SF News

Wow, It’s Now Been Five Whole Years Since JFK Drive Went Car-Free

Golden Gate Park's east-west road formerly known as JFK Drive, now known as JFK Promenade, celebrated its five-year anniversary as a car-free thoroughfare with a Sunday party.

SF Restaurants, Food & Drink

Mission District’s Beauty Bar Reopening Soon, Getting Its Mural Fully Restored

We’re looking at a June reopening date for Mission Street’s beloved kitschy nightclub Beauty Bar, which will be under new ownership, and it’s getting its popular mural redone by the same artist who originally painted it ten years ago.

Bay Area Sports

Watch: Giants Win In a Walk-Off On Wacky, Slapstick In-the-Park Home Run

The final play of Sunday’s 3-2 Giants win was a blooper reel for the ages, as the Texas Rangers committed multiple comical errors allowing Heliot Ramos an in-the-park home run, making for the most hilarious baseball play of the season so far.

SF News

Renters Rally In Sacramento In Support of Statewide Rent Control Bill

People were projecting “Lower the rent! It’s too damn high” onto the State Capitol building Sunday night, and renters are rallying there again today, in support of a statewide rent control bill that would cut maximum rent increases from 10% to just 5%.

SF Politics

Lots More Bay Area Tech Companies Gave Millions to the Trump Inauguration Than We Had Realized

The Bay Area spent more than $30 million sucking up to Donald Trump by shoveling donations to his inauguration, and as it turns out, tech companies like Uber, Robinhood, and Chris Larsen’s Ripple Labs all bent the knee with $1 million or more to Trump.

Business & Tech

You Might Be Able to Buy and Own Your Own Self-Driving Waymo Someday

If you’ve ever wanted to own your own self-driving Waymo vehicle, and are willing to shell out a great deal of money for it, parent company Google/Alphabet says it may eventually start selling those vehicles to the public.

Arts & Entertainment

Roxie Theater Explains How They Managed to Raise Millions to Buy Their Building

The Roxie Theater is still in the home stretch of its $7 million capital campaign to buy their building outright, but the theater’s leadership gave us some insights into how the mighty little Roxie had already secretly raised 75% of that money.

SF News

SFMTA Lays Off 12 Senior Managers, And It Sounds Like There May Be More Job Cuts to Come

The SF Municipal Transportation Agency that operates Muni just canned 12 of its senior managers in a reorg effort to tackle their massive deficit, and that reorg might mean more layoffs in the near future.

SF News

Day Around the Bay: SF Supervisor Wants Homeless Shelters Spread Out Evenly All Over Town

The California Bar is red-faced over an AI screw-up on their recent bar exam; Real ID might get delayed again because DMVs nationwide are a mess; and Supervisor Bilal Mahmood wants more homeless shelters in districts other than his own.

Arts & Entertainment

SF’s Free Outdoor Movies Return Friday Night, as SFFILM Presents John Carpenter’s ‘The Fog’

The SFFILM festival is rolling into the Presidio Friday night with a free screening of John Carpenter’s classic 80s horror film “The Fog,” which was filmed in Marin County. The show is free, but you do have to RSVP in advance.

SF News

California Moves Up to Fourth-Largest Economy In the World, and Boy Is Gavin Newsom Crowing About It

Take that, red states! California has surpassed Japan to become the fourth-largest economy in the world, with an estimated Gross Domestic Product of more than $4 trillion.

SF News

Oakland School Board Goes Through With Firing Longtime Superintendent, Still Gives No Explanation Why

As they telegraphed they were going to two weeks ago, the Oakland Board of Education went and fired Superintendent Kyla Johnson-Trammell Wednesday night, behind closed doors and with no explanation. But it seems the teachers’ union may have played a role.

SF Politics

SF City Department Head Removed From Post, Mayor Lurie Accuses Her of ‘Unlawful Activities’

SF’s Department on the Status of Women director Kimberly Ellis was under a cloud of allegations of unauthorized moonlighting, no-bid city contracts for friends, and extravagant conference spending, and now she’s been ousted, presumably on Mayor Lurie’s orders.

