Last week: Waymos driving like humans, flying cars on pre-order, and a Toronado memecoin; This week: Interview with the first openly gay Black legislator, all-ages show at SOMArts, and the 27th annual Native Contemporary Arts Festival.

Week in Review

Wrapping up the week of June 2-8.

You might want some popcorn while you read the top 10 wildest SF nonprofit scandals. Speaking of popcorn, they’re filming a movie about the firing and re-hiring of OpenAI’s Sam Altman, which is partially set in SF. Or maybe you’ve had your fill of popcorn following The Big Feud.

Waymos are learning to be more human-like by rolling through stop signs and such. (Pretty soon they’ll be blaring “Green-Eyed Lady” whenever the ignition starts, like SFist’s neighbor.)  You can now pre-order a flying car, but you won’t be able to legally drive it very many places. Those speed cameras are all up and running—be prepared for real tickets starting August 5.

Lurie doesn’t sound very keen on Ed Lee-era tax breaks for tech companies. Billionaire-backed California Forever is cozying up to Suisun City with plans to turn its downtown into a “lifestyle and entertainment destination.” A lot of small neighborhood groups have been  left in the lurch by the Parks Alliance closure.

Toronado’s original owner is regretting a deal he made to sell the bar to a crypto bro who aims to  memorialize it via memecoin. SF Art Institute is set to reopen, which will now be known as California Academy of Studio Arts, or CASA. Bay Area icon E-40 appeared on NPR‘s Tiny Desk Concert.

A four-alarm fire destroyed, damaged five row houses in SF’s Richmond District Friday morning, leaving one pet cat dead and 35 people displaced.

Fifteen people were detained at SF immigration court. Two headliners at last weekend’s La Onda Festival in Napa were forced to cancel their sets after the Trump administration denied their visas, claiming their music “glorifies cartel violence.” Pete Hegseth demanded that the Navy take Harvey Milk’s name off one of their ships.

A man was arrested for committing back-to-back assaults in Fort Mason. A 40-minute CHP chase took place from San Ramon to Milpitas.

The Week Ahead

Looking ahead to June 9–15.

Thursday

Join Assemblymember Corey Jackson—California’s first openly gay Black legislator—for an in-depth conversation with KQED’s Otis R. Taylor Jr. The two will discuss leadership, equity, and public service in a live community dialogue open to all. Thursday, June 12, 5:30-7 p.m. // Manny's, 3092 16th St // $15

Friday

Thrive City invites families to a night under the stars with a free screening of The Princess & The Frog. Arrive early for kids’ crafts, games, face painting, and a festive Mardi Gras Princess Parade before the movie begins. Don’t forget a blanket and warm layers—space is first come, first served, and RSVPs get priority! Friday, June 13, 5 p.m. // Thrive City | 1 Warriors Way // free

Close out the Spring Queer Arts Festival with Magical Realism: Queer Caribbean Sounds, an all-ages night of music, ritual, and reggaeton joy. Headlined by genre-defying artist Esotérica Tropical and featuring Batey Tambó and DJ Kayaté, this immersive evening celebrates queer Caribbean resilience through sound, movement, and healing. Come dance, connect, and revel in the magic. Friday, June 13, 7-10 p.m. // SOMArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan St // $20

Saturday

Don’t miss NorCal’s largest Succulent Expo show and sale, June 13–15. With 40+ rare plant vendors, expert talks, and a members-only preview sale, it’s the ultimate weekend for succulent lovers. Join for just $15 to get early access, skip the line, and support plant education and conservation. Friday, June 13–Sunday, June 16, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. // County Fair Building, Golden Gate Park, 1199 9th Ave // free, all ages

Join fellow Bay Area Singles in their 30s and 40s for Social & Volunteering, at the San Francisco Food Bank. After sorting produce to music, the group will head to Long Bridge Pizza for food, drinks, and conversation. It’s a low-pressure way to give back and meet new people—no swiping required. Saturday, June 14, 11:30a.m.-3 p.m. // San Francisco Food Bank, 900 Pennsylvania Ave // $20

Sunday

Celebrate Indigenous creativity at the 27th Annual Native Contemporary Arts Festival, featuring Native music, dance, spoken word, and art curated by Janeen Antoine, with performances from Pomo dancers, singers, drummers, and more. Shop handcrafted goods, meet artists, and honor the vibrant cultures of North America’s Indigenous communities. Sunday, June 15, Noon-3:30 p.m. // Yerba Buena Gardens, 750 Howard St // free

Image via Esoterica Tropical on Facebook

Previously: Last Week, This Week: Kabuki Meets Broadway in 'Pacific Overtures' Revival

Do you love baby animals and have a flexible schedule on Fridays? Then the Marine Mammal Center is looking for you, as it's seal pupping season and they need some help with the flood of baby animals seeking care in their facility.

