To close out 2016, we've asked our local neighborhood writers to choose their favorite stories from the past year, and to explain why they loved them so.

We now hear from Upper Haight neighborhood editor Amy Stephenson:

One of the things I love about Hoodline is getting to cover the tiniest niches in the neighborhood. A tourist coming through the Haight wouldn't think twice about a hand-drawn sign in the window of a shoe shop saying a dinosaur went missing. But if you live here? You know that dino intimately: maybe you pass him on your way to get groceries every day, or maybe you wave to him when you're out for a cig. With the dino gone, something just felt weird. 

The dino, fortunately, was returned shortly after he went missing, but that was a harrowing week for all parties. Shoe Biz employees hinted that they knew a little bit about the shenanigans he'd been up to in his absence, but couldn't disclose details to the press. For me, it'll go down as the biggest Upper Haight mystery of 2016.

Below is an excerpt from the original story, published on February 2nd, 2016, and concluded on March 5th.

If you live in the Haight, you're most likely familiar with the bright blue dinosaur that lives outside of Shoe Biz II at 1553 Haight. But in a sad turn of events, he has apparently gone missing. 

Shoe Biz II manager Chantal Jolagh told us that the dino vanished while the shop was getting its floors redone, one in a series of upgrades it's been making to its interior since changing ownership last December. 

According to Jolagh, the sign in the window went up, in part, to combat the seemingly endless string of customers and locals who've been stopping in to share their questions and concerns about the disappeared dino, who's been stalking the sidewalk in front of 1553 Haight, rain or shine, since 1975 ...

Click to continue reading Amy's favorite story of 2016, "Shoe Biz II's Famed Dinosaur Statue Is Missing."