SPARK Social, the food-truck zone and gathering spot on Mission Bay Boulevard, has announced the cancellation of all upcoming World Cup watch parties following a shooting Tuesday night.

Tuesday's shooting, as we reported earlier, took place on the 600 block of Mission Bay Boulevard around 9:11 pm, moments after the World Cup match in which Mexico triumphed over Ecuador 2-0. There was widespread jubilation at bars and other watch parties around the city, but the watch party at SPARK Social appears to have led to an argument between individuals and a violent conflict.

In a post on Instagram and on the venue's website, SPARK Social said, "We are deeply saddened by the violence that occurred near Spark Social SF following Tuesday evening’s World Cup watch party. Our thoughts are with the two individuals who were injured, their families, and everyone affected, including our guests, staff, vendors, neighbors, and the broader soccer community."

They went on to say that "out of an abundance of caution," all remaining World Cup watch parties at the park have been canceled.

"We are working in conjunction with SFPD, public safety officials, and our security partners as this matter is reviewed," they added. "Because this is an active investigation, we will not speculate further."

SPARK Social, like many restaurants and bars in town, had been planning a watch party for tonight's US versus Bosnia-Herzegovina match, which is expected to draw large crowds — and which is being played here in the Bay Area, at Levi's Stadium.

Only three blocks away, at Thrive City at Chase Center, a watch party is expected to proceed.

A watch party Tuesday night in San Jose also led to violence there and a police response, and in Mexico City, where the match was played Tuesday, four people died in the celebrations immediately following the match, including three who died of asphyxiation.

Below is a video of an earlier watch party from last week's Mexico v Czech Republic match at SPARK Social.

Bar and restaurant owners in neighborhoods with active entertainment zones — where alcohol can be sold and consumed in public during street festivals or other designated events — say the zones have contributed to a significant boost in sales.

As the Chronicle reports, San Francisco now has more than 30 entertainment zones, up from fewer than 10 at the beginning of 2025, with new applications arriving nearly every week, according to the city's Office of Economic and Workforce Development. Other California cities have also reportedly begun looking to replicate San Francisco's model.

As SFist reported previously, in 2024 then-Mayor London Breed passed “entertainment zone” legislation after a new state bill by state Senator Scott Wiener relaxed alcohol restrictions for the zones. Breed’s legislation allows bars to sell to-go cocktails and open container drinks during events when the streets are shut down to cars.

Since then, every neighborhood in SF was clamoring to get their own entertainment zones with Cole Valley, the Castro, the Fillmore, and a slew of others receiving entertainment zone privileges last year. Additionally, all of Valencia Street was granted a zone five days a week, which was later upgraded to seven days a week, even when there are no street festivals happening.

According to the Chronicle, entertainment zones host everything from neighborhood night markets and Pride block parties to World Cup watch parties and cultural festivals, often with live music, DJs, drag shows, local vendors, food trucks, and outdoor seating. The events are typically organized by merchant associations and neighborhood groups in partnership with local businesses, and while they can cost tens of thousands of dollars to produce, business owners say the added foot traffic more than makes up for it.

Valencia Corridor Merchants Association co-vice president and Blondie's Bar owner Nikki DeWald told the outlet that sales at her bar have increased about 20% since the Valencia Street entertainment zone launched. Castro Merchants Association president Nate Bourg said bars in the neighborhood saw sales double during Pride week compared to the year before the zone was established.

“The entertainment zones, when done properly in terms of safety and security and planning, are an extremely positive thing for the future prosperity of San Francisco neighborhood corridors,” Bourg said, speaking to the Chronicle. “This isn't a situation of chaotic partying on the streets. It's a celebration.”

Some residents, however, have raised concerns over noise, street closures, and public drinking, while advocacy group Alcohol Justice has called for stronger oversight to reduce potential harms surrounding the entertainment zones — rather than eliminate the zones altogether.

