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Sam Smith’s San Francisco Residency Charts New Course for the Castro

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Sam Smith’s San Francisco Residency Charts New Course for the Castro


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Sam Smith has kicked off his residency at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, with the singer’s 20-date stint helping to officially usher in a new era for the historic landmark.

First erected in 1922, the Castro closed in 2024 for a reported $41 million renovation project. But the century-old Spanish-style Baroque theatre is open for business — and music — once again, with its gilded ceiling and ornamental walls restored to its original design, while seating is now reconfigurable for different events, including 650 seats that can be removed to create more standing room space (like for Smith’s concert). More importantly, city officials hope the re-opening of the Castro Theatre will also help revive the predominantly queer neighborhood it sits in, which shares a name with the venerable venue.

“Do you guys realize how special this street is?” Smith asked the sold-out crowd, during night two of their residency last week. “I grew up in a village in the middle of f-ckin’ nowhere,” they shared. “I was the only gay in the village and yes I was very dramatic about it as well,” they added with a laugh.

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“There is nothing like this street and nothing like the Castro and the community here,” Smith said. “I’ll never forget coming here when I was 20 years old, so reopening this theater now is such an honor.”

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Tickets to Smith’s Castro residency quickly sold out when the shows were first announced but you can still find stubs on sites like StubHub, Vivid Seats and SeatGeek. New users can use the promo code THR30 to save $30 on orders of $300 and up at VividSeats.com. SeatGeek customers can use promo code HOLLYWOOD10 to save $10 at SeatGeek.com.

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Smith’s San Francisco stint follows their “To Be Free: New York City,” residency which took place last fall at Brooklyn’s historic Warsaw club. Other artists set to play at the Castro this spring include Father John Misty, José González, Santigold and Lucy Dacus. The Castro will also help celebrate the 50th anniversary of the LGBTQ-themed Frameline Film Festival this June.

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Smith’s residency runs until March 14.

According to tourism officials and local businesses, Smith’s new Castro residency and the reopening of the theatre has already helped to bring in a number of new visitors to the area. Mat Schuster, the executive chef and owner of long-time neighborhood fixture, Canela, says business has been “very busy” in the last few weeks, crediting Smith’s show with bringing out new diners to the Spanish restaurant, which has been on Market Street since 2011. Other local hotspots like wine bar Bar49, the San Francisco outpost of Hi Tops, and the women’s sports bar, Rikki’s (named after Gay Games Federation founder Rikki Streicher), were all packed on a recent evening following Smith’s Castro concert.

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According to San Francisco Tourism, the reopening of The Castro Theatre is poised to deliver “meaningful economic gains” to the surrounding neighborhood, which some stats estimating that the venue will draw more than 200,000 visitors annually.

With the Castro Theatre now open again, local officials are looking ahead to other upcoming celebrations, including a planned reimagining of the Castro and Market Street intersection into The Memorial at Harvey Milk Plaza, honoring the first openly gay elected official in California (and the inspiration for the 2009 Sean Penn film). Milk’s legacy is already enshrined at the San Francisco airport of course, with terminal 1 at SFO renamed as the “Harvey Milk Terminal;” the new memorial is scheduled to be completed by 2028. The annual Castro Street Fair, meantime, a community street celebration founded by Harvey Milk in 1974, will take place on the first weekend of October.

The reopening of the Castro comes amidst a busy few months for San Francisco, which recently saw a number of athletes and celebrities in town for the Super Bowl. Steph Curry’s new speakeasy, The Eighth Rule, was among the hotspots over the big game weekend and the basketball star’s bourbon-forward bar continues to be a hot reservation in the city. Opened in the fall, the bar is tucked away in a nondescript hallway inside the Westin St. Francis hotel in Union Square, offering an intimate and exclusive setting for the Golden State Warriors point guard’s Gentleman’s Cut Bourbon, which can be ordered on its own or as part of a six-course omakase-style cocktail tasting (we loved the clarified coconut milk punch and the truffle-vanilla whiskey sour). Of course, guests can also order cocktails a la carte, choosing from different bourbons and whiskeys, plus a full selection of other spirits.

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Next door to The Eighth Rule is Bourbon Steak San Francisco, the latest outpost of Chef Michael Mina’s award-winning steakhouse. The restaurant marks the celebrity chef’s return to the Westin St. Francis, where he opened his first eponymous restaurant in 2004. In addition to its selection of steaks, seafood and caviar offerings (like Mina’s famous “caviar twinkee”), this Bourbon Steak outpost offers a family-style dining experience for six people, available through advance reservations. This is the only Bourbon Steak location to offer this communal table format.

