Budget, Police Commission, bodega curfew start off election week at City Hall
This week, the highlights at City Hall all seem to have been frontloaded to Monday, as Mayor Daniel Lurie presents the city’s $16 billion budget, and supervisors’ committees mull significant public safety policy choices. Lurie’s $16 billion spending plan aims to nip a $607 million deficit in the bud through more cuts that will…
S.F. AIDS Foundation defies Mayor Lurie’s ban, hands out crack pipes and fentanyl foil in Bayview
The San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF), a nonprofit community health organization that combines harm reduction strategies with a social justice focus, appears to be violating a citywide mandate launched by…
SFUSD adultism workshop labels educators as ‘oppressors’
The gradual public disclosure of San Francisco Unified School District’s (SFUSD) “Liberated Ethnic Studies” materials continues to uncover deeply controversial teachings. Among the latest is an Adultism Workshop sponsored by…
Out and about May 28–June 2, 2026
Well, it’s unofficially summer now with Memorial Day behind us, and there is a lot going on from films to music, street festivals, and more. Read on. Thursday, May 28 The 2026 S.F. Documentary Festival (DocFest) opens tonight with the “part road movie, part communal portrait” Summer Tour with lotsa…
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts announces upcoming exhibitions
The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) has announced its upcoming season of exhibitions and programs for 2026. The program includes artists exploring politics, social transformation, and personal histories. Included are a newly commissioned work by Dread Scott, a comprehensive exhibition by Bay Area architecture studio Rael San Fratello,…
Proposition A: Why it must be defeated
Since the 1906 Earthquake and Fires destroyed nearly 28,000 buildings and killed more than 3,000 people, taxpayers have approved five Earthquake Safety and Emergency Response (ESER) Bonds. The 2010, 2014, and 2020 bonds allocated $1.44 billion for critical upgrades to structures and systems: A new Public Safety Building, a new…
City business goes on during holiday week
The Memorial Day weekend makes this week at City Hall a short one, and while many meetings, including the full board, have been canceled, things…
The thin red line
Americans say they are sick of politics, but it might be politics that returns some sanity to American legislative performance. And if that happens, you might have Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn to thank for…
Book review: ‘Amplify! My Fight for Asian America’ by Dion Lim
In February 2020, as I was watching Dion Lim’s first report on the senior Asian man who became known around the world simply as “the can collector,” I remember fighting back waves of nausea and…
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by Nomi Kane | @Nomikane
Politico behind S.F.’s controversial sanctuary city amendment is back in business
Say hello to Sheila Chung Hagen. Or rather, hello again. During her tenure at City Hall, Chung Hagen worked as a legislative aide to two progressive supervisors: David Campos (nearly six years) and Hillary Ronen (roughly four to five months). While she was with Campos, she was instrumental in writing…
Legal challenge to SFUSD ‘Voices’ hits Mayor Lurie
Friends of Lowell Foundation (FOLF) formally requested a meeting with Mayor Daniel Lurie and senior City Hall officials, citing alleged violations of the California Brown Act in the San Francisco Unified School District’s (SFUSD) adoption of the controversial “Voices: An Ethnic Studies Survey” curriculum. The legal letter, which included 53…
The shot that gave me seven days
There is a clinic in San Francisco called the Maria X. Martinez Health Resource Center. You might walk past it and not think much of it. But for me, it was the first place I had ever walked into where nobody looked at me like I was a problem to…
Why justice keeps failing Asian hate victims
History repeats itself. As Garry Tan concluded in his most recent op-ed about why Asian hate so often goes unpunished, it is a cumulative effect of the loudest voices that influence a courtroom, from policy briefs and op-eds to grant-funded studies and legacy media. That voice has been dominated by…
Capering with boosters and tuners
Flagrantly distinctive Oakland, Calif.-born filmmaker, rapper, songwriter, and activist Boots Riley rails against the machine with a torrent of gags in his sophomore movie, I…
Lost Boat Ceremony aboard the USS Pampanito
On a blustery, gray morning, the San Francisco Maritime National Park Association and the United States Submarine Veterans of World War II welcomed the public…
S.F.’s local propositions, summarized
The June election is a little over a week away, with over 60 choices for governor and races for Congress, governor, and supervisor that have…
Housing First, Morgue Second, Part 3: the top 99 sites for S.F. overdose deaths
In part two of our series Housing First, Morgue Second, we revealed that 4,090 people have died from accidental drug overdose in San Francisco between…
Andy Goldsworthy ‘For Olle’ at Haines Gallery
Haines Gallery presents For Olle, an Andy Goldsworthy exhibition and tribute to his friend and collaborator Olle Lundberg, who recently passed away. For Olle is…
An audacious TV takedown of the tech sector
Depending on your perspective, the rise of computers, smartphones, and digital media can be seen as a boon or a threat, especially as AI becomes…
SFMOMA’s ‘Matisse’s Femme au chapeau: A Modern Scandal’ revisits an old controversy
A return to 1905 and the birth of the Fauves SFMOMA shines a light on a now iconic painting that changed the direction of art…
What happened to the heart of the Rose Garden?
May is the peak month for the Rose Garden blooms in Golden Gate Park. For more than 20 years, I have gone there to enjoy…
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