Previously: Mayor Breed Proposes ‘Entertainment Zone’ Where Bars Can Sell Open Containers for Outdoor Events

Image: The Fillmore Jazz Festival is this weekend, July 4–5/Facebook

Actor and activist Danny Glover went on the Today show Wednesday to reveal that he is living with Alzheimer's disease, and has been for four years now.

Danny Glover, 79, is one of the best known actors in the Bay Area, with over 200 film and television roles in his career, including the Lethal Weapon series, The Color Purple, and Emmy-nominated turns in the miniseries Lonesome Dove and Mandela. Glover appeared on the Today show Wednesday morning, giving an exclusive interview to Lester Holt to discuss his diagnosis with Alzheimer's disease.

Glover was notably halting and a bit slurred in his speech during the interview, telling Holt, "I can live with it, in a sense," but adding, "I’m sure as it advances, things are going to be different."

Glover said he was first diagnosed with the disease, which affects around 7.4 million Americans, in 2022. As KQED notes, according to the Alzheimer's Association, the disease disproportionately affects Black people, with elderly Black people being about twice as likely to have Alzheimer's or another form of dementia as other Americans.

Glover shows off his Academy Award on a shelf in his home, saying it was for his "body of work," but he was actually given the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 2022. The award, named for film actor and onetime president of the Motion Picture Relief Fund Jean Hersholt, is given annually to film industry professionals for their "outstanding contributions to humanitarian causes." The award is given out during the Governors Awards ceremony and not during the Oscars telecast, alongside honorary Oscars that are awarded to actors and others deserving of recognition who have not won competitive Oscars.

In recent years, Glover has made appearances in locally shot films like Sorry to Bother You and The Last Black Man in San Francisco.

Glover tells Holt that his favorite film that he's been in is Places In the Heart, the 1984 film starring Sally Field. He said he dedicated his performance in the film to his mother, who tragically was killed in a car accident on the same day he was cast in the film.

Glover has also been a fixture at protests around the Bay Area for decades, and his activism can be traced back to a student-led strike he took part in at San Francisco State University in 1968 and 1969, which led to the establishment of the country's first College of Ethnic Studies. He has joined in solidarity with unionized BART workers organizing to strike, spoken at the Occupy Oakland protest in Frank Ogawa Plaza, and pressed the city of San Francisco to give the Fillmore Heritage Center back to the Black community in the Fillmore as a form of reparations.

Glover continues to give back with his independent production company Louverture Films, which focuses on global storytelling and "pro-actively supports the employment of cast and crew from historically marginalized communities in the United States."

Organizers of the Trans March are not apologizing for the treatment that state Senator and congressional candidate Scott Wiener received last Friday as he passed through the pre-march rally in Dolores Park.

After Scott Wiener was shouted down and, he says, physically intimidated in Dolores Park as trans community members and their allies gathered ahead of Friday's annual Trans March, Wiener issued a statement saying "when opposition and disagreement transition to harassment, including cornering me, touching me, or trying to physically bully me out of a public event, that crosses a line."

In the video, you can hear at least one person repeatedly yelling, "You piece of shit!" and "We fucking hate you!" Several people can be seen following Wiener as he walks down the center path in the park, crosses Dolores Street, and continues walking down 19th Street.

Dozens of local political leaders, including House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and Supervisor Connie Chan, whom Pelosi has endorsed in the race for her seat over Wiener, have signed on to a letter this week condemning the aggressive treatment of Wiener at the event. The letter said, in part, "This kind of intimidation and harassment is what leads to more extreme acts of political violence, something that San Francisco has painful history with and a responsibility to never repeat."

Now, organizers of the Trans March are doubling down on what occurred, suggesting that Wiener should expect some pushback from the community, and that the incident is being used by Wiener for political gain.

In a statement posted to Instagram Tuesday, organizers say that participants "verbally confronted" Wiener about his policies, and "Scott Wiener was at no point in danger."

"Historically, the public has expressed their opinions to politicians at [the] Trans March, as is their right," the organizers say. "In fact, Trans March has not featured politicians in our programming as a matter of policy since 2016, when Scott Wiener himself was criticized over housing, homelessness, and development issues... Trans March participants holding politicians accountable is nothing new."

