“There just wasn’t a choice. It was totally out of our hands."

Fire season brings dangerous risks to wedding season

Northern California wedding venues and their guests hope for the perfect day while dealing with some very imperfect conditions

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Scott Wiener's new attack features a "parody" chatbot of Connie Chan that makes her out to be a glib obstructionist. We spoke to Wiener, Chan, and a local politics expert about this brand-new tactic: subtxt.to/KE1lUMH

A parody Connie Chan chatbot is Scott Wiener’s newest tactic

ConnieChan.AI uses Anthropic’s tech for an interactive attack, and Chan responds

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Local ghostwriters, English teachers, and other lovers of whimsical community projects have offered to pitch in on this new "AI" project. That and more in our Manic Monday roundup of the buzziest news from over the weekend:

The new AI billboard locals actually like

Plus, OpenAI did a brand trip for influencers

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Ahead of today's Jollibee grand opening, a company executive answered some of our most pressing questions about what took so long.

Jollibee Watch: All (well, most) has been revealed

A Jollibee exec answers some of our pressing questions

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Neighborly but not locals-only, hip but certainly not hipster, Fool’s Errand strikes the perfect balance between nonchalant atmosphere and sophisticated wine selection.

Drinking Companion: Fool’s Errand is the wise choice

If you can take some noise and don’t mind the first dates, this buzzy NoPa wine bar is perfect for after-work plots

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In May, some 15 Yale undergrads crammed into their first hacker house in Nob Hill. Now, they're walking away with $17 million for their startups. “I’m super thrilled by the outcome,” said Nicolas Gertler, a co-founder of the house. “It far exceeded a lot of the expectations we had.”

Yalies raised $17 million this summer in Nob Hill hacker house

For a group of fresh-faced entrepreneurs, securing VC funding was probably easier than finding white clam pizza

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For his latest San Francisco Plays Itself film column, @yourprotagonistwt.bsky.social rewatched the 2014 remake of ‘Godzilla’ set partially in San Francisco: sf.gazetteer.co/ordinary-peo...

Ordinary People

San Francisco has been destroyed in a lot of movies (thanks, Hollywood), but 2014’s ‘Godzilla’ reboot made the place feel real

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Oktoberfest is still a few months away, but these dudes have been "training" for a while — in fact, they never quite stop. On a recent Saturday, our business reporter @cydhayes.bsky.social headed to an Oakland biergarten to party with the lederhosen-wearing men's club known as the Hacker Herren.

For the Hacker Herren, every day is Oktoberfest

Hoisting a pint with members of the nationwide beer-guzzling men’s club as they train for Munich

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Mark Zuckerberg dropped a manifesto yesterday about how "institutions" will destroy superintelligent AI. More concerning: How vague and mealy-mouthed he's being about all this. @eddiekimx.bsky.social lays out the hypocrisy:

Asshole shrugged

A Wall Street Journal op-ed-cum-manifesto by Mark Zuckerberg shows the utter failure of his super intelligence

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Bosco, a wood-fired California-Italian restaurant in SoMa, isn’t letting a moment of midsummer magic slip away with a tasting menu honoring the bright, juicy star of the season.

Tomatoes are for lovers

Bosco’s vine-to-table tasting menu showcases summer’s seeded superstars, including an heirloom sorbet

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Generations of San Francisco progressives gathered to honor former mayor Art Agnos. His speech, and presence, were reminders of the city’s political heritage.

The Art Agnos way

Daniel Lurie, Nancy Pelosi, Connie Chan and others celebrate the life and progressive legacy of the city’s mayor from 1988 to 1992

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A shooting outside Holy Stitch on Market Street has left one person with "life-threatening" injuries.

Shooting outside of Holy Stitch leaves one hurt with 'life-threatening' injuries

The aftermath of the incident was captured and posted on Instagram

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Relaxed in the sun this weekend? Don't worry, we'll catch you up on the latest online goss: An AI insurance startup is launching an 'artist residency' in Dogpatch, the Stud's troubling suspension from Instagram, Elon's latest crashout, and more. Read the Manic Monday roundup:

Corgi hits the Dogpatch

Plus, the Stud ends up in Meta’s crosshairs

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The SF marathoners are marathoning down Haight Street. 📸 @cydhayes.bsky.social

Enjoy the summer sun with the softest serves in town 🍦☀️

SF's soft serve renaissance

Elevated riffs on this childhood classic are why you should never skip dessert

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Boots Riley reads the Gaz. Do u? @bootsriley.bsky.social

