San Francisco, CA
San Francisco’s Bay to Breakers footrace happens Sunday. Here’s what to know.
The 113th edition of San Francisco’s Bay to Breakers will bring thousands of runners to the city’s streets early Sunday morning, along with street closures to accommodate the roving party.
Famous for its wild costumes, nude and/or scantily clad participants and themed running groups, the freewheeling footrace is one of those unique “only in San Francisco” events that has become an institution with over a hundred years of history behind it.
What is the Bay To Breakers?
The Bay to Breakers is an annual footrace held in San Francisco that usually happens on the third Sunday of May. The race was started in 1912 with the intent of raising spirits in the city that was still recovering from the deadly 1906 earthquake as well as to promote the then upcoming Panama-Pacific International Exposition that happened in 1915.
The race has continued long after its initial purpose, though there were points that participation dipped as low as only 50 runners during World War II. Still, the race continued to be held every year, gradually building in popularity and becoming an iconic and irreverent fixture of San Francisco’s culture.
According to the Wikipedia page on the race, the Bay to Breakers “has been run for more consecutive years over a given course and length than has any other footrace in the world.” The race entered the annals of the Guinness Book of World Records in 1986 when that year’s edition boasted 110,000 participants, setting the record as the world’s largest footrace.
What is the Bay to Breakers route?
The Bay to Breakers route has changed slightly over the decades. Initially, the starting point was the Ferry Building, where racers would run along Market Street to Golden Gate Avenue before turning onto Divisadero Street. However, in 1968, organizers moved the start to less busy Howard Street, while the climb up Divisadero was moved to Hayes Street. The current course cuts over from Howard St. at Ninth St., turning west along Hayes St. and up the challenging Hayes Street Hill near Alamo Square. After the hill, the course follows the Golden Gate Park Panhandle on Fell Street before moving west through Golden Gate Park to the Great Highway and Ocean Beach, where the course ends.
The complete Bay to Breakers course is 7.46 miles (12 km) long. The route was originally set up by organizers to emulate another venerable Bay Area event, the Dipsea Race. That Marin County footrace founded in 1905 travels from downtown Mill Valley to Stinson Beach.
When does the Bay to Breakers start?
This Sunday race begins at 8 a.m., with the first wave of runners taking off from the Howard Street starting line at that time and subsequent waves following until 8:45 a.m. The course will close at 12:30 p.m. on race day at the intersection of JFK and Chain of Lakes Golden Gate Park. Race organizers advise that participants who have not passed that intersection by 12:30 p.m. will not have the opportunity to cross the finish line on the Great Highway, which closes promptly at 1 p.m. More detailed information on the Bay to Breakers can be found on the race’s official website.
What is the traffic impact from Bay to Breakers?
The Bay to Breakers takes place early enough on Sunday morning that the traffic from the huge throng of runners and attendant street closures doesn’t see huge impacts. However, there are closures across the city, but for preparation and for the race itself.
The earliest street closures begin Saturday at 7 p.m. in the downtown staging area near the start of the race at Main between Mission and Folsom. That area remains closed until Sunday at 5 p.m. The race will also shut down the Great Highway between Sloat and JFK between Saturday at 9 p.m. until Sunday at 4 p.m.
On Sunday morning, there will be closures all along the race route, with a concentration of street closures downtown in the staging area starting at 3 a.m. They include:
- Beale between Mission and Folsom
- Fremont between Mission and Folsom
- First St. between Market and Folsom (Muni allowed from Market to Mission)
- Second St. between Mission and Folsom
- New Montgomery between Mission and Howard
- Howard between Beale and Third St .
There will also be intersection closures on Howard at Beale, Fremont, First, Second, and New Montgomery. Drivers should anticipate heavy traffic along the race route due to street closures. There will also be Sunday morning closures for multiple entrances to Golden Gate Park during the race.
While the Bay to Breakers will be forcing a number of bus route changes, the race is also changing Muni’s usual weekend service time to accommodate the expected crowds. The Market Street Subway will open early at 6 a.m. Sunday morning, with extra service provided on the N Judah and S Shuttle lines between West Portal and Embarcadero stations. Full details on street closures and service impacts are available on the SFMTA website.