The statement goes on to note that "instead of engaging Trans March directly to resolve his concerns, Scott Wiener's campaign went to social media and used the confrontation in fundraising communications." The organizers also say they are "particularly disappointed" that Wiener has continued to "amplify this incident from Friday in national press interviews," and "failed to address the harm and disproportionate response from SFPD" against march participants — some of whom were accused of vandalism and five were arrested.

In a statement to the Chronicle, a spokesperson for Wiener rejected the march organizers' characterization of the incident, noting that Wiener "had no security detail with him" and saying the organizers are "lying to do damage control after all the bad publicity they have received."

While Wiener has not been popular with progressives in the queer community for much of his political career, beginning in his time as SF supervisor as noted in the organizers' statement, as the Chronicle notes, those shouting at Wiener on Friday seemed primarily concerned with his previous refusal to call Israel's war in Palestine a "genocide."

Wiener was notably booed while on stage at a debate with fellow candidates for Congress in January for declining to affirm that a genocide was occurring, only to reverse his stance a week later — something that led to his stepping down from a leadership role in the state legislature's Jewish Caucus.

Per the Chronicle, one protester on Friday yelled, "You do not belong here anymore, Scott. It breaks my heart that someone who wrote good legislation for queers is so fucking terrible on Gaza."

StormMiguel Florez, a community member quoted in a statement by Trans March organizers, says that Wiener's "very recent shift to finally admitting there is a genocide in Gaza holds no water without accountability for the harm he has caused regarding censorship around Palestine."

Wiener has said that while he does not object to public confrontations about his policies, "when opposition and disagreement transition to harassment, including cornering me, touching me, or trying to physically bully me out of a public event, that crosses a line."

Wiener said in an interview with CNN that he felt he was targeted for being Jewish, not because of his policies, per se.

On X, Wiener has reposted the video clip below from Pod Save America, in which the podcast hosts discuss Friday's incident. One of the hosts, Jon Lovett, argues that if you are screaming hatefully at a pro-gay, pro-trans Jewish politician like Wiener who has publicly called Israel's actions in Gaza a genocide, then you are a being anti-Semitic.

"That is as pure anti-Semitism as you can see, and it is corrosive," Lovett says.

Previously: Scott Wiener Booed At Dolores Park, 5 Arrested Following Protests During SF Trans March

State and local officials held a ceremony Monday in celebration of the newly renamed Senator Dianne Feinstein Federal Building at 50 United Nations Plaza.

US Senator Alex Padilla hosted Monday’s ceremony, which was attended by members and former staffers of the late US Senator Dianne Feinstein, along with San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie, as NBC Bay Area reports. Padilla said he hopes future public servants entering the building “reflect on the bar she set.”

“Her impact on gun safety, on environmental protection, on healthcare, of course intelligence oversite,” said Padilla, “it's only fitting that we dedicate this building in her honor.”

According to ABC 7, Lurie said Feinstein’s results-driven approach has served as a model for all future mayors of San Francisco, calling her one of the city’s "great mayors."  

The renaming reportedly stems from legislation introduced in 2024 by Padilla and former Senator Laphonza Butler, who filled Feinstein's vacant seat after her death in 2023. The measure, which also proposed renaming the post office at 180 Steuart Street after Feinstein, passed Congress and was signed into law by then-President Joe Biden.

As SFist reported previously, the international terminal at San Francisco International Airport was also renamed after Feinstein in 2024.

Feinstein served in the US Senate from 1992 until her death at age 90. She was reportedly California's longest-serving senator and the longest-serving woman in Senate history. Prior to the Senate, Feinstein served as San Francisco mayor for a decade after succeeding George Moscone following the 1978 assassinations of Moscone and Harvey Milk. Her political career began with her election to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1969.

Built between 1934 and 1936 and designed by architect Arthur Brown Jr, the old federal building was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987. United Nations Plaza was added alongside the building in 1975, creating the pedestrian plaza that honors the founding of the UN in San Francisco in 1945.

