• Five-year-old Pacific Heights restaurant Baker & Banker, which debuted to raves in 2009, is closing on October 19 so its chef-owners can spend more time with their kids. This means that this beautiful former Quince location is up for grabs. [Inside Scoop]
  • Here are all the inspirational quotes on the temporary walls surrounding the Salesforce Tower construction site. [Valleywag]
  • Watch out: The extremely busy intersection of Van Ness and Geary is going to get shut down by construction three times in the coming months, and will be partially shut down at other times as an underground walkway gets put in for the new Sutter hospital. [Chron]
  • That new "valet" parking app we told you about is getting some big use now that the Giants are back home in SoMa. [Business Times]
  • You probably already knew this, but the real-estate boom is killing off all our gas stations. [Chron]
  • The owner of specialty soda shop The Fizzary has changed his tune on the soda tax (Prop E), and he's against it now, and he wonders why S.F. would be so concerned with childhood obesity since we have so few children. [Chron]
  • Local kid gets college scholarship for his video game prowess. [KRON4]
  • Housing advocates are pushing for more rules in the Airbnb legislation. [Examiner, WSJ]
  • The Daily Beast predicts that San Francisco and Houston are going to become "America's two dominant cities" in the coming decades. [Daily Beast]
  • Palo Alto-based Hewlett-Packard announces that it's splitting into two separate companies, and Meg Whitman will lead the one that doesn't make machines. [NYT]