• The Internet Archive, which recently hit 1 trillion pages, is holding a short film contest highlighting works in the public domain — deadline January 7. They’re especially interested in works from 1930, which are set to enter the domain on January 1, including classic literature, early sound films, cartoons, music, and art. [Internet Archive]

• The shooting that took place at San Jose’s Westfield Valley Fair Mall last month, which injured three and caused the evacuation of hundreds of Black Friday shoppers, was motivated by a black-and-teal hat with the letter “m” worn by the male victim in the shooting. [KRON4]
• There are only four remaining judges at San Francisco’s immigration court, down from 21 earlier this year, and Sacramento has just three, as the federal administration rushes to replace them with “deportation judges.” [KQED]
• 7-Eleven gas customers — check your bank statements since your $40 fill-up might have shown up as a $4,000 charge like a couple hundred of these unlucky Bay Area customers. [KGO]  

• San Jose police and the California Highway Patrol are searching for 12-year-old Esha Peairs, who was last seen on Tuesday around midnight near Foxworthy and New Jersey avenues in San Jose. [NBC Bay Area]
• California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife announced Friday that Dungeness crab season will launch January 5, now that endangered migrating humpback whales are leaving the region. [KGO]

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

After a widespread blackout put a damper on holiday celebrations and shopping in San Francisco Saturday, PG&E had the lights back on for many by 9 pm, but still offered little explanation for what happened.

The outage, which was impacting around 60,000 customers Saturday afternoon had grown to 131,000 customers by Saturday evening.

As of Sunday morning at 7:30 am, PG&E said they had restored power to 110,000 customers, with 21,000 still without power. The remaining outages were concentrated in the Richmond and Presidio, and in downtown San Francisco.

PG&E blamed at least one of Saturday's outages on a substation fire in SoMa, however that can't explain the entire picture of what happened.

San Francisco Fire Department Lt. Mariano Elias tells the Chronicle that the fire broke out around 2:15 pm at the substation at Eighth and Mission streets, but the first outage began around 9:40 am in the Inner Sunset and Forest Hill, and the blackout spread to the Richmond and Presidio, and to Market Street by around 10 am.

The substation fire appears to have caused subsequent outages in Hayes Valley, Alamo Square, the Lower Haight, and the Mission that began around 3 pm.

It remains to be seen if PG&E will offer a more complete explanation for what happened.

Previously: Massive Power Outage In San Francisco Leaves 200,000+ In the Dark, Disrupts Muni and BART

Amid Saturday’s PG&E outage, social media was flooded with posts showing dozens of confused Waymos pausing at intersections as they fruitlessly attempted to contact central command, causing frazzled humans to navigate around them, which led to a temporary halt in service.

As Mission Local reports, Waymo temporarily halted service around 7 pm Saturday as reports swarmed the internet documenting the fleet’s autonomous vehicles creating traffic jams throughout the city during a major power outage that resulted in several rolling blackouts, per SFGate.

Per Mission Local, the Waymo vehicles appeared to stop in their tracks, as cars piled up behind them — at traffic lights that had gone dark as well as at four-way stops, as users noted in the Waymo subreddit.

“We have temporarily suspended our ride-hailing services given the broad power outage in San Francisco,” Waymo spokesperson Suzanne Philion wrote. “We are focused on keeping our riders safe and ensuring emergency personnel have the clear access they need to do their work.”

Commenters in the Waymo subreddit thread had a variety of observations from the meltdown, including seeing many near-misses with human drivers.

“The Waymo’s weren’t running through controlled intersections at full speed because they didn’t know there were traffic lights. Saw a bunch of close calls with human drivers,” wrote dwkeith.

“They’re running through intersections constantly right now. Or bricking in the middle. Either way hope nothing bad happens!” added karstcity.

When a skeptic scoffed at the estimate of idling vehicles as being in the hundreds, Mental-Reach-231 verified it was accurate, adding that Waymo significantly increased the severity of the traffic standstill.

“As someone who had to drive through the p-p show this evening, and the dozens of halted Waymos, with multiple intersections with multiple Waymos, I would suggest it’s not a far exaggerated number,” they explained. “And the suspension of service wasn't because of the traffic nightmare, it was because they couldn't provide vehicles because they were all stuck making a traffic nightmare exponentially worse.”

Potat0man69 said they observed plenty of Waymo vehicles navigate intersections adequately, but the chaos of the situation scrambled the whole system and threw the cars into a sort of panic mode when they couldn’t connect with Waymo’s remote assistance.

