• The dahlia became San Francisco’s official flower back in 1926 when it was all the rage, and enthusiasts are flocking to the Dahlia Dell and the Annual Dahlia Show — both at Golden Gate Park — this weekend to celebrate the big anniversary. [ABC 7]
• A new Bay Area newspaper that’s solely run by AI editors and writers — with the assistance of a 27-year-old portfolio specialist at BlackRock with no journalism background — has been closely mimicking other outlets’ original reporting and sloppily crediting its sources, if at all. [Mission Local]
• Investigators with the SFPD are seeking help from the public solving the 2006 fatal shooting of Aubrey Abrakasa Jr in the Western Addition; Abrakasa’s mom is holding a vigil Friday at Grove and Baker Streets, where her son was killed, honoring victims of homicide and its impact on families and communities. [SFPD]

National:

• China has been getting around US tariffs by sending its exports to 40 other countries for packaging and light assembly, and India and other countries might do the same, which the White House said has resulted in tax revenue losses of $19 billion to $26 billion annually. [Associated Press]
• Thousands of sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East have been faced with food and supply shortages, broken plumbing, exhaustion, and worsening mental health during a deployment that has stretched beyond 250 days, and several have tried to jump overboard. [BBC]
• A woman has gone viral for stalking various Peter Pans at Disneyland on a weekly — or sometimes daily — basis for the past 10 years, and workers say the theme park isn’t addressing the issue. [California Post]

Video:

• Here's a brief but humorous promo clip for director Olivia Wilde's new film, The Invite, which is set in SF, featuring Wilde attempting to transport reels of movie film via cable car then up a steep hill on foot.

Image: Eric Hunt/Flickr

A former private beach property near Half Moon Bay once owned by musician Chris Isaak is opening Monday as a new 58-acre public park, giving visitors official access to Tunitas Creek Beach for the first time.

Located about 8 miles south of Half Moon Bay, the new Don Horsley County Park includes towering coastal bluffs, new trails, an 80-space parking lot, restrooms, and a ranger station, as Bay Area News Group reports. The $19.6 million project also provides accessible paths to Tunitas Creek Beach, which was previously only accessible by unofficial trails, including some that crossed the private property.

“It’s a welcoming place for everybody,” said Emma Gonzalez, interim director of the San Mateo County Parks Department. “The view. The bluffs. There is so much to take in. It’s breathtaking.”

Although Isaak owned the 58-acre property for nearly two decades, locals say the singer was never seen there.

The property includes cliffs more than 100 feet high along its northern edge, along with dunes and the creek itself, where endangered steelhead trout have been found. Brown pelicans, California gulls, and sandpipers are among the birds that can be seen along the shoreline.

“This new park is a jewel,” said San Mateo County Supervisor Ray Mueller, whose district includes the park, in a press release. “It is also a place where we can protect sensitive coastal natural resources while creating new opportunities for people to connect with nature.”

Construction began in late 2023, with the county adding the parking lot, restrooms, ranger station, a small amphitheater for ranger talks, interpretive signs, and wide trails designed to accommodate visitors with disabilities, per the News Group. The opening was delayed after winter storms triggered two major landslides along the cliffs, requiring additional work to stabilize the area and keep an emergency access route open.

A company tied to Chris Isaak purchased the bluff-top property, including a modest 1950s-era house and much of the sand on the beach, for $3.1 million in 1998.

The beach became particularly notorious for large, clandestine parties and overnight raves beginning about 15 years ago, with hundreds of people leaving behind piles of trash. A San Jose man also drowned there in 2016.

“We had overnight camping, people living on the beach, massive raves,” said Scott Lombardi, San Mateo County Parks superintendent, speaking to the News Group. “It was unbelievable. Thankfully that has been put to bed.”

Isaak’s business entity eventually sold the property to the Peninsula Open Space Trust, or POST, for $5 million in 2017. POST then sold it to San Mateo County for $3.2 million in 2020, making the eventual public park possible.

The News Group notes that the effort was spearheaded in part by former County Supervisor Don Horsley, who aimed to keep the property from being acquired for private development, like with nearby Martins Beach, where billionaire venture capitalist Vinod Khosla closed the gates to his property and cut off public access to the oceanfront.

“We are standing along a strip of beach that I truly believe will become known as one of the great public beach parks in California,” Horsley said during a 2018 visit.

After Horsley, who was also a former San Mateo County sheriff, died in November 2023 at age 80, the county named the new park after him.

According to the News Group, the project took years to complete, with planning slowed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex Fire, several wet winters, and the landslides that pushed the opening back further.

