50. He turned the worst night of his career into a business plan
On May 8, Richie Nakano, the 30-year-old sous-chef at Nopa, took over the kitchen at Coffee Bar to sell $13 bowls of noodle soup—a recipe he’s been perfecting for most of his professional life. He was prepared to serve 350 bowls, but by night’s end, he had made 500, and the scene inside the kitchen “was brutal,” he says. “Failing electricity, burners that wouldn’t boil water, humidity that destroyed 100-plus portions of noodles.” But what didn’t kill him made him stronger, so Nakano is moving forward with plans to sell his ramen at the Thursday Ferry Plaza Farmers Market this summer and to open a permanent location in the future. twitter.com/haparamen (Right: Richie Nakano created this graphic to help him locate the flavor sweet
spot for his ramen pork stock; by Jesse Friedman/beerandnosh.com)

49. The wildest dance party (with drag) anyone can’t remember
When songs like Tiffany’s 1987 cover of the ’60s confection “I Think We’re Alone Now” and Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)”—also from ’87—pour from the speakers, you know no one’s worrying about the unemployment line. Since February of last year, San Francisco’s fags, dykes, and everyone else have flocked to Underground SF on the second Saturday of each month to find late-20th-century joy in regression. Bubblegum pop is alive and swell at these Mall Madness events, where the crowd sings along at full throttle and goes crazy for performances by the city’s fiercest drag queens. 424 Haight St., S.F., 415-864-7386

48. Interior design does takeout
Send in tear sheets from design mags, photos of your favorite furniture, and answers to a list of questions about your taste, and Chloe Warner and her team at Redmond Aldrich Design will now send back a Design Kit created just for you. It's a folded diorama storyboard laden with artwork, paint chips, upholstery swatches, photos of furniture and accessories, and a proposed floor plan for a room. "People are more DIY these days," says Warner—and pennywise. Her firm's consult comes as cheap as $900 and never tops $1,800. redmondaldrich.com  (Left: Courtesy of Chloe Warner)

47. Good news news
In a year when who knows how many journalists have lost their jobs, the Bay Area has added at least some new reporters and editors who will actually see paychecks. Warren Hellman’s online Bay Citizen now has a staff of 13 full-time writers and editors, the Berkeley-based California Watch has 10, and the San Francisco Public Press has 4. All three outfits are nonprofits that depend on scarce philanthropic dollars, but hey, we’ll take what we can get. baycitizen.org, californiawatch.org, sfpublicpress.org

46. Wealth plus heart plus glam equals serious action 
 How about a bunch of kids raising $4 million in one night? Right when the state is bailing on many programs for abused and neglected children, the scions of Bay Area giants, such as Alec Perkins (Tom’s son) and Katie Schwab (Chuck’s daughter), plus a bunch of other wrinkle-free philanthropists, have generated some megabucks for Tipping Point, Daniel Lurie’s (Mimi Haas’s son) money magnet foundation, to help fill the gap. The money will go to Katie Albright (Madeleine’s daughter), who runs the San Francisco Child Abuse Prevention Center and is planning a similar operation in South San Francisco for low-income families. 703 Market St., Ste. 708, S.F., 415 348-1240, tippoint.org (Right: Trevor Traina and Kelsey Fithian; by Drew Altizer)

45. The Avatar of sound
What 3-D did for watching movies, Dolby Surround 7.1 sound does for listening to them, and the new technology is an all–Bay Area affair. It involves a sophisti­cated type of surround sound developed at Dolby (in San Francisco) and tested at George Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch (in Marin), and it made its maiden outing in June, with the release of Toy Story 3 by Pixar (in Emeryville). Fred Walraven of Chicago, one of the first theater owners to install Dolby 7.1, says the sound is as good as Dolby says it is: “If an airplane is coming from behind, it will make the audience turn around in its seats.” dolby.com