“There were many Waymo’s I saw able to figure out the lack of a light perfectly fine,” they wrote. “I think it’s just that these intersections were so chaotic that eventually the Waymo “brain” throws up its hands and asks for remote assistance (people taking the intersection out of order, Waymo getting cut off, people walking where they shouldn’t be, etc. essentially overwhelming the normal decision making process, making the car think it’s in an unfamiliar situation).”

“Smart concept to have it reach a point where there’s so much going on that it decides it could probably use a bit of help, bad execution to have it rely on something that could also be impacted by the same root cause,” potat0man69 concluded.

Per SFGate, PG&E has pinpointed a substation at 8th Street and Mission streets as the source of the outage, which has a history of problems, per NBC Bay Area. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie confirmed on social media that some customers will likely continue to experience outages “into the early morning hours.”

Image: AnnTrades/X

Previously: Massive Power Outage In San Francisco Leaves 200,000+ In the Dark, Disrupts Muni and BART

Confused Waymo Cars Block 101 On-Ramp In Potrero Hill, Then Go Down Closed Road

The SFPD arrested and detained a potentially armed man who had locked himself inside the Palace Hotel in downtown SF Saturday afternoon and evening — all while the hotel experienced a power outage. A block of Market Street was closed near the hotel along with several side streets.

As the Chronicle reports, the San Francisco Police Department received a report at 12:16 pm Saturday of gunshots and threats of violence by someone who barricaded themselves somewhere inside San Francisco’s Palace Hotel. Per KRON4, after an hours-long standoff with police, the man was arrested and taken into custody at 9:25 pm Saturday.

A hotel employee told KTVU that fourth floor guests were evacuated from their rooms. A hostage and crisis negotiation team was reportedly on the scene, but there was no mention of a hostage.

Per Bay City News, the power was out at the hotel during the standoff, along with over 130,000 other PG&E customers. Per the Chronicle, business remained open at the hotel throughout the afternoon.

“Officers responded to the scene and located a possible suspect in the building. The suspect has refused to comply to officers commands to exit. There are no reports of injuries at this time,” SFPD said. “Parts of the building that are affected by the incident have been evacuated.”

AlertSF sent out a notice that Market Street was closed between Annie and New Montgomery streets. Per the Chronicle, numerous other side streets near the hotel were also blocked. The public was asked to avoid the area until the situation was resolved.

The story is developing, and updates will be provided.

Image: BrokenSphere/Wikimedia

Previously: Massive Power Outage In San Francisco Leaves 200,000+ In the Dark, Disrupts Muni and BART

A widespread power outage was impacting legions of San Francisco residents and businesses Saturday, and it seemed to be a cascading situation that began just before 10 am and extended into evening hours.

A reported 130,000 PG&E customers — which equates to somewhere north of 200,000 residents and business owners, if not 300,000 — were out of power as of Saturday evening, with scant updates available from the utility about when the power may be restored.

As PG&E tells the Chronicle, the trouble began with an outage reported at 9:40 am that was initially just impacting around 14,600 customers in the Inner Sunset, Forest Hill, and neighborhoods around there. Sections of the Richmond and Presidio followed, along with a section of Market Street, around 10:10 am, with around 25,000 customers impacted.

As 0f 3 pm, the Outer Sunset was also impacted, along with parts of Hayes Valley, the Lower Haight, Alamo Square, and the Mission District, and BART and Muni trains were bypassing Van Ness, Civic Center, and Powell stations due to the outage.

The outage was impacting traffic signals across the city, and drivers were being advised to stay off the streets — though this is an unrealistic ask on the last Saturday before Christmas!

An enormous swath of the city remained without power as of 8 pm Saturday, and PG&E suggested that the initial outages were triggered by a fire inside a PG&E power substation

The outage made for some pretty sour grapes for small business owners, especially, on one of the last major shopping and dining days before Christmas, during a season when some businesses make a significant portion of their annual revenue.

Mayor Daniel Lurie jumped on social media to suggest that the city has a handle on the situation, though it is pretty clear this is PG&E's deal, and was not very well handled. And maybe this event will have some impact on a longstanding push from the Board of Supervisors to divorce the city from PG&E's grid. But we'll see!!

This is a developing story.

This week: Trans BIPOC memorabilia through the ages, Oakland Ballet turns 60, Southern BBQ in the East Bay, and a Sonoma coast road trip. Plus, a refuge for Jews on Christmas, the Christmas Bird Count, an inside look at SF’s “Holiday House,” and a “holiday jay” box set.

Holiday jays

A Northern California cannabis collective has put together a holiday gift box aimed squarely at weed connoisseurs. Emerald Triangle Craft’s 12 Jays of X-Mas bundles a dozen one-gram pre-rolls from farms across the region, spanning sativas, indicas, and hybrids, each labeled by grower and strain.

