San Francisco, CA

San Francisco’s newest night market is coming to Valencia Street

Published

12 months ago

March 28, 2025

San Francisco’s newest night market is coming to Valencia Street

The Mission District will be getting its very own night market in six weeks’ time, transforming a three block stretch of Valencia Street into a sprawling community block party complete with revelry, boozing, and entertainment after-hours.

Starting at 5 p.m. on May 8, and running into the night until 10 p.m., Valencia will be shut down to car traffic between 16th and 19th streets. Visitors will be able to roam the street, beer in hand, and visit stages lining either side featuring performances by Mission artists.

Each block will house a stage produced by Mission businesses and local groups. The longtime dive bar Blondie’s will organize live music on its stage, another stage will host performances dedicated to Carnaval, and a parking lot will host an indigenous artisans’ market.

Restaurants will set up tents with extra seating to serve food to passers-by, who can grab a bite and browse offerings from local artists, games, and lots of music.

It’s the latest of nearly a dozen night markets opened in San Francisco over the past year, but also a local effort: Valencia badly needs revitalization, said Manny Yekutiel, the owner of his namesake cafe Manny’s and the president of the Valencia Corridor Merchants Association.

“Foot traffic has drastically reduced in recent years,” he said. “We need to come up with a way to bring people back.”

The night market, dubbed “Valencia LIVE,” will be funded by donations to the Civic Joy Fund, a group co-founded by Yekutiel and Mayor Daniel Lurie that has backed night markets throughout the city, namely in Chinatown, the Richmond, and the Sunset.

The Sunset market last summer drew an estimated 20,000 people to the streets, swarming booths and food vendors.

The Valencia version is a pilot program: It will take place on the second Thursday of every month, from May until October. Organizers hope that, if successful, the market will last for at least two years.

The push for these markets is part of an ongoing effort to revitalize San Francisco’s dwindling nightlife scene, including by Lurie, who celebrated his inauguration day with a visit to a Chinatown night market in his honor complete with an electronic music performance, fireworks, and dancing.

The Valencia Night Market will be just one of three “entertainment zones” in San Francisco, which were made possible after a state law from Sen. Scott Wiener went into effect last year allowing for businesses under a music venue license to apply to be an entertainment zone.

That license lets businesses sell beer, wine and liquor to pedestrians during certain hours, as long as they don’t walk away with them outside of the mandated zone.

The other two entertainment zones are “Thrive City,” outside the Chase Center arena, and Front Street between California and Sacramento.

Merchants in neighborhoods across the city have expressed interest in creating more entertainment zones, but argue that high fees and a harrowing permitting process have made securing a license harder than it needs to be.

Lurie, for his part, introduced legislation in February to create 20 new liquor licenses for a downtown “hospitality zone.” Liquor licenses are notoriously difficult to procure.

The Valencia market will be put on by the Civic Joy Fund, the Valencia Corridor Merchants Association, the Mission Merchants Association, and Into the Streets, a business founded by Katy Birnbaum in 2023 and dedicated to organizing events in downtown San Francisco. The mayor’s office is also helping.

Shaelyn Dalziel, who works at Valencia Street Vintage, said closing down the streets to vehicles has worked “wonders” for her business before, pointing to the once-a-year Sunday Streets, which also shuts down Valencia to traffic and brings out gobs of shoppers. Her store, alongside the rest of the neighborhood, has reaped the benefits from the event, she said.

Valencia Street appears to have fared better than other parts of the Mission, however, at least according to data from the San Francisco’s Controller’s office. That’s despite complaints by business owners of the negative impact of the center-bike lane, and its subsequent removal.

By May 8, construction crews moving the center-bike lane to the curbside should be finished with their task, clearing the way for a continuous closure from 16th to 19th streets — and for pedestrians to pack the corridor.

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Related Topics:events Featured night life Valencia Street

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San Francisco, CA

Daniel Lurie sparked confrontation that injured security team: Police report

Published

7 hours ago

March 10, 2026

Press Room

Daniel Lurie sparked confrontation that injured security team: Police report

Mayor Daniel Lurie sparked the altercation that led to a fight and injuries to two San Francisco police officers in his security detail, according to a police report of the incident obtained by the Standard.

On Thursday evening at 5:38 p.m., Lurie, an aide, and two members of his security team were driving north on Larkin St. when they spotted several people sitting on the sidewalk on the corner of Cedar St., an alley in the Tenderloin.

The mayor ordered the driver of his Rivian SUV, Officer Nicholas Boccio, to pull over. Lurie hopped out of the SUV. His second bodyguard, Officer Joel Aguayo, followed.

What happened next would result in two injured officers, a gun aimed at a man’s chest, two arrests, and renewed questions about the public safety under the mayor’s leadership.

While footage of the incident after the officer pushed one of the men has been published by Mission Local (opens in new tab), details about what led up to the fight have not been previously revealed.

