A new club is coming to 11th Street in San Francisco's SoMa district, from Oakland-born rap artist Budda Mack, and it will be called The Budda.

Known for tracks like "Swerve" and 2023's "Twerk," Budda Mack is looking to branch out into club ownership, and he says he'll be opening his club The Budda in January in the former Slim's space (333 11th Street).

"San Francisco, Bay Area get ready for the opening of my night club in SF," Budda Mack announced on Instagram. "January is about to be different," he says, adding that The Budda will be"a new club bringing energy, culture, and unforgettable nights to the city."

Also, he says, "This isn’t just another venue, it’s a movement."

An announcement on the club's new Insta also says that the club is actively hiring.

Slim's, of course, was famously opened by Boz Scaggs in 1988, and it quickly became an iconic SF music venue, hosting legendary, intimate shows by Prince, No Doubt, Radiohead, Pearl Jam, Green Day, Snoop Dogg, Sheryl Crow, Beck, and many more. Slim's closed in 2020, and was reborn, briefly, as YOLO.

It's not clear if The Budda will exclusively be a hip-hop venue and club, and Budda Mack has not spoken publicly about the project, that we're aware of, outside of the Instagram announcement.

Stay tuned as we hopefully learn more. And, that January timeframe, just given how things tend to go around here, might be optimistic.

This week: Land stewardship in the East Bay, tracking birds in the South Bay, and 50 years of wine in Napa Valley. Also, tamale season, unconventional homes, a local middle school record player, the Valkyries DJ’s new Oakland club, and new work by ‘90s Mission School artists.

Tamale season

For many Mission cooks, tamale season starts at La Palma Mexicatessen, where they buy fresh masa for the holidays. One longtime figure in that tradition is Simona Padilla, who ran a meat market at 24th and York for 15 years and cooked Mexican dishes for her neighborhood.

Over time, her food was also served at events for the Mexican consul, then–Mayor Gavin Newsom, and local journalism fundraisers. In a recent video with filmmaker Hélène Goupil, Padilla shows how she makes tamales for Christmas, grounding the dish in La Palma’s masa and the Mission’s home-based cooking traditions. — Mission Local

Finding the sweet spot

DJ Lady Ryan, official DJ for the Golden State Valkyries, co-founded Golden Ratio, a new queer-owned bar and lounge in downtown Oakland. Alongside hospitality leader Dennise Acio, she has shaped the space with years of Bay Area nightlife experience and a focus on community-driven programming.

Events include karaoke and comedy nights, soul line dancing, and rotating DJ sets. — San Francisco Bay Time

Needle drop

At Aptos Middle School in San Francisco, librarian Gina Cargas is setting up a vinyl listening station built around a vintage Newcomb record player. After putting out a casual call for records, she was met with dozens of offers from neighbors eager to donate albums for a new generation.

Cargas says many students encounter music as short social media clips, often without context, and the Newcomb turntable creates space to listen to full albums and talk about artists and genres together. The station is now taking shape inside the Aptos Middle School library. — Coyote Media Collective

Then, now, and still here

At Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Bay Area Then looks back at the Mission School scene of the 1990s while showcasing the collective's current body of work. Guest curator Eungie Joo brings together 21 artists linked to that era, mixing new work with familiar names like Barry McGee and Margaret Kilgallen to recreate the restless, DIY energy that once defined Bay Area art spaces.

Several pieces confront current political realities, including Gaza, along with the art world's response to controversial works, including YBCA's new leadership. The show runs through January 25. — Chronicle

A table turned

In 1976, a blind tasting in Paris quietly upended wine-world assumptions when Napa Valley bottles outscored French standbys, shifting the region’s future in a single afternoon. Seven wineries were part of that moment — Chateau Montelena, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, Clos du Val, Freemark Abbey, Heitz Cellar, Mayacamas Vineyards, and Spring Mountain Vineyard — each still tied to the landscapes that shaped those early vintages.