The packaging, illustrated by artist Mabel Alcock, highlights the farmers as much as the product, framing the set as a snapshot of the Emerald Triangle’s small-scale cannabis economy. The box is available at a variety of Bay Area dispensaries. — Broke-Ass Stuart

Leaps through time

Oakland Ballet marks its 60th year in motion, shaped by ambition, collapse, reinvention, and a stubborn commitment to the city it calls home. Founded in 1965, the company weathered national tours, lean years, a mid-2000s shutdown, and a revival under artistic director Graham Lustig, who has expanded the repertoire while keeping the organization afloat.

Recent seasons have included culturally specific works like Luna Mexicana and Dancing Moons Festival, with The Nutcracker remaining both an artistic anchor and a financial lifeline. The Nutcracker runs December 20 and 21 at the Paramount Theatre, 2025 Broadway, Oakland. — The Oaklandside

Counting the flyway

Now through January 5, the Audubon Society is inviting the public to take part in its annual Christmas Bird Count, one of the country’s longest-running wildlife surveys, with a couple Bay Area events coming up.

Additionally, photographer Dick Evans and wilderness guide and author Hannah Hindley are celebrating the release of In the Shadow of the Bridge: Birds of the Bay Area, which maps the region as a key stop along the Pacific Flyway. Evans and Hindley will speak at Book Passage in Corte Madera, 51 Tamal Vista Boulevard, on January 17. — Bay Area News Group

Storybook lights on the hill

With the Castro’s beloved Tom & Jerry house now dark, another longtime standout can be found just up the hill in Corona Heights. The so-called Holiday House at 45 Upper Terrace, also known as the Storybook House, goes all in for Christmas, with a toy train looping above the enclosed front porch and Santa climbing the ladder outside.

The owners, a retired gay couple, are known for decorating their home for every holiday and recently gave a video tour showing off the house’s whimsical details, including an elevator. They bought the home for $800,000 in 1997, and today it’s estimated to be worth between $8 million and $10 million. — San Francisco Bucket List

A Jewish Christmas tradition

For more than three decades, Kung Pao Kosher Comedy has given Jews in San Francisco (and many gentiles, we imagine) somewhere to gather each Christmas: a Chinese restaurant, a full crowd, and a sharp lineup. Created and hosted by Lisa Geduldig, the long-running series has built a sense of continuity and community that’s carried the show through generations.

This year’s headliner is veteran stand-up Elayne Boosler, known for her dry delivery and political bite, joined by Orion Levine, Amanda Marks, and Geduldig. Runs December 24–26, Imperial Palace, 818 Washington Street — The Bay Area Reporter

Lives in full color

The GLBT Historical Society Museum’s current exhibition co-presented with the city of Richmond’s Louise Lawrence Transgender Archive, I Live the Life I Love Because I Love the Life I Live, traces the lives and work of Black, Indigenous, and other trans and gender-nonconforming people of color across a century of Bay Area and national history. Photographs, performance ephemera, activist materials, and personal portraits move between the stage and daily life, from Finocchio’s cabaret performers to community organizers who fought for care and visibility during the AIDS crisis.

Figures like Stormé DeLarverie, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, and members of the Filipino Task Force on AIDS appear alongside lesser-known artists and organizers, with an emphasis on joy, labor, and persistence. GLBT Historical Society Museum, 4127 18th Street, San Francisco’s Castro District. — San Francisco Bay Times

Smoke and memory

On a corner in the East Bay city of Richmond, CJ’s BBQ and Fish has been anchoring the neighborhood for three decades, run by nearly 80-year-old Charles “CJ” Evans, who still works the pits and the prep tables himself. The menu reflects his version of California-Southern barbecue, shaped by family roots in Arkansas, wartime Richmond history, and years of feeding shipyard workers, church folks, and regulars who never stopped coming back.

CJ’s BBQ and Fish now serves hundreds of slabs of ribs a week across its Richmond and Vallejo locations, remaining a steady fixture in a city that’s changed around it. — KQED

North on one

Highway 1 through Sonoma County offers a steady sequence of working ranch land, exposed coastline, and built-in stopping points that reward a slow drive. After Valley Ford, the road runs past Bodega Bay, where Bodega Head provides bluff walks and seasonal whale watching, then hugs the shoreline through state park land with beaches and pullouts at places like Wright’s Beach, Shell Beach, and the Kortum Trail.

