Some drama erupted this past week over a deal, seemingly backed by a broad swath of city leaders, to hand over operational control of a beloved Fillmore neighborhood community center to a nonprofit without seeking community consensus.

A lease was ready to be signed last week with a respected local nonprofit to oversee management and programing at Ella Hill Hutch Community Center in the Fillmore, with the mayor and multiple city supervisors in support. That nonprofit is Booker T. Washington Community Service Center, which is based nearby in Lower Pac Heights, and which already has multiple contracts with the city.

Ella Hill Hutch Community Center is a 30-year-old community hub that provides youth services, healthy food assistance programs, and summer and afterschool programs for neighborhood children. Last year it became a casualty of a scandal involving the former leader of the city's Dream Keeper initiative, Sheryl Davis, and her romantic partner/housemate James Spingola, who were both criminally charged in March for a raft of alleged felonies including self-dealing and the personal use of nonprofit funds — and Spingola was the head of a nonprofit, previously run by Davis, called Collective Impact, which had a contract with the city to operate Ella Hill Hutch.

The fallout from the scandal appears to have created rifts in the Fillmore neighborhood, which has historically been a center of Black cultural life for San Francisco, and has accumulated a growing set of grievances over the city's inhumane redevelopment efforts five and six decades ago, the trauma of which has been compounded in recent years by benign neglect. The most recent grievance: the closure of the neighborhood's only supermarket, a Safeway that was built with redevelopment funds over 40 years back, and which is now slated for demolition and another redevelopment as mostly market-rate housing.

The Chronicle reported last week on pushback from community leaders over the management contract for Ella Hill Hutch Community Center, which included a quote from longtime neighborhood elder statement, the Reverend Doctor Amos C. Brown. Speaking for others in the community, Brown pointed to the director of Booker T. Washington Community Service Center, former Davis ally and former Human Rights Commissioner Shakirah Simley, saying, "She aspires to this position in the community, but she is not connected with it. She has not communicated with people nor demonstrated a sense of the history of this community or any knowledge of the collective values that truly make for strong minority communities."

So, now, just days after that Chronicle report, the city has reversed course, per the Chronicle, and that no-bid lease with Booker T has been scrapped. The Recreation and Parks Department is going to be temporarily taking over Ella Hill Hutch while community stakeholders have a chance to give input on a future operator to the city.

A spokesperson for Mayor Daniel Lurie tells the paper that while Booker T remains a "valued partner to the city," they will be pursuing a more competitive process with "thoughtful community engagement" for the next lease.

"We are ensuring our kids remain safe and no family or child is left without access to services and support this summer," the spokesperson said, regarding the temporary Rec & Parks takeover.

The board of Booker T. Washington Community Service Center also issued a statement saying, "We share a deep commitment to the Fillmore community and to ensuring that every family, senior and child in this neighborhood has access to the services and support they deserve... We believe the path forward requires a broader, more deliberate process that includes additional community input."

The neighborhood remains upset by the now seven-year vacancy at the Fillmore Heritage Center, a product of redevelopment that was completed in the mid aughts and promised to revitalize a long dormant corridor in the Fillmore — and to bring jazz music back to the neighborhood as well via a San Francisco branch of Yoshi's, the famed Oakland jazz venue and sushi restaurant. A decade later, both Yoshi's and the other restaurant in the center, 1600 on Fillmore, had closed, and the process to find new tenants for the spaces has now dragged on for nearly another decade after that.

The scandal involving Davis, who also formerly led the Human Rights Commission during the London Breed administration, cast a pall over the Dream Keeper initiative at large, which had been a racial equity effort in 2020 and 2021 to redirect city funds from law enforcement to Black-led nonprofits. It came to light in 2024 that Davis, in addition to allegedly misusing funds, had directed $1.5 million in city grants to Collective Impact in an apparentconflict of interest, given that it was run by her live-in partner, Spingola.

A city audit later found that the total amount of questionable and/or frivolous spending by Davis, via the Human Rights Commission, was around $4.6 million.

Previously: Fillmore Residents Say They Feel Ignored By City Over Deal to Keep Community Center Open

This week: The Dipsea Trail, a crow take-over, award-winning BART poem, and site-specific sculptural CD art. Plus, a beloved pop-up bakery gets its own space, a local violinist shines at the Super Bowl, and Black Panther Emory Douglas’s collage images.

Between stations

On a daily ride between San Leandro and the Mission, a young poet found her voice. Sehinne’s poem BART earned a rare sweep of nine-or-higher scores at the 2025 Brave New Voices festival, helping Team Youth Speaks Bay Area take first place.

In the piece, the train becomes a steady, slightly offbeat presence, a place where writing happens in stolen minutes between stations. The poem draws from her internship at Youth Speaks on 16th Street Mission and can be watched in full online. — Bay Area Rapid Transit

In full view

Violinist Rose Crelli’s path runs from one-room cabins in Alaska and the Yukon to the Super Bowl halftime stage. Raised off the grid after being adopted from China, she learned discipline and resourcefulness through long drives for lessons and battery-powered practice sessions.

In San Francisco, she built her own work — teaching, performing locally, and posting online — until a call brought her to Levi’s Stadium to play with Bad Bunny, Lady Gaga, and Ricky Martin. The moment reflected years of work, craft, and a deep connection to her roots. — 7x7

Sweet debut

Grand Opening bakery, run by James Beard–nominated pastry chef Melissa Chou, is now taking orders from its West Oakland kitchen at 2311 Magnolia St. (off Grand), located inside 02 Artisans Aggregate alongside Soba Ichi and other local businesses. Chou, who previously popped up at Mister Jiu’s in San Francisco, offers a menu of whole cakes, pies, and cookies, including a black sesame almond cake with blood orange and a strawberry lychee cheese tart.