As the 50th anniversary approaches in 2026, the group is marking the occasion with coordinated tastings, historical tours, and food events that trace both the wines and the people behind them. Programming rolls out across Napa Valley throughout the year, centered at the original estates that helped put the region on the global map. — 7 x 7

Rooms that remember

In a new book shaped by years of travel and documentation, Berkeley-based filmmakers and writers Kirsten Dirksen and Nicolás Boullosa profile dozens of unconventional homes and their owners. Life-Changing Homes: Eco-Friendly Designs That Promote Well-Being moves from hempcrete roundhouses in Gold Country to shanty boats and restored housebarns, tracing how people’s sense of place informs how they build.

Dirksen and Boullosa draw on their Faircompanies archive and their own nomadic years before settling into a renovated 1908 cottage in South Berkeley. — Marin Independent Journal

A piece held in place

Five acres on Mount Diablo have been secured from future development through a land donation made by Bob Nunn in memory of his father, Ron Nunn, a longtime East Contra Costa County farmer and conservation-minded land steward. The parcel, known as the Nunn-Paulsen inholding, fills a small but critical gap inside Mount Diablo State Park, where privately owned land can fracture habitats and complicate long-term protection.

Save Mount Diablo finalized the donation in just over three months, highlighting the land’s notable mix of oak woodland, serpentine rock, and wildlife corridor linking the park to Black Diamond Mines. The nonprofit plans to transfer the parcel to California State Parks under a new state law designed to speed up park land acquisitions, with several other inholdings on the mountain still in view. — Bay Area News Group

Morning chorus, competing engines

At the Coyote Creek Field Station in Alviso, a North San Jose neighborhood at the edge of the Bay, bird banding — briefly capturing birds to record data and release them — begins in near-quiet before traffic noise spills in from nearby freeways. Coyote Creek runs from the Diablo Range through San Jose and ends here, where wetlands sit alongside highways, rail lines, and flight paths.

Researchers are paying closer attention to how constant and sudden sounds affect birds’ stress and communication, particularly for threatened South Bay wetland species. Conservationists working in places like the Salt Pond Restoration Project are now factoring sound into habitat protection as restoration continues in one of the region’s most industrialized ecological zones. — Monterey Herald

Top image: Rigo 23, Terra Nullius, 2025; Robbie Sweeny/Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

Previously: Field Notes: Weed Box Set, Christmas Birds, Jewish Chinatown Christmas, and Oakland Ballet at 60

A cast of local drag faves will bid Oasis nightclub farewell at its final musical cabaret show before the venue closes at the end of the year. Oasis co-founder and SF’s first Drag Laureate D’Arcy Drollinger will also be passing the torch to SF’s new Drag Laureate Per Sia.

As the Chronicle reports, beloved queer South of Market nightclub Oasis announced its final musical cabaret show will be taking place next Sunday, November 30, before the venue officially closes its doors after New Year’s Eve, per SFist.

Sunday’s cabaret show will be hosted by Snaxx, who’s credited as the first cis female drag queen to win Oasis nightclub’s Star Search pageant in 2019, per the site Xpress. The line-up will feature a long list of club staples, such as Manuel Caneri, Maureen McVerry and Vanilla Meringue, accompanied by the Tom Shaw Trio performing a set list about “loss, grief, memories, acceptance, and what the future may hold.”

The night will also include an onstage interview with Drollinger, who's also the owner and artistic director of Oasis, by the Chronicle’s Tony Bravo. Additionally, Drollinger will mark the conclusion of her two-and-a-half-year-long tenure as San Francisco’s first Drag Laureate when she officially steps down to make way for SF’s next Drag Laureate, Per Sia, a Drag Queen Story Hour veteran, afterschool arts program teacher, and trans woman, per SFist.

The Chronicle notes that the San Francisco Public Library, which manages the drag laureate program, is a supporter of the event.

Per SFist, Oasis was co-founded by Drollinger and the late Heklina ten years ago. Despite being a continually popular spot in the community, Oasis’s closure announcement in July cited rising operation costs and declining attendance, along with the extra burden of increased security and insurance stemming from an armed robbery in July of 2024.