Jenner marks a visual shift, with the Russian River spreading out before meeting the Pacific, harbor seals on the sandbar, and viewpoints near River’s End that invite a longer pause. North of town, the highway climbs into high green cliffs toward Fort Ross and Salt Point State Park, then eases into Sea Ranch, where low-profile homes and signed public trails lead to the bluffs before the road crosses into Mendocino County. — Marin Independent Journal

Top Image: Oakland Ballet/Facebook

Previously: Field Notes: Ube, Latkes, Native Plants of the Presidio, and Sarah Winchester’s Architectural Vision

Image: Leanne Maxwell (2017)/SFist

• Despite informing patients it will soon be ending gender-affirming care for transgender youth last month, Sutter Health has reversed course. Families were relieved to discover that their trans children could continue receiving care through the network, despite the federal administration’s continued pressure to ban it. [KQED]
• The Vallejo City Unified School District voted to close three elementary schools this week, which include around 1,000 students and 100 staff members. The district cites a swift decline in enrollment rates, as the number of students in the district has gone down from 20,000 students in previous years to 10,000 currently. [KPIX]

• Hazie’s restaurant in Hayes Valley has seen a significant boost in business following a viral video involving the antics of an unfortunate drunk woman last week, which ultimately got her fired from her job at Strava. [KRON4]

National:

• Thousands gathered Thursday to honor the people killed and injured during a Hanukkah celebration last weekend at Australia’s Bondi Beach, the first day the park reopened after the attack. [Associated Press]

• Applications for Trump’s new gold card opened last week, geared toward enabling wealthy foreigners to bypass US immigration laws to the tune of $1 million, plus a $15,000 processing fee. [CNBC]
• After New York Governor Kathy Hochul banned phones in public schools in September, students have gone analog in the cafeterias, including playing Dominos and poker and listening to CDs via Walkmen. [Boing Boing]

Video of the Day:

The stunning City Hall Winter Lights display kicked off December 6 and runs through January 2, featuring a 10-minute show that begins with an homage to the history of City Hall, including the original architectural drawings by architect Arthur Brown Jr. projected onto the magnificent Beaux Arts structure. The presentation then transforms into a carousel of holiday-themed visuals that “fill the façade with warmth and color.”

Amplified sound is available every night except Christmas and Christmas Eve. Spectators can also access the playlist through the app. The show runs every half hour from 5:30 pm to midnight, every night through January 2, visible from Polk Street and Van Ness Avenue. — via Secret San Francisco

Image: SF Office of Protocol

I guess we’re doing another ballot measure on whether the Great Highway should be car-free, because Supervisors Alan Wong and Connie Chan figure it could net them extra votes in the upcoming 2026 elections.

Whether the Great Highway should be car-free has been one of SF’s most divisive and high-profile political battles for more than five years running. And a one-sided 55%-45% Prop K victory for the car-free Great Highway ballot measure last November did not resolve the controversy; jilted Sunset voters promptly recalled their Supervisor Joel Engardio, and Richmond District Supervisor Connie Chan has declared she wants a do-over ballot measure to completely relitigate an election from just 13 months ago over what we now call the pedestrian park Sunset Dunes.    

Mayor Daniel Lurie has wisely avoided this whole food fight, but last month he appointed new District 4 Supervisor Alan Wong to replace the ousted Engardio. And once sworn in, Wong told reporters that he voted no on Prop K, putting him squarely in line with the Sunset voters who overwhelmingly want cars back on the Great Highway, but very much against the rest of the city's populace that wants the thoroughfare to remain the car-free Sunset Dunes park.  

Now Wong is escalating the fight to bring cars back to the Great Highway. The Chronicle reports that Wong announced he also wants a repeat ballot measure to make us vote again on the car-free Great Highway, a vote that could theoretically happen on the June 2, 2026 primary election.

Oh, and did we mention that Alan Wong’s reelection will also be on that exact same June 2, 2026 primary election?

“At the end of the day, I believe my values align with the majority of the district,” Wong told the Chronicle. “I’m prepared to sign onto a measure that would need four supervisors to be placed onto the ballot to restore the compromise.”

Needless to say, the people who made the Sunset Dunes park happen are pissed.

“Supervisor Wong, after promising he would participate in a public process to hear from District 4 residents, betrayed his constituents by announcing that he plans to sign a ballot measure to close Sunset Dunes,” Friends of Sunset Dunes president Lucas Lux said in a press release. “He has yet to meet with constituents in a single public forum regarding this issue, despite promising that he would. Instead, Supervisor Wong made backroom deals after having a few closed-door meetings with park opponents and political groups.”