Standard favorites like the burnt honey pie and Parisian egg tart remain, alongside a rotating selection of sponge cakes and seasonal desserts. — Berkeleyside

Images of a revolution

At the Fillmore District’s African American Arts and Culture Complex, Emory Douglas’s sharp ink-and-collage images return to the Bay Area, where they first appeared in local papers and the Black Panther Party’s own publication. As the Black Panther Party’s Minister of Culture, Douglas shaped a visual language driven by urgency — scenes of police violence and poverty set beside intimate moments of family life.

The work was never meant for galleries, but its bold lines and clipped photos became inseparable from the movement itself, influencing activists far beyond Oakland. Emory Douglas: In Our Lifetime runs through October at the African American Arts and Culture Complex in San Francisco. — KPIX

Discs of daylight

Inside the Transamerica Pyramid Center, ICA San Francisco opens its program with Stratagems, a room-filling installation by sculptor Tara Donovan. Towering columns made from thousands of recycled CDs catch and scatter daylight, shifting tone and intensity as the sun moves and seasons change, turning the space into something closer to an instrument than a gallery.

The materials are ordinary and familiar, but their repetition bends perception, making hard edges feel fluid and almost biological. Organized with the Transamerica Pyramid Center and timed with SF Art Week, the exhibition runs through July 31. — Groove Atelier

Lifting without limits

In SF’s Noe Valley, Iron + Mettle offers a space where women focus on heavy lifting without intimidation or macho energy. Founder Danielle Repetti built the gym to teach proper form, gradual strength building, and confidence in a welcoming, small-group setting.

Members gradually increase weights and celebrate personal milestones, supported by coaches who understand women’s training needs. The studio blends community, education, and barbell work to make strength accessible to anyone who walks through the door. — Mission Local

Ferns and water

In Marin County, a short trail slips quickly out of the everyday and into something greener and quieter. The 3.8-mile route winds through fern-lined canyons and shaded forest, opening now and then to ocean air, waterfalls, and wide views that feel borrowed from another era.

It’s a moderate hike that rewards an unhurried pace, the kind where you stop often without meaning to. Best tackled with a friend, enough water, and the patience to leave the place exactly as you found it. — California Views/Instagram

A crow boom

San Francisco’s winter crow population has surged to a record 3,260 birds, more than double last year’s count and well above historical norms. Drawn by easy food, warm roosting spots, and fewer natural predators, crows have adapted quickly to city life while other bird species struggle.

At dusk, the birds gather in large, coordinated flocks — a daily spectacle shaped by both social behavior and survival. — SFGate

Top image: Rose Crelli Violin/Facebook

Previously: Field Notes: 124-Year-Old Light Bulb, UC Davis’ Cheeto the Cat, and ‘Trash Falcons’ Art Exhibit

A developer is looking to build 3,500 housing units in San Francisco in the coming years, about half of which would be in a mixed-use development at the site of the former Safeway in the Fillmore.

Developer Align Real Estate has finally submitted their plans for the former Safeway and its parking lot at Webster and Geary in the Fillmore neighborhood. And rather than the 1,000 or so units that were first discussed for the 3.68-acre site, Align revealed Monday that they are looking to build 1,800 units under the state's density bonus program, with around 15% of them designated affordable.

The Safeway store closed in January after 40 years in business before any concrete development plans had been shown to the public, but Safeway said it was closing the store ahead of any future development due to declining sales and "persistent theft."

The store had originally announced a March 2024 closing date, but former Supervisor Dean Preston negotiated with the company to keep the store open through all of last year.

Current District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood tells the Chronicle that he's endorsing Align's proposal, in particular because it includes a replacement grocery store. The company says it is in talks with grocery chains, but they have not inked a deal with any yet.

Mahmood says that the issue of a replacement store was a "deal breaker," and he tells the paper, "We are happy that they are submitting an application with a permanent store in mind."

The proposed mixed-use development would include buildings of multiple heights, including a 30-story tower near the Geary Boulevard end — the base of which would be home to a 20,000-square-foot grocery store.

Phasing of the project would potentially allow for the existing, vacant, 40,000-square-foot store space to be reactivated while construction takes place on the rest of the site, as the Chronicle notes. It could be well over a year before groundbreaking even begins on the site, and several years before any part of the development may be complete.

We learned back in May that Smart & Final had put in a bid to take over the store on a temporary basis, and it's unclear where that deal stands.

Meanwhile, the shopping center that faces both Fillmore Street and the interior parking lot on the east side of the site, which is home to a Popeye's as well as a laundromat, several shops, a gym, and an Indian grocer, is not part of this site and will remain in place, as seen in the rendering above.

According to a statement from Align Real Estate, the proposed development would include a "diverse mix of unit types, income levels and uses" to create "an inclusive, mixed-income community that aligns with San Francisco’s broader housing goals." The plan includes green space in the center of the site, a restaurant facing Webster Street, 500 parking spaces in a parking structure, and approximately 270 below-market-rate units.

The plan could still face pushback from neighborhood activists, in particular the Rev. Amos Brown, who penned an op-ed in December 2024 calling on the city to block Safeway's plan to profit from this deal. Brown's argument stemmed in part from the controversial redevelopment of the Fillmore neighborhood in the 1960s, which led to mass displacement of Black residents, and ultimately led to the city cutting a sweetheart deal with Safeway in the 1970s to install a store there. Brown called the plans "corporate arrogance of the highest order," and decried the fact that neither Safeway nor the developer had met with the community about this second redevelopment effort.

Align, which is based here in SF, has also revealed that it has plans for another 1,700 units elsewhere in the city, which will be submitted after this application is complete.

Align is the firm behind the SoMa high-rise residential building Chorus, and it has reportedly been in talks with Safeway about the Webster Street site for several years. It's unclear what other sites Align has its sights on.

Previously: Grocery Chain Smart & Final Reportedly Makes Bid for Shuttered Fillmore Safeway Space

Fundraiser for Madrone’s Oscar Myers; local Indigenous-owned businesses; processing trauma through surfing; learning about SF via Muni; downtown alley transformation; Photobook Fair weekend; Annie Sprinkle celebrates Earth and boobs; lavender and bees; SF’s 55-acre garden.