“We're not looking for scale. We're looking to just find people who actually want to pay to read this and so far it's seeming to work out." We spoke to @aliciadkennedy.bsky.social @jayasaxena.com @caleweissman.bsky.social @capermedia.bsky.social about the state of indie food media:

Welcome to the artisanal food media era

The portions may be smaller, but independent restaurant and recipe publications are savoring every morsel

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The State Department's going after "communists," and Marco Rubio's new report this week targets two Bay Area figures. Here's who they are:

State Department targets SF figures in new ‘anti-communist’ report

Former district attorney and longtime pro-Palestine activist are among 43 people and organizations called out by the Trump administration

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Philz’s 80-plus California and Chicago locations now feature matcha blends, six years after they first teased it.

Philz lets it matcha flag fly

The beloved yet beleaguered private equity-backed caffeine spot sets its sights on a different shade of green

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SCOOP: Remember the guy with the "Saikat lives in Maryland" van? He's back with anti-Connie Chan branding, but we uncovered that he's quietly getting paid by a pro-Scott Wiener PAC. The PAC denies any wrongdoing, and says it's paying for office work:

More than a man with a van: Guy behind the viral ‘Saikat lives in Maryland’ van has money ties to a pro-Wiener PAC

Conor Johnston has been paid nearly $30,000 by the PAC — but allegedly not for the van

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After five days of intense symptoms, the advice of two nurses, two days of waiting for an appointment, one special stool test, and four more days of waiting for the lab results, she was able to confirm that she was positive for cyclosporiasis.

San Francisco resident tests positive for cyclosporiasis

‘It's the worst thing I've ever gone through’

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“This will probably rip the website apart,” one commenter posted on X this morning in response to this morning's release.

Substack adds AI detection tool to its platform

The feature will help make sure the platform doesn’t ‘turn into LinkedIn,’ per CEO Chris Best

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We can finally, FINALLY confirm that the Jollibee in downtown San Francisco will open July 31.

Jollibee Watch: July 31 will forever be known as Jollibee Day

Rejoice, one and all, for the bee’s downtown arrival has been confirmed

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“San Francisco needs more of this, not less,” said Connie Chan, who was among the attendees at the grand re-opening party for Oasis on Friday. Charles Lewis III reports: sf.gazetteer.co/oasis-is-too...

Oasis is too beautiful to die

Saved from closure at the end of last year, the beloved drag venue had a little work done and is better than ever

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We (literally) ran to the scene of a big explosion in the Financial District at about 3:15 p.m. Here's what we found:

Loud explosion in the Financial District draws crowds

First responders say it was a firework; no injuries were reported

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The pinnacle tech company is seeing soaring expenses, a credit-score disaster, and, consequently, banks unwilling to give it more billions. That and more in today's roundup of tech news from over the weekend. Read our Manic Monday roundup:

Oracle couldn’t predict its downfall

Plus, Claude goes math mode, Will Hunting-style

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We had a long chat with Connie Chan amid the thick of her bid for Congress. Here's what she said about her final summer leading the city's budget work, a election-night call with Nancy Pelosi, and plans to unionize DC:

Connie Chan is in the driver’s seat

‘There were a lot of people counting us out,’ says the primary winner and D1 supervisor as she downshifts her role as budget chair and kicks her run for Congress into high gear

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Yardsale, an outdoor gear company founded by two former tech workers, just opened the doors to their first brick-and-mortar location in Cole Valley. The neighborhood has gone from skeptical to stoked.

Yardsale has won over Cole Valley with après-ski vibes

After months of construction delays and $30,000 worth of damaged inventory, an outdoor equipment store and coffee shop is finally open

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Flock cameras and the city's "public safety cameras" are both used to track suspects and crack down on crime. One has strict rules and public input on how, why, and where they're installed and who gets to access the data. The other is Flock.

The SFPD technicality that may bring a Flock to your street

What’s the difference between license plate readers and ‘public safety’ cameras? A lot, according to the city

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San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors passed a largely symbolic resolution supporting more traffic speed safety cameras. Another pedestrian death, just hours before the vote, underlined the importance of turning the measure into policy:

Pedestrian is struck and killed in SoMa on the same day the Board of Supervisors endorse speed cameras

Data shows the 33 cameras placed around the city are working, but advocates demand more to deter reckless drivers

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