Howard Lazar
-Bonnie Monte, bonnie.monte@gmail.com
When I recognized Howard Lazar at the Santa Venetia Labor Day picnic and commented that I knew him, the reply from a neighbor was, “Everyone knows Howard!” That’s no surprise, given his outgoing personality and the fact that he and his wife Patricia have lived on Meadow Drive for 44 years. “I walk the dogs every day,” he says, “and I know everyone on Adrian, even
the newcomers. I’ve watched so many kids grow up here.”
When he and Patricia bought their house in house in 1980, the ¼ acre parcel was barren except for four trees at the property’s corners. Since then, Patricia, a landscaper, has
slowly transformed it into a peaceful haven with brick paths meandering among a multitude of trees, shrubs, and perennials.
Howard started life in Los Angeles, then moved with his mother and stepfather to Tiburon when he was 10. He recalls the era when the railroad ran through Tiburon, bringing
lumber and coal from the Pacific Northwest. The old railroad track is now a lovely walking and biking path along the bay.
It was in Tiburon that his already burgeoning love of art blossomed as he took lessons with local artist Olive Fetherstonhaugh. “She was a very gifted painter and a wonderful mosaicist,” Howard recalls. “She let me into her adult art classes when I was a boy. She taught me a lot about texture.” Howard continued to study with Olive into his twenties, and the two remained lifelong friends.
For decades, Howard lived in San Francisco and worked for the city’s Arts Commission,
heading up the Street Artists Licensing Program. A big part of the job was helping store
owners understand the value that licensed street artists added to the retail arena. “We
also had to deal with crisis after crisis,” he says, from false accusations about favoritism
in the artists’ lotteries for spaces, to negotiating between merchants and artists, to the
deterrence of proliferating unlicensed vendors who sold merchandise they had not
created themselves such as fake Rolexes.
Howard is an artist himself. An accomplished sculptor, he works in Italian-made polymer
clay to create busts of people, then paints each piece. His work can be seen at Tiburon’s Railroad & Ferry Depot Museum and at the Hamilton Field History Museum. Another project is a bust of Archie Williams, the Olympic gold-medalist, airplane pilot, and beloved teacher at what was formerly Drake High School. Now the school has been renamed in Williams’ honor and the bust is showcased on a pedestal designed and built by Patricia (a school alum). “I did a phenomenal amount of research and corresponded with Archie’s granddaughter, Vesta. I sent her samples of mixed colors, and she and her father chose the one closest to Archie’s skin tone,” says Howard.
For many years, Howard thought he’d someday move back to San Francisco. “But I’m
so glad I didn’t,” he says, reveling in the peacefulness and friendliness of Santa Venetia.
Deeply spiritual, he strives to live an honest, unmaterialistic life. And he works on his art
every day. “I have to,” he says. “It’s part of my nature to do this.”
Sylvia Lakeman
-Bonnie Monte, bonnie.monte@gmail.com
Sylvia Lakeman is a familiar figure to anyone who has attended the SVNA Labor Day picnic in years past. She runs the always-popular raffle, gathering prizes from individuals
and neighborhood businesses and handing them out to lucky ticket holders. The raffle has been going for 14 years as a way to raise money for the neighborhood. “It started small,” says
Sylvia, “and it’s grown, with a ton of wonderful prizes.” Half of the money raised goes toward upkeep of the medians. The other half is used for the CERT program.
CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) stocks supplies to better prepare the neighborhood for disaster, be it fire, flood, or earthquake. Non-perishable food, medical
supplies, radios, and more are stored in a trailer. Sylvia became involved in CERT (then called DART) around 2012 with neighbors Jean Zerrudo and Sandy Fullerton. Jean has since relocated abroad and Sandy has passed away. But Sylvia is still very active in CERT, along with nine other neighborhood members. “We’ve made a lot of progress,” says Sylvia. “We’re really expanding on supplies.”
Born in England right at the start of World War II, Sylvia and her sister remained in the
thick of the action, rather than being evacuated to the countryside as so many other
children were. “Once I had children of my own, I could understand why my mother
chose to keep us close by,” she says. As a young woman, Sylvia worked as a pediatric nurse in England, then in Italy, and eventually in San Francisco, where she met Zeke, her future husband.
The couple settled in Santa Venetia and started raising a family. When her son was in
kindergarten at Old Gallinas School, Sylvia began volunteering in the library there. “I’ve always loved books,” she says. She was eventually hired as a library clerk, a job she held for 25 years, working at Bahia Vista, Sun Valley, and Laurel Dell. She loved reading to classes in addition to her administrative duties. “Back then the library was almost the heart of the school,” she recalls. “It was the perfect job.”