Rolling conversation

Tik-Toker Daisy, who goes by solo.dais on the app, recently moved to San Francisco from Georgia and decided to ride every Muni line from start to finish. She says she’s learned so much about the city just by using the bus as inspiration for her outings.

Daisy gives credits to the followers she’s gained along her journey who flock to her account offering tips on where to visit next. She says she’s discovered that having the bus as common ground sparks real conversation. — SFMTA

Roots in motion

Across the Bay, Indigenous communities maintain cultural presence through food, art, and shared gathering spaces. Wahpepah’s Kitchen blends traditional stews with contemporary ingredients, while Chabot’s planetarium show, Ohlone Skies, layers scientific observation with Indigenous storytelling.

The Indigenous Red Market in Oakland gathers vendors and neighbors under colorful canopies of art and music. Spaces like the American Indian Cultural Center in the Mission and the Native American Health Center offer ongoing opportunities for connection and community building throughout the year. — Do The Bay

Hidden currents

A narrow alley off California Street has become a sudden central focal point. Flow State, a new mural presented by Downtown SF Partnership, threads the city’s icons through waves of abstract form — streetcars, bridges, and fog rendered in fluid, searching lines.

The piece is part of the group’s Public Realm Action Plan, a project turning small, underused corners of downtown into places meant for lingering. — Downtown SF

Books in light

This weekend, photobook enthusiasts will gather at Harvey Milk Photo Center for San Francisco’s first Photobook Fair. Bay Area publishers including Deep Time Press and TBW Books will showcase their roster of books alongside work by artists from the Bay Area and beyond.

Visitors can browse intimate, limited editions as well as large publications, all of which will be part of the collection at the center’s permanent David Johnson Reference Library. — KQED Arts

Fire, love, and ash

Local icon and ‘80s alt-porn star Annie Sprinkle is busy this fall. Sprinkle and her wife Beth Stephens are making the rounds presenting the final film in their “ecosexual” trilogy, Playing with Fire: An Ecosexual Emergency, which just received an Audience Choice Award at the Santa Cruz Film Festival.

The film is a hybrid art-documentary that turns the couple’s experience evacuating their home during the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex fires into a meditation on loss, resilience, and intimacy with the Earth. Screens Saturday night at Artists’ Television Access. — Santa Cruz Sentinal

Additionally, on Thursday, October 23, Stephens and Sprinkle are honoring Breast Cancer Awareness Month with “Bazoombas in Love,” an immersive and cheeky art experience at Cushion Works. — Annie Sprinkle

Bridge back to the groove

Oscar Myers has run Tuesday night dance parties at Madrone Art Bar for 17 years, bringing funk, soul, and a direct line to the Fillmore’s musical past. The city honored the 81-year-old bandleader, who once shared stages with legends from James Brown to Charles Mingus, by declaring October 11 “Oscar Myers Day” last year.

Just before his birthday last week, Myers suffered a stroke, and friends and collaborators have launched a fundraiser to support Myers with his recovery and daily needs. At Madrone, regulars remember him grinning mid-song and shouting, “Take me to the bridge” — and everyone knew exactly what to do. — Coyote Media Collective

Waves of healing

At Bolinas Beach, San Francisco surfers Tim Gras and Eddie Donnellan use surfing to support young people facing trauma. Through their nonprofit, MeWater Foundation, they run free surf camps for hundreds of youth each year, giving participants a chance to find joy and build confidence.

The program also offers scholarships and mentorship, and has expanded to camping trips in Yosemite, New York, Santa Barbara, and Alaska. For the youth of Project Avary, a day on the water becomes a rare, bright m oment of care and community. — KPIX

Lavender and honey

On Chapman Lane in Petaluma, the Lavender Bee Farm grows thousands of lavender plants that attract bees and visitors alike. JoAnn and Richard Wallenstein, who inherited the farm from her parents, cut, dry, and turn the flowers into honey, sachets, candles, and other products.

The small shop on the property carries their handmade items, and guests can stroll through the fields while taking in the scent and sights of the farm. Each season, the work of harvesting and processing lavender and honey continues the farm’s long family legacy. — The Press Democrat

Green cathedral

Hidden in the heart of Golden Gate Park, the San Francisco Botanical Garden stretches across 55 acres of winding paths and themed landscapes. Magnolias, redwoods, and cloud forest plants mingle with curated sections like the Fragrance Garden, where scents and textures guide the experience.

Thousands of species draw both casual wanderers and dedicated plant lovers, with early mornings and seasonal events offering quieter ways to explore. Year-round programming — from guided walks to art workshops — keeps the garden active and inviting. — Secret San Francisco

Image: Native American Health Center/Facebook

Previously: Field Notes: Horror on Stage, 10-Cent Beers in the 510, and a Globe-Trotting Galapagos Albatross

Smart & Final has made a pending and not-final offer to move into the vacated Fillmore Safeway grocery store, but Safeway’s not talking about whether they’ll take the deal, and there are whispers that other grocers may make their own bids too.

The February closure of the Fillmore Safeway was at least delayed for a year, but still happened anyway, leaving the 40,000-square-foot grocery store at 1335 Webster Street in the state of being a vacant, hulking eyesore for god-knows-how-many years to come. Or maybe not that long at all?

The Chronicle reports that the warehouse-style grocery chain Smart & Final has made a bid on the Fillmore Safeway space. Smart & Final currently has only one San Francisco location at Seventh Avenue and Clement Street, but otherwise has more than 200 stores across California, Arizona, and Nevada, plus a few in Mexico.

That’s no guarantee the bid will be accepted. Safeway (which owns the land) is working with a developer called Align Real Estate to build a large housing complex there, though that proposal has no approvals, nor even a formal submission of a plan. But it is believed they would be open to a grocer or some sort of other ground-floor retail tenant, so Smart & Final would certainly fit that bill.

Though it seems Smart & Final might not really be the white-knight savior here, and is asking for some pretty serious concessions. Then again, this may be just an opening bid in negotiations.

