Culture + Travel Archives

New Dog-Centric Summer Farmers Market Is Coming to Popular SF Neighborhood

7Jul

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

New Dog-Centric Summer Farmers Market Is Coming to Popular SF Neighborhood

Doggies Farmers Market will see the Haye’s Valley Promenade transform into a canine haven, filled with many good boys and good girls. San Francisco is unarguably one of the nation’s most dog-friendly major cities; there are few places where you’d run into a roadblock with your fur-child in SF; much like corner store cats, bodega doggos are plentiful; no matter where you are in San Francisco, you’re within a ten-minute walk of a public park — a good amount of which have designated dog runs. SF will soon set another example for how metropolitan areas can better cater to our four-legged pets when a farmers market dedicated to dogs (and their owners) debuts in Hayes Valley. “We're SUPER excited to announce a NEW upcoming series of events in SF for Bay Area pups and parents,” reads a multi...

Photos: Karl The Fog a Rare No-Show During San Francisco 4th of July Fireworks Show

5Jul

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Hyperlocal News + Stories

Photos: Karl The Fog a Rare No-Show During San Francisco 4th of July Fireworks Show

A basically fog-free evening on July 4th in San Francisco made for a fireworks show ... that wasn't blocked by low-lying cloud cover. Admittedly, we’re not the biggest fans of fireworks shows in San Francisco. Their deafening sounds send birds startled in all directions — sometimes traveling miles over the ocean, only to tire and die attempting to get back on solid ground — and unnecessary environmental pollutants are released into the air. To top it all off, San Francisco isn’t a metro known for its stellar firework shows … mainly because fog hazes almost all of them. During the summer months, marine layers are thick around the San Francisco Bay Area, rolling in early in the evening and lingering well into the late mornings. These layers are also “thicker” and more persistent this time ...

New Independent, Journalist-Helmed Publication Debuts in SF Bay Area(With a Growl), Soaring Past Initial Fundraising Goal

27Jun

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Hyperlocal News + Stories, News to Know

New Independent, Journalist-Helmed Publication Debuts in SF Bay Area(With a Growl), Soaring Past Initial Fundraising Goal

Coyote Media Collective includes an impressive team of worker-owners whose bylines are frequently found on prestigious outlets like The New York Times, ProPublica, NPR, and more Big money and private equity have raided San Francisco’s media climate. Several local independently-owned publications have either been absorbed by large corporate conglomerates or outright dissolved over the past decade — a direct result of dwindling ad revenues met in tandem with increased operational costs. The nothingness birthed by this indie media drain threatens ethical journalism; made a landscape rife with political push-pieces funded by billionaires; hollowed an echo chamber that sees funded moderatism, rage pieces, and maligned hot takes bounce off one another like goldfish in a wine barrel. In a t...

SF Remains Coolest Major City in America Amid National Heat Wave

26Jun

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Nature + Climate Crisis

SF Remains Coolest Major City in America Amid National Heat Wave

As metros across the nation continue falling under sweltering conditions — the majority of which are located in the South and along the East Coast — San Francisco remains in light outerwear weather. A massive states-wide heat dome, one of the largest and longest the United States has experienced since 2021, tens of millions of people are scrambling for shade and air conditioning. Meteorologists suggest this heat dome is far from over; the atmospheric phenomenon caused by high-pressure systems trapping warmth and hindering cloud formation will continue clutching affected regions over the weekend; pockets of scattered storms in areas East Coast and the Midwest will offer temporary respite until conditions improve. It’s hot out there — dangerously so — and energy brownouts and blackouts a...

FYI: San Francisco Has Its Own Towering ‘Death Asparagus’ Plant

26Jun

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Nature + Climate Crisis

FYI: San Francisco Has Its Own Towering ‘Death Asparagus’ Plant

An agave planted in SF's Hayes Valley neighborhood has entered the early “death blooming" stages, producing a massive asparagus-looking central structure. An agave plant in Oakland garnered local (and national) attention in May for its 27-foot-tall center growth. Entering its last stage of life, the Agave americana plant, which is also commonly referred to as the century plant or American aloe plant, began sprouting its signature “death bloom” structure that will take some ten to fifteen years to flower and subsequently blossom; once the plant has flowered, the plant will die. Crowds continue to flock to the East Bay plant, captivated by its towering height and rarity. (As one of its common names suggests, Agave americana specimens regularly exceed 100 years of age, only blossoming tow...