BART is also providing four trains with limited stops before regular weekend BART service to help transport Bay to Breakers runners. The special service will get race participants to the Embarcadero station at around 7 a.m.
The special early morning trains will pick up passengers with limited service from the Millbrae, Daly City, and 16th Street Mission stations in San Francisco and on the Peninsula and from the West Oakland, MacArthur, Pleasant Hill, El Cerrito del Norte, Bay Fair, and Dublin stations in the East Bay. These stations will be the only stations opened early for service. The four early trains will go out of service once they drop riders off at Embarcadero. Riders will not be able to board those trains at Embarcadero.
More information on the special service is available on the BART website. Caltrain and Golden Gate Ferry also will be providing additional service to accommodate Bay to Breakers participants. Public transit is recommended for those running in the race due to possible traffic and parking issues.
Is the Bay to Breakers still a roving party?
While there inevitably will be some drinking among participants (not to mention spectators who line the race route), back in 2009 San Francisco city officials and race organizers made changes to the rules that banned the use of floats (which were often used to transport full kegs of beer), alcohol, drunkenness and nudity. The changes were in response to residents who lived along the race route who complained about problems with public drunkenness and urination in their neighborhoods. While the race has become somewhat toned down since those changes, there is still a festive and hedonistic atmosphere to the proceedings.
Presidio Heights is proving to be a center of gravity as luxury housing supply in San Francisco vanishes and the city’s well-to-do scramble to claim their slice of the artificial intelligence industry’s nerve center.
On the same day last week, the city recorded two home sales in the wealthy neighborhood for $9.2 million and $10 million.
The first reflected the fortunes being created by the AI industry. Venture capitalist Kenneth Wallace and his wife, Moriah Lewis, sold their five-bed, 4,755-square-foot home at 3875 Clay Street for $9.2 million. Josh McAdam of Sotheby’s International Realty represented the seller. The property last sold for $6.8 million in 2021.
The buyer initially kept their name hidden behind a Delaware-incorporated LLC named after the property’s address. However, according to public loan documents, the LLC is managed by Daniel Berrios and Kimberly Tan, a couple in their early 30s who graduated from Stanford into the San Francisco tech sector. Berrios works on special projects at OpenAI, and Tan is an investing partner with blue chip venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. Wells Fargo Bank provided a $5.4 million loan for the purchase.
Ten blocks east, sellers Herbert and Shwu-Ling Wei sold their six-bed, 5,000 square-foot home at 2881 Jackson Street for $10 million. Kyle Vineyard, a CPA with Realize Tax Advisors, is the trustee of the buyer, RKLA Trust. It is unclear whether Vineyard’s involvement is purely professional or if he’s connected to the trust.
The home last sold in 2014 for $6.8 million.
Presidio Heights, the neighborhood that runs along Presidio Park at San Francisco’s north end, has experienced a hot streak during the first half of 2026. Earlier this month, two mansions in the area sold for a combined $32 million, marking the fourth and fifth sales this year to eclipse $10 million. There were seven sales above that benchmark in Presidio Heights in all of 2025, according to Zillow data.
San Francisco, where the median home sale fetches $2.2 million, is dealing with its own version of champagne problems: a mansion shortage. The AI boom has attracted a wave of high-paid employees, apparently leaving the city with more millionaires than mansions. Steep capital gains taxes have made some mansion owners hesitant to let go of their property. Others are holding out for the expected spike in luxury home demand following Anthropic and OpenAI’s initial public offerings of stock, which are expected to come later this year.
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Staying safe at San Francisco’s Pride festivities
The SFPD has announced that officers from all districts, stations and specialized agencies will be positioned along the route for the Pride Parade to ensure the event is safe for attendees. The annual parade will be held this Sunday and is expected to attract hundreds of thousands of people from around the world.
