By Carol Feineman, The City Star
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Agonafer Shiferaw has enjoyed living in San Francisco the past three decades. But 33 years ago, the Ethiopian native never expected to stay in the United States.

Agonafer Shiferaw

Shiferaw was here temporarily to earn an economics degree at San Francisco State University before returning home to work in public service.

Political unrest in his native country, however, drastically changed Shiferaw’s plans while he was still a Bay Area student. A Marxist junta overthrew the Ethiopian government in 1974, which made it unsafe for Shiferaw to return to his birthplace.

“I didn’t plan to stay in the states,” Shiferaw, 56, explained this week, before quickly adding, “But this is my home.”

Over the past 22 years, Shiferaw has made quite a name for himself in San Francisco as the owner of Rasselas Jazz Club, which offers live music and Ethiopian cuisine seven nights a week.

So much so, in fact, that Shiferaw will receive the San Francisco Housing Development Corporation’s Geraldine Johnson award that recognizes a business leader in re-establishing the Fillmorejazz district.

“Geraldine Johnson was our founder and one of the people who was part of the task force and had a vision for re-establishing the Fillmore back in the 70s,” said Regina Davis, the housing development agency’s executive directory. “Agonafer is a business leader on a historic street and his work goes beyond the everyday responsibility of running a business. He’s building community.”

Sheferaw will receive his award at the private-nonprofit agency’s Thursday gala that celebrates the Fillmore District’s re-emergence, Davis said, and honors the agency’s 20-year effort to help minorities and low-income families achieve financial stability through owning a home.

Founding the first Rasselas on California and Divisadero streets in 1986, Shiferaw opened another Rasselas at 1534 Fillmore Street in 1999 when, he explained, the city’s redevelopment agency invited him to participate in revitalizing the lower Fillmore area. The first club remained in business until four years ago.

Shiferaw’s priority now is to restore the lower Fillmore as the place in San Francisco to hear jazz on a nightly basis, through a collaborative effort with other clubs on or near Fillmore Street, such as Sheba Piano Lounge, Yoshi’s and 1300 on Fillmore.

“We still have a long way to go,” Shiferaw said. “We need to identify, brand this area, increase the level of restaurants and nightclubs, and change the perception people have of the lower Fillmore that anything lower than Geary is not safe,”

Shiferaw is confident his Western Addition neighborhood will once again become a musical destination point, not just regionally, but internationally.

“Fillmore Street is quite safe. All kinds of people come to Rasselas, young and old, black, while, Asian, Spanish. It’s very diverse, very electric, very comfortable,” he adds.

While Shiferaw and his peers have, by his own admission, plenty of work to do before his priority is realized, they are making great progress.

And for February, Shiferaw has his own special recognition for his neighborhood.

“For Black History Month in 2008, I’m declaring the lower Fillmore as the Republic of Jazz,” he said.