The park will be open seven days a week, with no admission charge. Dogs, alcohol, and camping are prohibited, and there will be no lifeguards. County rangers are warning visitors that the beach can have strong rip currents, particularly dangerous for inexperienced swimmers.

Related: Silicon Valley Billionaire Wants $30 Million For His Beach Access, National Media Shames Him

Image: County of San Mateo

A new wine bar has come to the Castro, with an array of international wines by the glass or bottle, in addition to small plates and cocktails, and it's on the top floor of the nine-year-old private social club The Academy.

The LGBTQ-focused Academy at 2166 Market Street has had a wine lounge for members on its third floor for several years now. But now it has been relaunched and rebranded as Altrove, a wine bar that is accessible to the public with the purchase of a day pass or an annual "wine passport," which is a physical passport book that can be filled up with stamps based on the regions your tastings come from.

"We wanted to bring more people into the space to experience our growing wine program," says Academy co-founder Nate Bourg. "It deserves to be experienced by more than just our regular members."

"Altrove" means "elsewhere" in Italian, and the intimate third-floor space has a transporting quality, with a couple of small banquettes, and a gold-gilded Champagne Room to the back, which has a sliding door for more private experiences.

The bar area itself is connected, via a hallway, to a plush lounge setup in the front room facing Market Street, with couches and several seating areas.

While wine selections will rotate, the current by-the-glass menu features a crisp Pinot Gris ($14) from Tinpot Hut winery in Marlborough, New Zealand; a rosé of Grenache, Cinsault, Merlot, and Syrah ($14) from Provence's Chateau du Berne; and a red blend ($16) from Argentina's Siete Fincas winery. Glasses of house white and house red wine are $8 — and free for Academy members.

This month's featured wines are from Africa, with a Sauvignon Blanc ($16) from South Africa's Elgin Valley; a rosé of Temperanillo ($15) from Stellenbosch, South Africa; and an old-vine Syrah ($14) from Morocco's Domaine des Ouled Thaleb vineyard.

Highball cocktails are available at the Altrove bar as well (gin and tonic, vodka soda, whiskey soda, etc.), and there is a selection of small bites including some top notch deviled eggs topped with Dungeness crab, a salmon tartine, and fig and goat cheese flatbread, and a "deluxe" grilled cheese with onion jam.

Non-members can pay a $10 day-pass fee to check out Altrove, which comes with a complimentary aperitif, or $25 gets you both the passport booklet that can be stored on-site for future visits, and a year's worth of entry to the wine bar.

Altrove is now open Wednesday to Saturday 6 pm to 10 pm, and reservations are encouraged but not required.

Related: Two Castro Bars Decide to 'Pause' Use of Facial Scanning Tech at the Door

Disclosure: I have been a member of The Academy since its founding.

Muni riders can now report and track harassment through a new tool called “Eyes on Board,” designed to give victims a voice and provide the public with resources on supporting fellow riders and improving transit safety.

The new Eyes on Board platform gives Muni riders a way to anonymously document harassment and see where other incidents have been reported across the transit system, as StreetsblogSF reports. The volunteer-led project by SF Transit Riders is intended to make an often-overlooked problem more visible while giving riders information on how to respond when they witness harassment.

The project includes a survey that asks riders about what happened, where and when it occurred, and what type of harassment they experienced. Those reports are then reflected on a live map, creating a broader picture of where and how harassment occurs while showing riders that they are not alone in experiencing it.

Harassment on public transit can range from unwanted comments and staring to groping, indecent exposure, stalking, and physical or sexual abuse, and it overwhelmingly goes unreported. According to Metro Magazine, a 2020 Mineta Transportation Institute survey of 891 San Jose State University students found that 63% had experienced some form of harassment while using public transit, but fewer than 10% of those who experienced it reported the incident to anyone.

Verbal harassment was the most common, with 41% of students reporting obscene or harassing language and 26% reporting sexual comments. The survey also found that 22% had been stalked, 18% had experienced indecent exposure, and 11% had experienced groping or inappropriate touching. Women reported harassment at roughly twice the rate of men on buses and trains.

The researchers also found that harassment changes how people use transit. Only about half of respondents said they always or often felt safe, while roughly a quarter said sexual harassment had kept them from using public transportation more frequently, per Metro. Many riders reported changing their routines, including traveling only during the day, waiting in well-lit areas, or avoiding certain stops.

StreetsblogSF reports that Eyes on Board takes its name from urbanist Jane Jacobs’ concept of “eyes on the street,” which holds that people occupying and observing public spaces can help deter crime. The project applies that idea to transit by encouraging riders to recognize harassment, report it, and safely intervene when they see someone being targeted.

