SF News Saturday Links: Yosemite Overrun With Hikers Cutting in Line, Squatting Amid Shutdown San Francisco DA Brooke Jenkins tells Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, “We don't need your help here;” the SF Arts Commission was not consulted on Mayor Lurie’s “Big Art Loop” project; and nefarious characters are flocking to Yosemite, which currently only has one volunteer park ranger.
SF Politics SF Elected Officials Get an Earful Over Lurie’s Rezoning Plans, Everyone Uses ‘Miami Beach’ as a Boogeyman Mayor Lurie, Scott Wiener, and D2 Supervisor Stephen Sherrill all took some heat at SF town halls this week over Lurie’s proposed “family zoning” plan, with both critics and supporters saying the other side would turn SF into Miami Beach.
SF News Leaders Across Bay Area Launch Fund for Families of Immigrants Targeted by ICE Local leaders are launching the Stand Together Bay Area Fund, which will provide living expenses to families of local immigrants who’ve been deported or detained by ICE. Applicants can sign up through the SF-based Mission Asset Fund.
SF News Lurie’s ‘Family Zoning’ Plan Narrowly Passes Planning Commission, Right Along Party Lines A ten-hour-long Planning Commission meeting allowed Mayor Lurie’s “family zoning” plan to clear its first legislative hurdle on Thursday, but the SF Board of Supervisors seems primed to add a ton of amendments to the ambitious upzoning proposal.
SF News Lurie’s ‘Family Zoning’ Proposal Starts Slogging Through City Hall, With Both NIMBY and YIMBY Opposition Mayor Lurie’s “family zoning” plan could be his signature accomplishment and add 36,000 housing units citywide. Or it could get people pissed enough to recall him. We’ll start learning which this week when it heads to the Planning Commission.
SF News Saturday Links: Draft of California Redistricting Map Released, GOP Seats Nearly Cut in Half More than 100,000 travelers are stranded worldwide as Air Canada flight attendants have gone on strike; a crow in Walnut Creek tested positive for West Nile virus Friday; and California released a draft of a new proposed redistricting map.
Arts & Entertainment Transgender History Month Kicks Off With Flag-Raising Ceremony at SF’s City Hall, Events All Month Events are planned throughout August celebrating Transgender History Month, which opened with a flag-raising ceremony at City Hall last week. Mayor Lurie presided, with guest speakers honoring the trans community.
SF News Video: Mayor Lurie Booed Out of Dolores Park as SF Trans March Kicks Off Pride Weekend SF’s 2025 Pride Weekend opened Friday with more than 10,000 people attending the annual Trans March from Dolores Park to the Tenderloin District. Prior to the march, Mayor Daniel Lurie was loudly booed, shouted down, and chased away from Dolores Park by attendees.
SF Politics SF Supervisors Say They Saved Almost 60 From Layoffs In Last-Ditch Budget Negotiations It was "Budget Day" in City Hall on Wednesday, and the city's supervisors were reportedly working late into the night — until around 2 am Thursday — working out the final details on next year's budget with the Mayor's Office.
Arts & Entertainment Last Week, This Week: Litquake, Drag Bingo, Roller Disco, and Circus Bella Last week: SF is searching for a new Drag Laureate, SoMa's getting the “Four Seasons of bathhouses,” and Rikki's, the Castro's first women's sports bar, is open. This week: Roller disco, drag bingo, Circus Bella, and more.
Arts & Entertainment Last Week, This Week: Kabuki Meets Broadway in 'Pacific Overtures' Revival This weekend: Time lapse of the aurora borealis. Last Week: K-Pop fans, Musk on drugs, and a family of owls. This week: Kicking off Pride month with Drag Me Downtown and Bootie Mashup; plus Odd Salon, 'Pacific Overtures', and drink and draw.
SF News Lurie Announces $100,000 Contest to ‘Reimagine’ Market Street, Maybe With More Waymos or Something Mayor Daniel Lurie just announced a $100,000 prize to “reimagine” Market Street, though it may have helped if he had actually announced this more than six days before the contest's deadline.
