Rudy Colombini, the frontman for a Rolling Stones cover band, is neither humble nor demure about his labor of love: San Francisco’s Music City, a complex dedicated to musicians and musicianship, at every level. It might sound straight out of Nashville, but it’s right here in the city’s Lower Nob Hill neighborhood.
San Francisco, CA
Meet the Man Behind San Francisco’s Musical ‘Star Factory’
“This is the most important fucking artistic project in the United States,” Colombini told The Standard.
The three-floor facility—which opened 20 new rehearsal spaces Friday—provides future stars with everything from living space to rehearsal rooms, engaged audiences and an array of refreshments. In the venture’s fundraising materials, Colombini is just as grandiose, describing the complex as “Motown Records, CBGB, the Chelsea Hotel, Abbey Road Studios, the Berklee School of Music, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, all in one building in San Francisco.”
The expansion comes at a time when San Francisco scouts for an artistic renaissance, the smoke signals of which include vinyl store openings, new music venues, expanded art spaces and entire neighborhoods enlivened by the arts.
A consummate showman who has been playing live music in San Francisco for 51 years, Colombini is used to performing. His band, The Unauthorized Rolling Stones, once opened for Elton John, and Colombini played at the Mill Valley institution Sweetwater Music Hall years ago—and also had a sold-out show there last week.
“I’ve played in every major venue,” he said. “And every shithole.”
But this gig—the passion project of his life—is the vision for which he put everything on the line, financially backing the venture thanks to the money he made as a real estate developer.
“I was born to do this,” he said. “It started out as a philanthropic project. It ended up a legacy.”
The superlative-slinging lead singer calls Music City a “star factory,” a place where emerging musicians can practice, perform and connect. There are affordable hotel and hostel rooms where touring artists can stay, store their gear and connect with a music-loving community. The bar and restaurant of the campus-like artist incubator is slated to open within 10 days, after final approval of the city’s Department of Public Health.
But the real star of the show here is the new rehearsal and venue spaces that have been under construction for the past six years, all of which are equipped with audio-visual capabilities, allowing bands to perform live online. Audience members walking into Music City can see two bands playing at once—one they hear (in the venue) and one they don’t (in the rehearsal space), beckoning passersby on Bush Street.
“There isn’t anything like this on the planet,” Colombini said. “We’ll give you a grand if you find it.”
According to Colombini, what budding musicians need most is an audience. With the number of people cycling through the complex—groups in the rehearsal spaces, guests in the hostel and hotel, the public at the bar and restaurant—there’s an organic listenership built into the building.
“There will easily be 700 to 800 people on-site,” he said.
He imagines a band rehearsing with the blinds down in the refurbished rehearsal studios—spaces that bridge the historic (original brick walls) with the modern (top-of-the-line equipment)—then streaming directly to one of the building’s venues or on a ClearChannel radio station.
Music lovers can pick up drinks from the alleyway window on Fern Street, dine in the on-site restaurant serving elevated gastropub fare and watch a multitude of bands rehearse in the stylish rehearsal spaces or take in a show at one of the four venues.
“Music is our thrill, our delight,” Colombini said. “It’s the most important antidepressant.”
It’s been a long time coming, but, to paraphase the Stones, time was on his side. The project was put on pause during the pandemic, and for a long stretch, Music City has had only one rehearsal space—a room adjacent to the hotel accommodations that had earlier been used as a common space.
The room has been continuously booked, said the hotel’s front desk receptionist, Isaac Lawrence, demonstrating the demand for more space.
Rehearsal spaces are affordable at Music City, ranging from $15 to $45 an hour, a fraction of what studios typically charge. From Jan. 5 to Jan. 12, Music City is offering its rehearsal spaces free of charge in connection with the opening celebration.
“There’s a great sense of community,” Lawrence said. “You have all these different groups commingling, between the rehearsal spaces and the guests and the permanent residents.”
Music City also houses the San Francisco Music Hall of Fame, a self-paced exhibition that spotlights local musicians who made it big.