See a PBS News interview with Drollinger about her role as Drag Laureate below.

Per the Chronicle, Drollinger assures the public there will be much more programming to come at local venues in the future via the nonprofit, Oasis Arts. Although it was announced in July that the nonprofit was partnering with the newly reopened Castro Theatre, per SFist, the theater is not listed as a partner on Oasis Arts’s website.

Event Information

'Happy Trails: The Final Live Musical Concert,' // 7 pm, Sunday, November 30 // Oasis, 298 11th Street, San Francisco // $47.08

Image: D’Arcy Drollinger/Facebook

Previously: Queer SoMa Nightclub Oasis Set to Close After 10 Years, Citing Declining Attendance

Breaking: Per Sia Is San Francisco's New Drag Laureate

D'Arcy Drollinger’s Reign as SF Drag Laureate Coming to an End, Search for New Drag Laureate Underway

Related: Heklina Memorial Features Hours of Laughs, and a Few Tears, for a Beloved Queen and Mother

The owner of SF’s Temple Nightclub has bought Oakland’s long-vacant Greyhound station. Plans include pop-up events, a rooftop bar, and eventually multifamily housing, years after ravers briefly took over the crumbling Beaux Arts building.

As San Francisco Business Times reports, the historic Greyhound station at 2103 San Pablo Avenue in Oakland, shuttered since 2021, has been purchased by the Hemming Family Trust for $2.3 million. Paul Hemming, a longtime Bay Area nightlife figure and owner of San Francisco’s Temple Nightclub, is tied to the trust. According to the Alameda County Assessor’s Office and deed records, the sale was finalized in March.

The 60,000-square-foot building was originally constructed in 1926 as the Union Stage Depot. As Oaklandside reports, its Beaux Arts and Renaissance architectural details were once a point of pride in Oakland, but the property fell into disrepair in recent decades. After Greyhound closed the station, the building was briefly taken over by underground party promoters in 2022. The city eventually shut those events down over safety concerns.

As SFGate reports, Hemming confirmed the acquisition during an April 2025 appearance on the “Social AM SF” podcast. He called the building “a unique opportunity” and said he hopes to build “a whole indoor-outdoor immersive entertainment complex in downtown Oakland.”

Plans filed with Oakland’s Planning and Building Department outline a phased renovation:

• Phase 1 would address structural basics, including repairing walls, updating bathrooms, and adding a new electrical room.
• Phase 2 proposes a retractable patio trellis, an elevator, and a rooftop bar. Interior spaces would be transformed to support retail and food service, including a new kitchen and bar amenities.
• Phase 3 could eventually add multifamily housing, though the number of units has not been specified.

Axis Architecture, known for hotel and luxury residential work in the Bay Area, is listed as the design firm. Principal Cory Creath confirmed their involvement but said the project is in early stages and still undergoing “due diligence.”

Paul Hemming’s background includes running a record store and music studio in Oakland before launching Temple Nightclub in SoMa in 2007. As reported by SFist, the club closed in 2024 due to financial challenges but has since quietly reopened, according to its website.

Though no nightclub has been officially proposed for the Oakland site, Hemming’s nightlife history, including venues in Los Angeles and Denver, leaves that door open.

The Greyhound property’s location in Uptown Oakland, a neighborhood that has outpaced downtown in post-pandemic recovery, could make it a new anchor for the city’s evolving nightlife and cultural scene.

Image: Partha Chakraborty/Google Maps

Previously: Day Around the Bay: Temple SF Nightclub in SoMa Announces It’s Closing Permanently

Starting July 1, California drinking establishments will be required to stock testing kits that tell you if your drink has been spiked with common date rape drugs like ketamine or GHB, though bars won’t have to provide the testing strips for free.

There are already many Bay Area bars and nightclubs that hand out fentanyl testing strips so you can check and see if your party drugs are laced with deadly fentanyl. But come July 1, thanks to a new California law, the state’s bars and nightclubs will be required to provide testing strips of a different nature. KGO reports that the new law requires bars to carry strips to test if your drink has been spiked with date rape drugs like GHB or ketamine, in response to an increasing scourge of people getting unwittingly drugged at drinking establishments, which is often followed by a sexual assault.

