48 Hills | Independent daily San Francisco news + culture

The Latest

More election sleaze: Fake tenant groups in District 1

Organizations that didn't exist a month ago are suddenly saying that tenants support Marjan Philhour.

Garrett Leahy - October 29, 2020

Big Money’s racist attacks in D7

Plus: School Board members of color get threatening online messages. Is this really San Francisco in 2020?

Tim Redmond - October 26, 2020

Inside the COVID explosion at San Quentin

With 26 dead and at least a third of the population infected, why isn't medical parole part of the solution?

Juan Moreno Haines - September 7, 2020

Opinion: All dressed up—and straight to the polls

Take it from the city's top drag queen activists: Your vote should go toward making sure everyone is treated equally.

Juanita More - October 15, 2020

Finally, a state Senate debate

Plus: The municipal corruption scandal and the state of the city's economy. That's The Agenda for Sept. 28-Oct. 4

Tim Redmond - September 27, 2020

Frida’s artful life on film—and in the galleries

Mexican icon's dramatic work and life are having a San Francisco moment, with de Young show and two screenings

Dennis Harvey - October 29, 2020

New Music: Cracking women-led compilations from Moxie and SOS keep it fresh

Tracks from Club Chai's Lara Sarkissian, rRoxymore, Pursuit Grooves, other forward-thinking producers expand fall 2020's range.

John-Paul Shiver - October 29, 2020

Frida’s artful life on film—and in the galleries

Mexican icon's dramatic work and life are having a San Francisco moment, with de Young show and two screenings

Dennis Harvey - October 29, 2020

Club mogul accused of vigilante homeless sweep says he did nothing wrong

Peter Glikshtern says he called private trash crew to encampment, insists he was justified by city inaction.

Marke B. - September 23, 2020

PUFF: How I got my high back

After months of isolation, it may be time to adjust your habits—with flower by Lolo, prerolls from Jack Herer, and some Kwik Ease

Dan Karkoska - September 20, 2020

Housing

More election sleaze: Fake tenant groups in District 1

Organizations that didn't exist a month ago are suddenly saying that tenants support Marjan Philhour.

Garrett Leahy - October 29, 2020

Best of the Bay 2020

BEST OF THE BAY 2020 WINNERS

Click here for the winners of our 45th annual Readers Poll

Art

Frida’s artful life on film—and in the galleries

Dennis Harvey - October 29, 2020

Mexican icon's dramatic work and life are having a San Francisco moment, with de Young show and two screenings

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Read Tom Ammiano's Memoir

New Music: Cracking women-led compilations from Moxie and SOS keep it fresh

Music John-Paul Shiver - October 29, 2020

Tracks from Club Chai's Lara Sarkissian, rRoxymore, Pursuit Grooves, other forward-thinking producers expand fall 2020's range.

A very haunted Arts Forecast: Halloween undead!

Arts Forecast Marke B. - October 28, 2020

Howl through your mask at this year's stream 'n (socially distant) scream spooktaculars

The deep problem with the new Supreme Court

News + Politics Peter Gabel - October 28, 2020

The 'original' Constitution is all about individual liberty, and not about any collective responsibility for our common humanity.

Internationally Black series ‘So Soul San Francisco’ opens up global arts discourse

Arts + Culture Caitlin Donohue - October 28, 2020

Creator Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe and co-host Rotimi Agbabiaka's monthly interview show surveys Black expression worldwide

Dougie Stu’s ‘Familiar Future’ shows how California is updating astral jazz alchemy

Music John-Paul Shiver - October 28, 2020

The Oakland artist's album brings visions of Alice Coltrane's peace and tranquility, while performing its own type of spiritual utility

Examined Life: Being human at a time like this

Examined Life Karen Macklin - October 28, 2020

The future of our country may hang in the balance, but our humanity need not

For Puerto Rican freedom, MaJo Montijo summons a bomba ‘Huracán’

Music Joanna Ladd - October 27, 2020

Oakland musician fights "continuous colonial disaster," including Hurricane María aftermath, with gale-force release.

Screen Grabs: San Francisco’s real royal family, still glittering onward

Screen Grabs Dennis Harvey - October 27, 2020

'50 Years of Fabulous' comes a courtin'. Plus: a record of the 1972 National Black Political Convention, angsty Hungarians, more

The sleaze reaches high tide in D5

News + Politics Tim Redmond - October 26, 2020

Bizarre attack on Dean Preston defies facts, logic, and reality -- but that doesn't stop Big Real Estate and Big Tech.

Big Money’s racist attacks in D7

Campaign Trail Tim Redmond - October 26, 2020

Plus: School Board members of color get threatening online messages. Is this really San Francisco in 2020?