San Francisco – San Francisco city and police officials said Wednesday that they want people to enjoy Pride festivities this weekend — including the popular parade on Sunday — and that they will be on the lookout for criminal activity.
“All of the leaders up here know how important this weekend is, and we are ready,” Mayor Daniel Lurie said while flanked by a host of officials at a news conference at San Francisco police headquarters.
Lurie said his message is simple: “Look out for one another. Report anything concerning and know that every first responder, city worker and volunteer has one goal: to help everyone celebrate safely.”
Hundreds of thousands expected at SF Pride Parade
What we know:
The annual Pride festivities and parade on Sunday are expected to draw hundreds of thousands of people from around the world to San Francisco. Police say they’re working with state and federal partners to monitor any potential threats while making sure people enjoy themselves.
“You’ll see many of our officers – including me – wearing Pride patches,” said Police Chief Derrick Lew, gesturing to a multicolored patch on his shoulder. “As always, we’re excited to showcase San Francisco, and our longstanding status as a safe haven for members of the LGBTQ+ community.”
No tolerance for hate, DA says
What they’re saying:
District Attorney Brooke Jenkins says she and other city leaders will have no tolerance for hate.
Just last week, she charged a man with a hate crime for allegedly spray-painting a homophobic message outside a Castro District flower shop and punching a witness.
“There will be accountability if anything like that happens here, and so as much as we want to be joyous, we also have to take this occasion very seriously,” Jenkins said.
Suzanne Ford, executive director of SF Pride agreed, saying, “I think we all have the responsibility of demonstrating that we can work together to make sure that the LGBTQ community is centered for this weekend.”
Sheriff Paul Miyamoto said those who don’t behave will go straight to jail.
“The one mode of transportation we want to make sure all of you avoid this weekend is the party buses that the sheriff’s department will have out there,” Miyamoto said.
City officials are urging everyone to celebrate responsibly, don’t drink and drive or accept drinks from strangers and to report any suspicious activity.
Henry Lee is a KTVU crime reporter. E-mail Henry at Henry.Lee@fox.com and follow him on X @henrykleeKTVU and www.facebook.com/henrykleefan
The Source: KTVU reporting, San Francisco police and sheriff, district attorney’s office
San Francisco, CA
First of its kind queer museum in San Francisco Chinatown amplifies Chinese LGBTQ artists
On one side of the world, Xiangqi Chen can be punished for her LGBTQ+ activism. But on the other, the activist and artist is lauded as a trailblazer — the architect behind the first of its kind Chinese queer art museum.
The irony that she left her home in China and found a public platform for her LGBTQ+ artistic expression in San Francisco’s Chinatown — the country’s oldest — is not lost on her.
“Here in San Francisco Chinatown, I still continued my journey and met so many like-minded community members and friends,” Chen told The Associated Press through an interpreter. “It kind of actually encouraged me and gave me lots of strength to do what I know is my mission, my calling.”
The OUT Museum opened with a rainbow-ribbon cutting at the end of May — between Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month and Pride Month. Situated across from the Chinese Historical Society of America Museum, the bilingual museum is giving recognition to a demographic that has long felt invisible. It seems like an ideal fit in the progressive city at a time when some cities, states and the federal government are restricting or banning certain LGBTQ+ rights.
To start, the museum is only open on Saturdays and is one room with fewer than a dozen artworks by artists from China and the Chinese diaspora. But there is hope to expand the museum’s exhibits and days of operation.
Museum allows Chinese artists to fully tell their stories
While still living in China, Chen launched a Kickstarter for a proposed museum six years ago — more than 2,000 donated on the platform. But she knew it likely wouldn’t be built there. In 2022, she came to the U.S. on a J-1 visa as a visiting scholar at Georgetown University. By 2024, Chen gained attention in San Francisco for her role in an exhibition at the Asian Art Museum. That led to a residency with the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco.
The organization was “proud to be the incubating space for the OUT Museum prototype,” executive director Jenny Leung said in an email.
The level of support that followed amazed Chen.
“I got so many chances to connect with the local Asian American queer community and even the Chinatown community in general,” she said.
