Local advocates are taking action to prevent the cancellation of SF’s popular long-running neighborhood street festival series, Sunday Streets, due to budget cuts, urging residents to sign their petition, contact local officials, and attend a rally at City Hall Monday.

As Streetsblog SF reports, the San Francisco Department of Public Health announced earlier in January the agency’s plan to cut funding for the city’s popular Sunday Streets program after a 17-year partnership in order to reallocate the funds toward covering department deficits. Per Streestsblog, the funds were originally appropriated for Sunday Streets by the SF Board of Supervisors through the health department's Equity & Promotion program.

Per the SF Bicycle Coalition, San Francisco is a healthier and more connected city because of Sunday Streets, which launched in 2008 and often serves neighborhoods with limited access to open space community events.

Livable City, the nonprofit that runs Sunday Streets, has created an advocacy toolkit for residents interested in pushing the city to keep the program going and find ways to stabilize it. The toolkit includes an email template for contacting officials, a petition urging SF Mayor Daniel Lurie and the Board of Supervisors to restore funding, and a guide to giving public comment at the Health Commission hearing, which is taking place  at 4 pm Monday in Room 408 at City Hall, preceded by a rally on the City Hall steps at 3 pm.

Per Streetsblog, the Department of Public Health is moving to cut $17 million in funding from community-based organizations, and Livable City receives a mere 1.3% of those funds for Sunday Streets — $215,758 per year.

Per Streetsblog, Sunday Streets is a hugely popular program that continually exceeds its metrics in providing the community with outlets for physical fitness and wellness each year, while offering a platform for more than 120 city and nonprofit groups to connect with the community through direct services, educational resources, and outreach.

Image: Sunday Streets, Excelsior; throgers/Flickr

Previous Sunday Streets coverage

Once mega-popular spinning gym SoulCycle has taken a hit from pandemic at-home workouts, lingering anxiety around group fitness, and widespread sales of Peloton bikes, and it means that the company is shutting down 25 percent of its U.S. studios and laying off around 75 employees.

As CNN reports, SoulCycle is shutting down five locations in California, and a total of around 20 of its 83 spin studios nationwide. Bay Area News Group further reports that the shutdowns include one of SoulCycle's three San Francisco locations, SoulCycle SOMA at 75 First Street, near Salesforce Tower.

The company is also shutting down its San Jose location, six locations in the New York City area, and its only Canadian outpost, in Toronto.

"As riders continue to return to in-studio classes there have been many shifts as a result of the pandemic," said a SoulCycle spokesperson speaking to CNN Business. The company says it has "assess[ed] whether there is an opportunity to right-size in certain markets" due to these pandemic shifts.

SoulCycle still has two locations in San Francisco neighborhoods, in the Castro and on Union Street in Cow Hollow, and those will remain open.

SoulCycle isn't the only fitness brand needing to recalibrate due to the pandemic. CNN notes that despite its early pandemic boom in sales, Peloton has seen its stock plummet 90% since late 2020, and on Friday the company announced a new round of layoffs, store closures, and price hikes.

SoulCycle competitor Flywheel closed permanently in September 2020.

As CNN notes, budget fitness chains like Planet Fitness, meanwhile, are thriving.

It's not clear when will be the last day for SoulCycle SOMA — the website shows classes available today but reservations not open yet for Tuesday. CNN reported that the closures are happening "in the coming days."

Photo: Google Street View

San Francisco is an athlete's paradise. Weather is usually suitable for a run or a hike, hills are themselves a training regimen, and yoga studios seem to be city-mandated every few blocks. But as far as streamlining your workout and getting the best possible results? Here are a dozen local gyms offering equipment and classes that are well worth your time, money, and of course, effort.

Alex Fitness
Nestled on a second story above Market Street in the Castro between the neighborhood's two larger gyms, Fitness SF and 24-Hour, Alex Fitness is the less crowded, much quieter option for those who don't care to see and be seen whilst curling and crunching. It's also going to be a lot less dominated by a bevy of gay men who know each other, like nearby Fitness SF, which will be a welcome environment both for women and non-scene types. Equipment is new and plentiful, as shown here, though the ceilings are kind of low. And rates are reasonable if you commit, with a full year membership coming out to $45/month, plus a $99 sign-up fee. It's $70/month for no commitment, with two months paid up front. —Jay Barmann
2275 Market Street between Noe and Sanchez Streets, second floor

Photo via LiveFit.

Photo via Mission Cliffs.

Photo courtesy of Polk St. Boxing Gym

Photo via Yelp.

Photo via Regular Exercise.

