Jeremy LaCroix captures the rides down John Shelley Drive in McLaren Park. — Pretty much everyone in San Francisco and beyond is constantly hearing about how this place is beset by crises. Among them is the housing shortage, the unsafe streets, the ongoing emergency from overdoses, the meltdown over running our public schools, and there’s one other…

After a City Hall rally, a few tears, and more than 5 hours of public comment, SFMTA and Rec and Park officials said yes to no cars. — You know it’s going to be a long day in San Francisco when a public official kicks off a meeting like this: “We can perhaps try to have a bit of empathy and not be attacking each other today.” That was Gwyneth Borden, chair of the SF Municipal Transportation Agency…

Let’s look at how far we’ve come back, along with what we’ve left behind. — On March 16, 2020, Mayor London Breed issued a shelter-in-place order. The same day, San Francisco schools began what was, at first, a three-week shutdown. In her State of the City speech today at Mission Rock, the mayor painted a lively picture of reopening, with a little side-eye for the…

A special edition of an occasional series, looking at when San Franciscans marched to mark the inaugural MLK Day in January 1986. — All photos and text are by Frisc contributor Pamela Gentile. The first observance of the holiday to commemorate and celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came on Jan. 20, 1986. In King’s hometown of Atlanta, his widow Coretta Scott King laid a wreath on his tomb and presented the King…

No visitor to the de Young should miss this often forgotten San Francisco landmark. Streetsblog’s Roger Rudick explains why. — This commentary by Roger Rudick first appeared in Streetsblog SF and is shared here with permission. “Our building is an essential destination in San Francisco, a contemporary architectural landmark that offers sweeping views of the city from a dramatic tower observation level,” reads the copy on the de Young Museum’s…

The unveiling of 350 statues to honor the end of slavery and Black lives lost becomes even more of a commemoration with the sudden creation of a Juneteenth federal holiday. — June 19, or Juneteenth, has long been the day to mourn lives lost in the African slave trade and to celebrate the emancipation of the enslaved in the United States. …

It’ll take years to assess the full impact of the pandemic. As we mourn our losses, let’s also highlight some ways our city can be a better place. — At the beginning of last year, San Francisco was a different city. But since February 2020, the coronavirus has killed over 500 of its people and left thousands of storefronts vacant. The pandemic closed schools and exacerbated challenges for businesses, municipal government, and vulnerable residents, casting social inequities in stark…

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One year into our pandemic lives, it’s important to see where we’re going and where we’ve been. — “Nothing will ever be the same.” It’s easy to say, difficult to prove, and at the one-year anniversary of San Francisco’s shelter-in-place shutdown, it’s best rephrased as a question: Will anything ever be the same? Certainly it will not for the families and friends who’ve lost loved ones, or for…