After leaving the safety of his vehicle, the mayor took matters into his own hands, the report says. Lurie attempted to get the group hanging out on Cedar St. to move, but one of the men refused.

“On whose behalf do I need to move?” asked one of the men named Tony Phillips, according to Aguayo’s statement.

According to the narrative of the combined witness statements, “Mayor Lurie addressed the group and requested that they move along, as they were standing in the roadway. Phillips became immediately argumentative, stating that he did not have to move.”

Lurie told Phillips that Aguayo was an SFPD officer. Aguayo repeated that and requested that Phillips comply and move out of the way. Phillips again refused.

The police report said the mayor and Aguayo asked Phillips to move at least four times, at one point saying they would call uniformed officers to remove him.

Still, Phillips refused, as the mayor paced a few feet away from Aguayo, video of the incident shows.

While most of the group of four men appeared to stay put, according to footage of the incident, Phillips stepped toward Aguayo, who was standing in front of the mayor.

According to the police report, Phillips then said, “I’ll Bruce Lee kick your ass.” Aguayo then swiftly pushed Phillips to the ground. Phillips got up and was pushed again before rushing the officer. The pair grappled and then fell to the ground, and Aguayo struck the back of his head.

During the fight, Lurie ran to the parked SUV to tell the driver, Boccio, that his partner was in trouble. When Boccio rushed to help, another man in the alley — Abraham Simon — grabbed the officer and reached for his waistband. Simon backed off after Boccio pulled his service weapon.

Boccio then helped Aguayo but was unable to restrain Phillips. It wasn’t until several uniformed officers arrived that Phillips was taken into custody.

Aguayo, who suffered cuts to the back of his head, facial bruising, and a back injury, said to investigating officers that he had to use force on Phillips because he was threatened verbally and got within inches of him. The officer also said he tried to de-escalate to no avail. Boccio’s hand was cut during the confrontation.

No body camera footage was captured of the incident because officers in the mayor’s security detail did not wear them.

The incident, about which Lurie has made brief statements, has raised questions about whether Lurie’s freewheeling approach to walking the streets could put him into danger. The mayor told reporters last week after the incident that he asked the people to move because he was concerned for their safety and that of other pedestrians and drivers.

“I’m out here walking the streets of San Francisco like I do every day. I believe that you can’t solve what you can’t see,” Lurie said in an Instagram post Monday, seemingly doubling down on his approach to interacting with San Franciscans.

When asked for comment, the mayor’s spokesman Charles Lutvak referred to the Instagram post and a story Lurie shared in his State of the City speech about approaching a man who appeared to be an addict, who told the mayor to mind his own business.

The mayor’s reply: “You are my business.”

Lurie’s own account of the incident was not included in the police report, although the document says he later would be contacted for a statement.

Phillips is set to be arraigned Tuesday on charges of threatening an officer, inflicting great bodily injury, and contempt of court for violating a stay-away order from the alley. District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said her office will request that Phillips remain in custody as he is a threat to the public.

Simon is also set to be arraigned Tuesday on charges of interfering with an officer.

The incident is also being investigated by the Department of Police Accountability, according to The Chronicle.

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San Francisco, CA

San Francisco man charged with attempted murder in unprovoked daylight Chinatown stabbing

Published

19 hours ago

March 9, 2026

Press Room

San Francisco man charged with attempted murder in unprovoked daylight Chinatown stabbing

SAN FRANCISCO – A 37-year-old man has been charged with attempted murder in what authorities described as an unprovoked, broad daylight stabbing in San Francisco’s Chinatown last week.

Suspect charged

What we know:

San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced that Jian Feng Huang was charged with attempted murder in connection with the attack at Stockton and Sacramento streets.

Huang, of San Francisco, will be arraigned Tuesday. He remains in custody.

Jenkins described the incident as a “horrific attack of an innocent man waiting to cross the street.” She said there is no indication that the victim and the suspect knew each other.

Surveillance video captures attack

Dig deeper:

Surveillance footage circulating online shows a man in a black hoodie walking down Stockton Street before suddenly lunging at a man who was waiting at a corner to cross the street.

The attacker stabbed the victim in the back and then walked away, according to the video. The victim is seen collapsing to the ground.

The attack occurred shortly after 1 p.m.

Bystanders rush to help

Local perspective:

Bystanders and business owners rushed to help the wounded man.

“We bring the ice and the towels to stop bleeding,” said Rawnie Chan, manager of Flags International Services. Chan said the victim was speaking in Cantonese and said he was in pain.

One business owner said she grabbed frozen dumplings from an office refrigerator to place on the wound because there were no restaurants nearby with ice available.

Victim recovering

Jenkins said the victim is recovering at a local hospital. Authorities previously said the victim suffered life-threatening injuries and has undergone at least two surgeries.

The Source: This story was written based on information from San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins.

San FranciscoCrime and Public Safety

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