San Francisco Magazine nominated for two National Magazine Awards

San Francisco Magazine was nominated for two National Magazines awards today, one for general excellence and one for public service.

  It’s a fabulous magazine, and my opinion has nothing to do with the fact that my brother, Steven Dinkelspiel, is president of  the magazine. (Okay, only a little) I send my congratulations to him, to the editor, Bruce Kelley, and to the rest of the staff.

The article that brought San Francisco the nomination for Public Service is one written in December 2009 by Danelle Morton about the Lembi family’s real estate empire, now collapsing. Morton, who ghost wrote Staying True, the memoir of Jenny Sanford, the wife of the disgraced South Carolina governor, spent a year and a half looking into the Lembi’s extensive collection of apartments. The family was one of the city’s largest holders of real estate, with apartment buildings ranging from fancy places on Nob Hill to more pedestrian places in the Mission. It’s an excellent article that details how the availability of cheap money a few years ago permitted the Lembis to buy so much real estate, how they mistreated some of their tenants, and how the crash had brought their empire tumbling down.

San Francisco was nominated in the General Excellence category for magazines with circulation less than 100,000 for its April, August, and December issues.

In 2005, I attended the National Magazine Awards. San Francisco had been nominated then, but unfortunately didn’t win. I have a good feeling for this year.

Eco-Anxiety

Leslie Crawford, a friend and member of my writing group North 24^th, wrote a wonderful piece this month for San Francisco Magazine all about the anxieties caused by global warming. We know its coming (or is here, if you haven’t stuck your head in the sand like George W. Bush). We try to do our part by changing to compact fluorescent light bulbs and walking whenever possible, but the depressing reality is that our environment is disintegrating at a rapid rate. Some people are so frightened and paralyzed by this that they seek out the attention of therapists.

Well, it was a great story, which was to be expected as Leslie is a wonderful and insightful writer. San Francisco Magazine is big and glossy and chock full of fashion ads but it also offers cutting edge journalism. Its editor Bruce Kelley always manages to put out a magazine that I actually want to read, rather than flip through. And did I mention that my brother, Steven Dinkelspiel, is the president of the magazine?

All of this is a long way of saying that the New York Times ran a front page story on Saturday about eco-Moms, women who get together to try and use environmentally safe products in their homes. Mentioned prominently in Patricia Leigh Brown's piece was Leslie’s article from San Francisco Magazine. There was even a sidebar on eco-anxiety. And by 9 am California time, the story was the second-most emailed story from the Times.

This is just one more example of how California is on the leading edge of social and political movements. Not only are we organizing to fight global warming, we are in the forefront of a self-help movement to assist us in the long battle.

By the way, Leslie and her son Sam are the authors of City Walks with Kids: San Francisco, a boxed deck of 50 cards that map entertaining walks parents can do with their kids (Chronicle Books 2007).