The project also builds on existing efforts by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which launched its Safety Equity Initiative in 2022 to address gender-based harassment and violence on Muni. The agency expanded its Muni Feedback form and 311 reporting options to allow riders and bystanders to report harassment, including where it happened and other details that can help identify patterns.

SFMTA also began its annual Muni Safe Day Out in 2023, sending volunteers throughout the system to educate riders about reporting harassment and safety concerns. The initiative includes rider surveys and community outreach, with the agency using reports and feedback to identify potential improvements.

“What we're trying to do is make sure that everybody understands that we have different staff members out throughout the system, that they can reach out to that they're safe, and get the information out about gender-based harassment,” said Kimberly Burrus, SFMTA's Chief Security Officer, per ABC 7.

The Eyes on Board project is not intended to suggest that public transit is inherently unsafe. SFMTA reported 423 crimes on Muni in 2025, the fewest since 2020, while the agency has continued collecting data and working with community organizations and riders on safety concerns, as NBC Bay Area reported in April.

But harassment can still affect whether people feel comfortable walking to a stop, waiting for a bus or train, or riding it. The project argues that making those experiences easier to document can help show the scale of the problem and give transit agencies and communities better information for addressing it.

Related: Jury Convicts SF Man of Nine Charges In 2025 Sexual Assault on Muni Bus

Image: SFMTA

The city of Oakland has agreed to pay one of its highest-ever legal settlements to the family of a 28-year-old man who was killed four years ago in a crash that was indirectly caused by a chase initiated by two rookie Oakland police officers.

As a trial was pending in a wrongful death case stemming from the June 26, 2022 death of Lolomania "Lolo" Soakai, following years in which the city and the police officers involved tried to argue that they weren't civally liable under statutes giving law enforcement "qualified immunity" in such cases, Oakland officials reached a settlement in late July, as KTVU reports.

Oakland has agreed to pay $17 million to Soakai's mother, Lavinia Soakai and his cousins, Daniel Fifita, Ina Lavalu, and Samieuela Finau, all four of whom were injured in the June 26, 2022, crash, along with Soakai who was killed.

The family members had all be standing near a taco stand at International Boulevard and 54th Avenue, just after 1 am on June 26, 2022, when a violent crash involving a speeding driver, several parked cars and a parked motorcyle led to the tragedy. A chain reaction reportedly led to the motorcycle becoming airborne and landing on Soakai.

19-year-old Arnold Linaldi had been seen doing donuts at a sideshow earlier that night by OPD officers Walid Abdelaziz and Jimmy Marin-Coronel. The officers followed Linaldi away from the sideshow and initiated a so-called "ghost chase," speeding after him without their lights or siren on — likely because such chases were not authorized under department policy for non-violent offenses.

While pursuing Linaldi down International Boulevard, the officers saw him crash into the parked vehicles and spin out at 54th Avenue. In bodyworn camera footage that would later become public, Abdelaziz and Marin-Coronel could be heard chuckling and joking about the crash, and audibly expressing hope that Linaldi died.

The two officers fled the scene and then quickly returned with their lights on, pretending they had not witnessed the crash or played a role in it. When their ruse was later discovered by then-Police Chief Leronne Armstrong, they were fired.

Linaldi survived the crash, and he pleaded guilty in May to vehicular manslaughter, for which he was sentenced to two years in state prison.

As the attorney for Soakai's family, Andante Pointer, said when the bodycam video was released earlier this year, "These officers were only concerned with cracking jokes, and actually said I hope that this person is dead."

Pointer added, "The two officers not only engaged in a ghost chase and took a person's life, but they also engaged in a conspiracy to cover it up. And then went to many lengths to avoid accountability. My heart broke for this family. But I also have a rage in me, that people sworn to protect us could be so callous."

Speaking to KTVU following the settlement, Pointer gave credit to the OPD, saying, "if not for a fellow officer doing the right thing by coming forward and seeing the extent and the lengths that these officers were going to cover up their involvement and avoid accountability, we may never have really gotten to the truth."

In January, the two officers, Abdelaziz and Marin-Coronel, appealed their case to the Supreme Court regarding their immunity from prosecution for the crash, following a ruling last by the Ninth Circuit that found they could be held liable. The Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal.

While Alameda County has recently paid out large sums in wrongful death settlements — the largest, in May, being $36 million to the surviving teenage son of Benison and Maria Tran, who were killed four years ago in a love-triangle double-homicide by former Alameda County Sheriff's Deputy Devin Williams Jr — this marks one of the largest paid by Oakland to a single family.