Per the Chronicle’s reporting, Smart & Final is asking for a five-year lease but also offering (in the Chronicle's words) “an investment by the company of at least $5.5 million.” Though in return, they’re asking to pay (in Smart & Final’s words) “no base rent, property taxes, or fire/casualty insurance during the term of the lease.”

And in a sign they may have leverage with a city desperate to fill the space, Smart & Final is asking that the city provide at least one on-duty police officer, and a marked car, on the premises during all business hours that the store is open.

The Chronicle obtained a letter from Smart & Final vice president of real estate Casey Lynch to Align Real Estate from last week, which said, “We see this store as a first step toward establishing a durable presence within a larger redevelopment, and we’re approaching this as a meaningful opportunity to demonstrate our value as a future anchor and ongoing contributor to the success of the site and the neighborhood it serves.”

Align did not comment on the letter. Safeway gave the Chronicle a statement simply saying, “The property remains under contract with Align and lease terms are up to them.”

The Chronicle’s sourcing adds that Mayor Daniel Lurie’s office has reportedly been involved in negotiations, and that “other grocery store operators” have also been in talks.

It also sounds like last month’s lifting of the formula retail ban on Van Ness Avenue, which added a last-minute exemption to include the Fillmore Safeway, may have sweetened the pot for Smart & Final and other suitors.

“It’s not a coincidence that we are getting a bid now that looks, from our perspective, quite financially reasonable and is implementable to hopefully get a grocery store back into the Fillmore by next year,” Supervisor Bilal Mahmood told the Chronicle.

Though none of this guarantees there will be a Smart & Final, or any other grocer, in that giant vacant space anytime soon. As Mission Local pointed out in February, City Hall approval for any new tenant could take as long as 18 months.

Related: Fillmore Safeway, Nearly Depleted of Goods, Set to Become Desolate Eyesore for Likely Years to Come [SFist]

Image: Ali H via Yelp

• An 87-year-old woman was struck and seriously injured in a hit-and-run in the Fillmore District Monday night, and the suspect vehicle has not been found. The collision happened around 8:45 pm at the intersection of Fillmore and McAllister streets, and the woman was reportedly walking in a crosswalk at the time. [KRON4]
• Marley Barclay, the 14-year-old who was one of two survivors of a deadly crash in Marin County last weekend, has been released from Children's Hospital in Oakland. "Marley and her family are keeping the other young women involved in this tragedy and their families in their prayers," a spokesperson for the family said. "They are grieving this tremendous loss of life alongside the broader community." [KTVU]
• The parents of 19-year-old Krysta Tsukahara, who was killed in that Cybertruck crash and fire in Piedmont just before Thanksgiving, are suing the owner of the Cybertruck and the estate of the deceased driver, Soren Dixon. Even though Tsukahara was not killed by the crash impact, but burned alive because she could not exit the vehicle, Tesla is not named in this lawsuit. [KTVU]
• A car fire in the Caldecott Tunnel was creating traffic troubles on eastbound Highway 24 in the East Bay today. [ABC 7]
• Oakland writer and comedian W. Kamau Bell is a finalist on Celebrity Jeopardy!, and the finale airs tonight on ABC at 9 pm. [ABC 7]

National:

• He hasn't done any press briefings to date, but Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered a makeup studio to be installed at the Pentagon, for his frequent Fox News appearances. [CBS News]
• Trump's approval rating is now at 45% and apparently falling steadily. [New York Times]
• Meta has now opened up advertising on its Threads app to all advertisers worldwide, after testing ads in just a few markets. [TechCrunch]

Video:

• YouTube turns 20 this week, if you can believe it. So here is what's considered the first YouTube video to go viral, SNL's "Lazy Sunday," which aired in December 2025 and was uploaded by fans almost immediately before being ordered removed by NBC Universal in February 2006.

Photo by Jared Erondu

The Fillmore Heritage Center that was home to the former Yoshi’s has been a bust, and its latest disappointment is a mere $100,000 settlement payment from a developer who got a city loan on the place for $5.5 million.  

Way back in 2007, the jazz nightclub and sister to the popular Oakland club Yoshi’s opened at Fillmore and Ellis streets, to great fanfare at the new city-owned Fillmore Heritage Center. But the club and sushi restaurant was not a success, and was sold off in 2014. It later became a club and venue called The Addition, which also bombed, and closed just months after opening. The restaurant 1300 on Filllmore that anchored the other end of the block closed its doors in 2017. And, this all happened after Fillmore Heritage Center developer Michael Johnson got a $5.5 million loan, among other help, from the city to revitalize the place.

So in 2018, when London Breed was mayor, Vallie Brown was the district’s supervisor, and Dennis Herrera was City Attorney, Herrera sued Johnson to reclaim the $5.5 million. Johnson promptly sued the city right back, saying it was the city that mismanaged the project. And now seven years after these lawsuits, it might appear that Johnson had a point. Because today, KQED is reporting that Johnson will only have to pay a $100,000 settlement on the lost $5.5 million.

Though as part of the settlement, Johnson is barred from doing any business with the city for a period of five years.

“We believe the proposed settlement is the best outcome for the city,” City Attorney spokesperson Jen Kwart told KQED. “We are pleased the defendants and their affiliated businesses have agreed not to do business with the city for five years.”

To point out the obvious, that statement does not acknowledge why the city accepted such a paltry sum for the settlement. And the full text of the settlement document does not acknowledge any of this either. KQED also notes that Johnson got a $4.8 million loan from the city's erstwhile Redevelopment Agency two decades ago to kickstart this project, and that loan was written off when the agency disbanded in 2011.

Either way, the proposed settlement goes before the SF Board of Supervisors’ Government Audit and Oversight Committee on Thursday March 20, before being up for approval by the full Board of Supervisors, likely on March 25 or April 1.

