As recently as 2009, California was virtually broke. Facing a $24 billion deficit on a budget of approximately $100 million, the state furloughed employees, paid I.O.U.’s instead of tax refunds, and used every type of financial chicanery to move stuff around. At one point, the deficit was feared to be

Bay Area legislators have been urging the governor to snap it up before someone else does.

As 2024 winds down, we’re reflecting on another incredible year of sharing the stories, art, culture, and nightlife that make the Bay Area so unique. BrokeAssStuart.com wouldn’t be what it is without you—our community of readers, supporters, and believers in independent media. This year, instead of asking you to join Patreon

Sooner or later, Northern California will experience a major earthquake. Statistically, it’s likely to be on the Hayward Fault, which means less-affluent parts of the Bay Area like Oakland and Richmond may bear the brunt of the destruction. The recovery will be arduous, and decades-long, and it will almost certainly

“There’s always a tweet” has been the axiom of the Trump era, the definitive proof that almost any ridiculous thing the president says or does will have been preceded by an accusation that someone else was doing it. It’s as true as “There’s always a bigger fish” or “There’s always

Sam Jordan’s Bar wasn’t the only long-running San Francisco institution whose street got renamed for it that closed in 2019. Tonight, New Year’s Eve, marks the final curtain call for Steve Silver’s Beach Blanket Babylon, which has been running at North Beach’s Club Fugazi since 1974. The world’s longest-running musical

The New York Times positively lives to troll San Francisco. Sometimes, it’s a prurient examination of the lives of people who rummage through trash for a living, as if that yields valuable insights about us. Other times, it’s about how dirty streets are apparently unique to this city. Still other times,

While a lot of the online left has trained its ire on Mayor Pete Buttigieg, the biggest revelation of the Democratic primary pertains to a different mayor. It turns out that Michael Bloomberg, who only apologized in November for his mayoral administration’s 12-year history of favoring invasive and unconstitutional stop-and-frisk

2019 was known for a lot of disappointments, from the Mueller Report to Days of Our Lives firing its cast en masse, but in San Francisco, a lot of beloved places closed.  There are stirrings of hope, such as how The Punch Line got saved to the return of Blowfish