As KTVU notes, the city agreed to pay a $33 million settlement in 2020 to families of 32 of the 36 victims in the 2016 Ghost Ship fire tragedy, but that settlement was shared among the 32 families.

Previously: Oakland Officers Heard Laughing About 'Ghost Chase' Crash That Killed One In New Video

Tesla appears to be testing its latest semi-autonomous taxi model in San Francisco, and in an effort to stand out from the competition, it has been painted gold.

Earlier this week, the Tesla Robotaxi account on Xitter announced a new Robotaxi model in shimmering gold, saying that it is the first with Starlink integration. This diagram shows how the car has a built-in Starlink terminal on the back part of its roof, while its GPS and 5G antenna are more toward the front.

(While Tesla's autonomous taxis have multiple cameras built in, like regular Tesla models, they do not employ LiDAR technology like Waymo and Zoox, because Elon Musk doesn't believe in it, or something.)

As Motor1 reports, the Cybercab, which the site says looks like "a rolling concept sketch," was spotted parked outside Tesla's Gigafactory in Texas.

The Chronicle subsequently reported that one of these gold atrocities was spotted driving through San Francisco, though the photo they had made it look a lot less shimmery and shiny.

The Chronicle reported seeing a driver behing the wheel, as would be required until we hear otherwise about Tesla getting a Waymo-type autonomous permit — which it would seem like they are still a long way from getting before doing a lot more testing.

The video below, showing the gold Cybercab driving through SoMa, makes it look a bit more shiny, though it still gives off the cold, steely gracelessness of the Cybertruck.

Tesla's Robotaxis have kept a low profile in recent months, after the ride-hailing service launched last summer, ostensibly using the company's self-driving software, but the vehicles weren't allowed to operate without a safety driver behind the wheel. The launch, which was vague about whether these were fully autonomous robotaxis or not, raised some hackles with state regulators, who issued warnings to Tesla that it did not have permits to operate autonomous vehicles in California.

Former SF supervisor now Assemblymember Catherine Stefani also wrote to Tesla last July expressing "grave concern" about the rollout. And then Tesla went fairly quiet about the service for the better part of a year, at least locally — but they didn't escape further bad press when a video went viral in November showing an SF Tesla Robotaxi driver repeatedly falling asleep while playing a video game in the driver's seat, while a passenger was in back.

The real news with the Cybercab apparently seems to be the built-in Starlink terminal or dish, with Musk tweeting on Sunday that "All cars will have Starlink in the future," providing redundancy in rural areas when cellular signal gets spotty.

Elon Musk's companies don't do much talking to the press, and he's a fan of firing communications people and doing everything himself via tweet. We'll see how that works out as SpaceX is a public company the way Tesla has been — and after Musk has faced stiff fines from the SEC for tweeting a lot of bullshit out of turn, which can have measurable impacts on a stock price.

So, we likely won't know for a while when Tesla Robotaxis, or Cybercabs, will go into full service as autonomous taxis. The "robotaxi" service, with drivers behind the wheel, has a limosine permit to take passengers to SFO as of last month. But earlier this year, the California DMV forced the company to stop using the term "autopilot" for any of its software or else have its dealer and manufacturer licenses in the state suspended.

Related: Tesla Human Robotaxi Driver Falls Asleep at the Wheel While Driving Passenger, Video Goes Viral

Construction at the long-stalled Touchless Car Wash site at Divisadero and Oak streets is set to begin later this year, as Greystar, the largest developer in the US, has acquired the project from the previous builder.

South Carolina-based Greystar has secured financing for the 203-unit project at 400 Divisadero, allowing it to take on the risks that had stalled the development under 4Terra Investments, as the Chronicle reports. Public Works has reportedly issued permits for construction-related sidewalk and street closures along Divisadero and Oak streets, with an October 19 start date listed on the permit. A demolition permit for the former car wash is also in the works.

The eight-story mixed-use building will reportedly include 20 affordable apartments, about 1,850 square feet of retail space, 24 parking spaces, and storage for 144 bicycles.

The site has been tied up in development battles for more than a decade. Texas-based Genesis Real Estate Group initially secured approval for a 186-unit project in 2019, but abandoned the plans in 2022, citing rising construction costs and a weak rental market. During the approval process, Genesis held more than 1,000 community meetings, including weekly “beer with a developer” gatherings at Madrone Art Bar.

