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 are still going on, including the scuttling of a controversial nonprofit contract, the future of Free City College, the city’s newest affordable housing initiative, and a summit for small…
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…
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…
Boosting and tuning caper movies
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 Love Boosters, and award-winning documentarian Daniel Roher strikes multiple chords like a virtuoso with his first dramatic feature, the heist drama Tuner. ‘I Love Boosters’…
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 to recognize Memorial Day with a tradition dating to the 1940s: the Lost Boat Ceremony. Held at Pier 45 on the deck of the USS…
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 experienced some untidy plot twists. There are only four local propositions on the ballot, but they’re all complicated. Here’s a quick, clean, and non-endorsement-laden guide…
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…
Out and about May 21–26, 2026
It’s a full three-day weekend ahead to enjoy from a Memorial Day commemoration to night markets, street fairs, free community days, and more. Read on for some ideas. Thursday, May 21 Sunset Mercantile presents Cole…
San Francisco smoking ban proposal for bar patios delayed as debate heats up
Proposed legislation to ban smoking in the outdoor patios of bars and taverns could likely see changes when it returns next month to the Board of Supervisors’ Land Use and Transportation Committee. District 7 Supervisor…
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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…
Melgar, Lurie push restart button on affordable housing ‘grand bargain’ with new ballot measure
San Francisco leaders have unveiled a new affordable housing proposal they plan to place before voters this November, seeking to expand the city’s Housing Trust…
City Hall cut Jennifer Friendebach out of the homelessness conversation, so why does the media continue to give her airtime?
A year ago, I wrote a column titled, “Time for Mayor Lurie to remove Jennifer Friedenbach from the conversation.” For over a decade, I have…
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…
San Francisco ninth graders will now be measured by a controversial ‘Wheel of Power’ — so how would the city’s leaders fare? We put them to the test.
The Voice was first to alert the public to controversial new ethnic studies programming with the San Francisco Unified School District’s (SFUSD) adoption of the…
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…
Sheepish crime-solvers in a woolly yarn
It’s almost a cheat to point out that the various wooly creatures sharing the screen with some familiar and well-regarded live actors in the whimsical…
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