44. Hermès helps us hold on to our handbags
A storied leather-goods house has come to the rescue of local customers in need of accessory repair: no trivial problem, considering how many Hermès items are still made by hand. Early this year, the French company transplanted one of its brightest talents, artisan Dominique Michaux, to its Grant Avenue boutique, where he wields mallets and needles to painstakingly restore any leather goods from Hermès that have been battered or broken. Some may call his work a dying art, but the shelves, already piled high with bags and suitcases, suggest otherwise. 125 Grant Ave., S.F., 415-391-7200, hermes.com (Left: Master craftsman Dominique Michaux sews a leather card case in Hermès’ Union Square boutique; by James Chiang)

43. She nailed the vibrant new beauty craze
Rachel Cheng’s ZaZa Nail Spa, in SoMa, was the first San Francisco spa to hone the art of Minx, the heat-activated nail decals adopted by pop stars and commonfolk alike this past year. Both fake and natural nails act as tiny canvases for the cosmetics artist, who can apply intricate animal prints, lace, boat stripes—or the smiling visage of President Obama. Be sure to plan your pattern and call in ahead: Walk-ins aren’t welcome for this 60 minute-minimum appointment. Minx manicures and pedicures $48–68, 543 2nd St., S.F., 415-495-6292, zazanailspa.com (Right: by Margo Moritz)

42. The summer’s highest-brow festival leaps higher
Thanks to Robert Cole, the vision­ary former director of Cal Performances, ballet-world super­stars will join the classical music and jazz legends who normally make the Festival del Sole, in Napa, a cultural nirvana. Cole was brought on this year as festival adviser, and the addition of hoofers was his idea. The festival’s first dance gala, on July 23, features principal dancers from the American Ballet Theatre, the Bolshoi, the New York City Ballet, and the San Francisco Ballet. festivaldelsole.com

41. Why Napa needn’t miss Copia
The Hall family planted their flag at Long Meadow Ranch in 1989 and have been quietly extending their culi­nary empire, which includes a winery, a nursery, a farm, and olive trees, ever since. Visitors have always been able to tour the premises, but the tasting room and Farmstead restaurant that opened earlier this year have brought the operation thoroughly public. What’s next for this enterprising clan? “We might make cheese someday,” says Hall son Chris. 738 Main St., St. Helena, 707-963-4555, longmeadowranch.com

40. Green-thumbing her nose at digital media
“People thought I was crazy,” says Torryne Choate, who opened a second outpost of Birch, her popular Sacramento Street floral and gift shop, last summer. But it wasn’t just the decision to sell more flowers that raised eyebrows—it’s also what fills the new store’s entire western wall. Defying today’s “print is dying” mantra, the new Birch, on Hayes Street, offers the city’s finest collection of fashion, music, and design magazines, including New York’s Lid and Germany’s Qvest. 564 Hayes St., S.F., 415-626-6860, birchsf.com (Left: by Margo Moritz)

39. New-growth redwood
It wasn’t long ago that the idea of a crowd in downtown Redwood City sounded like the start of a bad joke. But for whatever reason—the new public square, the closing of the one competing movie theater across the highway—the city is now drawing actual visitors. The public square hosts nearly 200 free events in the spring and summer, and film buffs from the entire mid-Peninsula are flocking to the city’s new, 20-screen Century Theater. Best of all, local entrepreneur Eric Lochtefeld just assembled a team to take another run at the magnificent 1927 art deco live-music venue the Fox Theater, the fore­closure of which last fall was a huge blow to the town. The name of Lochtefeld’s com­pany, University of Dreams, bodes well for all concerned.

 38. Decor as cult-worthy as the wine
Monotone lacquered interiors, Tom Dixon lamps, and Driade sofas are not the sort of modern, high-design touches you’d expect to find near the Silverado Trail, where rustic charm, not polished sophistication, is the norm. But boutique winery Merus decided to commission Amsterdam-based design firm UXUS to create a tasting room and cave as luxe as the wines that are stored and poured inside. After all, the label takes its name from the Latin word for undiluted or absolute, so why not keep things consistent? This place is well worth the trip, even if you’re a teetotaler. 424 Crystal Springs Rd., St. Helena, 707-251-5551, meruswines.com (Right: The gorgeous, ultramodern tasting room at Merus winery is like no other this side of the Silverado Trail; by Dim Balsem)

