Wandering eyes: Author Renee Gibbons in her Parisian boho model days.

PHOTO COURTESY OF RENEE GIBBONS

"But we're not going quietly," she says. "I told the landlord the only way we're leaving here is in urns or pine coffins." Gibbons doesn't drive, and honestly has no desire to live anywhere in the United States besides San Francisco. Maybe she'll go back to Ireland, she says. They take care of their elderly there better than we do.

"North Beach is known as a bohemian community. There's hardly any poets or artists left in the neighborhood." It may just be that the San Francisco she loves is in its last days. Maybe it's always in its last days, making it doubly important that all its remaining freaks and artist-types get record of their lives on paper. 

LONGING FOR ELSEWHERE: RENEE GIBBONS AUTHOR READING

Fri/16 7 p.m., free

Books Inc.

601 Van Ness, SF

www.renee-gibbons.com