Lawsuit charges Uber discriminates against drivers of color

News + Politics Garrett Leahy - October 26, 2020

Company fires people who have ratings that it admits are racially biased.

Fall head over heels for Criibaby’s gender-inclusive ‘love songs for everyone’

Music Marke B. - October 26, 2020

During LGBT History Month, the local artist releases music for all letters of the rainbow.

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Housing

More election sleaze: Fake tenant groups in District 1

Organizations that didn't exist a month ago are suddenly saying that tenants support Marjan Philhour.

Housing Garrett Leahy - October 29, 2020

Housing

The mystery of Newsom’s 3.5 million housing units shortage

Zelda Bronstein - October 9, 2020

The data shows that the figure the governor still uses to justify his policies is just wrong.

Housing

Supes approve rent control for Midtown

Natalia Kresich - October 7, 2020

After a six-year struggle, tenants win housing stability.

Housing

Supes to consider rent control for Midtown

Natalia Kresich - October 5, 2020

Preston measure would give the largely African-American tenants the protections they lost in 2014.

Housing

Landlords abandon attack on anti-eviction law

Tim Redmond - October 1, 2020

Group drops effort to block Preston law that protects renters who lost income because of COVID from losing their homes.

Elections

Big Money’s racist attacks in D7

Plus: School Board members of color get threatening online messages. Is this really San Francisco in 2020?

Campaign Trail Tim Redmond - October 26, 2020

Campaign Trail

Are taxpayers subsidizing Uber and Lyft campaign?

Garrett Leahy - October 21, 2020

Somehow, Yes on 22 mailers got nonprofit status with the Post Office.

Elections

GOP-linked big money attacks progressive candidates and taxes in SF

Tim Redmond - October 10, 2020

Millions in PAC money from the 1 percent -- and big Mitch McConnell backer -- floods into San Francisco for last-minute hit pieces.

Campaign Trail

The Big Lie on Prop. I

Tim Redmond - October 8, 2020

Big Real Estate makes small restaurants their front group in mailers that are completely inaccurate.

Campaign Trail

Harris plays to the center; Pence plays to the base

Tim Redmond - October 8, 2020

It's sad that the Democratic Party feels it has to defend fracking and hide from the Green New Deal.

City Hall

Finally, a state Senate debate

Plus: The municipal corruption scandal and the state of the city's economy. That's The Agenda for Sept. 28-Oct. 4

Elections Tim Redmond - September 27, 2020

Housing

The Agenda: The eviction tsunami begins

Tim Redmond - September 20, 2020

Local courts will start to hear cases Monday; tenant groups plan protest.

Housing

The Agenda: State housing battle plays out before SF supes

Tim Redmond - September 13, 2020

Mar wants ABAG to recognize that SF has already approved more luxury housing that it needs.

City Hall

Board committee approves budget deal that clashes with mayor’s proposal

Tim Redmond - August 27, 2020

The Board of Supes is heading for a potential showdown with the mayor over more than $100 million in changes to her proposed two-year...

City Hall

A quiet, sweetheart deal for the cops

Tim Redmond - August 16, 2020

The Board of Supes will meet in closed session Tuesday/18 to discuss negotiations with city employee unions, and one of the issues on the...

Opinion

Opinion: All dressed up—and straight to the polls

Take it from the city's top drag queen activists: Your vote should go toward making sure everyone is treated equally.

Opinion Juanita More - October 15, 2020

Opinion

SF’s economic recovery plan: Trumpism on the local level

Calvin Welch - October 13, 2020

It's all about governmental deregulation and public subsidy of private profit -- while ignoring the manifest needs of everyday people.

Opinion

OPINION: How I brought back the Bay’s favorite dog mag

M Rocket - September 23, 2020

Bay Woof returns as online nonprofit resource—as dog adoptions hit new heights, but related businesses struggle.

News + Politics

RIP, the Notorious RBG

Rebecca Young - September 21, 2020

How one woman, one petite woman with a mighty intellect and a grit true to her Brooklyn roots, became not just a role model, but a revered symbol of the struggle for women’s equality.

Opinion

OPINION: What a protest looks like without police

Magick Altman - September 13, 2020

At a DSA march, community activists cleared the streets and provided medical attention.

Movies

Frida’s artful life on film—and in the galleries

Mexican icon's dramatic work and life are having a San Francisco moment, with de Young show and two screenings

Art Dennis Harvey - October 29, 2020

Screen Grabs

Screen Grabs: San Francisco’s real royal family, still glittering onward

Dennis Harvey - October 27, 2020

'50 Years of Fabulous' comes a courtin'. Plus: a record of the 1972 National Black Political Convention, angsty Hungarians, more

Arts + Culture

Documentary ‘The Reunited States’ looks to bridge the United States’ political abyss

Pam Grady - October 22, 2020

An interview with filmmaker Ben Rekhi about his seemingly impossible mission to bring us all together.