And the city-owned Fillmore Heritage Center has struck out on a few new attempted reincarnations over the ten years since The Addition bombed out. There was grand talk in 2023 for a new jazz hall and a restaurant from Marcus Samuelsson of Harlem’s Red Rooster fame. That proposal fell through, but a few nonprofits like the SF Housing and Development Corporation stepped up with a scaled-back plan for a food hall in February 2024. At the time, we were told it could open “by the fall 2024.”

But once Fall 2024 got here, the Chronicle reported how that deal had pretty much fallen through as well. And in early December, SF Housing and Development Corporation program director Pia Harris died from pancreatic disease complications.

Related: The Former Yoshi’s in the Fillmore Could Be Reborn as a New Food Hall Sometime This Year [SFist]

Image: Google Street View

With no definitive development plan on the table and zero city approvals, the Fillmore Safeway property is set to shutter on February 7 — if not sooner, because deep discounts have led to the store being almost emptied out of anything to sell.

There were lines to get in to the Safeway at Webster and Geary streets early last week, as "Up to 50% Off" signs went up outside and the final clearance began. Those signs have been swapped out for "Up to 75% Off" signs, but a Wednesday visit to the store revealed a depressing warehouse with one checkstand open and almost nothing left to pick over.

The good news is that whatever price is listed on the shelves, the store is discounting everything, it seems, about 75% on top of that — a few items that rang up for over $12 were sold to me for $2.88.

The bad news is, most of the desirable merchandise, save for wine and beer (which may not be so well discounted), is long gone. All the store's remaining dry goods have been clustered onto shelves at one end of one aisle near the doors, and you may find some cheap energy drinks, crackers, and may-be-discontinued-soon pasta sauces there.

The produce section was cleared out last week, as were meat, seafood, and dairy. And despite the everything-must-go messaging, wine and various household supplies remain under lock and key, and security guards are still protecting the last vestiges from being shoplifted.

The Fillmore neighborhood is understandably mad about this store closure, and community members have been trying to bring attention to the issue of food access, especially for the elderly and disabled who have depended on this Safeway for decades. The next nearest Safeway, at Church and Market streets, is over a mile away, and would require cab or Uber fare for many of these residents to do their shopping.

Sabine Dabady, who has worked for non-profits focused on affordable housing and food access, spoke to KPIX this week as she visited the store, noting the difficulty this closure will pose for those who can't afford frequent transportation to a store further from their home.

She also pointed to the immediate blight that is going to come after the store goes dark in a few weeks — when the site's future redevelopment is likely still years off.

"A store this size and footprint being vacant as well as the parking lot, doesn't bode well for the surrounding community," Dabady tells KPIX. "Instead of one with an active livelihood, it becomes this desolate ground that feels strange."

The parking lot will still serve several businesses, including an Indian grocery market, a Popeye's chicken, and laundromat, in an adjacent strip center — all on the backside of a building that faces Fillmore Street. And how those businesses, or their parking, get impacted by the development plans remains to be seen.

Plans by Align Real Estate to redevelop the site for mixed-use, residential and retail,  emerged by surprise last winter when Safeway first announced it would close. At the time, Safeway declared it would shut its doors within two months, but city leaders, including Supervisor Dean Preston, were able to convince the store to give some more lead time, and an early 2025 closure was then announced.

In reminding everyone of the impending closure last month, Safeway cited rampant shoplifting at this location as one issue encouraging the closure.

Now that the closing is happening and it's feeling more real, there has been talk, including from NAACP chapter president the Reverend Amos Brown, of encouraging the city to use eminent domain to retake the property — taken by emininent domain from largely Black property owners in the 1950s and early 60s and sold to Safeway for cheap in the 70s — in order to preserve it for community use, i.e. another grocery store.

"This is corporate arrogance of the highest order, especially for a company that professes on its website that is 'committed to helping people across the country live better lives by making a meaningful difference, neighborhood by neighborhood,'" Reverend Brown wrote in an op-ed last month.

The city needs housing as well, and there may not be the political will to take this step. But the eminent domain talk will likely complicate things for finalizing the property sale.

Previously: Rev. Amos Brown Says SF Should Step In and Prevent Sale of Fillmore Safeway

Onetime SF supervisor and Black community leader the Reverend Amos Brown is gunning for Safeway following the announcement of its planned closure date in the Fillmore, and its plans to sell its land there for an enormous profit.

"It’s almost Christmas, and Safeway ads are full of joyful images of happy people buying food for their holiday meals," writes Brown in a Chronicle op-ed. "But in the Fillmore, Safeway has a much different message for the San Francisco neighborhood’s Black community: We don’t care about you. Goodbye, and good luck finding groceries where you live."

Brown is one of a number of community leaders in the Fillmore who are angry that Safeway, albeit a year delayed, is planning to leave the neighborhood without a full-service grocery store, possibly for five years or more, until a still-undisclosed development plan for the property might include another grocery store, once it's complete.

Safeway has announced that the closure at 1335 Webster Street will take place February 7, 13 months after it first announced it would close. The initial January 2024 announcement, which came seemingly out of the blue, said the store would close just two months later. Under pressure from the city and the community, the company said it would delay the closure "to provide a greater transition period for the community."

While no development plan has been submitted to the city, and we do not know the status of the deal to sell the property to Align Real Estate, it has been estimated that the 3.7-acre property could accommodate around 1,000 residential units.

Brown makes a valid point in his op-ed: In the interest of corporate profits alone, Safeway is off-loading this property, which it bought for a song in the 1970s thanks to San Francisco's controversial redevelopment project that destroyed the fabric of this once vibrant Black neighborhood, dubbed the Harlem of the West.

The land was taken a decade earlier from Black families by eminent domain, which makes Safeway's profiting from it all that much bitterer of a pill to swallow.

"This is corporate arrogance of the highest order, especially for a company that professes on its website that is 'committed to helping people across the country live better lives by making a meaningful difference, neighborhood by neighborhood,'" Reverend Brown writes.