The building was reportedly vacated after the new federal building opened on Seventh Street in 2007 before it was restored and reopened in 2013 as headquarters for the US General Services Administration's Pacific Rim region.

Amusingly, in NBC Bay Area's video coverage of the dedication, there are several seemingly mistaken shots of the Phillip Burton Federal Building on Golden Gate Avenue, which is not being renamed.

Related: SFO's International Terminal to Be Named After Dianne Feinstein, Pending Final Board Approval

Image: Beyond My Ken/Wikimedia

A shooting occurred near a World Cup watch party at SPARK Social in SF’s Mission Bay neighborhood Tuesday night following the game, and both victims are expected to survive.

The San Francisco Police Department said officers responded to reports of a shooting on the 600 block of Mission Bay Boulevard around 9:11 pm, where they found two people suffering from gunshot wounds, as the Chronicle reports. Both were taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Based on a preliminary investigation, police say that an argument between individuals escalated, and a man pulled out a gun and opened fire on the victims before fleeing the scene. No arrests have been made, and the investigation remains ongoing.

The shooting happened outside SPARK Social, the outdoor food truck market and gathering place in SF’s Mission Bay, which had hosted a daylong World Cup watch party that ended with a DJ set after Mexico's match against Ecuador. Police have not said whether the shooting was connected to the event.

As noted by KTVU, another watch party also took place three blocks away at Thrive City outside the Chase Center.

The aftermath of the Mexico v. Ecuador match, in which Mexico won 2-0, also led to some chaos at a massive watch party in San Jose's San Pedro Square, where crowds lingered for about two hours after the match ended, leading police to declare to an unlawful assembly and a dispersal order. Crowds reportedly swarmed an ambulance and climbed on top of it, and two people were reportedly injured in separate stabbings.

A large crowd also took over an intersection in the Pacoima neighborhood of Los Angeles in the aftermath of Tuesday night's match, and a sideshow broke out.

Update: SPARK Social announced on Wednesday that all remaining World Cup watch parties planned at the venue have been canceled, "out of an abundance of caution."

Related: Mexico-Ecuador World Cup Watch Party In San Jose Expected to Draw Tens of Thousands

Image: Google Street View

Photo by Stephanie Rice

• Supervisor Jackie Fielder is investigating the San Francisco Police Department’s handling of the unsanctioned “Stud Alley” block party Saturday night. Fielder submitted a letter of inquiry about the night’s timeline of events and requested a report on the number of overtime hours and costs logged by the department that night. [KQED]
• The Downtown SF Partnership and Noise Pop’s free event series is set to return to the FiDi's Front Street entertainment zone on select Fridays through the fall. The first event of the season will be Brat + Bratwurst Summer on July 31, featuring a Charli XCX look-alike contest, face painting, and street games. [Chronicle]
• Musician Oliver Tree, who died earlier this month, arranged for all of his money to benefit emerging artists through “Dr. Oliver Tree’s Extremely Epic Art Grant for Baby Geniuses.” Tree’s memorial will be held at the University of California-Santa Cruz’s Quarry Amphitheater on July 25, which will also be live-streamed. [RollingStone]

National:

• President Donald Trump reported earning more than $1.1 billion from cryptocurrency ventures, including at least $524 million from the Trump-backed World Liberty Financial and roughly $635 million from licensing his $TRUMP meme coin. [ABC News]
• NPR incorrectly reported that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito was retiring before issuing a retraction. [New York Mag]
• Representatives Mike Lawler (R-New York) and Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) took part in a shouting match during a hearing on sanctuary policies Tuesday after Ruskin claimed that cities “like New York and Chicago blatantly disregard existing law and provide safe harbor to criminals.” [The Hill]

Video:

• Jello Biafra took the stage at TentacleFest at Great American Music Hall over the weekend following a hemorrhagic stroke in March. Biafra emceed Saturday’s show and sang a number alongside Wheelchair Sports Camp while donning a military uniform with no pants.