The bill is called AB-1013, and Governor Newsom signed it in October. It takes effect July 1. The law will only apply to establishments with Type 48 licenses, that is, those that only serve drinks and not food. Bars will be required to stock the testing strips, though they will not be required to provide them for free. And per the wording of the law, bars will also be required to post a sign saying, “Don’t get roofied! Drink spiking drug test kits available here. Ask a staff member for details.”

The bill was introduced by Long Beach Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal, himself a bar and restaurant proprietor. “Due to the challenges of addressing and prosecuting this crime after it has taken place, preventative measures are a commonsense way to try to curb the instances of drugging that are taking place in Type 48 establishments,” Lowenthal said in a statement while the bill made its way through the legislature.

These drink testing strips are often available online at about a dollar for one strip, or as little as 10 or 20 cents if you buy them in bulk. And again, bars won’t be required to hand them out for free, so there is no automatic financial burden on the establishment.

“There’s no taste. There’s no scent. There is no color to them. They’re really tough to detect, but very fortunately, they’re easy to test,” Lowenthal told KCRA. “Just one drop of your drink onto a test coaster, and you know immediately if your drink has been spiked.”

Some California communities have tried to address this locally. L.A.’s KCBS reported that the City of West Hollywood started providing bars with the strips for free in August of 2022, and KGTV adds that Long Beach provides them for free to bars in that SoCal city.

Related: SF Game Developers Conference Rollicked By Multiple Allegations of Drink Spiking, Sexual Harassment [SFist]

Image: glasses alcohol cocktail set and beer on a waiter tray in bar (Getty Images)

Legendary SoMa nightclub The Stud is indeed reopening a few blocks from where it lived until 2020, and the drag shows are set to begin again maybe by early next year.

SFist had the news a month ago that The Stud Collective — the 17-person group that bought the business several years before it closed in 2020 — had found a new location at 1123-1125 Folsom Street. The space, most recently a sports bar called Trademark, has changed hands a couple of times in the last decade, but was once known as Julie's Supper Club — which occasionally played host to LGBTQ-friendly parties like Rehab. Part of the two-building complex has also recently been used to host rotating pop-ups, like the "Golden Girls Kitchen."

Now, with a lease in hand, the team has gone public with the news. Decor from inside the former Stud will be relocated to the new space soon, but first it will be hosting one last overpriced pop-up "experience," called Jack N Juice Immersive Bar, which is some kind of mashup of Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas and Beetlejuice.

Stud Collective member Nate Allbee (who continues to work as communications director for Assemblymember Matt Haney) tells SFist that the team is aiming to be open by the "end of winter."

Strangely, in nightlife-heavy SoMa, one obstacle to reopening was getting this area — part of the Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District — rezoned to allow a new nightlife venue to open. As the team tells the Chronicle, there was a war-on-fun ordinance passed a number of years ago that first needed to be gotten around — which was done with the help of gay supervisors Matt Dorsey, Rafael Mandelman, and Joel Engardio.

"Even though we have legally recognized the Leather District as a cultural district and as an important cultural asset of the city, a few years before we did that, they passed a law that rezoned that entire neighborhood to make it extremely difficult to add new nightlife uses," Allbee tells the Chronicle.

To prepare for reopening, the collective has launched a new crowdfunding campaign with the goal of raising $500,000.

As was widely noted at the time of the May 2020 closure of The Stud, the club has survived and thrived following a move before. The original Stud, which opened in 1966, was at 1535 Folsom Street — later known as Holy Cow and most recently Eve. The nightclub relocated at the height of the AIDS crisis in San Francisco, in 1987, to the corner of Ninth and Harrison streets, and it was there that the late Heklina launched her legendary Trannyshack drag show in 1996 — later known as T-Shack and Mother.

In more recent years, the club had played host to another show, called SomeThing, hosted by VivvyAnne Forevermore, and dance parties like Go Bang.

