In 2013, Ai was incarcerated for 81 days as a Chinese dissident. Three months after his release, hopeful curator Haines traveled to Beijing to visit the artist in his studio, where he was under house arrest.  Her goal was to persuade him to create a work on freedom and human rights abuses.  Her venue of choice?  Alcatraz. For Ai, he was obviously tired of “making installations I can’t attend.” Through virtual walkthroughs and a reverential persistence on Haines’s part, a plan was put into action.   

Despite these culinary and scenic landmines, North Beach still possesses a deep-rooted neighborhood scene, where locals know each other by name and people still slow down to get to know one another over a round of afternoon cocktails. Full disclosure: North Beach will always have a special place in my heart; it's where I stumbled into adulthood and met my husband along the way. I'm sharing a few of my neighborhood gems, but know that there are many more to explore.

PIPH is one of several religious organizations in the Bay Area that have spearheaded a burgeoning Sanctuary Movement that began last summer in Arizona. So far 24 congregations offering sanctuary in 12 cities across the country have joined. Inspired by the Sanctuary Movement of the early 1980s, when at least 500 churches offered safe-havens for migrants escaping conflict in Central America, faith leaders today are looking to renew that commitment by providing shelter, food and even legal advice to this latest wave of child refugees.

Tech firms Zoosk and Zendesk pledged to hire interns from the neighborhood. Zendesk expected to hire at least two each in 2012 and 2013. Zendesk did hire a pair in 2012, but only one last year. Zoosk executed its first CBA in 2013 and fulfilled its promise to hire two interns. All the interns got only summer jobs, and all came from the neighborhood’s Vietnamese Youth Development Center. 

About 200 to 250 children each month are coming to the Bay Area to be reunited with family members or sponsors, according to CARECEN. The organization has seen a tripling in the number of minors seeking its immigration legal services, from 20 to 60 minors per month – more than they have the capacity to serve. A resolution introduced last week by Supervisor David Campos would ensure that while these children await immigration proceedings, they have access to housing and social services.

What determines a city as ‘literary?’ It’s not enough to have a large library, unique bookstores, or be the birthplace of a famous writer. Nor is it enough to be one of the top literate cities in the United States  Most literary cities have a strong writing program at one of their numerous colleges and universities, as well as bookstores and institutions hosting event after event. If anything, a literary city is a blend of the historical, cultural, and modern parts of literature, encouraging and inspiring future generations to appreciate and take part in the literary world.

According to a new study by the real estate website, Trulia, San Francisco ranks second in the nation among cities with the highest income gap. And, my hometown also tops the list of cities with the most expensive price for homes per square feet. Business Insider reports that a million dollars will buy about a 1,500-sq-foot home in San Francisco. That amount in Boston, which ranked second, would fetch a 2,092-sq-foot home. 

In many people's experience, California consists of Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Francisco, and the highways that connect them. In reality, these urban centers make up only a fraction of the whole. According to the 2010 Census, geographically the state of California is more than 94 percent rural. Surprise Valley, Lost Hills, Raisin City, Mecca -- these are the communities that make up "the rest" of California. Photographer Lisa M. Hamilton  has delved into the collections of the California Historical Society to connect present-day stories with the past to create I See Beauty in This Life: A Photographer Looks at 100 Years of Rural California.

San Francisco is now part of a statewide trend that has resulted in majority becoming minority, with minority continuing to surge and multiply. The latest census showed that whites have slowly shrunk to 48 percent of the population in San Francisco, becoming another minority in a city that has no majority. The city's Asian population, on the other hand, has risen above the 33 percent mark. That is, one in three San Francisco residents has an Asian face. For the population under 18, the number for Asian closer to 40 percent.

Carl Heyward is an artist and writer living in San Francisco. He has exhibited his mixed-media paintings and artists’ books internationally and has been collected by numerous institutions and individuals including: The Sackner Archives, Califia Books, The New Museum of Art (NY), SF Museum of Modern Art Library, SF Art Institute, SF Academy of Art University, Yale University Art Library, The Australian National Gallery and Sonoma County Museum of Modern Art.