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

Fans rooting for Mexico have consistently packed the World Cup watch parties at San Jose’s San Pedro Square, with tonight’s match against Ecuador expected to attract tens of thousands of spectators.

As NBC Bay Area reports, San Pedro Square businesses have been preparing for another surge of fans after Mexico's earlier World Cup matches drew standing-room-only crowds, with supporters lining up hours before kickoff.

Merchants say Mexico and US matches have generated the biggest crowds of the tournament, and some vendors have already sold out of Mexico jerseys and other team merchandise.

There was a shooting Sunday night near San Pedro Square which left one person dead and another wounded, but police said they did not believe it was it was linked to a watch party that had been going on earlier that evening.

Watch parties are also planned across the Bay Area for Tuesday's match, with another large turnout expected Wednesday when the US men's national team faces Bosnia and Herzegovina at Levi's Stadium, according to KPIX.

Wednesday’s game marks just the second time the US men’s team has played a World Cup knockout match at home since they were defeated by Brazil at Stanford Stadium in 1994.

Related: How to Watch the First World Cup Matches, at Home or at an SF Bar

Image: Football fans gather to watch USA and Paraguay at San Pedro Square for a FIFA World Cup watch party on June 12, 2026 in San Jose, California. (Photo by Emilee Chinn/Getty Images)

A repository of a significant piece of California history in San Bruno is set to be shuttered by the federal government, and it causing alarm for historians and researchers who wonder where they will need to go to access the trove of genealogical and immigration records.

The National Archives at San Francisco, one of multiple federal records centers around the country, is located in San Bruno, and as KQED reports, it is set to close within a few months. An email about the closure was sent to the center's staff last Wednesday.

Among the records that are stored at the center are the full case file and immigration records related to the United States v. Wong Kim Ark case, the birthright citizenship case out of San Francisco that was widely cited in today's Supreme Court decision upholding birthright citizenship.

The 75,000-square-foot records center also holds immigration records for hundreds of thousands who immigrated through Angel Island, records pertaining to Indigenous tribes across California and Nevada, and documents from federal agencies with offices in Northern California, Guam, Hawaii, Nevada, and American Samoa, as KQED explains. There are also inmate records from Alcatraz, and plenty of other primary source materials useful to researchers and genealogists alike.

Kris Kasianovitz, library director at the Institute of Governmental Studies Library at UC Berkeley, tells KQED, "This just feels like an attack on access to key government records. They are there in order to provide evidence for the historical record for the long-term."

The records will reportedly be relocated to other record centers, but the email to staff did not reportedly specify which. As NBC Bay Area reports, the email noted that closures are coming for National Archives centers in Seattle and Chicago as well.

Previously, in 2024, the National Archives announced closures of centers in New York, Illinois, and Ohio, which were billed as a cost-cutting measure.

Photo via Google Street View

Tech workers who moved to San Francisco in recent years and snapped up rental housing — likely contributing to rising prices along the way — are now finding themselves priced out by the new wave of “AI elite” arrivals.

As the New York Times reports, tech workers who moved to San Francisco during the post-pandemic era are discovering that even comfortably padded salaries don’t go very far in a city now increasingly priced for the “AI elite” set to cash in on OpenAI and Anthropic going public.

Katrine Razniak and Adam Woodbury, who together reportedly earn well into the mid-six figures, spent three months this spring searching for a one-bedroom apartment under $5,000 a month. They looked at around 30 units but kept getting outbid or priced out before they eventually gave up. According to the Times, Woodbury has since moved to Carnelian Bay near Lake Tahoe, and Razniak remains in a Haight-Ashbury apartment shared with roommates, paying $1,650 a month.

“I don’t feel completely hopeless, but I don’t think I can stay in SF,” Razniak said.

Woodbury told the Times, apparently without irony, “I feel a little bit like I’m not good enough to live here anymore because I don’t work at an AI company.”

