Hyperlocal News + Stories

Two Morning Fires Smoke San Francisco, Cause Traffic Delays and Damage Beloved SF Dinner
Hyperlocal News + Stories, News to Know

Two Morning Fires Smoke San Francisco, Cause Traffic Delays and Damage Beloved SF Dinner

San Francisco firefighters were busy Tuesday morning, contending with two one-alarm fires, the earliest at 2165 Lombard Street and the other on Pier 28.  Tuesday’s first one-alarm fire erupted before sunrise, with the San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD) posting on social media just before 5 a.m. that first-responders were working on containing the blaze. Unfortunately, I started inside a beloved San Francisco institution: Mel’s Dinner.  *****Working Fire***** 1 alarm fire at 2165 Lombard St at Mel’s Drive In. Firefighters are on scene working to extinguish a fire that started in the flu area of the kitchen. Lombard St. between Fillmore and Steiner St is closed. Please Avon’s the area. #SFFD pic.twitter.com/sruzovRHLn — SAN FRANCISCO FIRE DEPARTMENT MEDIA (@SFFDPIO) February 3, 202...
Strong SF Bay Area Earthquake Creates ‘Swarm’ of 20+ Smaller Quakes
Hyperlocal News + Stories, Nature + Climate Crisis, News to Know

Strong SF Bay Area Earthquake Creates ‘Swarm’ of 20+ Smaller Quakes

Monday morning's M4.2 earthquake in San Ramon is still producing registerable aftershocks as of Tuesday afternoon. More than 4,000 people felt the ground shake beneath them around 7 a.m. Monday morning, after a 4.2 magnitude earthquake struck the East Bay city of San Ramon, according to information published by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). (The earthquake was even strong enough to be felt in eastern parts of San Francisco, most noticeably in the Marina and Embarcadero, two areas infamous for their liquefaction.) Good morning Northern California! Did you feel the magnitude 4.3 earthquake about 2.5 miles southeast of San Ramon at 7:01 am PT. The #ShakeAlert system was activated. See: https://t.co/rj03jGPInq@Cal_OES @CalConservation pic.twitter.com/zpL1OrpKOV — USGS ShakeA...
Rare ‘Nuke-Sniffing’ Helicopter Spotted Flying Over San Francisco Ahead of Super Bowl Weekend
Hyperlocal News + Stories, Nature + Climate Crisis, News to Know

Rare ‘Nuke-Sniffing’ Helicopter Spotted Flying Over San Francisco Ahead of Super Bowl Weekend

Low-flying helicopter passes will continue over SF for the next few days as nuclear safety surveys are conducted before Sunday's big football game. San Francisco has a long history of nuclear warfare and radiation. Of the 300 designated host sites for nuclear missiles developed by the United States during the Cold War, twelve of them are in the San Francisco Bay Area. (Most, like the Nike Missile Site in Marin, are decommissioned and remain open for tours.) The San Francisco neighborhoods of Bayview-Hunters Point and Treasure Island are infamous for their radioactive pollutants; the former location made international headlines in late 2024 after elevated levels of radioactive materials were discovered by the U.S. Navy — an observation found ahead of housing development at Hunters Point Sh...
First Lady’s Documentary Flops in San Francisco With Only Dozens of Tickets Sold Ahead of Opening Weekend
Culture + Travel, Hyperlocal News + Stories

First Lady’s Documentary Flops in San Francisco With Only Dozens of Tickets Sold Ahead of Opening Weekend

Melania is expected to make around $3 to $8 million this weekend — way, way short of its $40 million production budget alone. Melania Trump’s evasion of her own husband (and most responsibilities as the First Lady of the United States) deserves admiration and study. Melania’s presence in the White House has remained sparse; she comes in, and through sliding glass doors, it seems, only to disappear moments after a press junket. Her documentary, Melania, is billed as an intimate, detailed, unprecedented glimpse into the First Lady’s life. But those hyperboles aren’t generating either good reviews or healthy ticket sales for the documentary. Made on a $40 million production budget and pushed by a $35 advertising budget footed by Amazon MGM Studio, the film’s opening weekend sales figu...
In Memoriam: A Love Letter to Wig Master Rosalie Jacques of Rosalie’s New Looks
Essays, Hyperlocal News + Stories, Queerness

In Memoriam: A Love Letter to Wig Master Rosalie Jacques of Rosalie’s New Looks

She was a true quintessential San Francisco character I first met Rosalie in 1993, when I visited her wig and hair salon, Rosalie’s New Look's, in North Beach. After moving to San Francisco from Stockton in 1957, fresh out of beauty school, Rosalie quickly found her place doing hair. She soon opened her own shop, making wigs for the drag queens at Finnocchio’s nightclub and styling the topless dancers of North Beach. When topless entertainment became legal in the early 60s, she recalled the famous stripper Carol Doda visiting her shop and jumping into the window full of wigs and starting to strip. Rosalie also crafted merkins for dancers during that time to comply with legal restrictions. She proudly did hair for Charles Pierce, who preferred to be known as an actor rather than a femal...
San Francisco Was Warmest Major City in Lower 48 Today While America Freezes
Hyperlocal News + Stories, Nature + Climate Crisis

