Appellation Healdsburg, Folia Bar and Kitchen.
Dylan Patrick/Courtesy Appellation Healdsburg
San Francisco, CA
The Tenderloin: A People’s History of San Francisco’s Most Notorious Neighborhood
Upper Tenderloin Historic District. Photograph Source: Smallbones – CC0
“Any city that doesn’t have a Tenderloin isn’t a city at all”
– Herb Caen, longtime San Francisco Chronicle columnist
Few San Francisco neighborhoods have had more ups and downs than the 33-block area still called “The Tenderloin”—a name which derives from the late 19th century police practice of shaking down local restaurants and butcher shops by taking their best cuts of beef in lieu of cash bribes.
At various periods in its storied past, the Tenderloin has been home to famous brothels, Prohibition-era speakeasies, San Francisco’s first gay bars, well-known hotels and jazz clubs, film companies and recording studies, and professional boxing gyms.
In 1966, trans people hanging out at the all-night Compton’s Cafeteria staged a militant protest against police harassment three years before the more famous LBGTQ uprising at the Stonewall Inn in NYC. During the last decade, the Tenderloin has become better known for its controversial side-walk camping, open-air drug markets, and fentanyl abuse.
The failure of municipal government to deal with those social problems— in a residential neighborhood for working-class families with 3,000 children—contributed to recent electoral defeats of a district attorney, city supervisor, and San Francisco’s second female and African-American mayor.
For the past 45 years, Randy Shaw has been a fixture of the place as co-founder of its Tenderloin Housing Clinic (THC). After graduating from law school nearby, Shaw became involved in fights for tenants’ rights and more affordable housing at a time when blue-collar neighborhoods in San Francisco were starting to gentrify.
A Unionized Non-Profit
The THC, which now employs 200 SEIU Local 1021-represented staff members, began to acquire and develop its own network of Single Room Occupancy (SRO) buildings in the Tenderloin, as an alternative to run-down private landlord owned ones.
Today, THC provides subsidized housing and wrap-around services to several thousand of the city’s most needy tenants—who might otherwise be among the social outcasts living in the surrounding streets. Shaw estimates that the Tenderloin has a higher percentage of housing in nonprofit hands than any central city neighborhood in the nation, an arrangement which safeguards its distinctive character as an economically mixed neighborhood that includes many low-income people among its 20,000 residents.
In this second edition to his book, The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime, and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco, Shaw recounts how this multi-racial working-class enclave managed to survive, if not always thrive, amid a city dominated by tech industry wealth and privilege.
That history of neighborhood resistance to displacement is also on display at the Tenderloin Museum (TLM). Created ten years ago, with much help from the author, this venue for community-based, historically-inspired cultural programming now operates under the direction of Katie Conry.
In her Forward to Shaw’s book, Conry describes the TLM’s many art shows, special exhibits, theatre productions, walking tours, and other public programs that have drawn 50,000 people to a downtown area many out-of-town visitors (and locals) are told to avoid. On April 11, for example, the THC is hosting a new production of The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot to commemorate that “collective act of resistance” and “the on-going fight for transgender rights.” (For ticket info, see here.)
Community Benefits Agreements
Other Californians fighting gentrification—or trying to make sure its benefits are more equitably shared
—will find Shaw’s book to be an invaluable guide to effective activism around housing issues. It illustrates how persistent and creative grassroots organizing can challenge and change urban re-development schemes designed for the few, rather than the many. In too many Left Coast cities, it’s the latter who continue to get pushed out and left behind in the name of “neighborhood improvement.”
A central case study in The Tenderloin is the author’s account of how community residents won a pioneering “community benefits agreement” (CBA) with three powerful hotel chains. In the early 1980s, Hilton, Holiday Inn, and Ramada wanted to build three luxury tourist hotels adjacent to the Tenderloin. Given the city’s pro-development political climate at the time, these hospitality industry giants expected little organized opposition to their plans. Then Mayor Diane Feinstein lauded them for “bringing a renaissance to the area.”
However, as originally unveiled, their blueprint would have transformed nearby residential blocks by “driving up property values, leading to further development, and, ultimately the Tenderloin’s destruction as a low-income residential neighborhood.”