New this month is the highly-anticipated opening of JouJou, an elevated French brasserie concept from the owners of the two Michelin-starred Lazy Bear. Located in the city’s Design District, JouJou is poised to be the next celebrity hangout, with its ornate dining room and marble-topped counters setting the scene for steak frites and star sightings alike. As chef David Barzelay told the San Francisco Chronicle when asked about the inspiration for JouJou: “It always feels like you’re just in a place where it’s happening.”



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Live Updates: San Francisco Primary Election 2026

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Live Updates: San Francisco Primary Election 2026


Welcome to our running tally of Election Night results. Or, as this is California, well beyond tonight, as results continue to trickle in.

The first batch of results should arrive at 8:45 p.m., with three more to follow tonight. The Department of Elections has the breakdown.

San Francisco is voting in three special elections, for District 2 and District 4 supervisors and for a Board of Education member. Both supervisor races are referendums on housing, especially District 2, while the main backdrop of the D4 race is all the hot feelings around the fate of the Sunset Dunes Park (nee Great Highway).

The winners of all three special races will have to compete again in November for their seats.

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Keeping it local, SF is also voting on four ballot measures. Prop A is for a bond to pay for an emergency water-system. B is for term limits. C and D are dueling measures related to the “overpaid CEO” tax. (Links go to our reporting on each race or issue; or click here for our Election 2026 page.)

Vote local, think national: Which two candidates will advance to the November election to replace Nancy Pelosi?

Statewide races include the primaries for governor, education superintendent, lieutenant governor, and much more.

Polls close soon. If you haven’t voted yet, find your polling station here.

Tuesday, June 2, 5:40 p.m.

Two and a half hours until our polls close. Before we go down the local rabbit hole, a reminder that other states have primary action today: New Jersey, Iowa, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Montana.

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Why does it take so long to get results in California? CalMatters has you covered on that story. We shouldn’t expect a call tonight on the governor’s race.

The last big election was November 5, 2024. (Remember?) Ten days later, there were still races to call in San Francisco.


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So if you’re waiting for the pundits (and maybe even us) to tell you What It All Means, you might have to wait a while.



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San Francisco voters to decide on dueling measures on Top Executive Pay Tax changes

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San Francisco voters to decide on dueling measures on Top Executive Pay Tax changes


San Francisco voters weighed in Tuesday on two competing measures that seek to change the Top Executive Pay Tax, with one of the measures also including a change to the Gross Receipts Tax.

Should both measures pass, the one with the most votes will take effect, according to the propositions’ legal text.

Currently, the measures state that most businesses with San Francisco gross receipts up to $5 million are exempt from the Gross Receipts Tax. And businesses that use more than half of their city payroll for in-house administrative and management services pay an Administrative Office Tax instead of a Gross Receipts Tax.

The Top Executive Pay Tax is a tax some large businesses pay if their highest-paid managerial employee earns more than 100 times the median pay of their San Francisco employees. Businesses that have city gross receipts up to $5 million and are not subject to the Administrative Office Tax are exempt.

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Proposition C

Proposition C states it would increase the number of businesses that could be exempt from the Gross Receipts Tax and would stop any further increases to the “Top Executive Pay Tax” after a final rate bump.

The proposed measure says it would raise the Gross Receipts Tax exemption ceiling to $7.5 million. The $7.5 million ceiling would also apply to the Top Executive Pay Tax exemption.

As for changes to the Top Executive Pay Tax, Proposition C states it would implement the 2028 tax rate increase in 2027, but then stop any future increases.

Supporting Proposition C are Rodney Fong, CEO of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, and Chris Wright, senior vice president of Advance SF, an organization of companies, which includes Bank of America, OpenAI, Waymo, the SF Giants CEO and others.

Fong and Wright, in their argument for the measure, say giving businesses more tax breaks would help keep more employees on payroll and would give companies the ability to “contribute to city services in a predictable and balanced way.”

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Critics of Proposition C, such as the San Francisco Tenants Union, slam the measure as “billionaire-backed” and argue it would kill the Top Executive Pay Tax and would hand out more tax breaks to businesses at a time when the city is in a budget deficit and faces cuts to essential services.

Proposition D

Proposition D also seeks to change the Top Executive Pay Tax, which is collected from some large businesses where the highest-paid managerial employee earns more than 100 times the median compensation paid to other employees.

If approved, the measure would change the calculation of the tax using the compensation of all employees, not just employees based in San Francisco. Top Executive Pay Tax rates would also be increased for San Francisco gross receipts and payroll.

Supporters have billed the measure as a way to counteract federal cuts to Medicaid. A report by the City Controller’s Office said the measure could result in $250 million to $300 million in additional revenue.

