The January spell of weeks when winter felt like summer is over. Rain is in the air and the skies have turned gray. Gray news all around San Francisco, too: The California Historical Society is history, dissolved after 154 years. Books, Inc., the oldest bookseller in the West, is in financial trouble. Empty stores. You know the story.
San Francisco, CA
San Franciscans have a second shot at a new beginning, and boy do we need it
A lion at Kerouac Alley at Grant Avenue in San Francisco for the Chinese New Year celebration.
Carl Nolte/The ChronicleThe western new year — 2025 — has been a bust so far. Maybe it’s time to think of a newer new year. So I took a trip to Chinatown to see what’s new. And to North Beach to see what’s old. A good way to start the Lunar New Year. This is the year of the serpent, by tradition a time of wisdom and adaptability. We could use both.
The beginning of the trip was unpromising, up Kearny from Market, up Sutter Street, right on Stockton Street past blocks of “For Lease” signs, then through the noisy Stockton Tunnel.
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Stockton Street was a bit quiet for a holiday period, but it turned out I had missed the new year rush. So I headed down the side streets into the Chinatown alleys — Ross Alley and Waverly Place — decorated with lanterns and flags, the pavement thick with bits of red paper from firecracker new year celebrations.
The Chinatown alleys, usually packed with life and locked doorways, always seem mysterious to western eyes. At this time of the year they also seem to have a new-year vitality as if this old part of the city was starting again.
There was a big celebration on the first day of the new year at Portsmouth Square, with Daniel Lurie, the city’s new mayor, on hand.
I went to a smaller event at the northerly part of Grant Avenue, where Chinatown runs into North Beach.
There were a couple of hundred people here, jammed together on Grant, listening to speeches in English and Cantonese. The sound system was not up to the job but the message was clear: good wishes for a happy and prosperous new year. Tell your friends to come by. We could use the business.
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The speeches ended in the roar of a thousand firecrackers and enough white smoke to deter whatever evil spirits might be around.
There were two Chinese lions dancing and a third lion standing by at the entrance to Kerouac Alley. The street is only 60 feet long — one end in Chinatown, the other in Italian-flavored North Beach, two worlds of San Francisco.
“At the front side we faced the western world, at the back we faced the eastern world,’’ Lawrence Ferlinghetti said of the City Lights bookstore at the North Beach end of the alley.
Just beyond is a three-way intersection where Grant, Columbus Avenue and Broadway all run together.
On the North Beach side a dozen Chinese street musicians were playing, the eastern music drifting over the sounds of the city: traffic, buses, sirens. Just opposite was a neon sign celebrating the raucous days when this corner was ground zero for topless dancing.
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It was a new year in Chinatown, but an older time was still the order of the day in North Beach and the two worlds are close together so I headed up a block or two to Green Street for a winter’s day drink at Gino and Carlo and lunch at Sotto Mare, in the heart of North Beach.
“Sotto Mare” means “under the sea” in Italian and I enjoy the sand dabs there. They are small fish with both eyes on the left side of their heads, a San Francisco kind of fish.
I like to sit at the counter and watch the cooks at work, dicing and slicing, big flames coming up from the gas stoves. The orders are written on paper and come to the cooks zipping on a long wire. Very low tech, very old San Francisco.
I had a glass of wine while waiting for lunch and got to thinking: Change is in the air for the new year. A band of rain, even a storm, is in the forecast. And after that, in the second week of February, all the street trees will start to bloom.
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There’s a special thing about this wintry season in this part of the world: You get a second chance at a new year.
Carl Nolte’s columns appear in The Chronicle’s Sunday edition. Email: cnolte@sfchronicle.com
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco rolls out heightened security measures ahead of World Cup knockout match, 4th of July
The city of San Francisco is taking heightened police and security measures in advance of two major events in the Bay Area this week – the 4th of July and the first knockout round of the FIFA World Cup.
Mayor Daniel Lurie hosted a press conference Monday to address the public on how the city plans to manage the overlapping swarms of soccer fans and 4th of July revelers.
“No matter the occasion, our top priority, and my top priority, remains the same: keeping San Francisco residents and visitors alike safe,” said Lurie.
The two events would be major draws for crowds independently, but combined, and with special occasions marking both, the city wants to ensure that security is a top priority.
The World Cup has already brought hundreds of thousands of people from across the country and the world to the Bay Area, but this week’s game at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara is especially notable for the San Francisco as the host city and the United States as a host nation. The stadium, renamed San Francisco Bay Area Stadium for the duration of the World Cup, will host the knockout round match between the U.S. and Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday.
Official fan zones and watch parties for the U.S. match, as well as for Mexico’s match against Ecuador on Tuesday, will be held at multiple locations in San Francisco, including at Thrive City at the Chase Center and at the Pier 39 Fan Zone.
This year’s 4th of July in San Francisco, which already boasts large crowds across the city each year, will have another draw as the city prepares to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday. The city will be hosting a fireworks show on the Golden Gate Bridge on Saturday night – only the third time that pyrotechnics have ever been set off from the iconic San Francisco landmark. Fireworks will be launched off the two towers of the bridge and from barges in the water.