An Organizing Case Study
Among those faced with the prospect of big rent increases and eventual evictions were many senior citizens, recently arrived Asian immigrants, and longtime residents of SRO buildings in dire need of better ownership and management. Fortunately, this low-income, multi-racial population included some residents with “previously unrecognized activist and leadership skills” that were put to good use by campaign organizers, like Shaw, who were assisting their struggle.
During a year-long fight, hundreds of people mobilized to pressure the city Planning Commission to modify the hoteliers’ plans. As Shaw reports, the resulting deal with City Hall created “a national precedent for cities requiring private developers to provide community benefits as a condition of approving their projects.”
Each of the hotels contributed $320,000 per hotel per year for twenty years for low-cost housing development. They also had to sponsor a $4 million federal Urban Development Action Grant (UDAG) for the acquisition and renovation of four low-cost Tenderloin SROs. In addition, each hotel had to pay $200,000 for community service projects, and give priority in employment to Tenderloin residents.
Four decades later, community benefits agreements of this sort are not so unusual. But, in the absence of major new federal investment in public housing built with union labor, they are still much needed.
Where tax breaks or rezoning encourages various forms of private development today, the only way to win additional low-income housing units, living wage jobs, local hiring, or preservation of open space for public use is through grassroots campaigning by community-labor coalitions, aided by sympathetic public officials.
Otherwise mayors and city councils under the thumb of developers will simply offer financial incentives with a few strings attached—whether the project involved is a new hotel, casino, shopping center, office building, or luxury apartment building.
Back in the Tenderloin, as Shaw reports in the conclusion to his book, residents in recent years have had to mobilize around basic public safety issues. Pandemic driven economic distress flooded their neighborhood with tent dwellers, drug dealing, and street crime that added to small business closures, drove tourists away, and made daily life hazardous for longtime residents (except when state and local politicians cleaned things up for high-profile gatherings like the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leadership meeting in S.F. two years ago).
Nevertheless, the author ends on an optimistic note (characteristic of organizers): “New restaurants and small businesses are again opening in the Tenderloin. Street and crosswalk changes make the neighborhood among the city’s most walkable. New housing has increased the Tenderloin’s population…”
But, Shaw reminds us, residents of this urban enclave must still fight to achieve “the quality of life common to other San Francisco neighborhoods” while “protecting an ethnically diverse, low-income, and working-class community” with a colorful past and always uncertain future.
San Francisco, CA
California’s New Hotel Edit: The Best Places to Stay Across the Golden State in 2026
From Sonoma down to San Diego, a new wave of openings is raising the bar on what a hotel can be. California hotels are entering an era of boutique identity, a sense of purpose, and a guest experience that starts well before check-in. Aman is poised for a string of worldwide openings starting in 2026, including a Beverly Hills debut. Also on the horizon: Four Seasons Resort The Biltmore Santa Barbara and The Resort at Pelican Hill’s transition to a St. Regis Estate. Hospitality names like PUBLIC, SingleThread, Palisociety and Small Luxury Hotels are already expanding and reinventing, while legacy properties are being transformed entirely. Consider a stay at one of these new properties across the Golden State.
Appellation Healdsburg
Healdsburg, Sonoma County
Chef Charlie Palmer (whose restaurants have collectively earned more than 20 Michelin stars) and hospitality veteran Christopher Hunsberger bring their combined expertise to Appellation Healdsburg, a 108-room Small Luxury Hotels of the World property (they dub it a “culinary hotel”) in Sonoma County, where the Dry Creek Valley, Russian River Valley and Alexander Valley all meet. The hotel’s restaurant, Folia Bar & Kitchen, run by Palmer and his son, Reed Palmer, centers on progressive American dishes cooked over oak ember open-fire grills. Rooms are decorated with light wood and modern furniture and feature either balconies or patios. With its deep local roots, the ownership team has also launched a membership club providing insider access to Sonoma’s vaunted wine culture.
The Baby Grand
Coronado, San Diego County
Opening in 2026
The Baby Grand, guest bathroom, Coronado.