It’s all part of a larger project by Colombini to put San Francisco back on the musical map, a city he called an “international star factory” but whose reputation has been diminished over the past 25 years.
The longtime musician cited a report put together by the London-based organization Sound Diplomacy that found many flaws in the city’s sustenance and promotion of its music scene and history. The Standard viewed a copy of the report, not made available to the public, which recommended “to create a multi-use music hub for the local community” as a priority. Colombini sees his Music City as that hub.
“I never had the big hit I wanted,” Colombini said, reflecting on his musical career. “This is my big hit.”
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Fought to Name a Major Street After Cesar Chavez. Will It Be Renamed Again? | KQED
Many Latino San Franciscans saw the dedication as an acknowledgment of the farmworker movement Chavez helped build.
But after allegations surfaced this week that the civil rights icon sexually abused multiple young girls, and United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta, as he led the movement in the 1960s and ’70s, politicians have quickly proposed stripping his name from dozens of streets, schools, parks and monuments, and the state holiday in his honor at the end of the month.
The revelations have raised questions about how to further the movement’s legacy, without Chavez as the figurehead.
“He was a symbol,” San Francisco State University labor historian John Logan said, “for a recognition of the farmworker movement, of the Chicano civil rights movement.”
“This [is an] incredibly important social movement and incredibly important worker movement,” he said, adding that now, it will be important “to find a way of trying to recognize those things without using his name.”
Reckoning with abuse
On Tuesday, The New York Times published an investigation revealing accounts from two women, now in their 60s, who said that they had been assaulted repeatedly by Chavez for years in the 1970s, beginning when they were 12 and 13, and he was in his 40s.
Huerta came forward with her own allegations that on two separate occasions in the 1960s, Chavez had pressured her into intercourse and later raped her.
Within hours, local officials and organizations across California launched efforts to strip Chavez’s name from public view. Sacramento’s mayor appointed city council members to rename Cesar Chavez Plaza in the state capital.
Fresno officials set a meeting for this week to remove Cesar Chavez Boulevard street signs and groups at San Francisco State and Sonoma State University announced plans to shroud his image and name on campus murals and on buildings.
Early Thursday, California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and Senate President Pro Tempore Monique Limón announced legislation that would rename the state holiday honoring Chavez at the end of March to Farmworkers Day.
“This moment calls for honesty. It calls for reflection. And it calls for a renewed commitment to the values that the farmworker movement was built on,” Rivas said, speaking on the California Assembly floor on Thursday.
While San Francisco leaders haven’t taken any concrete steps to strip Chavez’s name from the street, or from the public elementary school renamed in his honor around the same time, it seems more than likely in the coming weeks.
“My office will support community efforts to remove Cesar Chavez’s name from any District 9 institutions,” said Supervisor Jackie Fielder, who represents the Mission, which includes both sites.
“I think there should be no hesitation,” said former Supervisor Susan Leal, who served from 1993 to 1997, and helped lead the renaming effort.
A divisive renaming
Leal said the decision to name Army Street after Chavez was meant to acknowledge “unrecognized work of a lot of farmworkers.”
“The meaning of having Cesar Chavez Street is that it signifies we have a place here too,” Maria Paya, a grocer in the Mission District, told the Los Angeles Times that year.
But by the time the new street signs were unveiled that April, the decision had already sparked controversy, and a campaign to repeal the name change. Opponents put a citywide measure on that year’s general election ballot to restore the road’s name to Army Street.
The battle became one of the most divisive that election cycle, according to newspaper reports at the time, pitting residents of the then-predominantly Latino Mission District, backed by thousands of United Farm Workers volunteers who traveled from as far as Bakersfield to campaign, against wealthy, majority white Noe Valley residents and small business owners who said they had an affinity for their addresses, and the 140-year-old Army Street name.
The renaming came at a time of heightened anti-immigrant sentiment, Leal said, not unlike today. The year prior, California voters passed Proposition 187, which aimed to block undocumented immigrants from accessing most health care services, public education and social services.