37. Turning abandoned corridors into destinations
In a stroke of civic genius, the city sponsored Art in Storefronts program pays local artists to install original works in vacant shop windows on blighted stretches of Bayview, the Mission, the Tenderloin, and Market Street. The ultimate goal is to lure merchants back to these areas, but provocative and playful pieces such as Liz Maher’s No One Seems to Care That I Want Roots, in which a giant hand reaches down from the sky to scoop up San Francisco homes, have already upped foot traffic. This summer, AIS is sponsoring four installations and two murals in Chinatown. 415-252-2598, sfartscommission.org/storefronts (Left: Artist Chris Treggiari and photographer Billy Mitchell created this installation in front of Original Joe’s, in the Tenderloin, for the city’s Art in Storefronts program; by Matthew Millman)

36. The clip-on personal coach
Last fall, the tech wizards at San Francisco-based Fitbit released a black gadget that attaches to your belt and tracks your motion in three dimensions, including steps taken, distance traveled, even how long you sleep at night (and how often you roll over!). This data then wirelessly uploads to the company website's easy-to-use dashboard, where you can also record everything you eat and drink. Then you can share your metrics with friends or a trainer through their dashboards or via Facebook and Twitter. So far, Fitbit reports great customer satisfaction: Users who start off as couch potatoes (defined as taking fewer than 4,000 steps a day) increased their activity level by an average of 50 percent by the end of 12 weeks. fitbit.com (Right: Courtesy of Fitbit)

35. Indigenous groupons
Inspired by the national niche leader, the Bay Area has spawned its own not-too-good-to-be-true daily-deal websites, including HomeRun (homerun.com), Groop Swoop (groopswoop.com), TownHog (townhog.com), and FreshGuide (freshguide.com). Offerings have ranged from dinner at Farina to fire dancing lessons, and at some of these sites, the more people who sign on, the better the deal. Plus, using one of these instead of Groupon means you’re supporting local dealmakers instead of a national franchise.

34. A design shop that whistled past the graveyard
Two antiques stores within a block of each other on Polk Street—including the beloved Swallowtail atelier—recently closed, but to Michelle Homme (pronounced “ha-me”), that just meant more room for me! This past December, she opened her exquisitely curated eponymous boutique in a narrow, 11-by-30-foot spot down the street, offering rare finds such as brass wall sculptures by C. Jere and pendant lamps made from old propane tanks. Reports the fearless shopkeeper, “Most people are saying ‘This is so cool,’ but once in a while, I’ll hear ‘You’ve got balls!’” 2354 Polk St., S.F., 415-400-4299, homme.1stdibs.com

33. New leases on life
Cutting-edge fashion guru Gus Harput has relocated his Harputs before, but this time, he’s putting everything on the line to vend with the international brands. The new Union Square branch of his 33-year old family business boasts the original’s signature mix of local and international designers, including a wall of Martha Davis’s chic shoes, a Sweet Dish candy outpost, and an upstairs workshop for Harputs Own pieces. Another local stalwart who’s upgrading—and risking a sky-high lease—is Sausalito-based Heath Ceramics, which just became part of the Ferry Building crowd. Harputs: 124 Geary St., S.F., 415-392-2222, harputsmarket.com; Heath Ceramics: Ferry Building Marketplace (Embarcadero at Market St.), S.F., 415-983-8000, heathceramics.com (Left: The most coveted sneaker collection in San Francisco; by Margo Moritz)

32. Travel from the inside out
Many travel websites include user comments, but San Francisco–based NextStop is more deeply and quirkily experiential than any other. Instead of a standard list of restaurants, hotels, and the like, you’ll find recommendations and photos from people who’ve lived in (and loved) a place their whole lives, as well as from enthusiastic travelers who just couldn’t wait to share. Entries like “SF Mission Street Food Carts” and “Just Get Out of Chelsea Already, You Tired Queen!” help even the pickiest travelers find their place in the sun. nextstop.com