Photo via SF Crossfit.

via SF Iron

via Studiomix

TRX Training Center via Facebook

Attention all urban swim folk: SF has a bunch of nice indoor and outdoor pools hidden away, both public and private, for your fitness and pleasure. First off, if you're going to swim in the public pools of San Francisco, you need to get yourself to the McLaren Lodge Annex at 501 Stanyan Street or to the Treasurer's Office at City Hall and buy a 10-pack of pool pass scrips for $51. I don't like the word "scrip" any more than you do, but this is a slightly cheaper, more stream-lined way to use the public pools of San Francisco. Alternately, you can pay $7 cash to use SF's public pools, but you've got to have exact change. Not all of the pools mentioned here require the scrips (ugh), but if you truly want to enjoy all that SF aquatics have to offer, they will come in handy. With that said, let's (...wait for it...) dive in and discuss our favorites.

Mission Pool: Mission Pool is the best public pool in San Francisco, but don't tell anyone because no one likes a crowded pool. The facility on 19th (at Valencia) was shut down for the winter and has emerged bright, shiny, and surprisingly clean for a public space. Mission Pool is one of the few outdoor public pools in San Francisco, and the fresh air makes all the difference in the quality of your swim. Check the Rec & Parks website for lap times and arrive right when each begins. 30-minutes into any lap session, the lanes fill up with people who think they're training for the Senior Olympics.
19th Street at Linda

Crunch Gym - Yerba Buena (www.crunch.com)

Nob Hill Spa pool (NobHillSpa.com)

Chinatown YMCA (http://www.ymcasf.org)

Fitness SF - Fillmore

Fairmont San Jose pool (http://www.fairmont.com)

Chronicle food critic Michael Bauer, about twice a year, has to remind his readers that he does not, in fact, weigh 300 pounds, and that despite his occupation, he maintains a svelte figure.

Today he tells us on the blog that he's even more fit and trim thanks to his Jawbone UP wristband, and we're sure that the S.F.-based Jawbone is thrilled with the endorsement — after it sounds like they either sent him one, or he "received" one as a gift.

Bauer says the movement-tracking wristband has "brought activity front and center" for him, and, in addition to his morning treadmill routine, he now takes more walks, climbs stairs, parks his car farther from his front door, and does a full-hour walking on the treadmill instead of 40 minutes. Over the last year, he's lost 11 pounds, which he recently discovered by surprise on a doctor's visit because he doesn't generally weigh himself.

Also, since almost everyone loves cute dogs, here's a new photo of his adorable dog Sheba, looking over the fence at him at one of his new favorite spots, Farmshop in Larkspur. Sheba, as longtime fans know, is the daily recipient of bits of the finest protein leftovers from restaurants across the Bay Area, making her probably the luckiest dog in all of Northern California. And, says Bauer, she "also maintains a svelte figure through exercise and her Brittney [sic] genes."

[Between Meals/Inside Scoop]

Further solidifying Hayes Valley's position as the trendiest and most centrally located of all our rapidly gentrifying neighborhoods, the Proxy development next to Patricia's Green on Octavia is getting a small outdoor cinema. Look for it to be immediately packed to the gills, no matter what the temperatures.

The project, as Hoodline reports via Envelope A+D architects, will include both a 32-foot-high movie screen and paved seating area, but also a daytime use: a pop-up fitness center for outdoor boot camps, and such. It's going in on what was a surface parking lot at Hayes, where there were sometimes food trucks.

The movies aren't set to start until September or so, following a crowdfunding campaign in July, and programming will include holiday movies, and a summer "grab bag" next year. It's not clear whether you'll be able to bring beers around the corner from Biergarten, or if you'll need to get your own growlers elsewhere.

The fitness center already had their own crowdfunding campaign last fall and raised money to construct the 20-foot-long wall that will run beneath the movie screen, and will have a set of monkey bars concealed along it. Fitness stuff will be run by Jennifer Pattee of Basic Training. As this is a community-based project, Suppenkuche/Biergarten owner Matt Hulme has designed a colorful arrow pattern that's getting spraypainted across the ground. (See rendering below.)

Construction for the fitness center should be complete any day now, and there's a launch party this Saturday, June 7 ($10 tickets still available here), with training classes on the hour all morning, and an open bar from noon to 4 p.m., as well as giveaways.

Rendering via Envelope A+D

[Hoodline]
[PROXY]

Still making plans? Here's some stuff happening around town.

The Eighth Annual Cinco de Mayo Festival is going on as we speak at Dolores Park, featuring a Zumba-thon, live performances by Bay Area artists, including mariachis, dancers, and salsa ensembles, and headliner La Fuerza Gigante, and more.

The Mission plays host to another epic event with Sunday Streets tomorrow. Bike, walk, roll, dance, hula hoop and more along Valencia Street from 14th to 24th and 24th Street from Valencia to Hampshire.

The Yerba Buena Gardens Festival kicks off a glorious six months of free outdoor concerts on Sunday with 6-time Grammy-nominated Omar Sosa Afreecanos Quartet, who mix Afro-Cuban musical styles with modern electronic elements and African instruments played by an international group of musicians.