As SFist reported previously, the AI boom prompted rents to begin spiking last November. In April, a Zumper survey determined the average rent was $4,000 a month. Median home prices are above $1.7 million, and overall costs are about 65% higher than the national average, based on data from the Council for Community and Economic Research.

The Times reports that utilities in SF reportedly run about 41% above the national average, transportation costs are roughly 43% higher, and groceries are about 19% more expensive. Additionally, vacancy rates in neighborhoods like the Marina, Pacific Heights, and SoMa have reportedly dropped to around 3%, down from roughly 13% in 2020.

Pressure is expected to increase as companies like OpenAI and Anthropic move toward public listings, with analysts estimating the creation of dozens of new billionaires among current and former employees.

SF's Chief Economist Ted Egan told the Times that while high earners have long weighed whether San Francisco's costs are worth it, the scale of today's AI wealth is unprecedented. By comparison, Uber's 2019 IPO valued the company at about $82 billion — a fraction of the estimated valuations of OpenAI and Anthropic.

“OpenAI and Anthropic are estimated to be more than 10 times that,” said Egan.

Previously: Median Rent for San Francisco One-Bedroom Apartment Hits $4,000/Mo

Image: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Pride parade-goers on Sunday may have seen someone in a Deadpool costume dancing skillfully up Market Street, much like the famed Dancepool who appears in the opening of Deadpool & Wolverine. And that was, in fact, the real Dancepool.

Dancepool, aka trained dancer Nick Pauley, actually grew up in San Francisco and has attended SF Pride before, but never in the Deadpool getup — which had to have been pretty hot and constricting, dancing up the entire two-mile parade route. But, Pauley says, he had a blast at this year's parade on Sunday.

"I was born in San Francisco. My first Pride was at 17 years old in San Francisco," Pauley writes on Instagram. "The first time I ever performed at any Pride festival was at the Civic Center in 2019, and now… my first US Pride parade IS IN SF."

Pauley, who was cast in the 2024 film Deadpool & Wolverine as Ryan Reynolds's dance stand-in — memorably dancing to NSYNC's "Bye Bye Bye" in between doing battle in the film's opening scene —  danced alongside a contingent of fellow actors from the SAG-AFTRA union.

He added, "So so grateful to celebrate Love in my favorite city. I’m honored to have walked with my fellow members in @sagaftra - Thank you to everyone I shared today with. One of the best experiences ever and definitely my favorite SF Pride."

Later on the parade route, as seen in the clip below, he did take the mask off to cool down.

Pauley credits his dad with shooting all the footage, saying, "I’m so impressed. He killed it."

Pauley is an out gay man and a real-life Magic Mike who dances with the Chippendales, and he's danced with Sam Smith and Kim Petras at the Grammy Awards, in Doja Cat's "Get Into It (Yuh)" video, as well as in the movie The Prom.

And he's occasionally been known to post thirst traps when home in San Francisco.

A company promoting environmentally friendly burials wants to build a new cemetery in Napa County, but county officials and nearby residents are raising concerns about the project's potential environmental and community impacts.

Eternal Preserve Holdings LLC, which is run by land conservation nonprofit the Wildlands Conservancy, wants to create the cemetery on roughly 109 acres at 1225 Howell Mountain Road in Napa County, as the Press Democrat reports. The project would use about 16 acres for burial sites, with the remaining land preserved for conservation. Plans also include public trails, a welcome center, parking, and a new well.

Green burials reportedly use biodegradable caskets or shrouds without embalming chemicals or concrete vaults, allowing bodies to naturally decompose. Supporters say the approach is both environmentally friendly and more affordable than traditional burials.

According to the Press Democrat, Eternal Preserve Holdings operates an existing green cemetery in Placer County, one of six such facilities in California listed on the Green Burial Council website.

“Everything that’s put into the earth is biodegradable,” Morgan Oaks Eternal Preserve cemetery manager Stephanie Brow told commissioners. “The body can feed the soil and leave a legacy.”

At a community meeting earlier this month, residents questioned whether the environmental review adequately addressed groundwater contamination, traffic, and fire risks.

