San Francisco, CA
Bay to Breakers brings thousands to San Francisco for race day

Colorful costumes, loud cheers and crushed tortillas marked the start of San Francisco’s zany Bay to Breakers footrace Sunday as thousands of runners surged off the starting line in a flurry of dizzying forward motion.
Participants—dressed as everything from cowboys to hot dogs with condiments—hit the streets early, with some donning race-issued pink T-shirts featuring the city’s iconic Painted Ladies houses. Others went all out in cartoon, comic book or spotted cow costumes and helmets.
The runners surged off the starting line in a flurry of colorful fabric and loud cheering, pounding hundreds of tossed tortillas into the tarmac beneath their feet.
From morning and well into the afternoon, it was prime time for people-watching.
Cowboys blurred into groups in orange prison jumpsuits or screenshot-perfect Oompa Loompa uniforms, with distracting touches like a little fluorescent green tulle here or a pair of inflatable chickens there.
As is so often the case in any public and free event, a hardy few joined the yearly rite by insisting on their right to wear as little as possible, with a few minor exceptions made for spandex or skivvies or by accessorizing with baseball hats, head coverings and race-appropriate footwear. Others mostly kept it moving and took it all in stride.
In addition to the spirits some spent valuable race time surreptitiously sipping on or openly guzzling, others’ spirits seemed to soar ever higher as the morning’s low clouds began to burn off, and thousands of people powered westward along closed-off roadways, accepting cheers and the odd orange slice or two from generous onlookers.
Showers of blown bubbles drifted into the air along Fell Street and came down equally atop a costumed swarm of bees, a walking watermelon slice, a spotted-cow-onesie sporting competitor.
By the time many reached the finish line, stiff breezes flew the state and U.S. flags and seemed to put wind into the sails of runners who powered across with uplifted arms and jubilant shouts.

San Francisco, CA
San Francisco eyes new pickleball court sites

As pickleball popularity grows, so does the demand for courts – and the debate over the sport’s noise factor.
NBC Bay Area’s Sergio Quintana shows us how San Francisco is trying to meet the demand without upsetting residents in the video report above.
San Francisco, CA
Skaters push back as San Francisco plans to demolish iconic Vaillancourt Fountain

A growing group of skaters is pushing to preserve the Vaillancourt Fountain after the City of San Francisco announced a multimillion-dollar renovation plan that would remove the structure made of concrete square pipes.
Zeke McGuire started skating at the age of 10, and he grew up skating at the plaza and near the fountain.
“To see it go would be devastating,” McGuire stated. “I’ve been coming here my whole life. I’ve skated those stairs. I’ve been injured on those stairs.”
He’s skated on every inch of the Plaza, including the ledges of the Vaillancourt Fountain, which was completed in 1971. It’s impossible to miss, with its boxy concrete tubes that stand about 40 feet high.
It’s been the backdrop of more skateboard videos than anyone could count.
“It’s extremely awesome,” McGuire said. “There’s people all across the world that come to San Francisco to skate here specifically. So for it to be gone, people would come here to visit and it wouldn’t be here anymore, so I would say get it in before it’s gone.”
San Francisco Recreation and Parks announced the Embarcadero Plaza Renovation Project last year. It is a plan to construct a new waterfront park, which would tear down the structure.
Tamara Barak Aparton with Rec and Parks says that after years of deterioration, the fountain is unsafe.
“The structure is unstable,” Barak Aparton stated. “Hazardous materials are present, and we can’t allow the public access to a space that poses safety risks.”
Historical preservationists, landscape architects, and skate enthusiasts, like Bay Area professional skateboarder Karl Watson, are now pushing back and saying it’s a part of that sport’s history in San Francisco.
“A beautiful monstrosity that needs to stay,” said Watson, describing the fountain.
He says except for a few exceptions, people didn’t skate into the fountain, just around it.
“The fountain was integral for when we were tired after skating, we needed a place to relax and just enjoy the water flowing and the fountain definitely did that for us,” Watson said.
Now, the fountain is stagnant. The water stopped flowing years ago. In June 2025, it was fenced off.
Feldman was disappointed to see it like this.
“I came down here last week just to see the fencing and I was like ‘oh, they really don’t want us skating here anymore’,” Feldman explained.
In August, the Recreation and Parks department formally requested permission to remove the fountain from the city’s Civic Art Collection.
But McGuire is hoping people like Watson, and the artist keep fighting. Armand Vaillancourt’s lawyer recently sent a letter to multiple city departments demanding the city cease and desist all efforts to remove his work.
No final decision has been made yet, but if it does go, McGuire hopes they’ll leave something.
“Even if it was to be fully demolished, I think it would be really nice if they kept a little bit of something,” McGuire said. “Or maybe make a part for people to skate.”
San Francisco, CA
Laver Cup to make San Francisco debut at Chase Center

San Francisco is set to host the 2025 Laver Cup at Chase Center from September 19 to 21, marking the first-ever tennis tournament held at the arena and the return of major men’s pro tennis to the city in over a decade. Steve Zacks, CEO of the Laver Cup, says this event showcases tennis like fans have never seen before, featuring a unique team format created by Roger Federer.
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