“If you would come up with another San Franciscan who was not of the farmworker movement, I think he might’ve gotten more support. It was not unlike Prop. 187,” Leal said.
Dancer Madeline Woo, who is performing as Kitri, the leading lady, in Don Quixote, talks first year with San Francisco Ballet. Don Quixote performance dates run from Thursday, March 19 – Sunday, March 29.
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San Francisco, CA
Power Play: The fallout from Cesar Chavez bombshell. Plus: Another Gaza moment for Wiener
This article is from Power Play, a twice-weekly newsletter rounding up the latest City Hall and local politics gossip. To sign up, visit The Standard’s newsletter page.
In a city where 95-year-old labor legend Dolores Huerta isn’t just an inspirational figure who appears in children’s books and sidewalk murals but an active force of nature who regularly walks arm-in-arm with striking workers — Wednesday’s report in The New York Times (opens in new tab) of her allegations of rape at the hands of the late Cesar Chavez shook the labor movement to its core.
Already, Chavez’s alleged sexual abuse of girls and women connected to the farmworkers movement is spurring whispers of a reckoning for other labor leaders who have long been suspected of exploiting their power over members. As several organizers told Power Play, difficult discussions are already taking place.
Olga Miranda, president of SEIU Local 87, said the movement needs time to heal before any discussion of next steps — but in the end, abusers will be outed.
“Is there any other motherfucker who hasn’t been named?” she said. “I’m sure there are many jumping at an opportunity [to accuse abusers]. But I’m saying, give us time to process this.”
Miranda called women a “force” who have long powered the labor movement. “I have the privilege of having chosen the kind of job where the strength of my personality and the veracity of my voice carries to make company supervisors, business owners, regret the moment they fuck with any of our janitors in this industry,” she said. “Not a lot of people get to say they get to fight back.”
While it’s too early to tell if there will be a “me too”-style reckoning within the labor movement, the reverberations are being felt, especially considering Chavez’s local ties.
Rudy Gonzalez, secretary-treasurer of the San Francisco Building & Construction Trades Council, said he remains proud of his Mexican American family’s legacy in the agricultural industry — but he worries about the darker story that Chavez now represents.
“We’ve found inspiration in a small number of very significant Mexican American leaders,” he said. “But that’s harder right now. I want young Mexican American leaders, I want my son, to have people to look up to. It was never Cesar’s union; it was a workers’ union. That doesn’t erase the legacy, or the ongoing struggle, of the people who literally feed us every day.”
In addition to Chavez’s name being plastered across San Francisco institutions, his son-in-law, Richard Ybarra, is CEO of a Mission-based community organization, MNC Inspiring Success. The Times’ reporting states that Ybarra, who married Chavez’s daughter, was one of the labor leader’s bodyguards in the 1970s after federal authorities discovered an assassination plot.
The Times reported that a different bodyguard drove Chavez and one of his underage victims, Debra Rojas, to a motel, where the 15-year-old was allegedly raped. Ybarra declined to comment for the Times article. Power Play emailed Ybarra and was referred to a comment from the Chavez family that said, “This is deeply painful for our family.”
As for Huerta’s legacy, it’s still being forged in real time. Her name is on a school and a parade in San Francisco. In January, she stood with LiUNA! Local 261 street cleaning workers on the steps of City Hall to fight for fair wages. Last year, she advocated for Proposition 50, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s redistricting measure.
For that reason and many others, the local labor movement is coalescing around Huerta as the new icon of the 60-year fight for farmworkers’ and immigrants’ rights. As one labor insider told Power Play, “My hot take: Soon everything with Cesar Chavez’s name on it in San Francisco will have Huerta’s instead.” — Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez and Gabriel Greschler
Got tips? Send to us at [email protected].
DON’T GET ME WRONG: State Sen. Scott Wiener, who you may have heard is running for Congress, obviously does not want to get caught in any geopolitical snafu after his viral Gaza genocide moment (opens in new tab) from a candidate forum in January. But Saturday’s Chinatown congressional forum appeared to briefly send him into panic mode — this time over Taiwan.