“Proposition D is the solution to our budget deficit. It asks large corporations — not small businesses, not working families — to contribute a little more,” supporters said in the city’s official voter guide.

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The measure has the backing of most of the Board of Supervisors, along with labor unions and Rep. Nancy Pelosi.

Opponents, including Mayor Daniel Lurie and state Sen. Scott Wiener, have argued Proposition D would negatively impact the city’s recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“San Francisco is already one of the most expensive cities in the country to live and do business. Adding extreme and unpredictable tax increases risks driving employers away just as we are trying to bring jobs, workers, and foot traffic back downtown,” said Supervisor Matt Dorsey in the city’s voter guide.



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San Francisco ‘adult supremacy’ workshop brands teachers as oppressors — as fringe trend spreads in California schools

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San Francisco ‘adult supremacy’ workshop brands teachers as oppressors — as fringe trend spreads in California schools


A San Francisco public school reportedly hosted a workshop on “adult supremacy” — a new woke trend labeling teachers and adults “oppressors” that’s quietly gaining traction in California.

The confab, held at John O’Connell High School during an “Ethnic Studies Everywhere” weekend seminar in April, was titled “Youth as Knowledge Producers: Challenging Adult Supremacy Through Ethnic Studies,” according to an attendee who spoke with The Post.

“Due to systemic power dynamics inherently the relationship between students and educators is an oppressive one. Oppressor (educator) & oppressed (student),” a presentation slide explained.

Maria Su, superintendent SFUSD, speaks at a press conference. San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

The workshop was led by Jennifer Sanchez, a third-year ethnic studies educator in the Central Valley, and convened by Teachers 4 Social Justice, a nonprofit that aims to create “empowering learning environments, more equitable access to resources and power, and realizing a just and caring culture,” according to its website.

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Teachers 4 Social Justice was founded by local teacher activist Jeremiah Jeffries, who led an unpopular push to rename public schools during the pandemic that was abandoned after sparking outrage from local parents.

So-called adult supremacy “constructs adults as developed, mature, intelligent, and experienced, based solely on their age and ensures that adults control the resources and make the decisions in society,” the presentation further explained.

Success “within the Western context” is “demanding, overwhelming, and dehumanizing,” the presentation claimed.

Jackson Matos’ work is cited in “adultism.” Jackson Matos

Friends of Lowell Foundation, which advocates for academic merit at San Francisco schools, compiled the “adult supremacy” slides.

Another slide obtained by The Post cited the work of academic Jackson Matos, who is mentioned as connecting “adultism” to cultural imperialism, marginalization, exploitation, powerlessness and violence.

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“We have knowledge and life experience, and it is our job as parents and teachers to impart information on the next generation, on our kids,” one flabbergasted San Francisco parent, who asked not to be named, told The Post.

“Given that a large percentage of students in the district do not meet grade level standards in ELA and math, our focus as a school district is clearly way off track,” the parent said.

A presentation slide titled “Adultism Continued” defining adult supremacy and discussing power dynamics between students and educators. SFUSD

Friends of Lowell Foundation has taken legal action surrounding the school district’s controversial “ethnic studies” curriculum, which was made a one-year requirement for high school freshman this year.

The San Francisco teachers’ group isn’t the only organization blaming “adultism” for society’s failures.

Adam Fletcher is a consultant who counts California school boards and agencies among his clients. He’s made “adultism” a centerpiece of equity training aimed at teachers.

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Adam Fletcher has made “adultism” a centerpiece of equity training aimed at teachers. Adam Fletcher

“Adultism, as an idea, is bias towards adults,” Fletcher said in an online seminar held by TEACH Los Angeles, an educators’ network funded through grants from the California Community College Chancellor’s Office, per its YouTube page.

A slide from a presentation on “Adultism” defines it as a bias towards adults. TEACH Los Angeles

Likewise, the Oakland Youth Commission announced last year a training for city employees about adultism, which is blamed for taking power away from kids, according to slides published online.

The Santa Clara Behavioral Health Services Department sponsored an “anti-oppression training series” that explores how “ageism and adultism” fuel discrimination.

“Participants consider how the myth of independence, rooted in settler colonial capitalism, contributes to the marginalization of youth & elders by diminishing agency, excluding perspectives, & reinforcing stereotypes in behavioral health practice,” an invitation read.

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Three children acting out a scene during a seminar on “adultism.” Instagram/oakyac

San Francisco Unified School District didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The district may be in hot water over its ethnic studies program, with Superintendent Maria Su due to appear at a June 10 congressional hearing about parents’ rights and “inappropriate content” in schools.



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