"Right now we are seeing San Francisco in a precarious state where a lot of businesses are closing. We’re more determined now than ever to be a part of San Francisco’s success and rebuilding," said collective member Honey Mahogany in a statement to the Chronicle. "It’s an opportunity to create a scene and also continue this incredibly rich and long history of queer resistance, joy and celebration in San Francisco."

Previously: The Stud May Find New Life a Few Blocks Away From Its Former Home In SoMa

The Mission District live music venue Amado’s took a $500,000 hit with a flooding incident this summer that turned its downstairs area “into a swimming pool,” and the club is looking to its fans and regulars to help them bail out from the extensive damage.

If you walked by the eight-year-old Valencia and 21st streets nightclub Amado’s (pronounced “Ah-MAH-do’s,” not “AH-mah-do’s”), you wouldn’t notice anything particularly wrong with the place. The storefront still looks beautiful, a sandwich board describes upcoming performers and drink specials, and a blue neon sign saying “Free Show” is lit up much of the week.

But there’s an existential crisis for the popular music and art venue lurking below, as the club announced it suffered $500,000 in flood damages in an incident earlier this summer, and its survival may be contingent on a GoFundMe campaign to Save Amado's Flooded Venue.  

The flood damage occurred in Amado’s lower level that hosts many of the live music shows. The Before and After photos below give you an idea of how devastating the damage was.

We remember plenty of nightclubs and restaurants being wrecked by flooding during this winter’s heavy storms. But how did Amado’s suffer severe flooding damage during the month of June?

“We were having an event downstairs, it's called Puti Club, it’s one of the many drag artists and producers in the drag community that we work with,” Amado’s general manager Garsha Shabankhani tells SFist. “They were having a performance in the entire upstairs and downstairs. And one of the patrons accidentally broke the sprinkler system and the fire suppression system.”

“So within minutes, the entire venue was flooded. There was significant damage to the sound system, and to the venue itself. Luckily, no one was hurt.”

The crowded club was forced to fully evacuate, but that was just the beginning of their troubles. “There was significant damage to the floors, the sound system, the stage, the sound booth, everything was flooded,” Shabankhani tells us. “Our instruments, the piano — we have some equipment downstairs — the downstairs was turned into a swimming pool.”

“In terms of material damage, it was significant damage,” he adds. “We have two floors of live performances. Usually the downstairs is saved for larger, more lucrative events, ticketed events. The immediate damage is that we are not able to produce many of the shows and events. We had to cancel a lot of shows. It’s unfortunate, because it hurts us financially, as well as the artists.”

Many of the scheduled acts are still performing in the smaller upstairs area, which is why the “Free Show” sign is still flashing in the window. But performing upstairs eliminates the performers’ ticket revenue, while Amado’s itself has seen their overall revenue cut in half.

“Like most food and beverage establishments, we’re struggling to make ends meet,” Shabankhani says. “We haven’t quite recovered from the pandemic. We’re just starting to recover from that, and then this happened.”

The GoFundMe campaign is coming up on $9,000 raised, though that hardly puts a dent in the estimated $500,000 in damage. “We’re grateful for everyone who’s donated, and our goal is to continue to persevere and continue to support local artists, musicians, and touring bands,” according to Shabankhani.

The club is still hosting live music shows, and could sure use fans in the house. Weekly events include a Drag Monday, Woody Lauer’s Bluegrass Jam every Wednesday, rotating DJs and local artists on Fridays, and Saturdays are Mod 80s Night with a live band. So go support Amado’s and help them get through this!

And as a bonus, Amado’s still has plenty of now-discontinued Anchor Steam beer. “I worked with my supplier and stocked up as much as possible,” Shabankhani tells SFist.

Related: Mission District and Bernal Heights Restaurants Gear Up For More Floods, As Another Gigantic Storm Looms [SFist]

Images: Joe Kukura, SFist

San Francisco saw another shooting Saturday night with multiple victims — just a day after a mass shooting in the Mission District injured nine.