According to the Chronicle, the property later became part of a fight over whether it should be redeveloped as market-rate housing or acquired for a 100% affordable project. Former Supervisor Dean Preston had been facilitating a deal with the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation to purchase the site, which fell through after the city could not guarantee funding.

Reviving the car wash development became a campaign promise for Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, who defeated Preston in 2024. During that race, the moderate political group GrowSF paid for a billboard above the property promoting Mahmood’s support for getting the project built.

Mahmood later worked with 4Terra to help move the project through the remaining regulatory hurdles. The development reportedly received ministerial approval under AB 2011 in late 2024, using older building standards that helped avoid additional costs from years of changing building codes.

The real estate site Streamline reports that Mahmood also championed the SHADE Act, which allows stalled projects to use the building codes in effect when they initially applied rather than being forced to comply with newer requirements each time they are delayed. For the Divisadero project, the building code had changed three times during the lengthy approval process, adding an estimated 5% to 7% to construction costs.

The project also became more financially viable after the Board of Supervisors lowered the affordable housing requirement for market-rate developments from 20% to 5% this year.

The Touchless Car Wash closed in late 2021 during the pandemic.

Previously: Project to Redevelop Divisadero Car Wash Site Looks Alive Again, With 203-Unit Building Proposed

Rendering by BDE Architecture

There was a spate of cellphone thefts at this year's Outside Lands, as there probably have been at multiple years' editions of the festival. But maybe the SFPD will investigate this time as it looks like an organized crime ring.

"It really just happened so fast," said a festival attendee named Krystal who had her phone stolen, speaking to KRON4. "I was moving from one set to the next. It was crowded. I had my phone before we started moving, and when we got to the next stage, my phone was suddenly gone."

Krystaln (or someone with a similar experience) posted to Reddit about the phone theft after she tracked the phone, using the Find My app, to the Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles. And the Reddit post garnered about a dozen responses from others who had similar experiences.

Krystal's phone appeared to end up in a parking garage on 6th Street in LA, and she contacted the local police precinct who said they went to that location but could not locate the phone.

"Trying to get some security footage now for the garage it seems to be parked at. Anyone else?" she wrote on Reddit.

The phenomenon of phones being pickpocketed at crowded music festivals is nothing new but it may be trending upward. This post on the EDM subreddit from five months ago laments that cellphone thefts are seeming "all too common" at festivals, which led to a string of responses about strategies for securing phones in zippered pouches, fanny packs, etc.

"It was in my pocket, I believe, so it was pretty close to my body, just in my front vest pocket, so even that was enough for this person, whoever took it, to just snatch it right out of there," Krystal tells KRON4.

Krystal filed a police report with the SFPD, and she says, "I really hope the police can really do some investigating and figure out who was behind this and prevent these types of crimes from happening."

Another festival-goer named Annie described losing her phone Friday night to the Chronicle, saying that it disappeared while she was in the massive crowd leaving the festival following Charli xcx's set.

"I know it’s hard to do anything if it’s just one person getting their phone stolen — it’s definitely not an emergency type of case —  but I feel like if a lot of people are getting their phones stolen, it just seems to be this bigger problem," Annie tells the Chronicle.

Others who had their phones stolen described watching them move on the Find My app first to locations in the Outer Sunset or Daly City, and then further as if they were being driven south to Los Angeles.

The SFPD has not confirmed how many police reports were filed about stolen phones at this year's festival.

Previously: How Was the Pre- and Post-Outside Lands Muni Experience? Fair, But Often Frustrating

Photo by Ashkan Farouzani

Two employees have separately sued the exclusive San Francisco club known as The Battery, alleging wage and labor violations, with one worker also accusing the company of allowing years of harassment and discrimination tied to his disability.

Rene Panti, 57, a dishwasher who has worked at The Battery since 2021, alleges coworkers repeatedly mocked his scoliosis and age, including calling him “hunchback” and “useless” in Spanish, as the Chronicle reports. He says the harassment continued after he reported it to management and HR, with supervisors doing little beyond telling employees to “stay professional.”

Panti also alleges the harassment became physical in 2025, when a coworker touched his back despite being told not to, then pinched his nipples a week later. He says the club investigated his complaints but reportedly concluded there was no sexual harassment, despite finding that a coworker had hugged him without consent.

According to the Chronicle, Panti’s lawsuit also alleges he was denied a promotion because of his appearance. In 2023, he says the Battery’s bar manager told him, “You will never be promoted to work at the bar because your physical appearance does not conform to the standards of the company.”

Panti further alleges the club failed to accommodate his physical limitations after he injured himself lifting a 70-pound garbage bag in April 2025. He also alleges he was placed on unpaid leave in October 2025 because of his disability, causing lost income and emotional distress. He says he is the sole financial support for himself and his disabled wife.