The Golden Gate Bridge show will be the only official one in the city – fireworks are illegal in San Francisco.
Authorities advised attendees to use public transportation and to leave plenty of time on both ends of their travel for traffic and delays. Caltrans has announced road closures and detours on U.S. Highway 101 and the entire Golden Gate Bridge for the fireworks show.
San Francisco Police Chief Derrick Lew said the department is collaborating with multiple state and local agencies to keep people safe, and that police officers have had their days off cancelled to meet the staffing needs that July 4 will require.
“This week will be safe because that’s what we’ve been doing every day,” Lurie said. “It is a glorious time to be here in San Francisco.”
Lurie cited past heavily attended events like Sunday’s San Francisco Pride Parade and Super Bowl 60 in February as examples of the city’s successful management of major crowds.
San Francisco police officers arrested 20 people late Saturday night in SoMa after breaking up an unauthorized “Stud Alley” block party with hundreds of participants, according to the police department. It marked the second round of arrests of Pride attendees this weekend after police arrested five people at the tail end of the Trans March on Friday.
Police officers arrived near Kissling and 11th streets at 10:58 p.m. and “encountered an unsanctioned and unpermitted block party” that had about 300 participants and a D.J., according to a statement from the San Francisco Police Department. The following details are based on the department statement and social media videos; two participants reached by Mission Local declined to comment.
The department said that the large crowd “prompted the response of additional SFPD resources.” Social media footage shows dozens of officers marching through SoMa streets armed with batons, wearing riot helmets and carrying plastic zip-ties.
Officers then gave an order to disperse, the department said, and told the D.J. to leave the area. The D.J. left but the partygoers did not, the department said, and officers tried to “disperse the crowd.” Two people “resisted,” the department said, and officers arrested them.
Several people also “vandalized two vehicles passing through the area,” the department said, and made them “inoperable.” The two vehicles may have been Waymos: One online video shows two Waymos in the street blinking hazard lights, and appears to show one officer telling others that the Waymos had been vandalized.
The party then reformed a few blocks later at Washburn Street about two blocks away, the department said, with about 200 people; the police shut that gathering down as well.
Footage from the scene shows a line of officers in tactical gear advancing rapidly on the crowd, shoving people out of the alleyway before forming a cordon line to block the street. In total, 18 people were arrested on Washburn Street, the department said, for “obstructing or delaying a peace officer and unlawful assembly.”
The department said that “makeshift barricades” had been set up to keep officers at bay; at one point in a video, an officer moves several large rocks that were placed in the street. Two officers sustained minor injuries, the department said.
SoMa has been the site of unsanctioned “Stud Alley” parties on the Saturday evenings of Pride weekend for at least the past six years. The parties have made headlines in past years for graffiti, broken windshields and outraged neighbors.
The organizers of Stud Alley posted an announcement this year that they would not host a party, saying that the party had recently “outgrown itself,” but reminded past party-goers of the unofficial slogan that is frequently graffitied onto walls around the party: Every alley is Stud Alley.
Jesse, a bartender at the nearby bar the Willow, reported seeing cops “everywhere” after the Saturday incident, when people “fled” to the bar to escape. He did not report hearing of any incidents of violence between party-goers and police.
The arrests mark the second encounter between Pride-goers and police this weekend. On Friday, at the end of the Trans March, police officers arrested five marchers for alleged vandalism and assault after march-goers allegedly spray-painted several statues and a person.
On Sunday afternoon, Washburn and Kissling streets still bore signs of the party. Spray painted on the walls of buildings were “Fuck SFPD,” “No Cops at Pride,” and “Every Alley Stud Alley.”
It’s series finale time, and it’s rubber match time, as the San Francisco Giants host the Atlanta Braves.
It’s a battle of Cy Young southpaws. For the Giants, it’s Robbie Ray, who won the award in 2021 in the American League. Ray, a 34-year old two-time All-Star, is making his 17th appearance of the year, and is 6-6 with a 3.70 ERA, a 4.80 FIP, and 80 strikeouts to 42 walks in 87.2 innings. After a rough patch, he’s been exceptional in his last two games, including allowing just an unearned run in eight innings against the Athletics his last time out.
For the Braves, it’s Chris Sale, who won the prestigious pitching award in 2024. Sale, a 37-year old nine-time All-Star, has made 14 starts, and is 8-5 with a 2.14 ERA, a 2.71 FIP, and 99 strikeouts to 21 walks in 84 innings. He allowed two unearned runs in 5.2 innings against the Milwaukee Brewers in his last start.
Enjoy the game, everyone.
Who: San Francisco Giants (34-48) vs. Atlanta Braves (49-32)
Where: Oracle Park, San Francisco, California
Regional broadcast: NBC Sports Bay Area
Radio: KNBR 680 AM/104.5 FM, KSFN 1510 AM
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