31. No delivery too odd, too late, or too far
Lounging in Dolores Park on a hot afternoon without any sunscreen? No problem, as long as you have your cell phone: TCB Courier’s bike messengers will swing by Walgreens and bring some right to your blanket for as little as six bucks—and they’ll even front the cash for your purchase. TCB has also partnered with several food shops, such as Rhea’s Deli and Jay’s Cheese­steak, which will pay the delivery costs so you don’t have to. The only fly in the ointment is that prices go up for deliveries outside the Mission, SoMa, and Hayes Valley. We like to call it the nonhipster tax. 415-797-2255, tcbcourier.com

30. Sustainable buildings that seem to shoot up overnight
The new Crissy Field Center not only looks cool but also embodies a breathtakingly efficient new way of designing and erecting buildings. The brainchild of architect Mark Miller, Project FROG (Flexible Response to Ongoing Growth) creates pre engineered, easily expandable building modules that cost about 25 percent less than typical LEED certified buildings and can be erected in months rather than years. The industry-leading company has constructed modular classrooms on both coasts and plans to complete a community facility for Hunters Point by year’s end. projectfrog.com (Right: A rendering of the Beach Hut snack bar at the new Crissy Field Center, designed by Project FROG and furnished entirely with reclaimed and refurbished materials; courtesy of Project FROG)

29. A better way to bitch about potholes
City Sourced is a free app for all smartphones that lets you complain about potholes, graffiti, errant trash, or anything else besmirching your street by letting you send a text or a photo directly to the appropriate city officials. The app just launched in San Francisco, but it’s been up and running since late last year in the South Bay, where a San Jose resident finally succeeded in getting a broken streetlamp fixed on his street after two years of unreturned phone calls to city hall. citysourced.com

28. A few more steps toward a plastic-free world
While scuba diving during their worldwide honeymoon tour, Bettina Lim­aco and Marco Pietschmann had an eco-eureka moment—not about the fabulous fish but about the yucky plastic that was floating by: Time to get really serious about cutting back on the ubiquitous sixth element. This conviction conveniently dovetailed with another of the couple’s interests: organic beauty and household products. Thus was born Green11, the first-of-its-kind shop in Noe Valley that offers customers—and several local businesses (with more on the horizon)—a place to refill their own containers with natural unguents and cleansers. You’d never guess that Limaco spent several years working for Clorox. A green form of penance, perhaps? 3980 24th St., S.F., 415-935-9854, shopgreen11.com

27. They didn’t stop at the Fisher bombshell
When your museum is already burdened with a $480 million capital campaign to build a wing for the Fisher collection, it’s not the right time to ask trustees for more money—unless you’re SFMOMA senior curator Gary Garrels. He did just that when count Giuseppe Panza, the Don Fisher of Italy, made 25 of his core works of conceptual art available for acquisition. Though less splashy than the Fisher loan, the Panza purchase is just as important, filling major gaps in SFMOMA’s collection and bringing home student art made at UC Davis by Bruce Nauman, as brilliant and eclectic an artist as Panza was a collector. 151 3rd St., S.F., 415-357-4000, sfmoma.org (Left: Bruce Nauman's 1966 Device to Stand In; courtesy of SFMOMA)

26. Turning commuter food into a craving
When a couple of college buddies abandoned their corporate posts in New York to open Luke’s Local, the only commuter market inside the Hillsdale Caltrain station, they were banking on one thing: their belief that no dining opportu­nity was too small for Bay Area epicureans to take seriously. So they hired Jessy Manuel, whose résumé includes Quince and RN74, and let her loose in the kitchen. Food like braciola with creamy polenta and chard and chicken stuffed with radicchio and apples comes in reheatable biodegradable containers, and you hardly have to pay for the privilege: The average price of a meal is $7.99. 650-341-2771, lukeslocal.com

25. The handy route to a handyman
It’s no wonder Redbeacon snagged four prestigious industry awards last year. The San Mateo startup takes the angst out of a truly annoying task: finding a reliable fix-it pro. Just list the details of your job online, and guys and gals with hammers will respond with bids within 24 hours (the company name was inspired by the police signal in Batman). Compare quotes and read customer reviews, then pick whoever rises to the top and schedule an appointment on the spot. redbeacon.com