Located in the Marin Headlands, the MMC has rescued and treated more than 20,000 marine mammals since 1975. A lot of those animals are baby ones, birthed by elephant and Pacific harbor seals during their pupping season...which is apparently NOW, with seals giving birth "to 8-10 animals a day along the 600-mile range between Mendocino and San Luis Obispo counties on the central and northern California coast," NBC Bay Area reports.

Some of those animals (as well as others) end up at the MMC's main hospital -- in fact, there are currently 93 elephant seals and 10 California sea lions in their care. That's why the MMC is seeking volunteers to assist at the medical facility on Fridays between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. for a minimum of six months.

The MMC is also seeking drivers who can "pick up and drive rescued mammal patients from the Monterey Bay Operations facility in Moss Landing to the hospital for rehabilitation."

But don't worry, you won't be left on your own, as ABC 7 promises that "Center staff will provide all necessary training to new volunteers."

You can learn more about volunteer opportunities at the MMC on their volunteer page, or sign up by emailing volunteer@tmmc.org today.

Oh hey, remember how happy you were cheering along Batkid on Friday? Want to feel that feeling EVERY DAY? Safe Passage, a group that helps 4,000 unaccompanied kids walk home from school each day in the Tenderloin needs your help. Specifically, they need volunteers to stand on corners to watch kids get home safely — Corner Captains, is what they're called. Which is downright adorable.

SF Appeal's Max A. Cherney, who penned a great piece on the organization, has the details:

Currently about 4,000 children attend school in the area, according to Dina Hilliard, of the Tenderloin Development Committee. Hilliard participates in a program called Tenderloin Safe Passage, which aims to keep the school children safe by escorting them through some of the more dangerous areas.

Data regarding exactly how many of these 4,000 kids walk home unaccompanied is hard to come by.

According to a recent count on a single day at the corner of Turk and Leavenworth — known by Tenderloin cops as “Pill Hill” due to the availability of prescription opiates or “Roxies” — Safe Passage observed 171 children between 2:45 and 3:15 P.M.

If you want to become a Corner Captain, you will get to wear a bright yellow vest (so that the children can identify you) and will be trained how to deal with very Tenderloinesuqe issues (i.e., drug dealing and nearby violence). Further, you'll probably get into heaven. So there's that.

Anyway, our Batkid story garnered almost 90K likes so far. Kids walking home in the TL certainly deserves the same kind of attention. If you'd like to volunteer with Safe Passage, you can find out how to do so here, or email Erin Chen for more info at erin[at]tenderloinsafepassage[dot]com.

[SF Appeal]

FILM: The 30th annual Asian American International Film Festival kicks off tonight with the world premiere of Quentin Lee's White Frog, about a young boy with Asperger’s syndrome who finds the strength he needs to survive after a family tragedy, starring Joan Chen, B.D. Wong, Harry Shum Jr. (Glee), and Booboo Stewart (The Twilight Saga). The film is followed by festival's Opening Night Gala at the Asian Art Museum. (7 p.m., Castro Theatre, 429 Castro Street)

BOOKS: Chronicle Books has moved its Westfield retail location back into the Metreon, and they're throwing lots of festivities all weekend. Tonight's event will feature a meet-and-greet and some tasty treats. (6 to 9 p.m., Metreon, 165 Fourth Street)

VOLUNTEERING: Want to lend your fabulous skills to help a local nonprofit while boosting your resume? Check out The Board Match tonight, a job-fair style event featuring over 100+ Bay Area nonprofits whose reps talk to interested candidates about volunteering to serve on their organization’s board of directors. (5 to 8 p.m., San Francisco Marriott Marquis, 55 4th Street)

Been thinking about volunteering? Have valuable skills to offer? Always wondered what it's like to be on a "board of directors?" Then hit up The Board Match 2011 tomorrow evening and find the nonprofit of your dreams. Choose from over 170 Bay Area organizations, large and small, focusing on everything from the environment to arts to youth. They need you.

Employed Prospective Volunteers: Hit up your company to let you volunteer in their name. In other words, get paid to volunteer!