SF News

East Bay Developer Charged With Trying to Bribe Antioch City Councilmember With Coffee Mug Full of $5,000 Cash

A Concord-based housing developer was stalled on city permits in Antioch because they hadn't completed some other required work. So their CEO allegedly tried to bribe a city councilmember with $15,000, $5,000 of which was straight-up cash crammed into a coffee mug.

SF News

Fancy Cupertino Whole Foods Shut Down, Called a ‘Threat to Health and Safety’ Amidst Vermin Infestation

The Cupertino Whole Foods just three miles from Apple’s headquarters apparently has a vermin problem, and has been ordered closed by Santa Clara County health officials until they can get it cleaned up.

SF Politics

San Mateo County Sheriff Brazenly Rehires Alleged Boyfriend Whom the County Previously Dismissed

San Mateo County had fired embattled Sheriff Christina Corpus’s alleged romantic partner after she gave him a $246K job, but even now that she may be on the verge of being removed from office, she just went and flat-out rehired him anyway.

Arts & Entertainment

SFFILM Festival Film Relives When ‘Drag Queen Story Hour’ Got Invaded by the Proud Boys

SF drag queen Panda Dulce did not give up on Drag Queen Story Hour when the Proud Boys violently stormed her reading in 2022. Instead, she stars in a new short film about it, and it has its West Coast premiere tonight at the SFFILM Festival.

Arts & Entertainment

SF Street Jerry Garcia Grew Up On Will Be Renamed ‘Jerry Garcia Street’

The Excelsior District street that was the 1940s boyhood home of Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia just got City Hall approval to be renamed ‘Jerry Garcia Street.’ It’s currently called Harrington Street, but new signage will shakedown this street.

SF News

Day Around the Bay: Suspect In Custody After Brutal Unprovoked Easter Sunday Attack In Castro

A famed nude beach in San Mateo County is being preserved; a Berkeley man who got whooped by an older woman at a Tesla protest has since been shot by police; and there was a brutal sucker-punching in the Castro Sunday but a suspect is in custody.

Business & Tech

Tesla Settles Racial Discrimination Lawsuit From Fremont Factory Worker, Still Has More Discrimination Suits Pending

One former Fremont Tesla factory employee has received a settlement in a three-year-old lawsuit over alleged racially charged workplace incidents. But there are still more big lawsuits against Tesla looming, including a class-action suit from 16,000 Black workers.

SF News

Supervisors Lift Formula Retail Ban on Van Ness, Add the Fillmore Safeway Property to That Exemption Too

Big-chain formula retail stores might soon be welcome again on Van Ness Avenue, plus there’s now an added a carve-out to include the shuttered Fillmore Safeway too, after the SF Board of Supervisors eliminated these formula retail restrictions.

Business & Tech

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Shutting Down Two Bay Area Schools It Launched In 2016

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has decided to shut down two tuition-free private schools it started for low-income students in 2016, giving no explanation, though kicking down $50 million to help with the students’ transition to new schools.

Business & Tech

SF AI Startup Founder Dethrones Taylor Swift as World’s Youngest Self-Made Female Billionaire

You may not have heard of Scale AI co-founder Lucy Guo, but she just passed Taylor Swift as the youngest self-made billionaire woman, though that’s all based on her ownership stake in a company she no longer works for, and might not even be profitable.

SF News

It Might Soon Cost You $3 an Hour to Park In Golden Gate Park

If you thought car-free JFK Drive was controversial, wait til you see the next dispute coming down the promenade, as free parking might soon be eliminated in Golden Gate Park to chip away at the city’s budget deficit.

Arts & Entertainment

Very Unattractive Embarcadero Fountain May Be Demolished, But Its Fans Are Fighting to Preserve It

The brutalist and not particularly well-liked Villaincourt Fountain at the Embarcadero Plaza might be getting demolished and removed, but a gang of enthusiasts, including the designer Villaincourt himself, are on a bender to preserve it.