Sunset Social Club × Relational Tech Project · SF Tech Week
Friday, Oct 9 · 2–6pm
Sunset Village Music Hall · 4114 Judah St
Neighbors and Tech Week visitors brought 23 dreams for the Outer Sunset to the mic, walked to the ocean together, and came back to build. By 5pm there were two working websites, a new-neighbor welcome page, a privacy circle on Signal, and a date for a December open mic.
Hosted by Josh Nesbit and Anna Spisak · Event page on Luma
How it ran
The flyer called it a commencement, not a competition. Times on the left come from the slide on the screen that day; the photo timestamps show when each part actually happened.
On the flyer 2:00 · in the photos 1:59 to 2:28
The welcome sign went up on the door, snacks went out, and neighbors and Tech Week visitors found their first conversations.
On the slide 2:15 · in the photos 2:34 to 3:15
Josh opened for Sunset Social Club and the Relational Tech Project, then handed the mic to anyone with a dream, neighbors first. Each person made a sign with one or two words so teammates could find them. Twenty-three people spoke, and each one's photo is on their card below.
On the slide 2:45 · in the photos 3:23
People found the dreams that tugged at them and introduced themselves to the folks who had shared.
On the slide 3:00 · in the photos 3:35 to 3:38
Dominic led a singing procession straight down Judah to a big breath at the water. Teammates got to know each other on the way back and pointed out where their project would live in daily life.
On the slide 3:30 · in the photos 4:56 to 4:57
Teams worked on the first thing each project needed: a flyer, a landing page, an outreach plan, a first working version of software.
On the slide 5:00 · in the photos 5:06 to 5:44
District 4 Supervisor Alan Wong came by to speak, then five teams showed what they had, over food from Sunset spots.
On the slide 6pm · announced at the mic for 6:30
The hall turned over for live music.
2:15 · In speaking order
One card per voice. Names are spelled as heard; where a name wasn't caught, the card says so. Photos are matched to speakers by speaking order and the camera's timestamps. The tag in the corner shows whether the idea needs a screen.
Showing all 23 dreams.
Jackie
Neighbor · first to the mic, with an idea two weeks old
Little dog toilet stations all over the neighborhood: enclosed, well drained, stocked with bags, and cute. Neighbors could host one in a front yard like a little free library, and a scent cue would draw dogs to use them.
Instead of "no dogs here," it'd be more like, please, dog, come here.
The Bulletin Board Neighbor name not caught
Idea from a 20-minute talk with Tom, who opened the hall
A big sign in the right spot that answers two questions: what's going on in the neighborhood, and how do we reach each other, including the link to the neighborhood WhatsApp. Behind it, a small physical network for getting flyers out, and a big bulletin board.
A little community sort of physical messaging network, like a way to send out flyers.
Justin
Moved over from the Inner Richmond two months ago
Authentic relating and circling: nonviolent communication and T-group structure in a small group, slowing down to say what you feel, the story you're making, what your body is doing, and what you want right now. Justin offered to teach the language, and was the clearest voice for less tech, pointing to New York's Summer of Lud, a week in Tompkins Square Park promoted with flyers tucked into library books.
What's it like to be you right now with me?
Looking fora few people to circle with
Yongbin
43rd & Judah · moved here a year ago with family and a two-year-old
San Francisco has 44 bookstores and the Outer Sunset has one. Second Century Books will stock by a single rule, kept secret for anyone who wants to join. It starts as one bookshelf in a cafe or gallery, then a second, then a third.
The Outer Sunset deserves more bookstores.
Looking fora cafe or gallery for shelf one, and co-conspirators
Julia Gitis
Good Neighbor Lab · West Portal, "Sunset adjacent"
Last February San Francisco removed its last print newspaper rack from public sidewalks. Julia brought a prototype board that puts community information back out there, curated for the Sunset with upcoming events, resources and neighbors' pets, mostly by the Sunset Beacon, with Lincoln High's student paper. A citywide pilot of 5 to 10 boards is forming, and the Sunset makes a strong case for one.
I had this idea of putting community information back on public sidewalks.
Looking forthe right Sunset intersection, and feedback on the prototype
Rosa
Builder of heythereneighbor.com · wants a sidewalk board in SoMa
Sign up in about a minute with your location and interests. It shows who nearby shares them, pairs you for 10-minute chats, and spots groups waiting to happen, like 20 neighbors who all love board games. Rosa pictures it in a welcome kit: meet three people in an easy short format and get the lay of the land.
There might be someone that you have everything in common with and they live a block away, and you otherwise just never find out.