Unemployed Prospective Volunteers: Learn new skills, beef up your resume, and make loads of new contacts! (OK, we're convinced.)

The Board Match
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
4 to 7 p.m.
Moscone West, Fourth and Howard Streets, San Francisco
Free! Bring your friends!

Update: Help a Mother Out received such a huge response that they've ended their donation drive. Help a Mother Out is having a donation drive through September 20 at the following locations: Natural Resources, 1367 Valencia St. (SF), Junior Gym, 101 South B Street (San Mateo), and Cubes & Crayons, 154 E. Dana Street (Mountain View). Donations being accepted include

• Diapers and Pull Ups (all sizes)
• New underwear (children, women, men)
• New travel toiletries
• Baby formula
• Clean towels
• Feminine hygiene products
• Gently used, freshly laundered children’s clothing (ages 0-5 especially), women and men’s clothing.

Apparently, Help a Mother Out just delivered 6,000 diapers to the San Bruno Recreation Center today -- way to go, HAMO!

In an effort to promote "volunteerism," First Ladies Michelle Obama and Maria Shriver kicked off a national community service campaign today (United We Serve) at the playground of Bret Harte Elementary School. But Obama wasn't just talk; she joined more than 500 local volunteers to redo the school's playground. The new kid-space will include "an edible garden that will have a farmer's market stand where kids and seniors can sell vegetables to raise money for the school," reports NBC Bay Area. The playground is is expected to be completed by 5 p.m. today. (Say what you will about the Obama administraion, you would never have found Laura Bush doing manual labor in the Bayview-Hunter's Point hood.)

Here are some scenes from today's construction.

Kicking off the United We Serve summer service initiative, First Lady Michelle Obama, as well as a gaggle of Cabinet secretaries and senior administration officials, will visit San Francisco on Monday to promote volunteering. And while her do-gooding event in San Francisco is closed off to the public and press -- along with KaBOOM!, she will help construct a public playground at Bret Harte Public Elementary School -- you can still lend your time and effort to a needy cause, one that won't involve getting frisked by secret service agents. Check out All for Good to find out more about different projects in the Bay Area that need a few good hands.

With Thanksgiving a little over a week away, and before we list the top restaurants for turkey dinners, remember that the SF Food Bank needs you help. With over 300 tons of food (!) moved through their warehouse every week, this fine local organization needs assistance sorting and packaging meals for distribution.

And it's so easy too! With no lengthy orientation or major time commitment, you'll be working in a well-organized project right on the day you come in. It's perfect for those of you who were just laid off -- you know, in between job searches. You can sign up to volunteer, right here.

But if you're busy, the SF Food Bank offers volunteer projects on weekdays, evenings and weekends to fir your schedule. And if you just can't make it, please to donate. It doesn't cost that much. See, every $1 donated lets the SF Food Bank "distribute $9 worth of nutritious food to more than 132,000 San Franciscans in need." (With their supply of dry goods down 15% from last year - e.g., such kitchen staples as canned goods and cereals - your support is needed now more than ever.) You can donate, right here.

Have any other charities that you want recommend to SFist readers? Let us know in the comments

What started out yesterday morning as a PG-13, innocent little fender bender has now turned into our very own R-rated environmental disaster. Smashing. Here's a summary of today's oil spill-related chaos, followed by volunteering and clean-up information.

-- Today Gavin Newsom sent down word from wherever he's recovering from his hangover -- we kid. sort of -- that SF will get litigious on the agency or persons responsible for the 58,000 gallons of oil that spilled into the bay yesterday.

-- City officials have now warned people not to go into or boat on the Bay.

-- This Sunday's triathlon scheduled to take place on Treasure Island, where athletes swim in the bay as part of the race, could/should be canceled. "City officials said today it is canceled, but race officials said it's still on," so...here's to effective communication.

-- 26 hours lapsed between the time of collision and interview/alcohol test for the captain of the Cosco Bucan, we hear.

-- Birds and other animal life will suffer.

Way back when, in days of yore, Alex Tourk and Gavin Newsom were friends and worked on projects together, like San Francisco Connect. And so they decided to that in order to get people to join in and volunteer, they needed to come up with an advertising campaign. Which they did. And guess what tag line they came up with for Project Connect? "Volunteering is Sexy."

Guess what new advertising campaign is going live this week?

Yep, you guessed it.

So many punch lines, so little time. So how's this: "It's so sexy you'll forget your boss is having sex with your wife, while you help homeless people set up voicemail."

With help from SFist Elaine