24. The jeans giant wakes up
In a bid to live up to its own ad campaign celebrating America’s pioneers, Levi’s made a super-savvy PR move backed by big trend factors (DIY, pop-up shops, letterpressing), support from famous locals (Craig Newmark, Dave Eggers, Alice Waters), and a desire to give back to the community. On July 1, Levi’s will open a print shop for artists and nonprofits on the street where the company had one of its first factories: Valencia. Newmark et al are already outlining projects for the two Vandercook Proof Presses, table let­terpresses, screen printers, and silkscreen stations, which will also be available to the public—for free, with time restrictions—during the shop’s eight week stint. 580–582 Valencia St., S.F., workshops.levi.com (website will go live in early July)

23. Introducing gnarly chic
Elias Crouch wasn’t satisfied with being a part-time professor, a graphic designer, and an obsessive surfer, so he decided to combine all his interests into something we like to call “surf couture.” Sign up on his website to order a custom handmade surfboard with whatever design you want. From candy-colored boards to ones shaped like stingrays to downright weird experiments, Crouch’s creations—as he says, and obviously we agree—“put art back into the surfing world.” crouchcraft.com (Right: Elias Crouch at work in his shed in Glen Park; by Eddie Donnellan)

22. An obsession worthy of Captain Ahab
It turns out all you need to win the world’s most prestigious sailing title are a decade of planning; a reported $400 million; a knockdown, drag-out lawsuit; and a cutting-edge sail that would dwarf an airplane wing. (Oh, and an ironclad will.) These are what allowed Larry Ellison to snag this year’s America’s Cup after he lost the chance to even compete in the last go-round. The small-fry Golden Gate Yacht Club, which has (incon­gruously) long sponsored Ellison, may be in for its own triumph next year: As the 2010 winner, Oracle’s top dog gets to decide the next host for the race, and—surprise, surprise—he’s made his preference for his home city known. Sailing aficionados, the words you’re looking for are “Thank you, Mr. Ellison.” (Left: by Giles Martin-Raget)

21. Gavin Newsom put his money where his arugula grows
Brooke Budner and Caitlyn Galloway took Mayor Newsom at his word when he officially declared San Francisco’s commitment to urban food production. Their Little City Gardens, a 1/16-acre lot on Guerrero Street filled with lettuces and culinary herbs, is one of precious few farms within city limits that’s set up as a business. (Bar Tartine made one of the city’s most vibrant salads with its greens.) But the founders want to move to a larger space in the residential Outer Mission, which requires a more expensive permit than they can afford. Here’s hoping the zoning commission, which they’ve petitioned, will come through. littlecitygardens.com (Right: Brooke Budner harvests salad mix, including arugula, mustard greens, and tatsoi, at her Little City Gardens, at 18th and Guerrero Streets; by Eric Wolfinger)

20. (Solar) power in numbers
1BOG (1 Block Off the Grid) is giving “lots and lots and lots” of people, as the company’s website says, access to solar power. In a nutshell: 1BOG organizes collective-purchase campaigns to help people buy solar panels (installation included) at a deep discount. But whatever you do, don’t mistake 1BOG for iBOG. The mixup has inspired many an insider joke (“Nooo, I cracked my 1Phone,” an employee remarked, to a chorus of groans) and happens often enough that the company bought the ibog.org domain, too. 1bog.org

19. Anarchy on the airwaves
San Mateo upstart Jelli is pulling off a coup in ram-the-same-tunes-down-their-throats Big Radioland by letting listeners vote online for a station’s songs; the most popular picks then play on the air in real time. Since January, when it ceded playlist control to Jelli for four hours every weeknight, San Francisco early adopter Live 105.3 has shot from number five to number one in its key demographic (weekday males, 18–34). This summer, Jelli will empower listeners at 17 other U.S. radio stations—just in time for the company’s first smartphone app. jelli.com

