In this week's Field Notes: from a chic Mission dog shelter and a mansion under the Bay Bridge to pavement plants and dahlias in Oakland. Also, tactile SF maps, Obon in the park, queer family stories, cat zines, and a Sacramento ghost town.
Inside Muttville’s chic new HQ
In San Francisco’s Mission, Muttville’s new shelter blends style and dog-friendly design with Missoni carpets, playful murals, and Zen rooms for newcomers to decompress.
Interior designer Ken Fulk helped furnish the space with stylish but functional donations from storage. The on-site vet clinic, grooming area, and open adoption rooms keep tails wagging and humans lingering — where short visits often stretch into hours of play and companionship. — Dwell, neemtravels
New film traces LGBTQ+ SF family life
Fairyland, opening nationwide October 10, tells the story of poet and activist Steve Abbott and his daughter Alysia as they build a life together in San Francisco after her mother’s death.
Based on Alysia Abbott’s memoir, the film follows their unconventional family through the city’s queer community of the 1970s and into the devastation of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. It shows how love and resilience carried people through a hard chapter in LGBTQ+ history. — Edge Media Network
A Japanese American celebration in Golden Gate Park
BonPOP reimagines the Obon festival with dance, taiko, and ritual led by Japantown artists and cultural practitioners in Golden Gate Park on August 31.
Obon, a 500-year-old tradition originating in Buddhist and Taoist festivals, is marked across Japan each August with temple visits, lanterns, and family gatherings in honor of one’s ancestors — and BonPOP carries that spirit into San Francisco. — BonPOP
Tactile maps
Maps you can feel, shapes that spark memory and imagination — Fully Tactile Art SF’s Exploring Maps exhibition turns navigation into touch, emotion, and connection.
A nonprofit dedicated to free public art, they create spaces that engage all the senses and let artists reimagine how their work is experienced. Runs August 30–September 7. — Fully Tactile Art
Zine dad
Oakland dad, preschool volunteer, and longtime arts and justice professional, Channing Kennedy, draws the family cats for his kids every school day.
He’ll be at Berkeley’s Zine Fest August 23 (sorry for the late notice) and SF Zine Fest next Saturday, August 31, with new zines, cute stickers, and pawsitive vibes. — Berkeley Public Library
Gold Rush underfoot in Old Sacramento
On Sacramento’s riverfront, Old Sacramento still has wooden sidewalks, brick storefronts, and the kind of Gold Rush atmosphere that feels almost staged — except it’s real.
Decades of digs have made it one of the country’s most intensely studied 19th-century sites, with archaeologists unearthing bottles, tools, and everyday scraps of life. A historic district layered over an excavation site turned tourist stop. — Secret San Francisco
Mansion under the bridge
From the road it’s easy to miss, but tucked on Yerba Buena Island there’s a full-size mansion sitting almost directly beneath the Bay Bridge. It looks out at the water but mostly lives in the bridge’s shadow. Built in 1900 for Navy commanders, the Nimitz House once hosted brass and dignitaries, and schoolkids used to stop by with birthday cards for Admiral Chester Nimitz himself.
For a time, the house served as an event venue, which was short-lived due to the constant hum of traffic. These days it’s just another relic on the island — weathered, quiet, and nearly invisible to drivers above. — SFGate
Life in the cracks
Biology educator Mr. Kelkar turns a crack in the Oakland pavement into a classroom, pointing out foxtail, barley seed, marsh parsley, and other hardy invaders.
His whirlwind lesson shows how a handful of species dominate urban landscapes — and what we lose when they crowd out native plants. — Oakland Now
Explosion of color at Lake Merritt
The Lake Merritt gardens are full of dahlias, lined up for the San Leandro Dahlia Society’s annual show. Rows of yellow, pink, purple, orange, and white flowers fill the space, many named after family members or grown from cross-pollinated varieties.
Award-winning blooms like Olivia Maureen and Verde sit alongside favorites like “Just Married.” Each flower must bloom for three years before it can be officially named, ensuring only the strongest varieties make the cut.
After the show, the plants continue to bloom until October, when tubers are dug up, stored, and replanted in spring. Bouquets are sold to support ongoing garden care. — The Oaklandside
Dancing with visitors
For one day only, Alonzo King LINES Ballet steps into Ragnar Kjartansson’s The Visitors, weaving live movement through the iconic video installation on SFMOMA’s sixth floor.
Dancers respond to and expand the work, turning projections into a stage where choreography becomes its own living conversation.
The Visitors installation itself runs through September 28, so catch it while you can. — SFMOMA
Top image: Muttville/Facebook
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