Long before conversations of doom loops, hope loops, or any other loops that crop up in casual conversation in the Bay Area, there was the matsutake mushroom. It’s a prized, resilient fungus that UC Santa Cruz anthropologist Anna Tsing describes as the ultimate example of rebirth in a post-capitalist world

I’m bored of writing about this, but here we go again. Downtown San Francisco is experiencing high retail vacancy rates because rich people are scared of people on drugs. That’s why they attend things like Burning Man, to get away from drug addicts – well, at least the poor ones. 

I’ve got some awesome news! We received a grant from the Civic Joy Fund to put out a literary magazine celebrating SF and acting to counter the stupid “Doom Loop” narrative. It’s a gift to the people of San Francisco. And after months of working on this project it’s now available

This isn’t a ‘doom loop’ article. I’m not writing this because I’m concerned about the current state of commercial or corporate real estate in San Francisco. It’s actually the opposite: I’m fucking ecstatic.  According to a study released by Capital Economics, San Francisco’s commercial real estate value is predicted to

BY DAVID COPPIN LANEGAN Every few months or so, the tremendously skilled musicians of the San Francisco Symphony gather in Davies Symphony Hall to perform. Well, they gather far more often than that, but every few months they gather for a special occasion: the “Film With Live Orchestra Series” At

What the Chronicle termed the Downtown “doom loop” has been getting national coverage, but here’s a compelling counterpoint – three of San Francisco’s neighborhood commercial corridors: Haight-Ashbury, Hayes Valley and Japantown, all in Democratic Socialist Supervisor Dean Preston’s District 5, are actually thriving. This is not in spite of him being a socialist Supervisor, but because of the corridors’ close partnership with him.

If you’ve been to downtown San Francisco in recent months, it will come as no surprise that the once bustling FiDi is no longer, and it’s been replaced by a skyscraping ghosttown. 

And if you haven’t been, you probably still know this. The Daily, a New York Times podcast, published an episode a few months ago, bleakly titled The Most Empty Downtown in America; a number of publications have penned articles on why SF is unique in its struggle to return its downtown to pre-pandemic bustle; and local politicians are putting their heads together in a desperate attempt to figure out how in the world to revitalize downtown SF.

Mayor London Breed announced plans Tuesday to allocate $9.5 million in her upcoming budget proposal for what she calls the Downtown Recovery Plan.   The vast majority of the funds — $7.5 million — would be slated for expansion of the Community Ambassadors Program. The remaining $2 million would be evenly

Following an article I wrote headlined, “Are There Any Affordable Places Left to Eat in Downtown SF?,” many of you gentle readers kindly took the bait and offered up helpful recommendations of where to go on the cheap. Thank you!