Planning Commission seats fill up, whippet ban, Bauer’s settlement: City Hall this week
This week’s workload at City Hall looks to be lighter than last week as the board of supervisors prepares to adjourn for summer recess through August. Nevertheless, some significant issues under the spotlight include whether to ban “whippets,” finalizing appointments to the Planning Commission, and settling sore spots in a relationship between the city…
SFMTA adds parking spaces in Chinatown while preserving Muni lanes
Parking and transit changes are coming to Chinatown that add more parking spaces at the request of merchants while maintaining transit lanes for Muni’s busy 1-California buses. The San Francisco…
Out and about July 23–27, 2026
There’s so much to choose from this week for how to spend your free time, whether outdoor performances, film or festival, an art exhibition, and more. Here are my suggestions.…
SFMOMA presents ‘Graciela Iturbide: Between Two Worlds’
“The camera is an excuse to share the life of the people, the rhythm and sympathy of festivals, to discover my country.” — Graciela Iturbide Through Nov. 29, SFMOMA invites the public into the dreamlike world of black-and-white photographer Graciela Iturbide. Decades of images expose a magic realist world of…
The Cow Palace isn’t a good fit for a server farm
For 85 years, the Cow Palace has played an important role in Bay Area history. Unfortunately, a new proposal to locate data centers there for the next 100 years just does not add up. Prince, the Grateful Dead, and the Golden State Warriors all played at the event center. John…
What’s behind the new lawsuit against SFUSD over ethnic studies?
The San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) is once again in the legal spotlight, this time over the allegedly hasty implementation of its mandatory “Voices: An Ethnic Studies Survey” curriculum for ninth graders. The Friends of Lowell Foundation (FOLF) filed suit in San Francisco Superior Court on Friday, July 10,…
Supervisors focus on improving transit access for families at hearing
Strollers and making Muni more accessible for families with kids were among the topics last week at a Board of Supervisors hearing. At the board’s…
Odysseus and Spider-Man to the rescue
Never mind the poisonous noise from certain quarters about the nontraditional casting of the actors in filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. All the racism and transphobia and the whining about supposed DEI hires had little…
Ballot language, budget vote, health hearings, and putting ‘Zombie Grocery Tax’ to bed: City Hall this week
From ballot wording voters will see in November to the fate of vacant grocery stores, mental health care, and climate resilience, City Hall’s agenda this week touches nearly every corner of San Francisco government. It…
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by Nomi Kane | @Nomikane
‘The Future of Us’ was a visionary civic experiment
A multiday, citywide festival recently took place across San Francisco, ringing in the country’s 250th birthday with a forward-thinking, imaginative approach to the future. San Francisco-based civic arts and sciences nonprofit The Plenary Co. was at the helm of the project, alongside the Svane Family Foundation, a major supporter of…
Manny and moral intoxication
In Part 1, we introduced Orli Peter’s model of moral intoxication and demonstrated it across three cases. In Part 2, we turn to the hardest case — and to the question the framework is building toward: what do we do about it? Case four — Yekutiel: the hardest case and…
There is a crack in everything
There’s something happening right now in San Francisco politics that our usual political vocabulary is failing to describe. We reach for familiar terms — protest, accountability, activism, hit job — but none of these quite captures what’s going on. What we are witnessing is something much more primal and ancient:…
How Newsom’s complex history with the oil industry could affect a presidential run
This commentary was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. Gavin Newsom and his family have had a long and complicated relationship with the oil industry. The latest chapter in the saga, a legal and political dispute over state aid to the California’s refineries, could affect Newsom’s presidential ambitions. The roots…
Drug-free permanent supportive housing advances despite objections to language and details
It seems that Supervisor Matt Dorsey can finally breathe a sigh of relief. His legislation to create drug-free permanent supportive housing (PSH) passed the full…
Study: Laguna Honda Hospital, Forest Hill station gondola not ‘cost-effective’
Constructing a gondola to transport people back and forth from Muni Metro’s Forest Hill station and Laguna Honda Hospital would not be cost-effective, a new…
Haines Gallery explores abstraction with three painters in ‘The Shape of Looking’
Haines Gallery is pleased to present The Shape of Looking, a group show that highlights three distinct approaches to contemporary abstract painting. The exhibition brings…
Governor Newsom and legislature agree on reforms giving next governor new power over education
Actions taken by Gov. Gavin Newsom and the legislature after the June gubernatorial primary increase the importance of education in the fall election between former…
Sleeping with self-deprecating celebrities
A young woman makes a bargain with her fiancé that would give each of them license to sleep with one famous person — presumably one…
For-Site presents ‘Andy Goldsworthy: Red Flags’ at Fort Mason
For-Site and the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture presents Andy Goldsworthy: Red Flags. The site-specific exhibition centers on the acclaimed artist’s monumental installation,…
An invitation to laugh at couples in crisis
As an actress, Olivia Wilde can project fierce intellect as well as earthiness, whether she’s playing serious or silly. Those traits seem to be inherent…
Nengi Omuku’s first U.S. museum exhibition opens at the de Young
Nigerian artist Nengi Omuku’s first solo United States exhibition, Nengi Omuku: The Gathering, brings together the artist’s work, including four monumental new paintings. Her art…
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