Per the Press Democrat, some of the commissioners said they also want more information about the site's hydrology, geology, and expected traffic, with Commissioner Walter Brooks calling for a full environmental impact report before moving forward with the proposal.

Related: Invasive Insect Found on Costco Plants In Solano County Could Pose Threat to Napa Grapevines

Image: Mikesclark/Wikimedia

A man has come forward with an allegation of sexual assault or battery against cafe owner and rising political figure Manny Yekutiel, which was reported to police but which did not result in any arrest or charges.

The allegations, which were reported Tuesday by the SF Standard, were brought by Brad Joseph Chapin, a political activist and former board member of the Harvey Milk LGBTQ Democratic Club — a fact that brings with it its own whiff of political motivations, because the club has endorsed Yekutiel's opponent in the District 8 supervisor race, Gary McCoy.

Chapin says that on the night of February 21, 2020, he attended what sounds like a small sex party at a Mission District apartment. It's described only as "a small gathering in the Mission home of a couple he knew well," and Chapin says he went looking for the couple who lived there, in their bedroom, but they turned out to be in an adjoining bathroom.

In the bedroom, though, was a man by himself, "wearing a beanie and sweating." Chapin would only later recogize this man as Yekutiel, and he claims that Yekutiel approached him aggressively, "stuck one of his hands down my pants and grabbed me and was squeezing me and intentionally causing pain."

"It was bizarre. He literally had me by the testicles," Chapin tells the Standard. "It was intentionally sexually demeaning."

He further claims that Yekutiel pressed further, as if he were intending to penetrate his anus with a finger. When Chapin says he pushed Yekutiel off, he claims that Yekutiel lifted his shirt and expressed what Chapin interpreted to be disgust at his stomach and lack of fitness.

Chapin only filed a police report about the incident in April of this year, but he showed the Standard a contemporaneous text message he sent to a friend in which he says, "Manny just sexually assaulted me without realizing it was me."

Chapin says that he and Yekutiel knew each other vaguely through political circles, and he had declined to report the incident earlier out of shame and embarassment.

Yekutiel denies the allegations, telling the Standard that Chapin's "account changed more than once."

"These allegations are false. What is being described did not happen," Yekutiel says in a statement. “When he reached out to me, I told him directly that it didn’t happen. He filed a police report, the police investigated, and took no further action. They said they didn’t even need to interview me."

Whether there is truth to the allegations or not, they appear to already be causing trouble for Yekutiel's political ambitions, and for his reputation as a kind of impresario of political discourse at his Mission District cafe.

Per the Standard, in a separate article, House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi canceled a planned March 8 appearance at Manny's for International Women's Day, saying she "heard there was a public accusation of sexual impropriety against the owner." The Standard further notes that McCoy, Yekutiel's opponent for D8 supervisor, works as an aide to Pelosi.

The publication further notes that Yekutiel, the more moderate candidate, has been leading in the race, in polling and fundraising, and has endorsements from Board of Supervisors President and current D8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, D5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, and former Mayor Willie Brown, as well as national celebrities like Senator Corey Booker and Jane Fonda.

It would seem that the police don't believe that the allegations rise to the level of assault, though they do suggest a nonconsensual groping encounter that may have occurred in the context of a sexually charged, late-night house party.

So far, no other news outlet has covered the allegations.

Yekutiel, who publicly toyed with a run for mayor in late 2023 but quickly walked that back, has not been quiet about his own political ambitions. He has worked with Mayor Daniel Lurie on the Civic Joy Fund since before Lurie became mayor, and has helped spearhead popular events like Downtown First Thursdays.

He told the Examiner earlier this month that his goal is "to make District 8 the most business-friendly district in the city," and he floated the ambitious plan of getting 10,000 new homes built in the Castro over the next eight years, focusing particularly on the stretch of Market between Castro and Octavia streets — although many of the developable sites on that stretch have already been developed over the last decade.

