SAN FRANCISCO — Memorial Day weekend is filled with events around the Bay Area. But in San Francisco’s Chinatown, a fairly new event will look to bring together community and culture.

The second annual Chinatown Pride celebration will take place Saturday night.

YY Zhu and the team at the Chinese Culture Center (CCC) are hard at work getting ready for Chinatown Pride 2025.

“It’s a powerful event that transforms San Francisco’s Chinatown neighborhood,” said Zhu.

With the theme “We are Immortal,” the event looks to highlight the LGBTQIA+ community through music, arts, and education. With drag queens leading tours. detailing the queer legacy in Chinatown.

“This really important celebration also recognizes this urgent need to continue to support and empower our increasingly marginalized queer and trans community and immigrant community,” said Zhu.

This comes at a time when CCC San Francisco is dealing with funding cuts, citing how some of the organization’s programs are not aligned with the priorities of the current administration. Thirty percent of the organization’s funding comes from federal sources, including the National Endowment for Arts and Humanities.

“CCC, like any other nonprofit nationwide, has been heavily impacted by the funding cuts throughout different kind of levels,” she said. “State, citywide, federal wide. So, you know, as you can see,e we’re being very creative to explore different revenue-generating ideas.”

Members of CCC are individually making merchandise to sell at the event. There’s also a silent disco fundraiser to cap off the night. Even the Demons Yearbook will be on sale. A project that came to life thanks to students from the Bay Area.

“It was a challenge for the students to basically talk the struggles they are facing internally and to think of a way of using art as a form of storytelling and dealing with their internal struggles like mental health and identity,” said Indigo Hua with CCC San Francisco.

How much they raise will dictate whether Chinatown can hold another Pride event in 2026. But for now, the focus is on making this year the best celebration ever.

“This event, it’s by the community for the community,” said Zhu. “It’s super inclusive, it’s for all. So, we hope people show up to celebrate with each other and show up for solidarity in this beautiful day in San Francisco Chinatown.”

San Francisco’s upfront taxi pricing program is here to stay after the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s Board of Directors voted to keep the program at their May 20 meeting.

“We’re thrilled to give San Franciscans and visitors a new and more convenient way to access the city’s taxi services and to have the peace of mind from knowing their fares before taking a trip,” said SFMTA Director of Transportation Julie Kirschbaum. 

The Taxi Upfront Fare program started as a pilot in 2022. Passengers who request a ride using apps from Flywheel, Curb, or Arro would see a locked-in upfront price instead of one determined by the meter during the ride. Under the program, riders who request an UberX ride through the Uber rideshare app can also be routed to a nearby taxi instead of a rideshare driver.

MJ Keller, head of U.S. taxi partnerships at Uber, said the company plans to maintain the partnership going forward.

“As we continue to strengthen our relationship with the taxi industry, Uber appreciates the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s decision to make the Upfront Fare Program permanent,” Keller said. “By integrating taxis onto our platform, we’re providing taxi drivers with more flexibility and increased earnings opportunities while giving riders access to new transportation options. We believe this program continues to be a win for drivers, riders, and the City of San Francisco, and we’re excited to support its continued growth.” 

According to data from the SFMTA, half of the city’s 1,300 taxi drivers took part in the pilot program. Those drivers gave close to 400,000 fixed-priced rides and made 25% more on average than drivers not in the program.

“I’ve been driving for a long time, and at first I was skeptical, but this program has been good for the taxi drivers who have been around for a long time, and the newer ones,” said Zee Sinada, Yellow Cab Medallion Owner and member of the SFMTA Paratransit Coordinating Council. “I begged the SFMTA to keep this program going, because there wasn’t enough business for the taxi drivers. But now, riders have more choices, and taxi drivers do, too. Financially, this is a difference of $600-$700 in extra earnings a week we’re talking about – this  makes such a big difference.” 

SFMTA officials credit the program at least in part for increasing taxi driving recruitment. They said there have been 300 new drivers since the start of the program, compared to 30 new drivers the year before.

A teacher at Parkway Heights Middle School in South San Francisco was arrested Thursday on charges of lewd acts with minors after police investigated “inappropriate behavior” with students.

Ahmad Rafah, an eighth-grade teacher at Parkway Heights Middle School, was arrested by police at his home Thursday and booked in San Mateo County jail. Rafah faces 12 counts of committing lewd and lascivious acts with minors, according to a South San Francisco Police Department news release.

Police said they began investigating Rafah after receiving information of inappropriate interactions with students. The San Francisco Unified School District had placed him on administrative leave.

Lewd acts with minors are defined as acts “arousing, appealing to, or gratifying the lust, passions, or sexual desires of that person or the child,” according to the California penal code.