SF Politics SF City Hall Faces First Major Layoffs In 15 Years as Mayor Lurie Proposes Cutting 1,400 Jobs San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie announced his intention to eliminate as many as 1,400 city jobs in order to close the current budget deficit, though the vast majority of those positions are currently unfilled.
SF Politics Lurie’s Budget Prioritizes Public Safety Amid Pushback on Funding Balance Mayor Lurie's budget plan spares SF public safety agencies from major cuts despite a looming $800M deficit. Police, fire, DA, and public defenders are exempt, though the Public Defender's Office seeks reassurance their funding will hold as caseloads continue to rise.
SF Politics Mayor Daniel Lurie Announces $37.5M Fund, Raised From Private Donations, to Address Homelessness and Mental Illness SF Mayor Daniel Lurie made good on a campaign promise to tap wealthy donors in order to help the city address two of its most entrenched problems, homelessness and behavioral health.
SF News SFPD Chief Bill Scott Is Stepping Down — Did Lurie Push Him Out? San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott is stepping down after an eight-year tenure at the SFPD, following months of rumors that Mayor Daniel Lurie might be looking to make a change at the top of the department.
SF Politics SF City Department Head Removed From Post, Mayor Lurie Accuses Her of ‘Unlawful Activities’ SF’s Department on the Status of Women director Kimberly Ellis was under a cloud of allegations of unauthorized moonlighting, no-bid city contracts for friends, and extravagant conference spending, and now she’s been ousted, presumably on Mayor Lurie’s orders.
SF Politics After Demanding City Workers Return to Office Four Days Per Week, Mayor Lurie Grants Reprieve Until August A return-to-office mandate from the SF mayor's office has been pushed back following a negotiation with the union that represents city workers. But by the end of summer, most city employees will only be allowed to work remotely one day per week.
SF News Lurie Announces Market Street to Open Up to Waymos The car-free stretch of Market Street east of 10th is going to be somewhat less car-free this summer when it starts getting clogged up with confused Waymos.
SF Politics Suspended SF City Hall Director Now Claims She Was Ousted For Whistleblowing On a Sex-Abuse Case The strange case of an allegedly moonlighting City Hall director just got stranger, as she claims she wasn’t put on leave over a side gig, but because she was about to blow the whistle on “the sexual abuse of a minor in a city-funded foster care program.”
SF Politics Ousted Police Commissioner Max Carter-Oberstone Speaks Out, Blasts Both Lurie and Breed Freshly fired SF Police Commissioner VP Max Carter-Oberstone gave a lengthy exit interview, and painted both Mayor Lurie and ex-Mayor London Breed as being imperious, vindictive, and defensively secretive.
SF Politics Mayor Daniel Lurie Posts Awkward Video Reading 'Nice Muni Emails' Modeled on Jimmy Kimmel's "Mean Tweets" segments, SF Mayor Daniel Lurie has posted a video to social media in which he's reading nice emails the city has received about Muni drivers.
SF Politics Mayor Daniel Lurie Promises 'New Era of Accountability' In New Homelessness Plan SF Mayor Daniel Lurie is signing a new executive order Monday and announcing an ambitious plan for tackling the combined crises of homelessness, drug addiction, and mental health, which includes holding nonprofits more accountable for outcomes.
SF Politics Lurie Sending SF Delegation to Washington DC to Plead We Get Spared From Trump’s Budget Cuts With the Trump administration likely to yank hundreds of millions from SF in already-promised reimbursement funds and other federal subsidies, Mayor Lurie is sending a team of negotiators to Washington, DC in hopes of preventing this.
SF Politics Mayor Lurie's Office Makes Its First Staffing Change, Letting Go of Communications Director Less than two months in to the Lurie administration, the San Francisco Mayor's Office has let go of a key team member, Communications Director Nina Negusse.