Kimberly Motos
More will be more at The Baby Grand on Coronado Island, a highly anticipated project from San Diego’s CH Projects, whose portfolio spans Morning Glory, Born and Raised, Raised by Wolves and The Lafayette Hotel. Designed by award-winning firm Post Company, the 31 rooms lean into layers and textures created for a maximalist escape — think clamshell beds, mural-covered walls, mirrored panels, in-room bars and marble bathrooms. Palm trees and vines frame lagoons and rock formations on the grounds, while the dining program will include Night Hawk, an open-fire Greek restaurant, and Fallen Empire, an oyster and champagne bar.
The Bower Coronado
Coronado, San Diego County
The Bower Coronado premium king balcony guest room.
Courtesy The Bower Coronado
A member of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World collection, the Bower Coronado makes its home on Coronado Island, featuring 39 intimate rooms. The interiors hew to clean lines throughout, with limestone floors, light wood and a lobby adorned with sculptural floral art pieces. Dive, the first rooftop bar in Coronado, is a destination in itself, with a neon sign from the former Villa Capri surviving as a remnant of the property’s history. Set near San Diego Bay, the Bower makes the most of sailing and cruise experiences, beach picnics and island tours.
Casa Mani Resort Napa Valley
Napa, Napa Valley
Opening in late April
Casa Mani Resort Napa Valley, Curio Collection by Hilton.
Dye Lot Interior
Casa Mani Resort pays tribute to the valley that surrounds it. The 203-room Curio Collection by Hilton property — the only full-service resort in downtown Napa — arrives after a multimillion-dollar revamp with sleek Mediterranean interiors, abundant greenery, wooden finishes, indoor and outdoor lounges, and fire pits among redwoods. The Spa at Casa Mani offers restorative treatments alongside a pool, and BOA Steakhouse makes its Napa debut on-site.
The Elene
Napa Valley
Opening in late 2026
A rendering of The Elene.
Courtesy The Elene
Situated along the Napa Valley Vine Trail, The Elene is a new 50-room property from Mosaic Hotel Collection, Signum Architecture, Parts and Labor Design, and Surfacedesign. The hotel’s Thermal Garden, designed by consultant Lydia Mondavi, offers an infrared sauna, hot and cold plunge, alongside a thermal mineral pool. A curated cycling program and The Barn adventure hub will take full advantage of Napa’s 47-mile walking and biking trail, and guests can gather for locally sourced dining at communal fire-pit tables.
The Hearst Hotel, an Auberge Resorts Collection
San Francisco
Opening in 2026
Built in 1911, the storied 13-floor Renaissance Revival-style Hearst Building (once the home of the San Franciso Examiner) at the corner of Third and Market streets is taking on a new identity as The Hearst Hotel by Auberge Resorts Collection. The property’s 150 rooms will blend historic European architecture with contemporary West Coast influences, while the amenities will include a rooftop terrace and bar, outdoor plunge pool, a full spa and multiple dining options. “I love seeing Auberge Resorts Collection take on something like the Hearst Hotel because it’s not just a new build, it’s a real piece of San Francisco history being brought back to life,” says Matthew Lawrence, travel adviser at LuxRally Travel. “There’s this incredible sense of place right in the middle of everything.”
The Huntington Hotel
San Francisco
The Big Four at The Huntington Hotel, San Francisco.
Brooke Fitts
“The whole place feels less like a hotel and more like the most elegant address in San Francisco,” says Erica Gray, a travel adviser with Fora Travel, about 143-room Huntington Hotel, the renewed urban landmark on top of Nob Hill, operated by Flynn Properties and Highgate. “More than half the rooms are suites and the spa spans three floors with an indoor pool overlooking the city,” she adds. The Clintons recently checked in to the property, which features lovingly preserved architectural details including boiserie-paneled walls and reimagined interior designs by Ken Fulk. On the ground level, The Big Four Restaurant has been a San Francisco institution since 1976; the Chicken Pot Pie (pictured, above) is practically mandatory.
The Hôtel Lili
Beverly Hills
The Hôtel Lili, Beverly Hills.
Courtesy Palisociety
Just off Rodeo Drive, The Hôtel Lili has opened in Beverly Hills with 44 rooms as part of hotelier Avi Brosh’s Palisociety collection. With a grand, pearly white facade, the hotel inhabits a former private residence originally built in 1939. Inside, the lobby is kitted out in sienna velvet curtains and herringbone floors that draw on maximalist Old World European glamour. The Bar evokes an old-school private members club and offers house-crafted and classic cocktails, including a Lili’s Martini with vodka and lychee liqueur and a small bites menu. Each room has the feel of a pied-à-terre, with Bellino fine bed linens, Diptyque bath amenities, a curated mini bar and signature striped accents designed by Palisociety’s in-house team.
