or greeting the neighbors.

One is Donna’s Tamales, which is owned and run by Marcelo Garbino, a native of Argentina. After working at farmers markets throughout the Bay Area over the last 10 years, Garbino figured he’d give the Fillmore market a shot, since it’s a part of the city he’s always liked. All of his tamales are organic and vegetarian. So far, his
topseller at the Saturday market is a goat cheese tamale with sun-dried tomatoes.

Another newcomer is Raj Dhillon, owner of India Gourmet, which specializes in both vegan and vegetarian food. He also offers chicken and lamb for the meat eaters, along with fresh naan prepared at the market in a portable clay oven.

“You have a diversity and a great mix of people here,” said Dhillon, who has been working at various farmers markets for 20 years. “And I found that there was a niche here and people would love vegan, vegetarian and organic food that supports a sustainable living.”

Also now pitching a booth up on the plaza at the Fillmore market is SF Grill, a new grassroots business run by Ryan Garcia and Seni Felic that specializes in organic sausages, turkey burgers, sauces and dips.

They chose the Fillmore market to set up a Saturday morning grill because of Felic’s personal tie to the neighborhood: Originally from Croatia, he met his wife here.

“The process is having fun and engaging all the senses,” said Garcia, who, along with Felic, seems to thrive on chatting with marketgoers, urging them to taste samples of their offerings and mugging for snapshots.

“We have the visual quality,” said Garcia. “We have the beautiful aromas coming from our grill and our tastes are exquisite. We’re cultivating community around what we’re doing and building.”

No, that’s not the combination to an obscure locker combination of some sort. These are the numbers that mean a lot to Skyline student Victor Sindac: a full-time student with a full-time job who has a full-time passion for karate.

Eighteen represents the number of units he’s taking this semester, forty represents the number of hours he works per week, and twelve represents the number of championship medals he’s won at both local and international competitions.

“When I started college, I did not have brothers or sisters to protect me from harm,” said Sindac. “I wanted to at least learn how to defend myself and to fight when trouble arises. So, I enrolled in Shotokan Karate. But the more I learned, the more I became aware of my surroundings and I never got into any trouble.”

Shotokan, along with Shito-ryu, Goko-ryu and Wado-ryu, is one of the four major forms of karate that is practiced in Japan and recognized by the World Karate Foundation. However, Shotokan differentiates itself from the other three in that it emphasizes more dynamic, straight movements and is more linear in its form.

Sindac began his formal training in Shotokan Karate in 1988 in Manila, Philippines and has continued his training here in the U.S., where he came in 2002 in order to help increase the popularity of the sport. Sindac was trained by Sensei Kunio Sasaki, who just so happens to be the official Japan Karate Association (JKA) representative to the Philippines.

“Karate has helped me in so many different ways: It improved my reflexes and co-ordination, it increased my strength, stamina, flexibility and kept me in shape,” said Sindac. “But for the most part, it improved my concentration at work and school. It helped me become more focused on setting goals and develop a positive attitude toward life through self-confidence and self-discipline.”

Speaking of work and school, Sindac is immensely buried by it. Currently in his first semester at Skyline, Sindac chose this campus after comparing it to other campuses around the Bay Area, as he was trying to get a feel of which school he felt he could most succeed in. Sindac is currently enrolled in telecommunications classes, as he is majoring in network engineering. He attends school Monday through Friday from 8:10 to 1:30 p.m. and works Friday through Tuesday where he works the swing shift at his job from 3 to 11 p.m. Thus, Sindac quickly implied that his busy lifestyle didn’t allow for him to have a social life whatsoever.

So how does one find the time to practice karate anyway?

“On my days off, I train by myself practicing my forms and sparring drills over and over for about two hours or so, or I go in the dojo and train with my friends,” said Sindac. “Sometimes, I run on the race track here at Skyline or play basketball in the gym to supplement my training.”

But not only does Sindac hone his skills at a dojo, but he practices on campus as well.

“Having Victor is a great asset to my class,” said Professor Eric Larson, who has Sindac in his Advanced Shotokan Karate class. Because of Sindac’s vast experience in the sport, Larson explained that Sindac is more of an assistant in the class, as opposed to an actual student.

But on a professional level, Sindac is a teacher of the sport as well.