18. A real-estate Hail Mary
It sounds like the last thing a developer would have pulled the trigger on in the middle of 2008, but any minute now, the improbably timed luxury condo complex One Hawthorne will open its doors. It will be within spitting distance of the Westfield San Francisco Centre and Yerba Buena Gardens and across the street from Benu, the new eatery that occupies the old One Hawthorne restaurant space and just hired former French Laundry chef de cuisine Corey Lee. Perhaps the ultimate compliment in this city of could-be-anywhere high-rises comes from San Francisco Chronicle urban-design writer John King, who called the building’s design “an ideal illustration of civility.” And, according to SFHotlist, it may be the last such complex to open until 2014. 1 Hawthorne St., S.F., 415-227-0888, onehawthorne.com (Left: Courtesy of One Hawthorne)

17. Feeding from the hand he once nipped
As the voice of restaurant-news website SFEater, Paolo Lucchesi spoke truth to power—never more provocatively than when he launched a web campaign aimed at unmasking prominent restaurant critics, including the San Francisco Chronicle’s Michael Bauer. But that didn’t stop the paper from hiring the outspoken blogger to work under Bauer and preside over its Inside Scoop SF column, a weekly bouil­labaisse of restaurant news. If the move has caused any awkwardness around the office, Lucchesi isn’t saying—and the 28-year old Bay Area native’s columns have quickly become the most incisive and lively food intelligence around. A blogger’s daring leap to dinosaur media has paid off for us all. insidescoopsf.sfgate.com

16. Building a public high school from the ground up
That’s what a small group of former schoolteachers and concerned neighborhood residents, called Bayview Learns, is doing as part of San Francisco’s Small Schools by Design program, which supports the formation of new schools in communities where students have been slipping through the cracks. Its first mini session launches this summer with courses tailored to locals, such as Why Did All My Aunties Move to Antioch?, cooking with chefs from Radio Africa & Kitchen, and environmental field studies at Heron’s Head Park and Slide Ranch. Pending approval from the district this fall, the school will accept incoming 9th and 10th graders to do similar coursework in the fall of 2011. 415-655-3486

15. UC goes VC to save lives
With the biotech industry in free fall, top brass at QB3 (the UCSF–UC Santa Cruz–UC Berkeley bioscience collaborative) have opened their first venture-capital firm to solve a long standing problem: Too many brilliant discoveries languish in the lab, never to become real-life cures. The firm, called Mission Bay Capital, has begun trolling the halls for big ideas that can turn into real companies that will make a big difference. With $8.5 million in the bank, biotech behemoths such as Brook Byers and Fred Cohen offering pro bono advice, and the first of up to 15 planned seed investments signed, MBC is definitely in business. If it bets right, everybody wins, since QB3 will get a slice of the profits. missionbaycapital.com

14. The purest wine on earth
It may seem unnatural to witness someone at, say, Nopa or Terroir enjoying wine from a stainless steel canteen. But what they’re drinking is in fact one of the most “natural” wines in the world. Sonoma winemaker Kevin Kelley’s winery, called Natural Process Alliance, is all about the grapes, and nothing else: no added yeast, no acid, no sulfur dioxide (well, occasionally they use a teeny bit), not even a bottle. Without any preservatives, the wines should be drunk young and locally—hence the stainless steel “bottles,” which are easily sent back to the winery for refilling. For a list of other restaurants that carry wine in steel canteens, visit naturalprocessalliance.us.

13. A bicycle cool enough to lure drivers from their cars 
 Ten years and 25 prototypes later, Marcus Hays—fresh from a career in electric-vehicle R&D—finally came up with the PiCycle, an electric hybrid that looks like a futurist sculpture but rides like a dreamy, souped-up Schwinn. In a nod to the Bay Area’s notorious hills, it also sports a lithium-ion battery that offers optional power assist with the push of a lever. The eye popping design will get you noticed, and the all recycled-aluminum frame, which requires neither oil nor maintenance, will never rust. $2,999, 2350 Marinship Way, SW9, Sausalito, 415-887-7643, pimobility.com/picycle (Right: Courtesy of Pi Mobility)