Separately, Donald James Goglio filed a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging 10 wage-and-hour violations affecting nonexempt hourly employees. The Chronicle reports that the suit claims workers were denied proper meal and rest breaks, weren’t always paid minimum wage or overtime, and weren’t reimbursed for business expenses. Goglio also alleges employees had their bags searched after clocking out, meaning they weren’t paid for time spent waiting for the searches.

Both lawsuits accuse The Battery of failing to properly track wages and provide legally required breaks. A previous wage-and-hour lawsuit filed against the club in 2021 was settled in 2024.

The Battery disputes the allegations, saying that Panti is still employed at the club, and the complaint leaves out important facts about its investigation and response to his concerns. The club also said it maintains policies against harassment, discrimination, and retaliation and intends to defend itself in court.

“The Battery does not agree with the allegations or with the attempt to portray them as companywide violations,” the club said regarding Goglio’s lawsuit, per the Chronicle. “The Battery maintains wage-and-hour policies and timekeeping practices intended to comply with California law and will defend those practices in court.”

Panti is seeking damages for emotional distress, physical injuries, medical expenses, and lost wages, as well as reinstatement with reasonable accommodations and changes to the club’s workplace policies. His attorney, Steven Chizen of Chizen Law, said the allegations would be supported by coworkers, documents, and the Battery’s own records.

The Battery, founded by Michael and Xochi Birch, opened in Jackson Square in 2013. The invite-only club has about 5,000 members and charges $2,400 a year for membership.

Previously: Here Comes 'The Battery,' Another Lavish Private Club You Can't Afford

Some of the city's highest paid employees are part of the San Francisco Sheriff's Office, with overtime pay driving overall compensation well into the high six figures for dozens of deputies and lieutenants — as well as for SFPD officers.

The Chronicle has done its annual analysis of city employee compensation, based on publicly available data, and for the period of July 2025 to June 2026, San Francisco's highest paid employee was Alison Romano, the chief executive and investment officer in the city's Retirement Services Department. Romano made $904,000 in total compensation, on a base salary of $455,000, with much of that apparently coming in bonuses.

But at just $1,000 below Romano, the city's second-highest-paid employee was Sheriff's Lieutenant Mercy Ambat, who came away with $903,000 in total compensation. Ambat's base salary was $213,500, but Ambat made $439,000 in overtime pay last year, with $176,600 going to retirement.

Six other members of the Sheriff's Department made over $800,000 last year, including four deputies who made triple their base salary in overtime.

By comparison, only two members of the SFPD made over $800,000, Sergeant Frank Harrell and Officer Brian Schaffer, both largely thanks to overtime pay. Over two dozen other SFPD officers made over $600,000 after overtime.

As the Chronicle notes, Fire Chief Dean Crispin has a salary of $436K per year, and he is not eligible for overtime — he made $63,000 in "other pay" and $70,000 in retirement compensation, as well as benefits, for a total of $609,000. Two other members of the SFFD made more: Battalion Chief Glen Kircher ($681K), and Captain Mary Tse ($613K), with around half of that compensation coming from overtime.

Mayor Daniel Lurie makes a salary of $409,000 that he donates all but one dollar of back to the city.

Other highly compensated city employees who don't work in public safety or law enforcement are Anna Langs, managing director of Retirement Services ($743K); David Francl, another managing director of Retirement Services ($726K); Susan Ehrlich, physician administrator in the Department of Public Health ($721K); and Tetyana Kemp, a third managing director of Retirement Services ($715K).

And for many of us who aren't making huge AI money right now, it's kind of upsetting seeing this graph of the sheer number of city employees making over $500K per year.

So, yes, it pays to work in the Sheriff's Department, or the SFPD, or, if you're not inclined toward law enforcement, find a career in retirement services for a major city. That's where the bigs bucks are at.