San Francisco Was Warmest Major City in Lower 48 Today While America Freezes

San Francisco will also be one of the warmest major cities in America over the next week or so as another Arctic storm barrels into the United States. Record-breaking temperatures and life-threatening winter conditions — mercury readings and snowfall that tens of thousands in Minneapolis are pushing through to protest ICE and its inhumane, fascist advancements on the midwestern city — continue to constrict the country. Single-digit temperatures are consistently benignly recorded in large metros like Chicago and Cleveland; Texans are contending with an absentee senator who fled the state before history-making snowstorms dogpiled across much of the Lone Star State; New Orleans, though snow-free as of publishing, is seeing temperatures in the low 30s, straining its infrastructure and creatin...
Coyote Runs Past News Crew in San Francisco Covering ‘Wayward’ Mountain Lion
Hyperlocal News + Stories, Nature + Climate Crisis

Coyote Runs Past News Crew in San Francisco Covering ‘Wayward’ Mountain Lion

In what felt like an absolute fever dream, ABC7 News watchers were treated to a sight when a coyote passed behind an on-site news crew yesterday morning. San Francisco is truly a wild place. There’s perhaps been no better crystallization of this observation as of late than this: a coyote filmed running behind an ABC7 News team covering the capture of San Francisco’s "wayward" mountain lion. Your eyes do not deceive you. That's a coyote strolling on by during ABC7's Frances Wang live shot. Ironically, she was reporting on the capture of a 2-year-old mountain lion who was seen roaming around San Francisco streets. https://t.co/oLF6kRdF75 pic.twitter.com/4rIIVHrKMK — ABC7 News (@abc7newsbayarea) January 28, 2026 “Your eyes do not deceive you,” reads a post on X by the local ABC affi...
SF Mountain Lion Internet Named ‘Jumanji’ Has Been Captured and Will Be Relocated
Editors' Picks, Hyperlocal News + Stories, Nature + Climate Crisis, News to Know

SF Mountain Lion Internet Named ‘Jumanji’ Has Been Captured and Will Be Relocated

Following a hefty dose of sedatives, the confused and lost young mountain lion roaming San Francisco was successfully caught this morning on California Street, around Pacific Heights. San Francisco police, animal control, and even SF Zoo vehicles encircled Lafayette Park earlier this morning to contain a lost mountain lion after the big cat was spotted in and around the area over the weekend and into Monday evening. With the help of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), the young cougar was successfully trapped and subsequently tranquilized. Mountain Lion contained to Lafayette Park area near California St. SFPD, SFFD, Fish & Wildlife, SF Animal Care & Control, SF Zoo on scene. pic.twitter.com/aUcKR81Q9v — SAN FRANCISCO FIRE DEPARTMENT MEDIA (@SFFDPIO) January...
Rare Mountain Lion Sighted in San Francisco Near Popular Park, Billionaire’s Row
Hyperlocal News + Stories, Nature + Climate Crisis, News to Know

Rare Mountain Lion Sighted in San Francisco Near Popular Park, Billionaire’s Row

A rogue mountain lion was sighted and documented in San Francisco's Pacific Heights neighborhood, blocks away from Billionaire's Row — a first in San Francisco's recorded history. San Francisco is no stranger to wild things. The City’s official animal is an introduced species; sea lions draw hundreds of thousands of tourists each year to Pier 39; thousands just recently flooded Golden Gate Park to celebrate the iconic life of one albino alligator that called the seven-by-seven home for over 17 years before his untimely passing last month; the COVID-19 pandemic became synonymous with coyote sightings along empty streets. A mountain lion has been spotted in SF, near Lafayette Park. If you see a mountain lion pick up children, keep dogs on leash and back away slowly - do not run. If it ap...
The (Belated) Weekend Catch-up: Thousands Come Out to Celebrate Life of San Francisco’s Albino Alligator
Hyperlocal News + Stories, News to Know

The (Belated) Weekend Catch-up: Thousands Come Out to Celebrate Life of San Francisco’s Albino Alligator

Plus: One of Amazon's self-driving cars struck a vehicle, and the vast majority of San Francisco families now qualify for free or discounted child care. Few people, let alone animals, could draw an afterlife fanfare comparable to Claude, SF’s unofficial mascot of the California Academy of Sciences. The albino alligator, which died of an undiagnosed liver cancer in September, called the San Francisco science center home for over 17 years; Claude came to Cal Academy already a teenager, assumed to be at least 13 years old. And in that time, the thirtysomething reptile became nothing short of an iconoclast.   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by California Academy of Sciences (@calacademy) C...