San Francisco, CA
San Francisco must not let antisemitism win – opinion
On January 8, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted in favor of passing a resolution that would demand a ceasefire by Israel that would leave its civilians permanently hostage to the terror group Hamas. After the atrocities of October 7 and the information that has since emerged about the ongoing abuse of the hostages, Israel abandoning them would be unthinkable. Worse, the resolution was passed in a climate of intimidation and the bigoted public harassment of Jews in the meeting room itself. San Francisco owes its citizens better.
Israel and Hamas had a long-term ceasefire in place on October 6. The next morning, Hamas forces stormed across the Israeli border and massacred over 1,200 innocents, raping women, mutilating genital organs, and burning people alive. Moreover, Hamas took 240 living captives, and while some miraculously have been released and rescued, over a hundred remain under Hamas control, where releasees have described rape and excruciating psychological abuse.
Israel is not fighting the Palestinian people; it is fighting the terrorist group Hamas. If Hamas turned over the captives, there would be a ceasefire tomorrow. What nation on Earth could allow its people to be violated, murdered, and kidnapped without attempting to rescue the survivors? Yet the resolution passed by the Board did not make its call for a ceasefire contingent on freeing these captives, which would extend their nightmare indefinitely.
Dr. Einat Kalisch-Rotem, mayor of San Francisco’s sister city of Haifa, who is still mourning the loss of two family members murdered on October 7 and another held hostage in Gaza, expressed her disappointment in a resolution “that critically targets Israel but glaringly condemns to message the sexual violence against women by Hamas on October 7, and the continuing violence against hostages held for almost 100 days by Hamas.” The resolution, as passed, did not even mention the horrors perpetrated by Hamas through sexual assault on women and girls, as well as on men. How can San Francisco claim to stand up for women’s dignity and not have anything to say about this violent atrocity?
An opportunity to do the right thing
Worse yet, the resolution was passed during proceedings that were marred by frequent heckling and disruptions, some antisemitic, by masked pro-Hamas audience members. While one San Francisco Jewish man spoke, he was heckled with pig noises, which he rightly described as “pure antisemitism,” and targeted with jeers when he described the violence perpetrated by Hamas. “I have never, since I moved to San Francisco, seen this kind of hatred against a minority group ever,” he said. “A public demonstration of hate against a minority group.”
Mayor London Breed now has the opportunity to do the right thing by vetoing the resolution. Allowing such a one-sided statement, passed in the context of such severe public intimidation and harassment, to stand would compromise San Francisco’s integrity and voice. By taking this courageous position, she would ensure that San Francisco sticks to its highest values and denies anti-Jewish hatred.
The writer is a prominent Beverly Hills plastic surgeon and star of the Emmy-nominated Netflix original series, Skin Decision: Before and After.
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.
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 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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