12. A mini Ferry Building on the fly
After Samin Nosrat lost her job as sous-chef when Berkeley’s popular Eccolo closed last year, friends and former customers kept telling her how much they missed her pasta and the cured meats made by the restaurant’s chef and owner, Christopher Lee. So she and Lee joined forces to create the Pop-Up General Store, an artisan grocery that takes over the lobby at Grace Street Catering, in Oakland, on one or two Wednesdays each month (check the blog for dates). Other food gurus often show up as well, with specialties in hand: Look for Sylvan Brackett’s gyoza from Peko Peko Japanese Catering, and Oakland jam maker Rachel Saunders’ preserves from Blue Chair Fruit. 4629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Oakland, popupgeneralstore.blogspot.com

11. In the throes of a recession? Let’s build a luxury airship!
It may seem like a head scratcher, but Airship Ventures—the brainchild of a former CEO of Chabot Space and Science Center—is taking luxury travel to new heights. One of only three zeppelins in the world, AV’s plush new airship offers riders leather couches, panoramic windows that actually open, and catered charters. The business plan may seem like hot air, but the company’s ad sales are booming. Guests have already included some lucky locals, photographers, and NASA astro­naut Buzz Aldrin. Moffett Field, Mountain View, airshipventures.com (Left: Eager passengers about to board the Farmers Airship Eureka zeppelin at Moffett Field; by Kevin Andrus)

10. Getting something good out of the foreclosure crisis
Several core Oakland neighborhoods were among the nation’s hardest hit by mortgage defaults, but the Oakland Community Land Trust has come up with an out-of-the-box, sure-to-be mimicked plan to help. Last year, the nonprofit wrangled $5 million in HUD money to purchase 130 foreclosed homes, rehab them in a green way, and sell them at affordable prices to low income families. The new homeowners’ monthly mortgage payments are similar to what they had been paying in rent, and maintenance workshops—plus ongoing access to tools—help them keep their homes in fine working order, which is good for everyone on the block. 672 13th St., Oakland, 510-893-2404, oakclt.org

9. The Home Depot of pot
It may not replace Oakland’s long-lost department stores, but iGrow is vying for a clientele just as broad. The company calls itself “the first honest hydroponics store,” and its Walgreens-size warehouse features all the tools and resources a good citizen needs to create a legal marijuana garden in his own backyard. A knowledgeable Grow Squad offers onsite assistance, and customers can enroll in online classes offered by iGrow’s very own University of Cannabis, which features tutorials in both the cultivation and the business sides of the growing industry. Now that’s news worth inhaling. 70 Henberger Loop, Oakland, 877-774-4769, igrowoakland.com

8. Patterson goes humble with all-day haute
When it opens in Uptown this summer, chef-restaurateur Daniel Patterson’s third venture, Plum, will be a breakfast, lunch, and dinner spot unlike any that Oakland—and perhaps the whole Bay Area—has ever seen. In price and appearance, it may seem like just another in the city’s growing horde of great neighborhood restaurants. But with Jeremy Fox running the kitchen (he’s the star chef who turned vegetarian cooking into high art at Napa’s famed Ubuntu) it will be much, much riskier on the plate, forgoing the recessionary fallback of comfort food in favor of genre-defying cuisine. Plum, capsicum, and corncob-ember soup, anyone? 2214 Broadway St., Oakland, plumoakland.com

7. The sweet, rare sounds of success
It’s nearly impossible to make a living as an indie musician, even in a flush economy, which makes the recent achievements of these three Bay Area acts that much more impressive. While playing such diverse venues as Letterman and SFMOMA, the Dodos fuse energetic folk strumming with elaborate percussion and exotic vibraphone—all in fine form on their hit third album, Time to Die, which dropped last fall. On her first CD, released this spring (see Snap Judgments for a review), Red Poppy Art House resident artist Meklit Hadero adds depth to her croon with moody instrumentation and east African swing. When she’s not headlining Noise Pop shows (as she did in February) or shooting videos with the Glee cast, Thao Nguyen mixes heartbreaking lyrics with jazzily elastic vocals and the serrated clatter of indie rock. Thanks to this breakthrough trio, mass appeal and eclecticism don’t sound mutually exclusive in 2010. (Right: Thao Nguyen; by Todd Roeth)