Interest soon followed from longtime collaborators and younger artists who reached out via Instagram. They are represented in the inaugural exhibition, which includes photography, zines and an interactive installation where visitors use thread to trace their self-discovery journey with gender and sexuality.
For Hong Kong-born artist Dixon Ngai, this museum offers an outlet to tell his story as mainstream media typically overlook the Chinese LGBTQ+ community. He contributed a hand-painted, Chinese porcelain wine pot inspired by the Cantonese opera “Di Nü Hua,” or “The Flower Princess.”
Ngai said the OUT Museum, unlike other exhibitions, is very specific to the experience of the Chinese queer community, allowing “more people to see our voice.”
Museum affirms evolving attitudes toward LGBTQ+ presence
Since the museum’s opening, Chen has been “one hundred percent moved” by unexpected feedback from one particular demographic: Chinese immigrants, both queer and straight, who have lived in California for decades.
A 60-year-old transgender man who visited shared how he immigrated to the U.S. in the 1970s for crucial gender-affirming care. There was also a mother looking to connect with her gay adult son.
“She later emailed me saying that she’s so grateful for all the events the art museum has organized,” Chen said. “Her son came out to her, and she’s very proud of her son and she wants to express gratitude.”
These reactions are proof the museum is elevating the visibility of Chinese, Chinese American and Asian American LGBTQ+ people, said author and activist Helen Zia, a museum advisory board member. It also shows how attitudes have shifted, she said, as it would have been difficult to mount even 20 years ago.
“There were Asian churches who would have demonstrations week after week with thousands of people just condemning same-sex couples,” Zia said, recalling the response from the Chinese community in 2008 when she handed out pro-gay marriage flyers in Oakland’s Chinatown. “We got people yelling at us, spitting.”
Later that year, Zia and her wife were among many couples who wed after the California Supreme Court rejected a same-sex marriage ban. Even today, she says the museum’s presence sends a needed message.
“See our humanity,” Zia said. “Here’s the beautiful art that we create and imagine and contribute to the world.”
LGBTQ+ life in mainland China
versus the US
Being homosexual in China means living under the radar and discriminatory policies. In 2001, the Chinese Psychiatric Association stopped listing homosexuality as a mental disorder. But LGBTQ+ couples still cannot marry or adopt. They are also limited in their right to publicly advocate. When Chen lived in Shanghai, she ran a grassroots center for lesbians. One of the reasons she left was because during the pandemic the government started cracking down on spaces for LGBTQ+ activism.
She likely could not even put on an art show, let alone a museum.
“From 2013 to 2015, that kind of art exhibition by queer artists (could) exist, but only if you don’t explicitly show or tell the audience that your work or yourself identify as queer or LGBTQ,” Chen said. “But not nowadays.”
That Shanghai center is how Zia met Chen a decade ago. Zia was doing research for a book and toured the center.
“She’s been just incredibly brave in China, creating a center that attracted a lot of state attention,” Zia said.
A key difference Chen has noticed among American-born Chinese LGBTQ+ people versus those in China is they are more educated about gender and sexual identity and have more access to support.
Under the second Trump administration, LGBTQ+ rights are increasingly under threat. President Donald Trump’s administration has targeted gender-affirming care and sought to ban transgender people in the military. Some anti-Pride lawmakers recently proposed “Nuclear Family Month.”
San Francisco also recently dealt with shifting LGBTQ+ attitudes after Giants baseball players wrote Bible verses on Pride Night hats.
Nevertheless, the Chinese artists say the social landscape here is a breath of fresh air.
“Here in San Francisco, in California, we enjoy the air of freedom, there is equal human rights, there is security,” Ngai said. “So, we are very proud to be ourselves.”
This Sunday, Chen will proudly walk in her first San Francisco Pride Parade. She will plug the museum while dressed fittingly as a woman warrior from a Cantonese opera.
“I think completing this opening will be a start for me. It’s not the end,” Chen said. “We still have a long way to go.”
___
Tang reported from Phoenix.
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