The moderator of the forum, hosted by Asian community groups and conducted in Chinese and English, asked whether the candidates agree with Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s high-profile and controversial 2022 trip to the democratic island, a region claimed by China as part of its territory. Wiener voiced his support while carefully avoiding overreach.
“I do not think Taiwan should be conquered,” Wiener said. “But we also have to make sure we don’t get to the point where there is any kind of war.”
However, the interpreter hired by the organizers to provide live translation twice misstated Wiener’s position, saying the candidate supported Taiwan’s independence. Wiener, who does not speak Chinese, was unaware of the gaffe, which would fly in the face of his and other Democrats’ longtime endorsement of a “One China” policy. But soon, Wiener was seen (opens in new tab) looking at his phone and becoming upset, glancing around, then grabbing the microphone.
“Apparently, I was misinterpreted saying that I support Taiwanese independence,” Wiener said. “I did not say that.”
The event’s organizer, Ed Lee Democratic Club president Thomas Li, immediately apologized and had a member of Wiener’s team correct the interpretation. Li said organizers had hired a professional interpreter and regretted the slip-up.
Wiener’s campaign told Power Play that a Chinese campaign staffer alerted Wiener that his answer was inaccurately interpreted, and Wiener immediately corrected the record.
“He supports Taiwan’s democracy, not Taiwanese independence,” Wiener’s spokesperson Joe Arellano said. “We appreciate the organizers allowing for the correction. It’s not easy to translate an entire debate, and it was an honest mistake.”
Taiwan remains a sensitive geopolitical topic and could be a vote-decider for some in the Chinese community. Among the candidates, Wiener struck the most hawkish tone on China, expressing support for Tibet and Uyghurs. According to Mission Local, Wiener got booed (opens in new tab) when he stated that he supported Pelosi’s trip.
Saikat Chakrabarti, a former tech founder, said he opposed Pelosi’s visit. Supervisor Connie Chan, a Chinese immigrant who grew up in Taiwan, is arguably the most qualified to weigh in but chose to sidestep the question — an apparent move to avoid triggering controversy or inflaming partisans. The fourth candidate on the dais, political activist Marie Hurabiell, said she supported Pelosi’s trip but remains largely neutral on the issue. — Han Li
CHOPPING COMMISSIONS: After a year of endless deliberations, the effort to streamline San Francisco’s complex board and commission system has reached the part of the process when things get really feisty: Yes, it’s the Board of Supervisors’ turn to weigh in.
The Commission Streamlining Task Force, mandated by 2024’s Proposition E, has presented its final report (opens in new tab) to the board. The plan would reduce the city’s 152 advisory bodies to 87 by eliminating some and merging others.
At the meeting Tuesday, a nearly three-hour discussion over the task force’s recommendations turned contentious. While many of the report’s diagnoses for eliminating repetitive or inactive bodies are considered noncontroversial, some speakers still voiced opposition, warning of weakened public oversight. At least one supervisor expressed strong dissatisfaction.
“You exceeded the mandate and inserted opinions and politics into the process,” Supervisor Shamann Walton told task force chair Ed Harrington. Walton is especially concerned that changes to the Police Commission would strip some of its authority.
Walton also criticized the task force for a lack of diversity. “The task force was about as diverse as a stack of $1 bills,” he quipped.
Harrington said he understands the criticisms and expects the board to modify the recommendations. He noted that some of the loudest opposition is not about eliminating commissions but about proposals to move them from the city charter to the administrative code — a shift that critics believe to be a downgrade and would give the mayor and supervisors more power to remove the boards. Those include the Status of Women, Human Rights, Environment, and Youth commissions. There is also opposition to proposals involving the merging or elimination of advisory bodies focused on homelessness, aging and disability, and children and families.
If the process moves forward, charter-related changes must go before voters, with a final version potentially appearing on the November ballot. Expect plenty more fireworks before Election Day. — H.L.
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