6. Transparency comes to the investment racket
Leave it to a local Internet company to shine a spotlight on an industry that works especially hard to remain a virtual black hole. At kaChing.com, a new kind of low-rate, low-commitment brokerage outfit, average folks can track the trades of the pioneer investment managers who’ve gone public on the site—and, with a minimum initial investment of $10,000, they can arrange to mirror those trades. Ka­Ching’s manager fees are typically less than half of a typical mutual fund’s, and there are no nasty hidden costs. The company also rates its managers, so you can see who’s doing well. With some keen observation, you may just find the next Michael Burry. kaching.com

5. They reinvented flight
Nearly 30 years after deft-footed downhill skateboarders pioneered their sport in the Bay Area hillsides, Billy Smith, 25, a designer and developer of wetsuits for Patagonia, and Nick Smith, 21, a business student at the University of Southern California—the Wright brothers of landsurfing—came up with a novel way to control the ride. Their new Sporting-Sail attaches to the rider’s ankles or knees and loops around his hands, creating a kind of parachute effect when deployed—and making the rider, for many magnificent moments, feel like a bird. sporting-sails.com (Left: Nick Smith makes the most of a wind farm in Hawi, Hawaii, with one of his new Sporting-Sails creations; by Billy Smith)

4. He moved from Holland to Mill Valley just to change our lightbulbs
He actually relocated two years ago, but the fruits of Warner Philips’ labor only became available earlier this year: His beautifully designed light emitting diodes, or LEDs, were already the top selling LED consumer product in the rest of the world, and now he’s finally released his very first line, called Pharox, in the United States. This is great news, since the bulbs are so much better looking than the ugly compact fluorescents we’ve been using. They’re versatile, too—Philips recently unveiled five LED models that replace the bulbs most commonly used in homes, ranging from chandelier candles to high-hat halogens. lemnislighting.com

3. Pop goes the magazine
Someday, when pop-up magazines are as beloved as radio programs hosted by guys named Ira, pirate shops started by guys named Dave, and lecture series run by women named Sydney, recall that it all started here, with a journalistic impresario named Douglas McGray. His invention is startlingly simple: a typical magazine lineup—front of the book, features, editorials, and so on—presented onstage in spoken form. Environmental writer Lisa Margon­elli expounded on African termites, for example, and the late, legendary photographer Larry Sultan spun a World War II family story based on photos he found in a flea market. When tickets for this past spring’s third Pop-Up Magazine event went on sale at Herbst Theatre, the rush was so great that it crashed the system—and the show sold out in 60 minutes. popupmagazine.com

2. Bringing microfinance home
The Bay Area practically invented online international micro­finance (thanks, Kiva), which allows people to give money to would-be entrepreneurs in third-world countries. Now, thanks to other local pioneers, you can also invest in a variety of deserving Americans, including scientists (EurekaFund); indiv­­id­uals and businesses in need of money for a school, a home, or seed cap­ital (SaveTogether, a project cofounded by the Corporation for Enterprise Development and local partners Opportunity Fund, EARN, and Juma Ventures); and high-school kids short on college tuition (ScholarMatch, the latest project from literary polymath Dave Eggers—yes, he’s everywhere). eurekafund.org, savetogether.org, scholarmatch.org

1. Why he's our freak—and not anyone else's

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Contributors: Lauren Alexander, Leslie Crawford, David Downs, Joanne Furio, Maria Graceffo, Scott Hocker, Renae Hurlbutt, David V. Johnson, Diana Kapp, Jonathon Keats, Timothy Kim, Elaine Kuo, Natasha Lawler, Monica S. Lee, Mia Lipman, Jordan Mackay, Jan Newberry, Jennie Nunn, Camilla Salem, Victoria Schlesinger, Carly Schwartz, Josh Sens, Justine Sharrock, Dan Strachota, Brendan Tougher, Amisha Upadhyaya, Elizabeth Varnell, Mackenzie Wagoner, Anna Widdowson, Nan Wiener, Robin Wilkey, Ellen Zaslow