Screen Grabs

Screen Grabs: Borat’s ‘totally sensationalized false account’ and other bombshell releases

Dennis Harvey - October 22, 2020

Sure, it has Giuliani looking suspect—but is 'Borat Subsequent Moviefilm' any good? Plus, a new documentary on the grifters leading the alt-right movement, and 'The Guardian of Memory.'

Screen Grabs

Screen Grabs: Must-see horror films for the Halloween that wasn’t

Dennis Harvey - October 20, 2020

Drive-ins step in for trick-or-treating in 2020—plus, flicks following quarantine seances, malevolence-plagued asylum seekers, bedeviled hairdos, and Kazahk-Bulgarian dystopian futures visible from the gloom of home.

Music

New Music: Cracking women-led compilations from Moxie and SOS keep it fresh

Tracks from Club Chai's Lara Sarkissian, rRoxymore, Pursuit Grooves, other forward-thinking producers expand fall 2020's range.

Music John-Paul Shiver - October 29, 2020

Music

Dougie Stu’s ‘Familiar Future’ shows how California is updating astral jazz alchemy

John-Paul Shiver - October 28, 2020

The Oakland artist's album brings visions of Alice Coltrane's peace and tranquility, while performing its own type of spiritual utility

Music

For Puerto Rican freedom, MaJo Montijo summons a bomba ‘Huracán’

Joanna Ladd - October 27, 2020

Oakland musician fights "continuous colonial disaster," including Hurricane María aftermath, with gale-force release.

Music

Fall head over heels for Criibaby’s gender-inclusive ‘love songs for everyone’

Marke B. - October 26, 2020

During LGBT History Month, the local artist releases music for all letters of the rainbow.

Arts + Culture

Róisín Murphy buffs her disco-house crown on gliding ‘Róisín Machine’

John-Paul Shiver - October 23, 2020

The Irish diva showed us who she was through momentously silly quar performances. Her latest album affirms her mastery of the nocturnal club beat.

Art

Frida’s artful life on film—and in the galleries

Mexican icon's dramatic work and life are having a San Francisco moment, with de Young show and two screenings

Art Dennis Harvey - October 29, 2020

Art

On being seen: Online MoAD exhibition showcases the work of San Quentin artists

Maddy Clifford - October 21, 2020

In 'Meet Us Quickly,' artists incarcerated at the site of one of the nation's most deadly COVID-19 reframe their experience in the US prison-industrial complex.

Art

Holding onto love, through painter Gage Opdenbrouw’s ‘slow, quiet’ color chords

Mary Corbin - October 14, 2020

'I make art for the fact that words are rarely enough,' says Bay Area artist, whose interiors can reflect our current solitude

Art

With ‘Everglow,’ an artist explores redwood’s phosphorescence

Emily Wilson - October 6, 2020

Artist Victoria Wagner, a former pastry chef and wedding cake-maker , says she’s always been a sculptural thinker. But she didn’t work...

Art

“Housing Black” muralist Malik Seneferu talks of his next wall and visions of the possible

Maddy Clifford - October 1, 2020

The multimedia creative and incarcerated youth educator on art-borne futures; "You have to know how to create, and you have to get comfortable with the hypothetical."

Performance

Internationally Black series ‘So Soul San Francisco’ opens up global arts discourse

Creator Edris Cooper-Anifowoshe and co-host Rotimi Agbabiaka's monthly interview show surveys Black expression worldwide

Arts + Culture Caitlin Donohue - October 28, 2020

Culture

Missed our 48 Hills Variety Gala? Watch here!

48 Hills - October 24, 2020

Honey Mahogany and a cavalcade of local entertainers put it all out there to help save local media.

Onstage

This weekend, The Breath Project streams 24 nationwide theater works in honor of George Floyd

Emily Wilson - October 23, 2020

"It’s another brick in the wall. Or rather, we’re taking the wall down, so it’s a brick out of the wall.”

Onstage

[UPDATED] Arts festival sues city in push for safe live performances—before rain comes

Marke B. - October 20, 2020

City revokes SF International Arts Festival permit for weekend program as arts languish amid reopenings

Screen Grabs

Whirling through Turf, tap, and ballroom: SF Dance Film Festival streams needed motion

Rita Felciano - October 15, 2020

Dance and film, two mediums existing in time, have had a relationship over the decades. Though dance for the camera has existed...