He began assisting at a karate club in Manila in 1991, and then three years later, he moved on to another dojo in his hometown, where he taught from 1994 to 2002. When he came over to the United States, he opened up his own dojo in San Diego. Overall, Sindac’s students have faired very well in their own right. They have won numerous awards at the local, national and international level. And as recent as this year, at the United States Open Karate Championship, two of his students were awarded the Youth Male and Youth Female Competitors of the Year award.

As of now, Sindac is eyeing another teaching opportunity. At the moment, he’s trying to form a karate team that would represent Skyline at some competitive level.

The determination, skill and commitment that Sindac displays at work and school is equally evident through the twelve karate medals he’s won in a span of over four years.

In 2003, Sindac placed second in forms, third in sparring and third in team sparring at a national level karate championship. In 2004, he snatched a whopping five medals: first place in forms, first place in sparring, first place in team forms, first place in mixed team forms, and second place in team sparring. In 2005, Sindac captured two more first place medals, but this time, he did it at the Ozawa Cup International Karate Tournament held in Las Vegas, Nevada. And this year, to top it all off, Sindac collected two more first place medals at the FSKA World Karate Championships held in Las Vegas during the October 21 weekend.

“The World Karate Championships was everything that I had dreamed of,” said Sindac. “The level of competition was really high and very intense, considering the fact that national pride was always at stake, so every athlete was there to win. Winning at the World Karate Championships was a dream come true and winning two gold medals was beyond my wildest imagination.”

Bud Martinez comes to work most Monday mornings at the garage at the Shell gas station at California and Steiner Streets, just as he has for more than 50 years — and more than a decade after he sold the station and vowed to retire.

The pathway for Martinez first appeared when he was a young reservist called up by the Marine Corps after the Korean War broke out. As the fighting quickly escalated, he was sent to San Diego and put to work servicing tanks. That paved the way for Martinez to return home with a skill and find work as a mechanic.

In 1952, he started working at the Shell station. Before long, he took up a former employer’s offer of help and, for $4,000, bought the station. Ever since, he’s kept neighborhood drivers tuned up and on the road.

Martinez’s honesty and charm have been a magnet not only for the locals, but for many of the city’s notables as well. His customers have ranged from department store magnate Cyril Magnin to basketball Hall of Famer Nate Thurmond, with plenty of corporate chiefs and the occasional 49er and Raider.

In 1996, after decades of long hours and hard labor, Martinez decided to sell the station and retire. But just when he thought he was done, the station pulled him back.

“The fellow I sold it to made some mistakes, so I came back to help him,” says Martinez. “Things didn’t work out, so Shell Oil Company took it over and hired a management company. I’ve been here ever since and there have been four new owners. I’m still here, but not as the boss.”

Both the gas station and its neighbors have gone through many changes. The four-story apartment complex next door was for many years the one-story home of the Podesta Baldocchi florist shop. The Chevron gas station across the street was once a deli. And Mollie Stone’s was the Grand Central Market for years and years before it was remodeled and renamed.

As for the station, it was only a place to fill up the gas tank when Martinez first got there. Over time it was rebuilt twice and the garage was added.

One of the most beloved of Martinez’s high-profile customers was Herb Caen, the Chronicle columnist who would bring his Jaguar — he called it the White Rat — in for service.

“Herb was a prince,” says Martinez. “He put me in his column four or five times, and every time he did that, this place would get stacked with cars. I got a lot of business from him — I couldn’t buy that kind of advertising. He was a wonderful man.”

Martinez says one of the most unusual cars he came across was basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain’s pink Mercedes convertible.

“He was so tall and his seat was so far back that I had to scoot all the way down just to reach his pedals,” says Martinez, laughing at the memory. “I could barely see above the steering wheel.”

Chamberlain and Raider Hall of Famer Gene Upshaw would leave their cars at the station and walk over to eat at Thurmond’s barbecue joint on Fillmore Street. Martinez recalls a time years ago when two women vacationing from Europe had car trouble and pulled into the garage.

“Their car was a total wreck,” said Martinez. “I gave them an estimate, but it totaled more money than they had with them. All they wanted to do was get back to Washington, D.C., so I made the most important repairs — some brake work, an alternator and a battery. They had to go roughly 3,000 miles and it was enough to get them back.”

Realizing their situation, he charged them only for parts, and not for his labor, which significantly lowered their bill.

