From the Boulevard: Have Our Hearts Left San Francisco?

By Thomas Lorentzen SPECIAL TO THE FORUM

CNN recently ran a feature story about the depth and diversity of the difficult issues facing San Francisco. It was made clear that these issues are compounding in their intensity, as are the concerns about the viability of life in “The City.” A consensus has appeared that it has become a “troubled city” and that the famed “Streets of San Francisco” are not what they once were. In recent weeks I have conducted an informal survey among friends that live in “The City.” The views and votes were unanimous. One was very painful in his description: “What was once the Paris of the West has now become the Poughkeepsie on the Pacific.” Ouch!

In addition to talking with friends in SF to get their views, I also go to SF a couple of times each month. My roots run deep there, having grown up in the Noe family (they were the largest landowner in

Yerba Buena when California entered the Union). I am also a member of a club near Union Square that has been there for over a century. The great “feel” that virtually all of us had for San Francisco (as captured in the song “I Left My Heart in San Francisco”), has dissipated. Instead, the 1965 song by the Righteous Brothers comes to mind, “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling.” A view among many is that their hearts have left San Francisco and they are looking to live and love elsewhere.

On top of that, the problems in SF continue to receive national and even international attention. Even the San Francisco Chronicle, which cheered the direction of the city for decades, now editorializes its despair. Although they ignored the decline as it was happening, they now acknowledge its arrival. Reality has set in. One question dominates discussions – “What do we do?” If the past is prologue, the future is feared.

Ernest “Ernie” Caldwell Daughtrey

September 3, 1929 ~ April 1, 2023

Ernest (“Ernie”) Caldwell Daughtrey, best known to the community as the Vice President of the Daughtrey’s Department Store chain in Northern California, passed away peacefully at his home in Hayward on Saturday morning, April 1, 2023. He was 93 years old.

Born in Santa Maria, CA, on September 3, 1929 to Keller and Juanita Daughtrey, the family moved to Willits, CA in 1936, eventually settling in San Leandro in 1938. Ernie graduated from San Leandro High School in 1948, attended San Jose State, and was in the Naval Reserve for 7 years, receiving an honorable discharge.

Ernie started working in the Daughtrey family’s Castro Valley store in 1951, and became manager of the new Daughtrey’s Pleasanton store in 1959. In the early 1970’s, Ernie moved back to the Castro Valley store, taking over leadership of the entire Daughtrey’s chain around 1975, and managing it until the Daughtrey family sold the business in 1991. In 1993, Ernie and his wife Sharon opened Kids Are People Too, a children’s specialty store, in Pleasanton, with subsequent stores in Piedmont, Niles, and Castro Valley, which they operated until 2018.

Ernie was an avid fisherman and outdoorsman, spending many summers as a youth with his family in Yosemite, roaming the Castro Valley hills, and, in his words, “having a ball”. He greatly enjoyed spending time at his family’s mountain cabin in Arnold, CA, as well as on many fishing trips to his favorite spots in California, Oregon, and British Columbia. “One more cast!” was a favorite exclamation of his as a day of fishing drew to a close.

Perhaps most of all, Ernie had an overwhelmingly positive attitude and outlook on life. His enduring spirit and passion – along with his absolutely amazing memory – burned brightly until the very end. He was well spoken, looked upon nature and the world with childlike wonder and curiosity, and treated others with great respect and humility. He will be greatly missed by his family, as well as the community.

Ernie was preceded in death by his mother Juanita, his father Keller, his sister Joyce, his son Steven, his stepson Stanley, and his granddaughter Jennifer. Ernie is survived by his wife Sharon, his children Randy, Rodney, and Jana, his stepdaughter Sharry, his sisters Sue and Debbie, and many grandchildren and great grandchildren.

A celebration of Ernie’s life will be held at Trinity Christian Fellowship Church of Castro Valley (20307 Marshall Street, Castro Valley, CA, 510-581-2480) on June 3 at 11am. The public is invited to attend. In lieu of flowers, the family would prefer donations to be made in Ernie’s honor, either to Trinity Christian Fellowship Church of Castro Valley or to the organization of your choice.

