morning links Saturday Links: Rain On The Way Through Monday City Hall was bathed in yellow and red light Friday night in solidarity with Spain, Santa Clara County announced yesterday they've secured temporary housing for all of the area's homeless who've tested positive for COVID-19, and it looks like rain is on its way today through Monday.
Arts & Entertainment San Francisco To Applaud And Thank Healthcare Workers At 8PM Saturday Earlier calls for San Francisco to observe this nightly global ritual haven't taken hold — spread the word and make it happen for Saturday, April 4, and maybe every night thereafter.
SF Politics Mayor Breed: 'We Are Not Going To Solve Our Homeless Problem With This Crisis' While homeless advocates and several SF supervisors contend that the city is moving too slowly to get homeless people into shelters with adequate social distance, Mayor London Breed on Friday laid out some of the complications with giving every homeless person a hotel room.
Business & Tech SF Doctor Featured In Netflix Doc Says Possible COVID-19 Treatment Could Be Ready By September A local doctor known for his research into a universal flu vaccine says that his lab has a potential treatment in the works for COVID-19 using SARS antibodies. If all goes well, he says it could be ready for a public rollout by September — and it could also serve as a temporary vaccine as well.
SF News Filipino Cruise Ship Worker From Grand Princess Dies of COVID-19 In SF One of San Francisco's seven deaths to date from the coronavirus was a crew member on board the Grand Princess who was a citizen of the Philippines, and now fellow crew members and advocates are calling for transparency and care for the remaining quarantined crew.
Arts & Entertainment Salesforce Tower's LED Crown Honors Healthcare Workers With Clapping Hands Joining a worldwide, daily call for applause for the healthcare workers on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic, the top of Salesforce Tower was illuminated this week with a video of clapping hands.
SF News Navigation Center Resident Tests Positive, Supervisors Clamor To Open More Hotel Rooms for Them As the dread first COVID-19 case at a Navigation Center has arrived, several supervisors are fuming that transition of unhoused people to safe hotels has barely started.
Arts & Entertainment The Stud and Oasis Put Drag Shows Online SoMa queer nightclubs The Stud and Oasis are both doing shows, both live and recorded, that you can enjoy from home while also supporting these nightlife businesses in a time of crisis.
SF News New Nonprofit Delivers Fresh Produce to SF Seniors — Including Retired Nurse Who Remembers AIDS Epidemic San Franciscans have been stepping up to help each other left and right in the first weeks of the COVID-19 epidemic, and one non-profit that just formed two weeks ago is collecting donated organic fruits and vegetables and delivering them to homebound seniors.
SF Politics San Francisco To Extend Interest-Free Loans To Small Businesses In Trouble During Pandemic The city of San Francisco is establishing a $10 million emergency relief fund that will extend interest-free loans of up to $50,000 to small businesses in crisis during the coronavirus shelter-in-place period.
SF News Video Shows Thief Breaking Into Outer Sunset Store; Owner Says She Still Won't Board It Up SFist co-founder and senior editor emeritus Eve Batey has a story to share with the SFist readership today about her shop getting broken into early Wednesday morning, how fast the SFPD response was, as well as Nest cam video of the bicycle-riding thief.
SF News Despite Social Distancing Success In Bay Area, We Still Have to Brace for Death Toll to Rise Even with mitigation measures like social distancing and sheltering at home, the grim numbers of daily dead are ticking up statewide and will continue to in the next few weeks, with one estimate seeing 5,000 per week at the peak.
Arts & Entertainment This Is Giving Me Life Today: Dolly Parton Reading to Children As the entire country is on varying degrees of lockdown, the great Dolly Parton has decided to do weekly live readings of bedtime stories for children — so there's a reason to look forward to Thursday.
SF News Poll: Americans Less Likely To Approve of Trump If They Know Someone Infected With Coronavirus A new Change Research poll suggests that as the virus spreads, and as more people's lives are directly impacted, their feelings about the President's responses to the crisis may change as well.
Business & Tech Zoom Video Conferencing Hit With Lawsuit Over Facebook Data Sharing; Other Security Issues Racking Up A class action lawsuit gets Zoom to admit they give your data to Facebook, just as the FBI warns that hackers are having a field day on the video conferencing platform.
SF News Construction Halted On Office Buildings, Housing Without Affordable Units Among the construction that's been deemed "non-essential" under new public health orders are new office buildings, and any residential projects in SF where developers chose to pay into the city's affordable housing fund rather than build affordable units onsite.
SF News CDC Director: 25 Percent of Infected People May Be Asymptomatic Experts are increasingly acknowledging that the rapid global spread of the coronavirus is due to how easily it's transmitted by those who show no symptoms — and yes it could be through exhaling.
SF News Under New Public Health Orders, Funerals in SF Are Limited to 10 People Under newly released orders from the San Francisco Department of Public Health and five other Bay Area counties, the current stay-at-home guidelines are extended through May 3, and there are some new restrictions as well, including no funerals with more than ten attendees.
SF Restaurants, Food & Drink Shocking Report: Bay Area Getting Drunk as Hell During Shelter-in-Place Wine.com reports spirits orders are up 400 percent during stay-at-home orders, as bottoms up is the top activity in these shut in times.
SF News SoMa Tennis Club To Be Used as Temporary Homeless Shelter While Las Vegas forces its homeless to sleep six feet apart in a parking lot while 150,000 hotel rooms sit empty, SF is so far doing slightly better and providing a roof over the heads of some unsheltered people, courtesy of the swanky Bay Club location at Fifth and Brannan.
SF News Hundreds Gathered In Oakland For Illegal Sideshows On Sunday Defying stay-at-home orders and clearly unconcerned about spreading the coronavirus, around 400 to 450 people gathered in East Oakland Saturday to watch an illegal sideshow in an intersection.
SF News Tuesday Morning Topline: ICU Patient Population Triples In California The city is inspecting 500 residential hotels for public health compliance, the San Mateo County Event Center is being converted into an emergency hospital, and President Trump continues to attack women who challenge him.
Arts & Entertainment This Is Giving Me Life Today: Fantastic Negrito's New Coronavirus Anthem Grammy Award-winning Bay Area artist Fantastic Negrito has just put out a music video for this song "Chocolate Samurai," which is dedicated to those of us in isolation, and has the timely refrain, "Have you lost your mind yet?!"
SF News Likely Infected NY Congresswoman Stood Near Nancy Pelosi at Stimulus Package Bill Signing Friday I'm sure we're not alone here at SFist among Bay Area residents hoping and praying that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — who just turned 80 last week — hasn't been exposed to the coronavirus. But now it sounds like she might have been on Friday.
SF Restaurants, Food & Drink Mission Restaurant Prairie Pivots Into General Store Selling Staples, Meal Kits, Cocktails — and Yes — Toilet Paper I had a strong feeling that inventive chef Anthony Strong was going to go his own way during this pandemic, under the same takeout- and delivery-only orders as the rest of the city's restaurants. And he has.