Photo by Noah Fetz

Photo by Zoshua Colah

• One person was hospitalized following a shooting in the Western Addition Wednesday afternoon. The shooting happened around 12:33 pm on the 1100 block of Scott Street, and the victim's condition is not known. [KRON4]
• It will cost $9.8 million in one-time costs and $1.9 million annually to reopen the Great Highway to cars, according to a new estimate from the San Francisco Controller’s Office. [Chronicle]
• A new wildfire, the Talbot Fire, has been reported in Placer County, in the Granite Chief Wilderness area south of I-80, in Tahoe National Forest, which was at 16 acres as of 5 pm. [KCRA / AlertWildfire]

National:

• The fallout continues from the revelation that President Trump and a few close aides were whisked off Air Force One in Turkey last month, leaving behind the White House press corps and several cabinet members, including Scott Bessent and Marco Rubio, on the decoy plane that reportedly had a credible threat facing it from an Iranian proxy. [CNN / New York Times]
• White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is leaving her post after 18 months on the job. [KTVU]
• A federal lawsuit is challenging the constitutionality of President Trump selling early access to his posts on Truth Social, both to enrich himself and to provide potentially market-moving information only to those willing to pay. [New York Times]

Video:

• John Law, an OG San Francisco character who has called himself the "steward" of three vintage dachsund heads from SF's now long-gone Doggie Diner — which were last seen temporarily installed on JFK Drive in Golden Gate Park four years ago before getting vandalized about a year later — just announced the online "premiere" of a 2008 documentary he made with Flecher Fleurdujon that documented a cross-country trip they took in 2003, representing Laughing Squid at an event at the now long-gone CB's 313 Gallery next door to CBGB on Manhattan's Lower East Side. It's called Head Trip, and it's a freaky SF nostalgia trip for sure. The full film is here, and the trailer is below. [Laughing Squid]

Top image: A plume of smoke from the Talbot Fire, via the Siberia camera on Alert Wildfire

In an effort to address significant delays at SFO caused by a ban on parallel-runway landings in March, the FAA is now allowing staggered arrivals on clear days, which will increase the number of arrivals from 36 per hour to 42.

Starting Wednesday, the FAA is allowing arriving planes to begin landing on San Francisco International Airport's closely spaced parallel runways using staggered landings, as Bay City News reports.

The FAA stopped allowing parallel landings in March, after determining that the two runways, which are just 750 feet apart, were too close for simultaneous landings. The change came as SFO was already dealing with two other runways being taken out of service for construction, cutting the airport’s clear-weather arrival capacity from 54 flights per hour to 36. It also led to significant delays — from an average of five minutes per flight to 20.

According to Bay City News, the revised procedure will have arriving planes alternate between the two runways, with staggered timing keeping one aircraft ahead of the other. The FAA expects the change to bring the clear-weather arrival rate up to 42 flights per hour. It’s still 12 fewer arrivals than SFO could handle before the March changes, but six more than the airport could accommodate prior to Wednesday’s update.

“While this will not fully restore the arrival rate we had when true side-by-side landings were permitted, this is nonetheless a step in the right direction,” Doug Yakel, SFO's spokesperson, told Bay City News.

The staggered approach will only be used during clear weather conditions, as it’s not suitable for low visibility or other weather conditions.

Previously: Delays at SFO Skyrocket Following Runway Closure and New FAA Restrictions

Image: SvetlanaSF/Getty Images

The team behind the Great Dickens Christmas Fair is launching a Gold Rush-era immersive experience at Pier 35 called San Francisco Historium Spotlight later this month, which they aim to make an annual event.

On August 22–23, the waterfront will be transformed into a Gold Rush-era San Francisco with more than 100 performers, 46 custom-built structures, period entertainment, and a historic sailing vessel, as the Chronicle reports. The San Francisco Historium Spotlight is designed as a living-history experience where visitors can pan for gold, explore saloons and shops, watch performances, and interact with characters from the city's early years.

Red Barn Productions, which produces the Dickens Fair, has reportedly been working on the project in warehouses at the Cow Palace for two months. Workers have been constructing the town's makeshift buildings, including a general store, saloons, vendor booths, games, and the Alta California newspaper office, which will then be broken down and transported to Pier 35 a few days before the event.

The recreated streets will meet the docked sailing ship Matthew Turner, which visitors can board as part of the experience. The event will also include historical figures like Mark Twain, Emperor Norton, and Mary Ellen Pleasant.

According to Broadway World, the Historium will feature entertainment and activities throughout the site, including saloon shows, street performers, sea shanties, dancing, gold panning, boat rigging, and period shops. Food offerings will include fish and chips, oysters, cioppino, hangtown fry, and sourdough bread.

Red Barn general manager and Historium producer Drew Patterson told the Chronicle he hopes to eventually expand the event to include neighborhoods such as Chinatown and the Mission District with the goal of extending the timeline through the 1906 earthquake.

Patterson's family has been producing participatory historical theater for generations. His grandparents, Phyllis and Ron Patterson, were pioneers of the Renaissance Faire movement and co-founded the Dickens Fair, which debuted in San Francisco in 1970. Patterson's grandparents also staged an Old San Francisco Waterfront Fair & Nautical Exposition in 1973, an earlier attempt to bring the city's history to life through immersive entertainment.