Three adults — two males and one female — were shot late Saturday night near a nightclub in the city’s Balboa Park/Mission Terrace neighborhood and suffered gunshot-related injuries, according to KPIX.

Officers responded at 11:54 p.m. to the 300 block of Ocean Avenue where they found the three injured victims. The incident happened near where the Stratos nightclub is located, as KRON4 reported.

Officers reportedly rendered emergency aid, and medics took all three victims to a nearby hospital. Their conditions are still unknown. Police are reportedly investigating but haven’t provided additional information on the identities of the victims, suspect(s), or circumstances.

SF Supervisor Ahsha Safai tweeted that about the shooting and called on the community to do more to prevent gun violence.

There was previously a shooting near the same club in September of 2022, as KPIX reported at the time. SFPD said that an altercation outside of the club left a man in his 20s with life-threatening injuries.

The club was hosting its weekly Sábado de Rumba event on Saturday night, according to its Eventbrite page.

Previously: Details Emerge in Friday Night Mass Shooting in the Mission: Suspect Named

Feature image of Stratos Nightclub via Google Street View.

The Independent Venue Preservation Initiative says it will pay venues’ unpaid bills going back to last February, but will depend on "community-driven micro-donations" to do so.

We are in the almost-“Yellow” tier era and live indoor events can happen again, albeit with oodles of restrictions. But bars and clubs have been largely closed for more than a year, and there have of course been a few permanent casualties. A couple of venue relief programs have popped up recently, notably the $3 million Music and Entertainment Venue Recovery fund being run by City Hall, and the $2.5 million in tax waivers for nightclubs.

Another relief program is on the way to help nightclubs, as Billboard reports that a newly forming nonprofit called the Independent Venue Preservation Initiative (IVPI)  is launching a “Subscribe to Live” program that will pay nightclubs’ unpaid bills going back to February 2020.

“Subscribe to Live is the only non-grant, non-loan community based, rapid relief financial aid program available,” IVPI founder and local promoter Elizabeth Simon said in a release. “By investing in our local arts and entertainment economy for the price of a streaming subscription, we can make a substantial positive impact on our city, preserving all independent culturally significant businesses within the community.”

But the success of the program seems to some degree dependent on what they call "community-driven micro-donations." That is a fancy way of saying they have a Patreon, and they’re asking community donors to fund at least a portion of this. The most affordable deal is $15 a month, but with different tiers that go up to $150 a month.  

These funds would not be a grant, and can only be used to pay specific types of bills, but will pay any outstanding bills going back to February 2020. According to the press release, the Subscribe To Live funds available "will pay venues’ essential bills dating back to February 2020, including rent or mortgage payments, liability insurance, and utilities."

Venues do have to sign up for the program, by going to IndependentVenuePreservationInitiative.org and clicking on Register Your Venue. It’s free to apply. Bills are then paid though a separate direct pay service, and once submitted bills are approved, IVPI says they will pay them within a month.

Related: SF Will Prioritize Struggling and Legacy Venues for Entertainment Relief Fund — But the Fund Needs Private Donations [SFist]

Image: Ann S via Yelp

Despite the pandemic’s tightening grip on society, one that's squeezed-out a record-setting jump in national COVID-19 cases this week, people are still enjoying nightlife revelries — illegally. And SF officials this week shut down yet another unlawful nightclub, the second since April.

Amid growing outbreaks of the novel respiratory virus, national and state health officials continue advising that large gatherings — and the places they usually partake in, like indoor bars and outdoor shopping centers — should be avoided. Though, for better or worse, the human spirit is ever-stubborn. It’s this mulish outlook on life that has lately encouraged some San Franciscans to party and drink and gamble inside illegally run nightclubs around the city, with a second location being shut down Thursday afternoon by the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) and City Attorney office investigators.

According to the City Attorney's office, officers from SFPD’s Tactical Unit and Bayview Station executed a "civil inspection and abatement" Thursday afternoon, allowing them to enter a building at 1610 Armstrong Avenue in SF's Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood that was rumored to be operating as an underground nightclub, later confiscating a long list of goods: four gambling machines, a pool table, a fog machine, DJ equipment, 50 barstools, and more.