San Francisco’s Famous Holiday House Officially Hits the Market

4Jun

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Hyperlocal News + Stories

San Francisco’s Famous Holiday House Officially Hits the Market

The beloved SF Christmas lights house on Castro Street is finally on the market after its owner moved away in 2024. The four-bedroom house at 68 Castro Street is a sight to behold around the holiday season. For years, the domicile, which was built in 1904, has been illuminated with thousands of Christmas lights each year, soon after Thanksgiving. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the house became a seasonal balm and touchstone; traffic around the house saw crowds spaced in socially distanced groups, all eyeing the Nutcracker decor from however far (or close) they could. The house’s seasonally jubilant decor has even previously garnered it a Clark Griswold Brightest Award. And it seems that the home’s owner, Geoffrey, has put the house on the market after leaving the Bay Area sometime ...

Recent Warm Weather Brings Start to Rattlesnake Season in SF Bay Area

14May

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Nature + Climate Crisis

Recent Warm Weather Brings Start to Rattlesnake Season in SF Bay Area

As springtime tempeartues begin, some of the more scally, limbless residents of the San Francisco Bay Area are coming out to sun on popular walking paths. San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area recently saw the proverbial mercury rise to seasonal highs. Zip codes in SF caught temperatures regularly in the mid-70s late last week and this past weekend; more inland cities saw temperatures even in the 80s. With the deluge of clear skies and warm weather, people took to parks and hiking trails, sponging up the springtime weather. But the recent spate of pleasant weather has also meant limbless reptiles, particularly rattlesnakes, coming out of their less active winter resting, crossing paths with us bipedal mammals going about our business. “Spotted on the trail: a Northern Pacif...

BART Failure Shows Grim Future for San Francisco Bay Area Amid Public Transit Shortages

9May

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Editors' Picks, Hyperlocal News + Stories

BART Failure Shows Grim Future for San Francisco Bay Area Amid Public Transit Shortages

A Friday morning outage across the Bay Area's only rapid transit agency caused chaos for commuters, leaving tens of thousands of people to find other ways to work. The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) agency sees around 150,000 riders on any given Friday; it’s a figure that’s continuing to grow with increased office days becoming a norm amongst companies that adopted remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic. But as more people continue relying on BART to get to and from work, as well as go about their daily lives, budget shortages of between $350 and $400 cast a surly shadow on the rapid transit agency’s future. Service lines and times are being cut. Repairs continue taking rank order in regards to their severity, these issues being addressed individually, instead of as a collective....

Yes, San Francisco Does Have an E-bike Problem. But It’s Specific to a Type of Bike (and Rider)

8May

By Matt Charnock4 Comments

Culture + Travel, Editors' Picks, Feature Pieces, Food + Drink, Hyperlocal News + Stories

Yes, San Francisco Does Have an E-bike Problem. But It’s Specific to a Type of Bike (and Rider)

Food app delivery drivers on their glorified e-mopeds, which are still classified as e-bikes, have brought a certain danger to San Francisco's bike lanes. I’m someone who’s grown accustomed to feeling my back moisten with sweat going to and from destinations in San Francisco. As a distance runner who grew up in the car-centric south, evolving into an urban cyclist over the past few years has nicely filled the liminal space in my day-to-day life that exists between a need for cardiovascular exercise and yearning to travel at highway speeds, nursing a canned Diet Coke that, like my back, wets as time goes on. Life in the bike lane checks off an exercise requirement and the desire to travel faster than one can on foot. Like so many San Franciscans—a city that boasts one of the largest...

San Francisco’s Contentious Center Bike Lane (Almost) Replaced With Curbside Iteration

7May

By Matt CharnockNo Comments

Culture + Travel, Hyperlocal News + Stories

San Francisco’s Contentious Center Bike Lane (Almost) Replaced With Curbside Iteration

Construction on the curbside bike lanes that will replace the Valencia Street center bike lane is expected to be nearly complete early this month. Immediately after the Valencia Street’s maligned centerbike lane began deconstruction earlier this year, chaos ensued for bikers along the once car-free corridor. Overnight, the center bikelane — a maligned, poorly executed pilot project by SFMTA to see if Parisian- and Dutch-styled center bike lanes could mingle with America’s car-centric roads; spoiler alert: it didn’t go well, ending in dozens of injuries and dangerous traffic conditions — was closed. None of the shoulder curbside bike lanes had opened. Cyclists were left riding into traffic, stripped clean of any protection from designated passageways. What ensued was a Mad Max-esqu...