Previously: Manny Yekutiel of Manny’s Fame Declares He’s Running for District 8 Supervisor

A Supreme Court precedent from over 100 years ago, in a case brought by a Chinese American man born in San Francisco, was cited multiple times in today's ruling by the court upholding birthright citizenship as guaranteed in the 14th Amendment.

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday on its final cases of the term, handing a widely foreseen win to conservative culture warriors in a case pertaining to trans athletes in youth sports. But in a second ruling, the high court found that the Constitution does guarantee a right to birthright citizenship, contrary to the Trump administration's position that the wording of the 14th Amendment does not pertain to visitors or undocumented immigrants.

"Children born in the United States to parents unlawfully or temporarily present are 'subject to the jurisdiction' of the United States and are citizens at birth under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause," writes Chief Justice John Roberts for the majority. The opinion cites English common law, in part, for the basis of the opinion, and Roberts goes on to write, "The Citizenship Clause’s key phrase—'subject to the jurisdiction' — refers to the power of the United States to govern those within its territory."

The Trump camp had tried to argue that, contrary to a century and a half of interpretation of the 14th Amendment, words like "subject to the jurisdiction" exempted those who have come here, legally or illegally, who remain bound in allegiance to their home countries.

There was also argument around the word "domicile," which harkens back to the court's decision in 1898 in the case of Wong Kim Ark, a young Chinese American man who was born to Chinese parents who were "domiciled" in San Francisco's Chinatown at the time. The Wong Kim Ark case also affirmed that jurisdiction question pertained to all people born in the US, with very few exceptions.

"In Wong Kim Ark, the Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment was 'declaratory' of the 'fundamental rule of citizenship by birth' that prevailed at common law... excluding only those recognized as exempt 'from the jurisdiction of this country' — the 'children of ambassadors' and those born in the nations of Indian tribes," Roberts writes for the majority.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined Roberts and the three liberal justices in the opinion, with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson writing a separate concurring opinion — that she says is solely there to call out the legal and constitutional problems with the principal dissenting opinion, which was written by Justice Clarence Thomas.

"Despite his longstanding endorsement of a 'colorblind' Constitution, JUSTICE THOMAS now surprisingly suggests that the Citizenship Clause was a race-conscious remedial measure, relating only to 'freed slaves such as Dred Scott,' ... and those who shared with them certain characteristics," Jackson writes. "But that narrow vision of the Fourteenth Amendment bears little relationship to the history of its ratification."

Despite the fact that there has been a minor wave of so-called "birth tourism" in the US for years — and it has likely declined just because of global hostility toward Trump — Justice Samuel Alito, in a separate dissent called the majority opinion a "serious mistake" that will lead to hordes of birth tourists who will return immediately to their home countries. Alito calls this "one of the most important decisions in the history of the Court," and he seems to shrug off the plight of children born to undocumented immigrants whose status would be thrown into limbo had this decision gone the other way.

"Some members of this group have lived here for years, and they have a strong moral claim to be able to remain in the land where they grew up," Alito writes. "Congress can and should address their situation."

Celebrating the decision, the attorney who argued in favor of birthright citizenship, Cecillia Wang of the ACLU, said in a statement, "The court’s decision reaffirms a fundamental American promise — if you are born here, you are a citizen. A president cannot change the Constitution by executive fiat."

And Sandra Wong, one of the descendants of Wong Kim Ark, said in a statement to the New York Times, "You’re born here, you belong here... My great grandfather never set out to become a symbol. But he stood up for what was right and that made a difference."

Her brother, Norman Wong, added, "All Americans need to stand up for their rights. Our rights are not privileges, and we can’t let the government or anyone in it take them away."

President Trump issued an executive order as soon as he took office last year calling for an end to birthright citizenship. Trump's order would not have been retroactive for all those who already have US citizenship, however it would have created a slippery slope toward questioning their status as well — and it would have put in limbo anyone born here since Trump's order was issued.

Previously: Who Was the San Francisco Man Who Sued the US Government 131 Years Ago Over Birthright Citizenship?