With this sad tale presented, “hope does spring eternal.” A new SF arose out of the ashes of the 1906 earthquake. A half century ago other large cities feared that a death knell was upon them. Eventually, they were able to reboot. Can San Francisco do the same? Sure – yet the road is unpaved and will be rocky. Somehow, San Francisco may need to return to its roots for guidance. It was once a working town where people interacted in diversified and integrated ways. There was a hybridity to the rhapsody of the city. It was dancing to the sounds of its diurnal life. It produced an envy for those fortunate enough to live or visit there. For those of us in the East Bay, it was a magnet for our attentions. Then, somehow, the city went astray. Whether hijacked or sidetracked, it lost its traction.

If there was a tipping point it perhaps began more than a half century ago when a course was set to “Manhattanize” the “City by the Bay.” As skyscrapers went up, the city started to go down. It was a slow, yet steady decline in the name of “progress.” The soil that the soul of the city had maturated from was becoming one of hard concrete and cold steel. The new cause was a “Mission to Manhattanize.” Money was in the sky above, not on the streets below. Down the El Camino Real a new and more significant gold rush had appeared that made the one in 1850 look diminutive. In the Silicon Valley they were on the trail of trillions, not the mere nuggets of the past. San Francisco had become a place for exploitation by the uncaring. If these views appear too harsh, I apologize. “Hard Love” is never easy. Yet, it is painful to sing a song of sadness for a city that is hard to love anymore. Perhaps we need a literary figure to emerge from the troubled streets of San Francisco to poeticize a tale of two cities – one gone and one lost. Hopefully, a new sunrise will happen for the city we all once loved and want to love again.

August C “Gus” Enderlin

August C “Gus” Enderlin, age 88, a great Christian leader, who was the Founding Superintendent of Redwood Christian Schools in 1970, went to Heaven on May 7, 2023. He passed away after a lengthy illness.

Gus was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on June 10, 1934, and grew up there graduating from Arsenal Technical High School in 1952, and then attended Fort Wayne Bible College. He was the son of August Charles Enderlin II and Johanna Adomatis-Enderlin. In addition to his parents, he is predeceased by his brother Eugene Dale and his stepbrother Howard Judah, and his great grandson, Garrett Lewis. He is survived by his wife, Gale, whom he met and fell in love with when he was working at a hardware store in Indianapolis and she was working in a soda shop!

Mr. and Mrs. Enderlin had three children: Barbara Enderlin-Cummings, August C. “ACE” Enderlin and Bryce Enderlin; grandchildren Amber Enderlin and August C. Enderlin V; and great-grandchildren Jordani Lewis and Emerri Kent and Luis, Olivia and Alana Enderlin.

Gus and Gale moved to Castro Valley in 1970 to open Redwood Christian Schools (RCS), and served as Superintendent until 1986, when he left RCS to serve as the Vice President of Operations for the Association of Christian Schools International until he returned to RCS as Director of Facilities Development in 1997 until his retirement in 2014. He was the driving force behind RCS growing from a school of 75 students in 1970 to the school of nearly 640 students today. He also was the project manager opening the current Redwood Christian Middle School and High School in San Lorenzo, transitioning the four classrooms, into a 25-classroom facility in less than four months.

He’ll be remembered by all who knew him personally or by reputation as a man who truly loved his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ without apology or compromise, whose work ethic was a model to all. He loved God, his family and his nation with a fierce loyalty.

A Memorial Celebration of Mr. Enderlin’s life will be held on Wednesday, May 31, at 6:00 P.M. at Redwood Chapel Community Church, 19300 Redwood Road, Castro Valley. A reception will follow.

In lieu of flowers, the family is requesting that donations be made to Redwood Christian Schools, 4200 James Avenue, Castro Valley, CA 94546