“I went and got a rose from the florist shop next door and put it on the front seat, showed them the bill and they about died,” says Martinez. “Herb Caen put it in the newspaper, and later on I got checks from two people back east who had read the article.”

Martinez never cashed those checks, deciding instead to keep them as a reminder he’d had the opportunity to help some people along the way.

Martinez has been servicing the community for so long that he’s seen several generations of customers. Many of his regulars eventually brought in their children, and many have brought their grandchildren.

“Customers come in all the time and say, ‘You know my mom and dad!’ ” he says. “It’s unbelievable I’ve been here that long.”

Douglas Fredell, the current owner of Shell Auto Repair, asked Martinez to stay on when he took over the garage.

“Many, many people who live around here know him,” says Fredell. “People stop by several times a week just asking where he is, or if he’s still working.”

Fredell says Martinez, at 78, is an ideal employee.

“He’s a hard worker and he’s super reliable,” Fredell says. “He’s got that old-fashioned sensibility about him of how to treat people and how he carries his work ethic. Then, of course, he wants to keep working. Even if I told him not to come in anymore, he’d still come in.”

Martinez says it’s the customers who keep him on the corner of California and Steiner.

“I enjoy working on cars and fixing problems, but it’s mainly the people,” he says. “It’s been my life for 57 years and we’ve got the best customers in the world here.”

Now Martinez works at the station only three days a week, Mondays through Wednesdays. “Right now, I’m going month to month,” he says. “The only thing that’s going to stop me is arthritis.”

The green grass on the three acres of ball fields at Geary and Steiner is slated to be dug up in the coming weeks and replaced with synthetic turf made of artificial blades of grass covered with ground up pieces of old car tires.

But some neighbors are objecting to the $4.7 million plan, claiming the synthetic turf presents environmental and health dangers.

According to Dan Mauer, project manager for the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, the project could start this spring and be ready for public use six months later. But if opponents have their way, the renovation will be once again delayed.

The Kimbell Field project — part of a larger drive to improve Bay Area parks and increase the number of soccer fields and baseball diamonds — was put on hold last year and a task force of local residents created to “identify what’s wrong with synthetic turf and what isn’t,” said Mauer. “We told everyone who had a stake in this field to submit any and all information that they found so that we could filter out what’s truth, what’s opinion— what’s a blog and what’s a study.”

The community Synthetic Fields Task Force concluded that the artificial turf fields increase health risks and the likelihood of injuries to athletes and limit what can be done on the fields. Children playing in the turf could swallow bits of the crumblike tire waste, the task force found, and because no fire of any kind is permitted on the synthetic turf fields, no smoking and no barbecues are allowed. Bikes, scooters and strollers would be banned from the fields and metal cleats cannot be worn because they can damage the synthetic grass. In addition, no dogs are allowed on the turf.

Kelley Watts, a resident of the Western Addition, said members were also concerned about the environmental effects of replacing grass with synthetic turf.

“You take out an acre of grass and it’s the equivalent of losing an acre of rainforest,” Watts said.

The task force issued a report to the City Fields Foundation, a public-private partnership created in 2005 that has already renovated seven city parks. The foundation countered that the health concerns had already been rejected by city, state and federal agencies and that the synthetic turf was safe to install and play on. In fact, according to the foundation, fewer injuries occur on synthetic turf than on natural grass.

The artificial turf is only part of the plan for Kimbell Field, said Patrick Hannan, a representative of City Fields.

“There will be a whole new redesign of the park as well,” Hannan said. “There will be two soccer fields, two softball diamonds and a removable backstop.”

Plans also call for a batting cage and better lighting — allowing the park to be open later — as well as new drainage infrastructure. Hannan said the new field will save money in the long run because it is less expensive to maintain a synthetic turf field than a grass field.

Hannan said plans also include a better system for field reservations that will significantly increase the amount of playing time on the fields.

Some locals are skeptical about that, too.

“The privatization of the parks makes it hard for kids and families to drop in and play when there are leagues going on,” said Watts. He said he fears that the leagues, because they generate money, would occupy the fields most of the time.

“No kid says to himself, ‘It’s 4 o’clock, I can finally play now,’ ” Watts said.

Opponents gained new ammunition recently when state officials decided to evaluate the health risks and the environmental impact of synthetic tire waste installations. The report is due in September 2010. Neighborhood critics are asking that the renovation plans be delayed at least until the new report is completed.