The Lower Haight Editor name not caught
Runs a print magazine in the Lower Haight
An explicit welcome for people who just moved in, like one seen in Minnesota: how to get a parking permit, where to walk for groceries, every corner store nearby. In a city this transient it could be as simple as a link every landlord hands new tenants, ideally kept up by the city.
Wouldn't it be nice if in this very transient city, the people that move here have a very direct way.
Dominic
Musician · surfs here, so feels local
A regular open mic at the music hall. Dominic brings a songbook: pick a song and play it together. In a room wary of screens, a pitch for the oldest technology there is. Dominic also led the singing walk to the ocean.
Maybe the oldest technology, just sound.
Looking forlocal musicians and a regular night
Vanessa VerLee
Musician · two weeks out of ear surgery
The long-running VV Variety Show has always lived in the Mission. In February it comes to the Sunset. The rule: performers do something outside their comfort zone, something that scares and excites them. The plan is to bring it here at least once or twice a year.
So I'm going to start doing it here at least once or twice a year, maybe more often.
The Game Maker name not caught
Arrived with prototypes on a phone
Three games, from screen to tactile: a Sunset Dunes arcade cabinet in the spirit of Dig Dug with save-the-dunes messaging, an infinite tabletop Scrabble that many people keep adding to and that never ends, and Spot It-style matching cards drawn from icons around the Dunes, to hand out to kids.
I prefer not having to pass a freeway.
Jonas
Lower Haight
Thirty scavenger hunts in the past two years, plus a platform for running them: birthday parties, corporate events, and helping others throw their own. Favorite tasks include crushing a watermelon between your thighs and singing with a street musician.
Looking forpartners to throw hunts with
The Russian River Visitor name not caught
Came down from the Russian River area
A party game on the mechanics of Cards Against Humanity, except every card is a video: a piece of the neighborhood's history, or a person who meant something to the community. Players pick what they think the judge will love, and the room watches the winning video together on a shared screen.
The Activity Finder name not caught
Visitor, not from the area
Open one view and see every community nearby by day: free martial arts, a soccer game today, volleyball. And the reverse: post what you want to start, a jam session or a training partner, so others who want the same can join and a group forms within a day or two, no gym membership required.
I want to play soccer today.
Jawno Okhiulu
Artist and musician · lives in the Castro
Studio work gets lonely, and the best ideas come from playing together in person. Jawno's artist cultural hub wants to map the city so artists know where to make, play and present, and neighbors can find art that helps them grieve and imagine. Maybe an app; maybe treasure maps on Muni, BART and buses showing where artists are making things nearby.
Play is done best, at least for me, together.
Looking forpeople to brainstorm and jam with
Gina
Senior · helps every generation with their tech
Gina has helped seniors, families and the staff of wealthy tech households with privacy and security, and saw the same blind spots everywhere: everyone alone at home, trying to keep up with AI, Google and Facebook. The proposal: small-group gatherings plus one-on-one help, so neighbors cover each other's blind spots.
We don't have to do this alone.
Ethan Holtzman
Born and raised in the Outer Sunset · recent college grad
The tea and martial arts practitioner behind the pop-up tea house in the room. Weekly tea sessions at rotating locations, with a list of hosts and guests, because creative flow only comes when people feel safe. Ethan studies with Sifu Wayne Huey, whose Tai Chi group meets almost every day at 6.
Kung fu actually just translates to skill, and we all have so many skills.
Looking fortea hosts and fellow tea drinkers
Vanessa VerLee
Back at the mic for a second idea · zines at Blackbird Books
Vanessa is also a somatic coach whose zines sell at Blackbird, the neighborhood's only bookstore. The play shops take the work out of healing, with quick practices that bring people out of fight or flight. The idea is to pair that with other people's expertise and co-host sessions.
Looking forco-hosts with a skill to share, and places to hold sessions
The Gear Swapper name not caught
Walking distance from the hall · partner Jim has lived here 20+ years
Anyone else have 15 surfboards, 20 fins or 20 backpacks in the garage? A neighborhood gear swap, with whatever's left going to an outdoor nonprofit or a mega garage sale that raises money for Sunset Social Club.
Q
31st Avenue · four years in the Sunset
Art shows turned out to be the most social rooms in town, so Q started adding a DJ. The next art party is in SoMa on the 14th, and the December one may come to the Sunset.
Best neighborhood in San Francisco by a long shot.
