UPDATE (8/17/2020, 5:05 p.m.) — .UPDATE (8/11/2020, 7 p.m.) — After speaking with the organizer behind the Floating Boat Cinema, who insisted the event is “in the pipeline,” we felt obliged to add the word “Probably” to this headline. A longer story is still forthcoming.After learning about a potential plot to gather contact information from an report, we’ve retracted our previous article about “floating cinemas,” which were (supposedly) set to take place in the Bay Area this September.Based upon our research it seems highly likely that the event was never going to happen. We are...…UPDATE (8/17/2020, 5:05 p.m.) — .UPDATE (8/11/2020, 7 p.m.) — After speaking with the organizer behind the Floating Boat Cinema, who insisted the event is “in the pipeline,” we felt obliged to add the word “Probably” to this headline. A longer story is still forthcoming.After learning about a potential plot to gather contact information from an report, we’ve retracted our previous article about “floating cinemas,” which were (supposedly) set to take place in the Bay Area this September.Based upon our research it seems highly likely that the event was never going to happen. We are...WW…

The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts yesterday that it is eliminating 27 staff positions, over a third of its total staff, due to the significant financial impact caused by the coronavirus shutdown.For the past three months, YBCA’s payroll expenses have been supported by a $1.5 million Paycheck Protection Program loan. Those funds have now run out.The YBCA saw a $3.5 million decrease in gross revenue in the 2019–20 fiscal year. In addition, for the 2020–21 fiscal year, the YBCA is projecting a loss of $6.8 million in gross revenue from its rental program, annual fundraisers and anticipated...…The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts yesterday that it is eliminating 27 staff positions, over a third of its total staff, due to the significant financial impact caused by the coronavirus shutdown.For the past three months, YBCA’s payroll expenses have been supported by a $1.5 million Paycheck Protection Program loan. Those funds have now run out.The YBCA saw a $3.5 million decrease in gross revenue in the 2019–20 fiscal year. In addition, for the 2020–21 fiscal year, the YBCA is projecting a loss of $6.8 million in gross revenue from its rental program, annual fundraisers and anticipated...WW…

There’s something incongruous about stepping off of a packed BART train into a vast parking lot. The fact that the very same stations that allow so many people to get around without a car are themselves surrounded by cars does not make for great symbolism. Nor does it make much environmental, financial, or spatial sense, according to BART policy. Since 2005, the agency has been trying to transform its many surface parking lots into bustling mixed-use neighborhoods, with new homes, offices, and stores. Progress has been slow going. Many of the cities in which BART stations are located...…There’s something incongruous about stepping off of a packed BART train into a vast parking lot. The fact that the very same stations that allow so many people to get around without a car are themselves surrounded by cars does not make for great symbolism. Nor does it make much environmental, financial, or spatial sense, according to BART policy. Since 2005, the agency has been trying to transform its many surface parking lots into bustling mixed-use neighborhoods, with new homes, offices, and stores. Progress has been slow going. Many of the cities in which BART stations are located...WW…

There’s something incongruous about stepping off of a packed BART train into a vast parking lot. The fact that the very same stations that allow so many people to get around without a car are themselves surrounded by cars does not make for great symbolism. Nor does it make much environmental, financial, or spatial sense, according to BART policy. Since 2005, the agency has been trying to transform its many surface parking lots into bustling mixed-use neighborhoods, with new homes, offices, and stores. Progress has been slow going. Many of the cities in which BART stations are located are...…There’s something incongruous about stepping off of a packed BART train into a vast parking lot. The fact that the very same stations that allow so many people to get around without a car are themselves surrounded by cars does not make for great symbolism. Nor does it make much environmental, financial, or spatial sense, according to BART policy. Since 2005, the agency has been trying to transform its many surface parking lots into bustling mixed-use neighborhoods, with new homes, offices, and stores. Progress has been slow going. Many of the cities in which BART stations are located are...WW…

For Chinatown restaurants, hope is in the open air. Community leaders are optimistic that the Chinatown Walkway Weekends program, which debuted this past Saturday and Sunday on Grant Avenue, could bring business, and revenue, back to struggling eateries and shops. The full closure of three city blocks to give restaurants and stores more space for outdoor service makes Grant San Francisco’s first “shared street,” and perhaps a portent of things to come as the pandemic rages on. “The main goal of this is to help the restaurants. The restaurants are really hurting,” says Harlan Wong, director...…For Chinatown restaurants, hope is in the open air. Community leaders are optimistic that the Chinatown Walkway Weekends program, which debuted this past Saturday and Sunday on Grant Avenue, could bring business, and revenue, back to struggling eateries and shops. The full closure of three city blocks to give restaurants and stores more space for outdoor service makes Grant San Francisco’s first “shared street,” and perhaps a portent of things to come as the pandemic rages on. “The main goal of this is to help the restaurants. The restaurants are really hurting,” says Harlan Wong, director...WW…

