Name: Jake Levitas

Neighborhood: NOPA

Gig: Research Director, Gray Area Foundation for the Arts

What are you up to these days? I bring people together to make things – I've spent the last 18 months organizing city-wide initiatives centered around hackathons, where teams of people rapidly prototype new creative, impactful projects in 48 hours.

What event will we find you at the week of? Anything at ATO – A Temporary Offering at 7th and Market is being programmed by SQFT this month, a platform for space-sharing run by a powerhouse team of awesome people who kicked their project off at our Creative Currency hackathon in April.

SF is... where global change begins.

Where do you get your local gossip? The streets of the Tenderloin. I've worked in the neighborhood for a few years now and - trust me - there's no better place to get gossip than the streets themselves.

Where's your secret spot? 37.77253,-122.470559. I'm a geography nerd.

What's your favorite under-the-radar SF restaurant? Who needs restaurants when you have Hey Cookie? If you get lucky, the wonderful Christa will magically appear at the exact moment you are craving a delicious homemade baked good.

What do you get obsessive about here in SF? Trying to avoid running around with an endless case of FOMO (fear of missing out).

What local merchant have you been meaning to check out? I am excited to visit Old Skool Cafe, a nonprofit youth-run supper club in the Bayview that provides career training and opportunities to underserved youth, plus great food and entertainment.

What would you change about SF? *Ahem* THE RENT IS TOO DAMN HIGH. Seriously though - we're already seeing how recent trends are beginning to threaten the culture of art, activism, innovation, and diversity that makes the city what it is, and it scares me to think that this culture could get pushed out of the city entirely.