The Selvedge, a SingleThread Inn
Healdsburg, Sonoma County
Opening in late 2026
The Selvedge, A SingleThread Inn, bar in Healdsburg, California.
Courtesy The Selvedge, A SingleThread Inn
SingleThread is opening a second hotel less than a mile from its three-Michelin-starred restaurant and inn in Sonoma County, bringing its approach to agriculture, cuisine and hospitality to a restored 1895 Victorian mansion on the banks of the Russian River. Formerly the River Belle Inn and once home to wine industry pioneer Isabelle Simi Haigh, The Selvedge takes its cues from the Oxfordshire countryside, with herb and rose gardens, a wraparound porch, afternoon tea and traditional Sunday roasts. A library, fitness center and wellness programming with offerings from SingleThread’s own farm round out the amenities. Accommodations will include a 2,000-square-foot two-bedroom suite with its own kitchen and dining room.
Hotel Solea, An Autograph Collection
Carlsbad, San Diego County
Verise Restaurant at Hotel Solea.
Courtesy Hotel Solea, An Autograph Collection
The just-opened Hotel Solea has arrived in North County San Diego, just minutes from Carlsbad Village, The Crossings at Carlsbad golf club and the famed Flower Fields at Carlsbad Ranch, a vibrant sweep of ranunculus flowers across 55 acres. But perhaps the biggest draw is a private entrance to Legoland that’s available for guests of the hotel. The hotel’s design vibe is Mediterranean meets California contemporary, highlighted by a peaceful olive tree grove off the lobby. Verise restaurant focuses on locally sourced Italian cuisine and al fresco dining, while The Break poolside café adds cocktails, bites and a candy shop. The heated pool is a great spot to catch sunsets, while wellness offerings include rooftop yoga.
Le Petit Pali
St. Helena, Napa Valley
Guest room at Le Petit Pali St. Helena.
Courtesy Le Petit Pali St. Helena
The fifth and latest Le Petit Pali from Palisociety has settled into St. Helena in Napa Valley. Set across 3 acres with 24 guest rooms and five private cottages, the property leans fully into wine country charm. Expect to find the hospitality brand’s signature palette of rich greens and cream, along with Hermès decorative plates, wallpapered ceilings, patterned curtains and bed frames, all lending a cottage-chic sensibility. The daily Champagne Continental Breakfast features pastries from the local Model Bakery, with Antipodes water and Baci chocolates placed bedside.
Maison Twenty Seven
Santa Monica
The living room of a two-bedroom king suite at Maison Twenty Seven, Santa Monica.
Nick Argires/Courtesy Maison Twenty Seven
Somehow, Maison Twenty Seven (part of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World portfolio) feels a world away from Santa Monica while sitting directly on the city’s Third Street Promenade. The landmark Mediterranean-Revival villa, once known as the “Aristocrat of Santa Monica,” now houses 38 guest rooms, some functioning as full apartment-style accommodations with kitchens. Unapologetically eclectic, the property doesn’t hold back on the moody interiors, with vintage patterned wallpaper, dark umber wood framing windows and beams, and antique furniture, plus a garden courtyard with iron gates. The beach and Santa Monica’s famed farmers market are steps away.
PUBLIC Hotel
West Hollywood
Opening 2026
Guest room at PUBLIC West Hollywood.
Courtesy PUBLIC West Hollywood
PUBLIC Hotel is coming to the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, which will be the hotel brand’s second location, after first opening on the Lower Eastside in NYC in 2017. Under the creative direction of legendary hotelier Ian Schrager, with interiors by John Pawson, the 137-room property promises to be a buzzy social hub, with a pool, three restaurants and a dance floor. A 16,000-square-foot rooftop terrace crowns the hotel, offering sweeping views across the city. In keeping with its East Coast counterpart, the property pairs accessible pricing with a high-design experience.
This story appears in The Hollywood Reporter’s 2026 Travel Issue. Click here to read more.