Fashionistas will flock to Hayes Valley on Sunday for the twice annual Urban Air Market (formerly the Capsule Design Festival), featuring 150 independent designers of men’s, women’s, and kid’s clothing, accessories, jewelry and home décor.

Get a zen-like workout on Sunday at SELF Workout in the Park in Little Marina Green in San Francisco — "the perfect venue to inspire your body and mind with its waterfront setting and views." Activities include yoga and pilates, beauty, skincare and style consultations, and more.

Whether you call it soda, pop, or cola, you'll have to pay more to buy it if Gavin Newsom gets his way: Matier and Ross report that Mayor Newsom is thinking about taxing city vendors of sugary soft drinks to pay for his Shape Up SF kid fitness programs.

The thinking's that the fructose corn syrup that gets added to your Coke [we grew up in the South, so we call 'em Cokes, though we've noticed ourselves switching over to the term "soda" the longer we live here. Will we start saying "hella" next too?] is extremely fattening, and reports show that kids get up to 10% of their daily caloric intake from it. This causes obesity, and obesity costs the city tens of millions of dollars in health-related expenses. Ergo, taxing the people who sell the sody pop in question, presumably with the thought that that'll make the drinks more expensive and kids'll skinny up as a result.

For what it's worth, the state is also thinking about labeling sugary drinks with warnings that they can cause diabetes. It is no fun living in this state anymore! (though we do miss the warnings about raw eggs we used to get when we'd order Caesar salads.)

Thumbs up to corporations exercising responsibility--particularly when it can promote exercise.

Got old athletic shoes? Put them to good use. Help Nike turn old sneaks into playing surfaces within our community. The company's program has turned more than 19 million pairs of unwanted shoes into so-called "Nike Grind" for that purpose -- notable spots here in San Francisco include a basketball court in Hunter's Point and the first tee at Harding Park golf course.

Until May 30, you can take your old athletic shoes to the Union Square Niketown (Post at Stockton). Hey, better turned into something many can enjoy than languishing in the bottom of your closet, under your bed, stinking up a locker, or polluting a landfill somewhere.

The funny thing about all this, however, is that just a few years ago, San Francisco was listed as not one of the best places for singles. Hmm...

Anyways, all you need to know about what kind of survey this is by looking at the criteria. Besides the usual stuff-- education, number of people with the hotness, singles ratios-- there are a few things that seem off. Like "philanthropy," meaning actually what philanthropy means, giving money to charities. Does giving money to various Free Mumia organizations count? And what about us residents who don't attend fabulous gala fundraisers? Do most of us give money to "philanthropic organizations" or just "causes?" And then there's "physical fitness" because, as the survey says "a long, satisfying relationship is an endurance event, which is why if a guy isn't in great physical shape, you'll probably end up crossing the finish line alone." Uhh, does walking from an apartment to the local dive bar three times a week count as fitness?

In other words, this survey sounds kind of silly. But that’s just us.

Since this hearing sounded like a whole heap of San Francisco fun, we searched around for any sort of description of it. SF Party Party, who have been one of the leading voices for Healthy Saturday, attended but we're so disgusted by the whole thing, decided not to show the photos of it. And according to Beyond Chron, the FODs tried to picture supporters of the initiative as elitists out to stick it to the proletariat. One of the things they brought up is that people who cannot afford to park in the garage could park for free in the street. Beyond Chron, however, said in response that it's not fair to force working class people to drive to the park with gas prices so high and we think it's great Beyond Chron is looking out for the interests of the working class like that.

If Gavin can't reach a compromise, the measure will probably be up for a vote again, but this time with an 8-4 margin, meaning the Board could overturn any possible Gavin veto.

But some news about arsenic poisoning and kelp supplements this past week caught our eye. A study coming from UC Davis public health researchers reports on a woman who started taking kelp supplements for some mild menopausal symptoms. She took the kelp supplements pretty regularly, and over the course of several months her symptoms went from normal to bad. Nausea, rashes, memory loss. By the end, she couldn’t even remember her own address.

Doctors found she had high levels of arsenic in her body. She stopped taking the supplements -- and all her symptoms went away. Researchers found over-the-top arsenic levels in just about all of the different kelp supplements sent they tested. Arsenic is pretty common in marine plants and animals, but it just usually gets diluted before we eat it.

Kelp is supposed to be good for a variety of things like your memory, skin, and metabolism, although we’ve never actually taken it. (Yes, the link goes to a live web cam of a kelp forest at Monterey…)

We don’t like spreading bad news about any natural or herbal supplements - already enough disbelievers out there keeping good remedies on the fringe. But for those who share in our sludge-free fantasies, always a good reminder to do your research first…

By SFist Jessie