Looking fortwo more artists for the 14th, and a Sunset host for 3 to 4 artists in December
Ben
Outer Sunset for 26 years · KALW Public Media, 91.7
KALW just moved to the Warfield Commons at 6th and Market, where SoMa, the Tenderloin and Mid-Market meet. Not one giant Bay Area calendar, but a listing tied to a place: a QR code on a building, near the city's "It all starts here" signs, that shows what's happening right around it, for neighbors and for people heading to the big venues. Inspired by Josh's Outer Sunset.today.
Nathan
Founder, CitySync
A platform to scale collective action: a shared standard that local builders, nonprofits and local governments can plug into to coordinate peer to peer. Pilots start in Berkeley and Mexico City, then local governments.
Looking forneighborhood builders with a project to plug in
Meredith
Richmond District
The west side is full of backyards their owners or tenants barely use, and full of people with no outdoor space at all. Meredith waited three years for a community garden plot. The idea: a way for people with a yard to open it to a neighbor, for gardening or whatever they need.
Mary
The Sunset for 20+ years
A drop-in third space that's always there, not only for events. Not a bar built around alcohol, a cafe where everyone sits alone, or a coworking room, but a place where you know it's welcome to walk up to anyone. Like your living room, full of people you haven't met yet.
Hosts and other voices
Josh Nesbit
Host · co-steward of the Relational Tech Project
Opened for Sunset Social Club, started a few months ago as a free way for neighbors to self-organize. Co-founder Sandi couldn't make it and sent love. The Relational Tech Project believes we can build what we need together, which takes sharing dreams for a place, time together in person, and building for one particular neighborhood.
Every single person in the Sunset knows someone on every block here, that you feel like reciprocity in the air when you walk through the neighborhood.
Alan Wong
District 4 Supervisor · came by to speak
The Sunset's supervisor came by during build time to speak. After two or three Tech Week events downtown, Alan Wong was glad to find one in the Sunset, thanked the Relational Tech Project, Sunset Social Club, Good Neighbor Lab and Sunset Village Music Hall, and named ideas taking shape around the room: a babysitting co-op, a walking club, a mahjong class.
It's just really interesting seeing everybody come out here and do this and have this little community here during Tech Week.
The Small Business Advisor name not caught
"Not an ideas person, a missing computer person"
Asked the room whether anyone had picked up a MacBook by mistake. The work laptop, full of business ideas, turned up within a minute.
I knew this would work. Crowdsourcing works.
5:00 · Shares
Three hours after the walk, five teams came back to the mic.
Benjamin Von Wong · Dear Crisis community
Two problems kept coming up in the dreams. It's hard to see everything happening nearby, and it's hard to find a place to gather. Both now have a working first version.
Every public event in the Inner and Outer Sunset, gathered each morning from the groups' own calendars plus Luma, Eventbrite, Meetup, the library, Rec and Park and more. Browse it as a directory of groups, a map, or a day-by-day list, and subscribe in your own calendar app. Adapted from a tool first built for New York.
The reverse of Google Maps: which storefronts are closed, when, and how much floor space they hold, with banks and chains left out. Want to host something Wednesday at 6pm? Find a closed space, then ask the owner. It copies the flyer's look.
Dominic and Ren
Thursday, Dec 10 · Sunset Village Music Hall
Polyphonic. It means many voices. It means many genres, many ages.
The Lower Haight Editor, Renee and team
Looking fora Sunset partner to launch it here
Rosa
Not everyone's gonna be Josh, but how do you get people incrementally a little bit farther up that scale of connection?
Try itheythereneighbor.com, and ask Rosa for a sticker
Gina and four neighbors
Across all 23 dreams
Each dream is tagged with one or two threads, so the counts add up to more than 23.
Analog, 11. Open mic, tea, circling, a gear swap, a bookshelf, dog stations, a third space.
Both, 8. A screen helps, but the point is in person: sidewalk boards, QR codes on buildings, art maps, game cards.
Digital, 4. Hey There Neighbor, the welcome page, the activity finder, CitySync.
Mark your calendar
Dates as announced in the room. Check with the organizer before you go.
Sat, Oct 10
Put on by Amanda, a friend of the hall.
Sun, Oct 11
At Sunset Village Music Hall.
Most days · 6pm
Ask Ethan Holtzman where the group meets.
The 14th
Two artist spots still open.
Thu, Dec 10
Sunset Village Music Hall, with Dominic and Ren.
December
If Q finds a host for 3 to 4 artists.
February
Vanessa VerLee's comfort-zone stretching show, its first time out of the Mission.
Oct 2027
Same time next year, Josh promised. Someone shouted for monthly, and Josh said let's do it.
With gratitude
"I want to be on everybody's team. So just treat me that way."
Josh, closing the dream sharing. If you shared something, hold on to it, and follow up with Josh.