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Issue 4. May 2018. The Urban School of San
Behind the doors of Things Lucky Sophia Vahanvaty With incense wafting through the windows and wares spilling onto the sidewalk, Things Lucky is hard to miss, especially for the dozens of Urban students who pass it while walking to school or heading to Haight Street during lunch. Despite its proximity to Urban, many students have never ventured inside, and rumors about the store proliferate in Urban’s hallways. The Urban Legend set out to find the story behind Urban’s elusive neighbor, Things Lucky.
Staff Writer 25 years ago, when Susan Luo immigrated to the United States from Thailand, she founded Lucky Handicrafts: the business that owns Things Lucky along with two other stores in the Bay Area as well as a warehouse in the East Bay. She explained that she “started the business little by little” in 1993 by capitalizing on her love for buying stones and making jewelry. “When I started to buy stones, customers were interested and so I bought more,” said Luo. [Story continues on page 5]
Opinion: The Panhandle is still safe
Staff Writer
Emma Draisin
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Over 3.5 billion Snapchats are sent every day, according to a 2017 report by statista.com. Possessing the ability to capture every moment with the touch of a button, Snapchat and other similar interfaces have become increasingly popular with teenagers. But what happens when someone doesn’t want to be filmed or photographed? A generational divide between students and teachers blurs the line of what is appropriate to share online, and what should remain private. Upholding notions of privacy can be a challenge with the rise of social media. Research shows that teenagers tend to forgo privacy settings and post personal information online; accord-
ing to a 2013 joint study by Pew Research Center and the Berkman Center for Internet Society, 91 percent of teenagers post photos of themselves, 71 percent post their school name, 53 percent post their email addresses and 20 percent even post their cellphone numbers. With so many teenagers sharing their personal data, the idea of asking for permission to photograph or film someone else can seem foreign. Though students may not be aware, some teachers are uncomfortable with the idea of being filmed. Science teacher Matt Medeiros begins many of his classes by asking students not to film or photograph him without his permission. [Story continues on page 6]
Phoebe Grandi In eighth grade, I invited a friend to my house, a change of scenery from our typical afternoons spent eating and shopping on Chestnut street. However, she told me that she did not feel comfortable being in my neighborhood. This puzzled me; at the time I did not consider my neighborhood unsafe. Sure, the Haight-Ashbury was different from the designer shops and expensive juiceries that formed Pacific Heights, where our middle school - Convent of the Sacred Heart - was, but I felt equally comfortable in both places. I soon recognized that our different opinions stemmed from the difference in where we grew up. When she told me she did not feel safe, she was referring to the homeless people on my block, the smell of weed, and unique stores on Haight Street. She was used to Alta Plaza Park and its sweeping views of San Francisco, not the Panhandle and its multitude of pit bulls. I, on the other hand, have lived
Editor, Arts & Culture north of the Panhandle my entire life. Between going to breakfast on Haight street and taking regular jogs around the Panhandle, I have become accustomed to every aspect of my neighborhood. Since attending the Urban school of San Francisco, my sense of community has only grown. I now walk through the Panhandle every day on my way to school and have started spending most of my lunches eating at the variety of restaurants on Haight Street. Recently, however, my confidence has been shaken in the wake of two tragic events. On February 16, 2018, seven minutes before I went for a run that night, two men were shot in the Panhandle. Only a week later, a few hours before I arrived at school, three men were found having overdosed in front Urban. I was not blind to the fact that crime did occur in my neighborhood, but never before had I thought of how it could relate to me, both emotionally and geographically, as these events did. [Story continues on page 10]
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Snapchat era challenges generational ideas of privacy
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***Every year, the final issue of the Legend is designed, edited, and lead by staff members auditioning for future leadership roles. In this, our final issue, the 2017-18 leaders have passed the torch on to the potential new leaders. This paper is a reflection of their hard work and dedication to the Legend, as well as a preview to the future of Urban journalism. -Emma and Sophia, Editors-in-Chief of the 2017-18 school year
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NEW CLASSES
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SWIM TEAM PAGE ELEVEN
GIRL TALK
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