“These illegal nightclub operators are endangering people’s lives,” City Attorney Dennis Herrera says in a news release. “We’re not going to let that happen. Our focus right now is on removing the immediate threat to public health. We are going to use every tool at our disposal, including these types of civil warrants, to shut down illegal clubs and protect public health during this pandemic."

Back in April, the City Attorney's office investigators staked out and then raided a nightclub at 2266 Shafter Avenue in the same area that looked to only operate between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. — sans any appropriate licensing and in a conscious snuffing at the City's shelter-in-place restrictions. The same organizers behind that nightclub saw some 100-plus people nightly and are also apparently responsible for the one recently descended on by SPFD; the confiscated paraphernalia of 2266 Shafter Avenue club still remains in police custody.

This most recent operation, however, appeared to be a bit less popular than the first, described as attracting 75 people on weekends — an influx observed during an officer surveillance watch over two nights (June 26 and June 27). The building was purportedly being used by a cleaning company called Bay Area Pinnacle Cleaning, LLC and was rented by Mariano Pena, also known as "Mariano Pena Lezama," who, too, operated the 2266 Shafter Avenue property where the prior nightclub was held.

Though criminal prosecutions are funneled throughout the District Attorney, the City Attorney has authority over civil laws that threaten the health and safety of San Franciscans (like operating an unlawful nightclub during a global health crisis) and sees the pursuance against these types of illegal activity.

In both a damning guilt trip and stand against large-scale gatherings, Herra concluded in the news release saying "these illegal nightclub operators are endangering people’s lives," before waxing on the latter call for proper social distancing: "San Francisco is seeing a concerning increase in COVID-19 cases. Group gatherings like this are a problem."

Per the City Attorney's office, those who see suspicious things like these in your neighborhood should contact the Code Enforcement Hotline at 415-554-3977.  And those renting commercial properties — especially individuals who've just recently signed leases — the City Attorney warns to be careful about who you rent to and stay vigilant about knowing what’s going on at your property.

Related: SFPD and City Attorney Shut Down Underground Nightclub In Bayview Warehouse

COVID Hospitalization Rates Consistently Rising Across The Bay Area

Image: Screenshot via Google Maps

City Attorney's office investigators staked out and then raided a nightclub that appeared to be operating only in the wee hours (2 a.m. to 6 a.m.) and without any kind of license during the coronavirus lockdown.

Working from a tip, investigators reviewed surveillance video taken from across the street from the warehouse/club, which is located near a dead end at 2266 Shafter Avenue in the Bayview district. Videos showed more than 100 people entering and exiting on two different nights in March, with a security guard frisking them at the door, and a witness reported raucous activity at the property on April 4 and 5. The investigators then sought surveillance footage and staked out the property on April 8 and observed many cars coming and going, and groups of people going in and out of a door without regard for any social distancing.

City Attorney Dennis Herrera explains in a release that his office sought a warrant to enter the property, which it received on Friday, April 10, at which point SFPD patrol cars were stationed outside the property, deterring would-be club-goers. Then on Saturday, they executed the warrant, and found a DJ set-up, fog machine, gambling machines, two pool tables, bins of liquor, cases of beer, and $670 in cash inside.

"This pandemic is deadly serious. People need to treat it that way," Herrera said in a statement. "Cramming dozens of people into an illegal club during this outbreak is like dropping a lit match in the woods during fire season. Who knows how far the damage will spread? It’s the epitome of irresponsibility."

The initial tip about activity at the Shafter Avenue building came five rapid-fire gunshots were heard in the area around 3 a.m. back on March 15. Loud music was subsequently reported emanating from the space on multiple occasions. This suggests that the underground club had been operating before shelter-in-place orders arrived that shut down all legal bars and clubs citywide.

As the Chronicle reports, the owner of the property — whose name has not been released — cooperated fully with the city attorney, and it appears the illegal club may have been the work of a tenant who was operating a janitorial business in the space.