Brown further suggests that, given that Safeway "has never... had the courtesy to meet with the" community about this closure, the city should "step in and prevent the closure and sale and bring Safeway to the table to give the community a voice in what happens next."

Supervisor Dean Preston, whose term on the board ends next month, wrote a letter to Mayor London Breed in November suggesting that eminent domain should be on the table once more — given the community benefit of having a grocery store in this location. The mayor has not responded, but the newly composed Board of Supervisors may be wary of thwarting a development that could help the city reach its housing goals.

Previously: Dean Preston Makes End Run to Thwart Fillmore Safeway Development Plan

The beleaguered Safeway in the Fillmore, the planned closure of which was announced almost a year ago, now has a final closing date, and the company won't be negotiating this time.

The Safeway at 1335 Webster Street, which has been in operation in the Fillmore neighborhood for over 40 years, will close for good on February 7. As the Chronicle reports, Safeway corporate sent a letter to Mayor London Breed announcing the closure and, oddly, given that the property is contract to be sold to a developer, the company blames rampant theft as a reason for the closure.

Anticipating further pushback about closing the store, which is the only full-service grocery store serving Japantown and the Fillmore, the company made clear that it had already stayed open an extra 11 months "to provide a greater transition period for the community."

The company added that it was "proud" of its 40 years in the neighborhood, and said, "We remain committed to serving San Francisco at our 15 remaining locations, and to ensure that our unionized workforce can perform their jobs in safe and secure working environments."

A Wells Fargo branch inside the store already closed and vacated the property last month.

Safeway originally announced the impending closure in early January 2024, blindsiding the neighborhood, and saying that it planned to close two months later, in March. Pushback from Supervisor Dean Preston and others, who pointed out that any development on the property could take years to begin, led Safeway to extend operations until early 2025.

We still don't know what stage the deal is in to sell the 3.68-acre property to Align Real Estate, which has plans to redevelop the property into a 1,000-unit residential complex with ground-floor retail. Those are the only outlines of the development plan that we know, and Align has neither commented on its plans nor made any presentation to the city that we're aware of.

Demolition and development at 1335 Webster could still be years away from happening, but it seems Safeway remains in a hurry to shut down this store.

A community group, the Fillmore United Alliance, met last month to make plans for their own action against Safeway, to protest the closure. They now tell the Chronicle that they are planning to protest and boycott Safeway on December 23.

"There was no community outreach at all," says the group's leader, Rev. Erris Edgerly, speaking to the Chronicle.

The closure of this store also is likely to negatively impact a group of other businesses that occupy the adjacent shopping center that shares the Safeway's parking lot. These include a Popeyes, a Panda Express, a laundromat, a smoke shop, and Jai Ho, a specialty Indian grocery store.

Previously: Dean Preston Makes End Run to Thwart Fillmore Safeway Development Plan

Get ready for rosemary fried chicken and the gooiest mac and cheese when acclaimed East Bay chef Fernay McPherson debuts the first San Francisco location of Minnie Bell's Soul Movement next week.

After a bit of a delay, we now have an opening date for Minnie Bell's Soul Movement at 1375 Fillmore Street, and it is Friday, April 19. Expect great fried chicken and classic sides like braised collard greens, candied yams, blackeyed pea salad, and brown butter cornbread, with plates starting at $20. But the star of the show may be the mac and cheese, which is extra cheesey and gooey and everything good.

Because of TikTok, or Instagram, the caviar-on-everything trend will extend to Minnie Bell's too, with optional caviar additions to either the fried chicken or the cornbread.

There are also several vegan options on the menu, including rosemary fried oyster mushrooms and plant-based mac and cheese. And later this spring, Minnie Bell's will begin serving brunch, featuring fried chicken and French toast (instead of waffles), and a braised oxtail and grit cake.

Since launching in 2018 as a stall at Emeryville's Public Market, chef and restaurateur Fernay McPherson has gained plenty of attention for her cooking, and the new Fillmore location marks a major expansion as well as a homecoming for McPherson. She is a third-generation resident of the Fillmore, and this location — in the former Bruno's pizzeria space — will be Minnie Bell's flagship, which McPherson has longed to open for many years.

"Minnie Bell's homecoming to the Fillmore is very special for me,” McPherson says. “I'm grateful and excited to be a part of the neighborhood’s revitalization. Being a representation of a bygone era is what this neighborhood needs and I look forward to seeing more of it."

McPherson's grandmother Lillie Bell and great aunt Minnie give the restaurant its name, and both women moved to the Fillmore neighborhood in the mid-20th Century.

Known as the "Harlem of the West" in the 1940s and 50s, the Fillmore once was home to a vibrant jazz scene and a post-war African American community. San Francisco's redevelopment efforts in the 1960s, now broadly seen as racist, were responsible for dislocating thousands of residents and decimating the city's Black population, which never fully recovered.

Revitalization efforts over the last two decades, particularly along the Fillmore Street corridor have sputtered, and the city is in the process of finding a new operator for the now almost 20-year-old Fillmore Heritage Center, which has sat mostly vacant for over six years.

Still, these few blocks of Fillmore Street between Geary Boulevard and Turk Street have seen a boomlet in fine dining over the last decade with openings of Michelin-starred State Bird Provisions, The Progress, Merchant Roots, and more recently Anchovy Bar and Bansang, which is a Michelin Bib Gourmand honoree.

"The grand opening of Minnie Bell’s Soul Movement in Fillmore is a testament to the strength of community and the transformative power of pursuing one's dreams,” says Sarah Dennis Phillips, San Francisco's executive director of the Office of Economic and Workforce Development, in a statement. "Fernay’s dedication to her craft and her investment in the Fillmore district is a beacon of inspiration, and this restaurant will be a wonderful addition to the collection of San Francisco’s culinary gems."

The restaurant's opening has had a leg up from Mayor London Breed's Dream Keeper Initiative, which provides grants to reinvest in San Francisco's diverse Black communities, and in this case, to help revitalize this historically Black retail area.