Labor

Board committee approves budget deal that clashes with mayor’s proposal

The Board of Supes is heading for a potential showdown with the mayor over more than $100 million in changes to her proposed two-year...

City Hall Tim Redmond - August 27, 2020

Labor

Supes committee votes to slash police budget by $30 million

Tim Redmond - August 23, 2020

The Board of Supes Budget and Appropriations Committee has approved roughly $30 million in additional cuts to the police budget – less than some...

Labor

Drivers rally against Uber and Lyft extortion

Garrett Leahy - August 21, 2020

About 70 drivers rallied outside Uber’s headquarters on Market Street on Thursday, decrying Uber and Lyft’s threat to cancel rideshare services in California in retaliation...

Labor

Giants workers fight back

Marc Norton - August 16, 2020

The San Francisco Giants returned home on Friday, August 14 and found themselves being picketed by the workers who normally sell garlic fries and...

Labor

Judge orders Uber, Lyft to treat drivers as employees

Garrett Leahy - August 10, 2020

San Francisco Superior Court judge Ethan Schulman issued a prohibitory injunction ruling Monday stating that Uber and Lyft must cease classifying employees as independent...

Business + Tech

Author of Naomi Klein-endorsed ‘Abolish Silicon Valley’ Wendy Liu says tech must change

"There’s this extreme power discrepancy that’s being magnified by Silicon Valley in ways that are not necessarily new, but they’ve improved upon the ways it already existed."

Culture Emily Wilson - October 20, 2020

Business + Tech

Big real estate escapes $360 million in annual SF taxes

Zachary James, Elissa Mann, and Tim Redmond - September 30, 2020

SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: Owners of 55 local buildings (including Donald Trump) use Prop. 13 to save millions in taxes that could go to schools and city services.

Business + Tech

Why the Post Office matters

Tim Redmond - August 18, 2020

When I arrived in San Francisco in 1981, the Post Office on Clayton street was my lifeline. We used to call Clayton “Post Office...

Opinion

Government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich

John Elberling - August 10, 2020

Editor's note: Plan Bay Area, a joint effort of the Association of Bay Area Governments and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, is creating a "blueprint"...

Campaign Trail

The money—and endorsements—in District Five

Tim Redmond - August 10, 2020

One of the most interesting elements of the D5 supervisorial campaign is challenger Vallie Brown’s website. Check out the tab that says “endorsements.” Most people...

Nightlife

Club mogul accused of vigilante homeless sweep says he did nothing wrong

Peter Glikshtern says he called private trash crew to encampment, insists he was justified by city inaction.

Nightlife Marke B. - September 23, 2020

Nightlife

Bottoms up for spirits-lifting Oakland Cocktail Week (now a month)

Daniel Bromfield - September 14, 2020

Support local bars and drink in good company, as the festival pivots to a vital fundraiser.

Nightlife

How did the Ocean Beach party happen—and can we prevent another incident?

Marke B. - September 11, 2020

Why didn't the police shut things down earlier? Sup. Stefani wants criminal investigation; Sup. Mandelman worries about Halloween

Nightlife

[UPDATED] A Burning Man sound camp responds about Ocean Beach party that drew 100s

Marke B. - September 7, 2020

BAAAHS says masks were distributed and social distancing enforced—but why didn't someone just turn off the music?

Nightlife

Grab that virtual wig, it’s all aboard for Oaklash!

Marke B. - September 2, 2020

Weekend-long Oakland drag festival Oaklash (Fri/4-Sun/6 at www.twitch.tv/oaklash2020) has become such an integral part of the Bay Area queer performance scene that I was taken...

Cannabis

PUFF: How I got my high back

After months of isolation, it may be time to adjust your habits—with flower by Lolo, prerolls from Jack Herer, and some Kwik Ease

Puff Dan Karkoska - September 20, 2020

Puff

Cannabis tax money goes to fund the cops

Mitchell Colbert - September 14, 2020

One way to defund the police: take away the mandatory cut they get of the state's taxes on weed.

Culture

Cannabis has a racism problem. The Floret Coalition can help.

Caitlin Donohue - July 24, 2020

On Thursday, hundreds of people who work in the marijuana industry gathered for a virtual event called “allyship + weed” convened by cannabis brand...

Puff

Puff: A day for dabs

Dan Karkoska - July 10, 2020

As we push through a year like no other, we reach another cannabis milestone day, 710! What is 710? It is the high holy day...

Puff

Puff: Get high on Pride

Dan Karkoska - June 19, 2020

As I read all my Pride-inspired emails this year, it is funny how many gummies now have special Pride tins. I know for certain...

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