In addition to creating a public health risk by allowing over 100 people to congregate and socialize in the space, the operators of this illegal club were violating other laws. The building (obviously) had no entertainment permit or liquor license, and as Herrera explains, the space also lacked proper sprinklers and other fire-safety requirements.

SFPD Chief William Scott says in a statement, "The operators of this illegal club senselessly put lives at risk in a time when our city is doing everything within our means to slow the spread of this pandemic and safeguard the health and wellbeing of the public. Let this case be a reminder that we will take action against those who knowingly violate the public health order and endanger the health and safety of our residents."

Update: The Chronicle reports that the scofflaw lessee in this case was Mariano Pena Lezama, whose janitorial company was being used as a front for the illegal nightclub since sometime in February. The owners of the building have now issued a formal eviction notice, and their attorney tells the paper, "There was a party every night," with gatherings reportedly getting more raucous ever since the sheltering orders began a month ago. No arrests or criminal charges were made in connection with the illegal nightclub, but Herrera now says civil actions may be possible.

Photo via SFPD

This post has been corrected to show that the City Attorney's office conducted the stakeout with their own investigators, and executed a warrant to enter the property which was not a search warrant.

The Lower Haight's only true nightclub, Underground SF, is up for sale. In fact, the entire building can be yours for around $1.5 million. According to Haighteration, the owner is "looking to part with either the property, the business, or both." So, if you want to buy a nightclub and, say, change its name to something that isn't mentally-challenged (there's no logical reason to use "SF" in the name of an establishment that's already in San Francisco), check out this listing.

Also, there's a tour tomorrow from 11am to 12:30pm, if you're interested. Just, please, don't turn it into a lounge. Or another wine bar. Or a vacant spot for pop-up dentists, or whatever. You know what? Just turn it into a Happy Donuts. The city needs more Happy Donuts, right? Yes, the city does need more Happy Donuts.

Early Sunday morning a 20-year-old Richmond man allegedly shot three people outside Suede nightclub, at 383 Bay Street, near Fisherman's Wharf. One of those shot, 19-year-old Richmond man Lawson Hall, is dead, and the two others suffered life threatening injuries. The suspect was shot and later arrested by a patrol special police officer in the neighborhood. A conflict inside the nightclub allegedly moved onto the street, where at least the one gun was drawn.

There's no word on whether the shooting was gang-related, but clearly it was Richmond-related. Any potential witnesses are asked to call the SFPD's confidential tip line at (415) 575-4444. [CBS 5]

Two men were shot inside Impala, a Broadway nightclub frequented by types who still think bottle service is cool, at around 1:15 a.m. this morning. According to , "two men were each shot in the leg, and were transported to San Francisco General Hospital, where they were listed in stable condition, according to Lieutenant Rich Pate of the San Francisco Police Department. The shooter was not arrested and police have not identified a suspect, Pate said." Impala, we should point out, was also the same venue mentioned in SF Weekly's cover story this week on "the failures of the San Francisco Entertainment Commission to adequately regulate violent clubs." Oops. Rightfully livid about this morning's violent shooting, Sam Young, owner of the nearby Dragon Bar, shot off a cross email to City Hall this morning, saying, "This should come as no surprise since I stated numerous times that this would happen ... As usual, City Hall does absolutely nothing and now there is another shooting, which could have and should have been prevented."

Cal State East Bay senior Jamonte Turner, 23, was gunned down at Third Street and Harrison at 2 a.m. shortly after leaving Boss Nightclub on April 18. Celebrating a night out with his colleagues, he and his friends were allegedly harassed by a group of guys once the club closed. A verbal dispute occurred outside the venue, leading to gunfire from the group of harassing men. As the friends scattered, Turner "was among those running on Third, [and] was shot from behind. He managed to make it across the street before he collapsed at Third and Folsom." He died at the scene. Police still have no leads as to who did this or the group of men involved. If you have any information regarding this case, please contact teh SFPD violent crime line at 415-575-4444.