The production is being billed as an inclusive interpretation of San Francisco history. Per Broadway World, Red Barn consulted with the Chinese Historical Society of America, San Francisco Latino Historical Society, and the Museum of the African Diaspora on the production, and the company says it wants people of all backgrounds to see themselves reflected in the city's history, describing its casting as inclusive.

The emphasis on inclusion comes after a contentious chapter at the Dickens Fair. Back in 2021, Black performers with the Londoners of the African Diaspora, along with members of the London Solidarity Network, boycotted the fair for two years over allegations of racism, sexual harassment, discrimination, pay disparities, and inadequate systems for handling complaints. The groups also raised concerns about the former “Opium Den” or “Le Cave Chinois,” a private room criticized for its use of demeaning Asian stereotypes.

The boycott ended after the groups and Red Barn reached an agreement on revised “Minimum Requirements for a Safe Dickens Fair.” Their joint statement said the agreement followed “open and productive communications” and created a path toward a more equitable future. The requirements included changes addressing discrimination and harassment training, workplace reporting, pay disparities, and the removal of orientalist names and decorations from the former Opium Den.

Problems have also surfaced elsewhere in immersive theater in recent years. In 2024, “The Speakeasy,” a Prohibition-era production in North Beach, was accused of racial and sexual harassment and providing an unsafe work environment.

For the Historium, Patterson told the Chronicle the performers will be empowered to drop character if a visitor makes them uncomfortable, with 40 guest-services staffers available to intervene.

“We’re very particular about the fact that if someone approaches you or interacts with you or says anything that makes you uncomfortable, you drop character,” Patterson said. “You say, ‘Excuse me. That’s inappropriate. I’m a person and a performer too,’ and if necessary get guest services involved.”

The San Francisco Historium Spotlight is being produced in partnership with the San Francisco Historical Society and coincides with the 250th anniversary of the founding of the Presidio of San Francisco and the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

The event runs from 10 am to 6 pm August 22–23 at Pier 35. Tickets are currently $40 for adults, $20 for children ages 5–12, and free for children under 5.

Related: Protest Group Ends Boycott of Dickens Christmas Fair, Says Racism and Groping Allegations Addressed

Image: San Francisco Historium

A jury has awarded $33 million to the young twin girls who were orphaned in a tragic 2022 crash in Redwood City, in which two young men in a street race caused the violent collision along El Camino Real.

As KTVU reports, the jury award comes in a civil case against Cesar Morales, who is now 21 but who was 17 at the time of the crash on November 4, 2022. The twin girls, now 11 and then 7 years old, were in the backseat of their parents' Chevrolet Bolt when Morales, traveling at 80 or 90 miles per hour in his Mercedes, T-boned the Chevrolet and reportedly launched it airborne.

Both parents, Grace Spiridon and Gregory Ammen, were killed instantly, but both girls survived.

Investigators soon arrested Morales along with 25-year-old Kyle Harrison, and it was determined that the two, pulling up alongside one another, had spontaneously decided at an earlier intersection to race each other after a light turned green, with Harrison driving a BMW.

Harrison, who was an adult at the time of the crash, pleaded no contest in October 2024 to charges of vehicular manslaughter, was sentenced to eight years in state prison, and then was found dead in his jail cell last year, one month into that sentence, before the restitution phase of his case could proceed.

Morales was convicted in juvenile court and received only 90 days of home detention, much to the dismay of the victims' family.

In the civil trial, Morales's parents, Arnold Morales and Susana Salto Alvarez, were also found negligent, after plaintiffs' attorneys found that Morales had gotten a speeding ticket a year before the crash, when he was only 16, for going 108 miles per hour on the freeway.

"We are hopeful today’s verdict serves as a wake-up call to Bay Area parents," said the family's attorney, Niall McCarthy, in a statement to KTVU. "You cannot ignore warning signs with your teenage children. Parents need to do more than simply provide a car and hope for the best. They need to act when it is apparent their child needs a course correction. Here, tragically, two young girls no longer have parents because of the Morales family’s decisions."

McCarthy added that "there were a number of points where the parents could have taken action and this tragedy would have been avoided," including after Morales got that speeding ticket.

McCarthy said he was not able to assess the finances of Morales or his family, but he told KTVU he believed that he would be able to collect a "signficant" portion of the $33 million judgment on behalf of the twin girls, who are now being raised by their aunt and uncle.

Previously: Street-Racing Teen May Be Responsible For Crash That Killed Two Peninsula Parents