Although Zeke passed away in 2011, and her grown children don’t live close by, Sylvia is grateful to have remained in her home and enjoys a full, satisfying life right here in Santa Venetia. She has a wide circle of friends with whom she attends the symphony, visits museums, and goes on walks. Her senior dog Ernest gets her out walking too. When she went to the shelter to adopt a pet, she had a list of criteria in mind. “But the minute they brought Ernest out, I forgot about my list,” she says happily. She values the wonderful sense of community in Santa Venetia. “The amazing thing is that I still have neighbors who have been here maybe 40 or 50 years. Our kids all played together. Now they bring their own children to visit,” she says. “I can’t imagine living anywhere else.
-Bonnie Monte, bonnie.monte@gmail.com
I was born and raised in this neighborhood,” Jason says proudly. “I’m a Scabobian through and through.” Indeed, he’s the third generation to live in the area. His grandfather, Frank Flores, emigrated from Portugal in the 1930s, followed by his wife, Maria. The couple owned
an alfalfa ranch on some 50 acres, encompassing land that is now part of the Civic Center and extending up into Los Ranchitos.
As Marin became more populous, Jason’s grandparents saw that ranching was being displaced by the freeway and other construction. So with foresight, they built the Flores Apartments on Merrydale and North San Pedro, selling off the rest of the ranch over time. Jason’s
grandmother lived in the apartments until her death in 2006. “She was well known for her cooking and her garden, and was featured twice in the Marin IJ,” Jason says.
His parents, both of Azorean Portuguese descent, met through involvement in the
Sonoma-Marin Portuguese American community. They moved into the family’s building
on Merrydale, where Jason grew up. That building was eventually sold. These days, his parents have several acres in Terra Linda “with a vineyard and every imaginable fruit
tree,” Jason says. ‘It’s like Eden.”
Ever since his high school days, Jason has worked with computers. “I’d always been fascinated with electronics, taking things apart,” he says. “When Mom and Dad bought an Apple 2Gs, the love affair grew.” Something of a prodigy, he built networks, started getting into web development, and helped teachers and counselors navigate computer
issues, all while still a student at Terra Linda High.
After graduation, he was hired at Coleman Elementary school as a technology expert. “I
enjoyed it immensely,” he says. But after several years, he decided to leave and become a computer consultant. His business designing software and systems is still thriving.
Since moving back here 14 years ago, Jason has been upgrading his home, which he bought in an unfinished state. He lives there with his girlfriend and his charming dog, Frankie. Jason’s affection for his old stomping ground is evident, from the neighborly spirit he embodies to the Go-Fund-Me campaign he organized for Santa Venetia Market manager Nestor De La Roca following his stroke.
Jason is full of ideas for improving an already great neighborhood. He favors more pedestrian access, such as a bridge over the north fork of the creek, connecting Santa Venetia to Lucas Valley and McInnis Park. He would also like to see the area around the Santa Venetia Market become more of a neighborhood hub and has broached some interesting ideas to the property owner. “I love it here. I love the people, the hiking” Jason says. “My girlfriend and I plan on living here the rest of our lives.”
Josel Yau
-Bonnie Monte, bonnie.monte@gmail.com
I like people to see the magic of art being created,” says Joel Yau. That immediacy is why he enjoys chalk painting festivals so much. Thanks to his skill with the medium, he has been invited to participate in events throughout the U.S. and across the globe, including Mexico, Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands. He takes pleasure in engaging with spectators about his work (“I’m chatty,” he admits) as well as reconnecting with some of the same artists year after year. “It’s a community. You get to see your peeps.”
Joel’s love of chalk art got started at San Rafael’s Italian Street Painting Marin event, held every year beginning in 1994 and which sadly is no more. “It was the second oldest chalk art
festival in the country and inspired the growth of this kind of art event around the U.S.,” Joel says. “It would be nice to have it return to downtown San Rafael in the future.” When he’s not off at a street painting event, Joel works as a graphic designer, illustrator, and art director. He also is skilled at painting and ceramics. After getting a degree in Visual Communication and Advertising from the University of the Philippines, at the urging of friends, he applied for a scholarship to study at Academy of Art University in San Francisco. He emigrated in 1987 and
started school the day after he arrived, getting a second degree in illustration.
For a time, Joel was a regular on Nanni Wurl’s Second Saturday Median Crew. Nowadays he helps with the SVNA Newsletter and sometimes the website. He appreciates the strong sense of community involvement in Santa Venetia, which he credits to the committed residents who have been here a long time. “These are the people who built that community,” he says. He
believes it’s essential to get new residents involved and that more kid-focused events like the Halloween Block Party and the Easter Egg Hunt are the way to do that, by bringing along young families. “It would be a shame to lose that neighborhood spirit,” he says.
To see some of Joel’s work, visit his website: www.studioyau.com