Gay bathhouses could have an easier time returning to San Francisco, after the board of supervisors approved an ordinance that would ease restrictions for adult sex venues on July 21 with a unaminous vote.This will amend the Heath Code, requiring the Director of Health to “adopt minimum health and safety standards” for commercial adult sex venues. It will also remove decades-old policies that required these businesses to monitor sexual activities and prohibited private rooms and locked doors.These regulations were put in place , when the AIDS crisis was devastating gay communities in San...…Gay bathhouses could have an easier time returning to San Francisco, after the board of supervisors approved an ordinance that would ease restrictions for adult sex venues on July 21 with a unaminous vote.This will amend the Heath Code, requiring the Director of Health to “adopt minimum health and safety standards” for commercial adult sex venues. It will also remove decades-old policies that required these businesses to monitor sexual activities and prohibited private rooms and locked doors.These regulations were put in place , when the AIDS crisis was devastating gay communities in San...WW…

When Mira Manickam-Shirley got a job as a naturalist in the Marin headlands, she found herself living by the beach for the first time in her life, and she wanted to learn how to surf.She remembers a running bit she had with one of her first surf buddies there. “He was always like, ‘Yeah, just look for me, the blonde dude in the water.’ The joke was like, everyone’s a blonde dude.”But in Manickham-Shirley’s experience, it is a joke that rings true. She’s always been one of the only women and people of color in the lineup — where surfers wait for breaking waves.The stereotype is somewhat...…When Mira Manickam-Shirley got a job as a naturalist in the Marin headlands, she found herself living by the beach for the first time in her life, and she wanted to learn how to surf.She remembers a running bit she had with one of her first surf buddies there. “He was always like, ‘Yeah, just look for me, the blonde dude in the water.’ The joke was like, everyone’s a blonde dude.”But in Manickham-Shirley’s experience, it is a joke that rings true. She’s always been one of the only women and people of color in the lineup — where surfers wait for breaking waves.The stereotype is somewhat...WW…

Another day, another housing battle in San Francisco.Unsurprisingly, the can got kicked down the road, providing little solace for supporters or opponents of a small development in Corona Heights. But while nothing happened at the Nov. 19 Planning Commission meeting, much was revealed about San Francisco’s municipal bloodsport of housing policy. The subject of the latest bout? A proposal from the owner and resident of a two-unit building on 17th Street to transform his street-facing backyard into a three-unit building, and construct an additional unit in the existing building, for a...…Another day, another housing battle in San Francisco.Unsurprisingly, the can got kicked down the road, providing little solace for supporters or opponents of a small development in Corona Heights. But while nothing happened at the Nov. 19 Planning Commission meeting, much was revealed about San Francisco’s municipal bloodsport of housing policy. The subject of the latest bout? A proposal from the owner and resident of a two-unit building on 17th Street to transform his street-facing backyard into a three-unit building, and construct an additional unit in the existing building, for a...WW…

It gives me zero pleasure to say “I told you so,” but after this country lost so many of what Variety once called “ozoners,” drive-ins — the only movie theaters left open during this surreal pandemic summer — are back.Based out of San Rafael, and with six theaters across the country, West Wind Drive-ins represent “the largest drive-in chain in the world.” They operate the closest drive-in to San Francisco: the Solano D-I near Concord.There’s easy access to this two-screen D-I from three different East Bay freeways, and it’s blessedly located outside the marine layer. If you go, it’s an...…It gives me zero pleasure to say “I told you so,” but after this country lost so many of what Variety once called “ozoners,” drive-ins — the only movie theaters left open during this surreal pandemic summer — are back.Based out of San Rafael, and with six theaters across the country, West Wind Drive-ins represent “the largest drive-in chain in the world.” They operate the closest drive-in to San Francisco: the Solano D-I near Concord.There’s easy access to this two-screen D-I from three different East Bay freeways, and it’s blessedly located outside the marine layer. If you go, it’s an...WW…

People are leaving San Francisco. Since the onset of the pandemic, which has significantly diminished so many of the amenities that have long convinced renters to pay top dollar for comparatively small living spaces, this flight has been observed in the many moving trucks criss-crossing the city. It has also been borne out in the falling median price of one- and two-bedroom apartments — both of which are going for than what they commanded a year ago. Now another metric underscores the trend.According to United States Postal Service data obtained by , change-of-address requests originating...…People are leaving San Francisco. Since the onset of the pandemic, which has significantly diminished so many of the amenities that have long convinced renters to pay top dollar for comparatively small living spaces, this flight has been observed in the many moving trucks criss-crossing the city. It has also been borne out in the falling median price of one- and two-bedroom apartments — both of which are going for than what they commanded a year ago. Now another metric underscores the trend.According to United States Postal Service data obtained by , change-of-address requests originating...WW…