164 - Francis Coppola and North Beach Citizens—A Neighborhood Vision

The Kitchen Sisters Present

The Kitchen Sisters & Radiotopia

Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 13 April 2021

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Francis Ford Coppola talks about homelessness, life, friendship, neighborhood history, and his ideas about the future as he tells the remarkable story of North Beach Citizens, the volunteer organization he spearheaded twenty years ago to help grapple with the lives and needs of homeless and unhoused people living in his neighborhood in San Francisco.

This month marks the 20th Anniversary of North Beach Citizens. Normally at this time of year some 400 people gather in the church basement of Saints Peter & Paul near Washington Square Park for an epic community dinner that raises the funds to keep NBC’s vital series of services available. Like everywhere, the pandemic has been hard on the unhoused and raised their numbers by some 64% in North Beach alone. The need is great.

As a frontline service provider, NBC is distributing nearly 3 times more food to the community than this time last year through daily meals "to-go,” and Wednesday Community Food Pantry. As a beacon of support for the neighborhood, they ensure that people who are living close to the margins know that they are part of a caring community and connected to support that meets their individual needs.

Our story takes us deep into the North Beach community with interviews with North Beach Citizens, volunteers, staff, clients—food writer and long time North Beach resident Peggy Knickerbocker, poetry and stories of Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the supporter and Guardian Angel of North Beach Citizens, and more.

“Every neighborhood would benefit from a community group addressing homelessness”

— Francis Ford Coppola, Founder of North Beach Citizens

Transcript

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0:00.0	Radio Topea, welcome to the Kitchen Sisters present from PRX.
0:05.6	We are the Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva.
0:09.4	I'm Alex Schwartz.
0:11.6	I'm Nomi Fry.
0:12.6	I'm Vincent Cunningham and this is Critics At Large, a New Yorker podcast for the Culturally
0:17.6	Curious.
0:18.6	Each week we're going to talk about a big idea that's showing up across the cultural landscape
0:22.7	and will trace it through all the mediums we love.
0:24.8	Books, movies, television, music, art.
0:27.2	And I always want to talk about celebrity gossip too.
0:29.6	And of course, we hope you'll join us for new episodes each Thursday, follow Critics
0:34.3	At Large today wherever you get podcasts.
0:43.8	Think about Francis Ford Coppola and his many movies, The Godfather's, The Conversation,
0:49.8	Apocalypse Now, One From The Heart, The Rain People, The Outsiders, Rumble Fish, Dracula,
0:57.2	To That, His Wine Making, and the Six Hotels he has created around the world, and this
1:03.5	month marks the 20th anniversary of North Beach citizens, the organization Francis spearheaded
1:09.8	in his neighborhood in San Francisco to grapple with the lives and needs of homeless people,
1:15.2	the unhoused of the community.
1:18.4	Normally at this time of years some 400 people gather in the basement of St. Peter and
1:22.0	Paul's Church near Washington Square Park for an epic community dinner that
1:26.9	raises the funds to keep their vital services open.
1:31.1	The pandemic has been hard on the unhoused and low income elderly in this neighborhood,
	...

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