In a nod to the history of the neighborhood, a floor-to-ceiling, black-and-white photo will greet customers arriving at Minnie Bell's Soul Movement, showing an image of the intersection of Turk and Fillmore streets in 1966 — before a vast amount of demolition occurred. It features a 22-Fillmore bus, American Theatre’s “Black Arts West Presents," and Gilmore's Bar-B-Q.

Opening hours, starting on Friday, April 19, will be 4 pm to 10 pm, Tuesday through Saturday, with Sunday brunch launching at a later date this spring.

Previously: Acclaimed Fried Chicken Spot Minnie Bell's Is Coming to the Fillmore

Bay Area music legends Green Day are putting on a show next week at the historic, and very intimate Fillmore, and tickets are available to the public.

The just-announced, small-scale show on April 2 will feature Green Day, with frontman Billie Joe Armstrong's son Jakob Danger's band, Ultra Q, opening for them. As the Chronicle reports, the show is being co-hosted by the Recording Academy, with proceeds benefiting the United Nations Human Rights climate justice initiatives and the MusiCares climate fund.

“As world renowned artists and activists, Green Day continues to leverage its major influence and platform to bring awareness to the impact of climate change on the people and the environment,” said Volker Türk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in a statement.

The tickets, priced at $65, will likely disappear fast, and they go on sale tomorrow, March 29, at noon, via LiveNation.

From the flyer below, we note that this is being dubbed a "mini global climate concert,"

Green Day just put out their 14th studio album in January, titled Saviors, and will be touring for that this summer — with a stop scheduled at Oracle Park on September 20.

Pitchfork gave the album a pretty tepid review, saying, "Saviors isn’t a return to form so much as another overcorrection, professional rebels trying to live up to their status as Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees." The New York Times was a bit kinder.

Armstrong met bassist Mike Dirnt when they were both 10 years old, living in Contra Costa County and going to Carquinez Middle School. They were later reunited at Pinole Valley High School, and they formed what would become Green Day in 1987, when they were 15, first using the names Blood Rage and Sweet Children. After settling on Green Day in 1989, drummer Tré Cool joined the group in 1990, replacing another drummer — and it was his dad who gave the band their first touring van, converted from an old Bookmobile.

The band was part of an emerging 90s punk scene that centered on the 924 Gilman Street club in Berkeley, which also became a springboard for The Offspring and Rancid.

And it was with Green Day's third studio album in 1994, Dookie, that the band broke big on MTV and mainstream radio. Ten years later, when the three band members were still 32, they saw their next major mainstream crossover with American Idiot, which was adapted into a stage musical that premiered at Berkeley Rep in 2009, and went on to Broadway.

The former church on Fillmore Street now popularly known as the Church 8 Wheels was granted landmark status by the SF Board of Supervisors Tuesday, and while the property will be redeveloped into housing, its popular skate rink will reportedly stay intact.

If you’ve ever walked by the Church of 8 Wheels building that holds indoor roller skating parties on Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, you may have figured out that the place used to be an actual church. And if you lived in SF prior to 2005, you may recall that Fillmore and Fell streets building was the Sacred Heart Church, which closed in December 2004. But it’s now served as a roller rink for nearly ten years (Caitlyn Jenner even went there once), though its future seemed in doubt when a developer bought the property in 2020 with plans to raze it for housing.

But let the good times roll! While the developer called the Pollard Group still plans to build 41 housing units at 554 Fillmore Street, that developer will apparently allow the Church of 8 Wheels to stay, as the roller rink area will remain an event space. And on Tuesday, the SF Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a landmark designation for that building that aims to keep many of the architectural elements intact.

“It is my understanding that the owners intend to continue this successful collaboration,” with the Church of 8 Wheels, the district’s supervisor Dean Preston said at a March 4 Board of Supervisors committee meeting. “That activation is really a beloved use in the neighborhood.”

And in a statement after Tuesday's vote, Preston's office said in a statement that "With the historic landmarking status of this site, the owners have shared with Supervisor Preston's office their intention to continue this successful collaboration with [Church of 8 Wheels' David] Miles, which means that the church should continue to be a place for beginners and pros alike to put on their skates and groove to disco music under neon lights and stained glass windows."

The Church of 8 Wheels does not own the building, and never has. And the landmarking has nothing to do with the Church of 8 Wheels, and everything to do with the Sacred Heart Church. But the landmark designation status gives the developer city-sanctioned incentives to keep certain physical characteristics in place when the property is redeveloped into housing.

As seen above, the plan retains the church’s nave (what we think of as the roller rink) and well as the bell tower and other unique elements. Large lofts and smaller apartment units are added to other components of the structure, which dates all the way back to 1898.

The landmark designation applies to the whole “Sacred Heart Parish Complex” (546-548 Fillmore Street, 554 Fillmore Street, 735 Fell Street, and 660 Oak Street), which contains the former church, rectory, school, and convent. The designation acknowledges the church's Romanesque revival architectural style, stained glass windows, and bell tower, as well as its association with 1960s and 70s civil rights activist Father Eugene Boyle.

Not everyone was thrilled with the conversion to housing and preservation of a roller rink area.

“The thing I don’t understand is how a church goes from a church where you’re getting on your knees to pray, to falling on your knees on a pair of skates,” former parishioner Bertha Canti said at a February 26 Board of Supervisors committee meeting on the matter. “I think it's sacrilegious for that to be happening at a church.”

But it was the Archdiocese of San Francisco who chose to sell the building, as the Church of 8 Wheels' founder “Godfather of Skate” David Miles, pointed out at the same meeting.

“It was sold, okay? I had nothing to do with that. Whoever was in charge decided to sell it to people to develop it,” Miles said. “When we have people skating, I feel that they are living up to the religious purposes of what the building was for.”

A representative of the developer Pollard Group, Simon Yip, added at the same meeting that “The owner is ready to move forward with continuing to provide a community event space in the building, alongside some much needed housing.”