Santa Rosa prepares for next big earthquake
The Great 1906 earthquake devastated the Bay Area, destroying much of San Francisco and killing more than 3,000 people. The city marked the quakes 120th anniversary this weekend, but whats not as widely recognized is the damage to surrounding comunities like Santa Rosa.
SANTA ROSA, Calif. – While the Great 1906 Earthquake was a centerpiece of news around the world when its massive damage and fire destroyed much of San Francisco and took 3,000 lives, another far smaller, far less famous town, suffered massive damage almost forgotten by history.
Nearly forgotten
On this day 120 years ago, stunned people were digging for survivors two nights after the quake. Like a demon in the night, the Great 1906 Earthquake also came to Santa Rosa also bent on mass death and destruction.
Eric Stanley is the history curator and deputy director of the Museum of Sonoma County in Santa Rosa that supplied these pictures. “Santa Rosa, in particular, was devastated by the 1906 earthquake,” he said.
Survivors were shaken awake as whole buildings collapsed around them or on them. “A good portion, a really significant portion, of downtown Santa Rosa was completely destroyed,” said Stanley.
Many never woke up; crushed to death in their sleep. There were over a hundred people killed in the 1906 earthquake in Santa Rosa that only had 7,000 people in it at the time,” said the curator.
Active fault line
Sixty-three years later, in 1969, a time of budding, but far better science-based building codes, a double shaker nonetheless did significant damage and killed one person. “Even understanding all those things, you kind of at the earlier stage of that in the sixties,” said Stanley.
Today, four of Santa Rosa’s School buildings lie near or on the Rodgers Creek Earthquake Fault, capable of up to a 7.3 magnitude rupture. One is already closed with another due to close at the end of the school year for budgetary reasons.
That leaves two elementary schools, Hidden Valley, alongside the fault and Proctor, on the fault. The school board says both are seismically sound and safe to continue operating. “The two that are remaining open are both the ones that have the potential and the ability to grow because the entire site is not impacted by the fault line,” said Nick Caston, Santa Rosa City School Board president.
Staying prepared
In other words, things can and will eventually be moved around.
“What we’re gonna end up having to do is redesign the campus over the next several decades to have our fields and our parking in the front, which are totally acceptable to be over a fault line and actually move our academic builds and our student-serving buildings to the back,” said Caston.
Ultimately, the pictures and relics museums hold from natural disasters are given to those who come, a lesson and a warning. “Real people went through these experiences and we really do have to be aware of that and do our very best to prepare for those kinds of things,” said Stanley.
The 1933 Field Act requires earthquake-safe construction of schools, with evolving seismic codes as we learn more.
A California sea lion pup found last week on a San Francisco street corner is malnourished but “active and quite feisty,” The Marine Mammal Center said Monday.
The sea lion, believed to be about 10 months old, had apparently wandered into city’s Outer Sunset neighborhood and was discovered early Thursday morning, authorities said.
The pup was spotted near 48th and Irving Streets, one block from Ocean Beach and Sunset Dunes park. A trained responder from the Marine Mammal Center was joined by San Francisco park rangers and police officers to safely corral the pup, now named ‘Irving’, into a carrier crate.
Dubbed ‘Irving’ by his rescuers, Irving weighed in at 40 pounds and is considered malnourished, the Marine Mammal Center said.
“The sea lion is active and quite feisty which is a positive initial sign in terms of general behavior,” the center said in a news release on Monday.
During an exam by veterinarians, a series of blood samples were also taken to determine whether there’s any underlying ailment.
Irving is being tube fed a fish smoothie blend two times per day to boost hydration and weight; offers of whole herring will also begin shortly.
The quick actions by police, recreation and parks staff and Ocean Avenue Animal Hospital gave the young sea lion a second chance at life, said Lauren Campbell, animal husbandry manager at The Marine Mammal Center.
“As a roughly 10-month-old pup in his first year of learning how to forage on his own, this animal has a long road to recovery due to his severe malnutrition,” Campbell said. “We are hopeful that in the coming weeks with continued specialized care that this pup starts to make positive strides toward recovery and release.”
Irving will be held in the Center’s Intensive Quarantine Unit until clearing medical protocols, before likely being transferred this week to a traditional rehabilitation pool pen. A long-term prognosis and potential release timeline are not currently known.
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