John Toomey, the Santa Claus who was fired by Macy's last Christmas for telling off-color jokes, was found dead today at the Budget Inn on Market Street. The cause of death appears to be natural causes but has not been determined. more ›

Just off of the main drag in the Lower Haight, property owner David Nale's attempts to convert 15 rooms in three Fillmore street addresses he owns to an official Single Room Occupancy hotel has the neighbors getting defensive. Although the Examiner reports that Nale has already been renting out rooms in his three properties on a monthly basis for some four years now, the surrounding Lower Haighters don't want to see him get the permits he needs from the Planning Department to officially offer individual leases to tenants and make his property an SRO. more ›

This man, whose name we believe is Bob, grew up in Vallejo and moved to San Francisco in 1979 to pursue his dreams of being a postal clerk and (possibly) becoming a liberated gay man. Bob now curates this awkward site of internet oddities, and appears quite put off by things like Roseanne Barr and bestiality. Rather than write his memoirs, Bob is vlogging them, and this 9-minute bit of YouTubery is a fine example of why oral histories are sometimes a bit more ramble-y than written ones. He describes the horrors of his first apartment -- a room in the cockroach infested SRO known as the Civic Center Hotel, which still stands today at Market and 12th Street -- and one has to wonder what irresistible joys this town had to offer which kept Bob living this "nightmare" for six straight months rather than at home with mom in Vallejo. more ›