Obviously, there is going to be a construction phase during which the Church of 8 Wheels will have to skate elsewhere. But once that construction is finished, a rink within the preserved exterior of a church with housing units alongside will be how the Church of 8 Wheels rolls.

Note: This post has been updated with a Tuesday statement from Supervisor Dean Preston's office.

Related: Hallelujah! Church Of 8 Wheels Reopens After Renovations [SFist]

Image: Bruce C. via Yelp

As expected, SF Supervisor Dean Preston made a move at Tuesday's Board of Supervisors meeting to begin a process of cajoling Safeway not to shutter its 40-year-old grocery store in the Fillmore District, at least not yet.

It seems odd for a city government to try to tell a private company they can't close a store if they want to. But it's not like this hasn't been tried before in SF — and sometimes, through back-room negotiations or whathaveyou, such efforts work, as in the CVS location that was slated to close in the Lower Haight but now isn't.

Supervisor Dean Preston, who seemed to have some role in keeping that CVS open, expressed his dismay when we learned last week that Safeway was planning to close its four-decade-old store at Webster and Geary at the beginning of March. And SFist surmised that he might try to get the timeline for the closure extended, at the very least, given that this move is going to deprive an entire — mostly low-income — neighborhood of its only real grocery store.

Preston is doing just that, and he introduced a resolution at today's Board of Supervisors meeting, saying, "Safeway should remain open until the developer buying the property breaks ground, and beyond that, we should make sure that any development on the site includes a new grocery store."

Preston noted that many residents in the area rely on this store not only for basic food needs, but also for its pharmacy and the Wells Fargo branch location inside.

"I stand in solidarity with the community and urge Safeway to rescind the closure plan and meet with community and city leaders to develop a plan for this crucial site in the heart of the Fillmore that not only avoids harm, but actually benefits the community," Preston said, per KRON4.

Majeid Crawford, executive director of the New Community Leadership Foundation, gave a statement to KRON4 on the situation saying, "Safeway has operated for over forty years at this site, and to abruptly close in March with less than two months’ notice is painful to the entire community that relies on this grocery store."

The 3.68-acre property is being sold to Align Real Estate, which has plans to redevelop it into a mixed-use complex with potentially thousands of units of new housing spread over more than ten stories. But it should be clear to everyone involved that any such development plan will take years to get approved and get underway — and Safeway wants to close its doors in two months.

Mayor London Breed expressed her support for the development plan last week, calling it "a real and rare opportunity to add a significant amount of new homes in this part of the city."

Safeway said it had no plans to be a part of the redevelopment project, but the developer would likely want to put a new grocery store into the space, given the lack of one in the area and the new level of need that will be created by thousands of new residents.

Safeway has not commented on Preston's resolution, and it remains to be seen whether it will even have any teeth.

Safeway put out an earlier statement on the closure saying "decisions like these are never easy, nor are they made without a great deal of consideration."

Previously: Fillmore Safeway to Close to Make Way for Housing, Depriving Neighborhood of Its Only Grocery Store

A long troubled but still very active and popular Safeway location in the Fillmore neighborhood is slated to close in early March, with the site being sold to a residential developer. But this means that the only full-service grocery store in the Fillmore is disappearing, and residents of the neighborhood will have no nearby grocery options, potentially for years.

Safeway announced the closure Thursday, and as the Chronicle reports, the company has entered into an agreement with Align Real Estate, which plans to redevelop the entire 3.68-acre property into a mixed-use development with potentially thousands of units of housing.

The site is zoned for 130 feet in height, or around 13 residential stories, but a developer could build higher by taking advantage of the state's density bonus program.

The Safeway site, which was part of the highly controversial and derided first redevelopment of the Fillmore in the 1960s, encompasses a large parking lot flanked on three sides by the grocery store and two strip shopping centers with office and residential above.

Safeway issued a statement saying it had "proudly served the Fillmore District for 40 years" and that "decisions like these are never easy, nor are they made without a great deal of consideration."

“San Francisco has struggled with housing shortages and Safeway sees this as an opportunity to positively impact the community and to be part of a solution to bring much needed housing to the city,” the company says.

Mayor London Breed issued a statement saying, "This is a real and rare opportunity to add a significant amount of new homes in this part of the city, and even a new grocery store, and it shows a real interest in investing in housing in San Francisco."

That new grocery store likely won't arrive for at least four or five years, however, and Safeway said it has no immediate plans to be a part of the project. Breed suggested that neighbors could enjoy the new Trader Joe's that's expected to open later this year at 555 Fulton Street, however that is more in Hayes Valley, and that's cold comfort to anyone who lives in Japantown or the blocks surrounding this long-established store.

The nearest Safeway will now be the Church and Market location, 1.1 miles away.

Up Geary Boulevard, a Whole Foods is also expected to take over the former Best Buy location at Masonic.

Supervisor Dean Preston, whose district includes this Webster Plaza Safeway, said he only learned of this sale this morning, and he tells the Chronicle, "We are extremely concerned with the potential loss of this grocery store in the heart of the Fillmore, and especially the possibility of losing it as soon as March, which we view as unacceptable."

That statement hints that the Board of Supervisors could maybe try to strong-arm some sort of extension for the store, given how long development timelines are in this city. But we'll see.

Preston seems to have had a hand in keeping CVS from closing its store in the Lower Haight — CVS reversed its decision there last month, within a week of announcing it.

Safeway has been closing some stores in the local area, though it is also opening others in new locations. The company announced the closure of its under-performing Bay Street store near Fisherman's Wharf last spring, and in November it closed a Santa Clara store that had been open for 67 years. A new store in South San Francisco, meanwhile, just broke ground in 2022, and is expected to open this year.

The Fillmore Safeway had some recent trouble with theft via its self-checkout area, a problem that it ultimately solved by removing the self-checkout area entirely. (The Castro location makes those in self-checkout scan their receipts to exit the area.) And the Fillmore location sparked controversy last year when it began blasting classical music in its parking lot for several days in order to deter loitering, annoying many neighbors until it was shut off.

Photo: Google Street View