Lurie’s red tape elimination agenda under the City Hall microscope this week
San Francisco lawmakers return from summer recess on Tuesday to consider multiple thorny issues, including Mayor Daniel Lurie’s permit streamlining agenda, corporate pressure on behavioral health workers, and how to keep Fleet Week from becoming a goat rodeo. They will likely also approve what may be the largest employment-related payout involving system-wide discrimination in…
San Francisco Has Many Good Public Schools. We Should Have Many More.
At one San Francisco public elementary school, just two of 41 tested third-, fourth- and fifth-graders met or exceeded California’s English language arts standard in 2024–25. In math, one did.…
Reducing drug penalties likely increased homelessness in California, new report says
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. The report, released Thursday by the Public Policy Institute of California, set out to measure the long-term effects of Proposition 47…
Governance, housing, and transit at stake on local initiative ballot
San Francisco voters are once again being handed a small novella disguised as a ballot, with 10 local measures and a regional transit measure awaiting them Nov. 3. The pile is hardly unprecedented — voters faced 15 local propositions in 2024 and 25 in 2016 — but this year’s crop…
San Francisco plans $9 million accessibility improvements for Hallidie Plaza
As one of San Francisco’s important access points for residents and visitors to shopping destinations and transit, plans are underway to improve access to Hallidie Plaza, especially for individuals who are unable to use the stairs or escalators. The plaza is the gateway to the Muni and BART Powell station…
No on Proposition 40 claims the wealth tax hurts ordinary Californians
Breaking news: Billionaires are opposed to the wealth tax because it will hurt the ordinary taxpayer! After you pull yourself off the floor from laughing at this incredible news, take a few moments to read this. They really are arguing this unbelievable story on the No on Proposition 40 website.…
Out and about Aug. 27–Sept. 2, 2026
The universe has you covered from sunset to sunrise in the coming days, plus there are concerts, a cultural celebration, some comedy, performances, and more.…
California College of the Arts show ‘Closer Reading: Three Bay Area Book Artists’ spotlights the Bay’s vibrant book arts scene
California College of the Arts (CCA) Campus Gallery presents Closer Reading: Three Bay Area Book Artists, a group exhibition curated by Anthea Black, associate professor of Printmedia, on behalf of the San Francisco Advocacy for…
Legacy small business, The Cove on Castro, suffers another act of vandalism
On Thursday, Aug. 20, shortly after closing, The Cove on Castro, an official San Francisco Legacy Business, was again vandalized. At 9:30 p.m., owner Maurice Solange had already gone to bed when he received a…
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by Nomi Kane | @Nomikane
Absence of measurement isn’t equity; it’s the illusion of equity
I am, reportedly, a menace to joyful and equitable achievement, though I demand deep thought and genuine effort from ordinary teenagers who are capable of extraordinary things. I have been overheard objecting to circular reasoning. I once drew a comic strip showing step by step how to solve a complex,…
Treasure Island has had 537 power outages. The city will not call it an emergency because the city is the problem.
Treasure Island has had 537 power outages. That is not bad luck. It is a long-running, city-owned failure that the city refuses to name because naming it would force action. I write this as a resident who has lived with the outages, and as a member of the only citizen…
Learning to cooperate with reality
Picture a 10th grader sitting in her math class. Her phone is “hidden” in her hoodie pouch, but she surreptitiously checks notifications every few minutes, knowing that I have too many students and too much teaching to do to pester her. She was late three out of four classes this…
The state of wartime politics
The rest of the country is finally noticing what we local political observers have long known: Nancy Pelosi isn’t a fan of Scott Wiener, who is currently ahead in the race to succeed her in Congress. For months, people have been wondering when she’d really lean into her effort to…
Congressman Mullin introduces bill to combat closure of National Archives
Vowing to “use any lever at our disposal to keep the National Archives here,” South San Francisco Congressman Kevin Mullin announced legislation Monday to combat…
Family-friendly films for fun and fantasy
Summer is almost over, and kids are returning to school. So why not get the whole brood together for a night out at the multiplex…
State’s DUI reform gutted by lawmaker arrested for DUI last year
This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for their newsletters. A California Senate committee just gutted one of the state’s most substantial DUI reform bills in…
School district plan to control citizen oversight of $1.5 billion bond spending lands in court
Back-to-school week is turning into back-to-court week for San Francisco Superintendent of Schools Maria Su and the school board. On Tuesday, a diverse group of…
SFMOMA presents landmark Jacob Hashimoto installation ‘Giant Arc’
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) launches Jacob Hashimoto: Giant Arc, the largest installation of the multimedia artist’s career. Bamboo and Japanese paper,…
IF BLUE (a poem)
If blue Is a hue You aspire to The beaches of San Francisco are calling to you And your crew or retinue “Yoo-hoo!” We have…
Heroes are not so hard to find … on TV
If it feels like real-world heroes are in short supply these days, the fictional variety can be easily found on television. They may not conform…
‘Superficial Matters: Artists from the Svane Gift and Beyond at the de Young
The de Young presents the third iteration in their series of exhibitions drawn from a major acquisition of 42 artworks by 30 emerging and midcareer…
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