Still, it may seem like a shrewd political move for Wong to give his constituents exactly what they want. Or maybe in retrospect it will not seem so. Mission Local reports that Wong never reached out to Connie Chan, thus far the de facto leader of the ballot measure effort, and Chan’s office was effectively blindsided by Wong’s Friday-before-Chrismas announcement.

“Supervisor Chan still supports the compromise,” Chan’s legislative aide Robyn Burke told Mission Local. “But we were not made aware of what Supervisor Wong’s proposals were and haven’t been reached out to.”

On a purely practical level, getting a ‘cars back on the Great Highway’ ballot measure would need four members of the SF Board of Supervisors to sign on to such an effort by January 13. You’ve already got Chan and Wong saying they’d back such a measure. Supervisors Chyanne Chen and Shamann Walton are also on record as wanting cars back on the thoroughfare, so that right there looks like the four necessary votes.

Not so fast. D10’s Chyanne Chen sounded noncommittal when commenting to the Chronicle Friday that “I want to make sure I do my own homework and hear directly from constituents” before making her decision.

But for Connie Chan, who is running against Scott Wiener for Nancy Pelosi’s old seat in Congress, raising some hell to bring cars back to the Great Highway is fabulous advertising for her November 2026 race. Even if that ballot measure loses, and I’ll bet you my left lung that it will, Chan can charm west side voters with tales of how she went to bat for them while Wiener was off at some YIMBY realtor gala or whatever.

The political calculus for D4 Supervisor Alan Wong is much different and — much more urgent. Wong is up for reelection on the very same June 2 day of that theoretical vote to bring cars back to the Great Highway. He surely figures this offers the wind at his sails as voters go to the polls that day.

But he’s also up against Great Wall Hardware owner Albert Chow (a leading recall organizer) and Shamann Walton legislative aide Natalie Gee in that June 2 election. Both opponents have far stronger bona fides in opposing Prop K than Wong ever had. Plus the Sunset native Wong only moved to District 4 “in recent months,” Chow and Gee have D4 roots going back uninterrupted for decades.        

So if Alan Wong wants to make his reelection on June 2 powered by people who want cars back on the Great Highway, he might be in for a rude awakening when he learns who those voters’ first choice for District 4 Supervisor might be.

Related: Supervisor Chan Proposes Possible Ballot Measure to Bring Cars Back to Great Highway, Which We Just Voted On [SFist]

Image: Alan Wong via Facebook

‘Yule’ want to see these photos of the SF fire stations participating in the 2025 Fire Station Community Holiday Decorations Competition, who’ve decked the halls out hard with freaking festive fixtures to bring joy to the world.

This Christmas and Hanukkah season, SF’s December nights are once again razzle-dazzled up by the sixth year of the rebooted annual San Francisco Fire Station Community Holiday Decorations Competition. The contest is an old SF tradition from the late 1940s and early 1950s that returned in 2020 during the COVID doldrums, and this year the fire stations are competing for $4,000 in prize money for the winning stations’ charities of choice.

The judging to determine the winners of the best decorated SF fire station contest will happen Saturday, December 20, between 5 and 10 pm, with a series of public block parties at the participating fire stations that will feature holiday treats and family-friendly gatherings of revelers. These winners will be announced this Sunday, December 21.

The problem right now is that barely 24 hours before these holiday block parties are supposed to happen, the SF Fire Department has still not even announced where these parties will be, nor which of the 49 fire stations in town are participating. Guys, it will be hard for families to participate in these block parties if you don’t tell people where to go!

But SFist has spent the last few nights bouncing around town like a sugarplum to seek out the most festive-looking fire stations in SF. And we have a pretty strong hunch that these are the fire stations that are participating in — and have a very good chance of winning — the 2025 San Francisco Fire Station Community Holiday Decorations Competition.

STATION 39 (1091 Portola Drive)

Go tell it on the Mount Davidson that Sherwood Forest’s Station 39 may be the hardest fire station to reach by public transit or to find parking near, but it may well be the damned finest decorated fire station of the bunch. It is absolutely mixed nuts up there at Station 39, with an assortment of Frostys, Santas, Grinches, Jack from Nightmare Before Christmas, an entire gate made of candy canes, and a blinking tunnel of animated LED light spectacular gloriousness.

Station 38  (2150 California Street)

Right near Lafayette Park, Station 38 contains so many multitudes of holiday cheer that one image cannot do its gingerbread justice. But as seen below, we have numerous large-scale inflatable holiday characters (including Baby Yoda and Mickey Mouse), an animated LED Christmas choo-choo express, and the surrounding trees and bushes festooned out in holiday finery.

Station 18 (1935 32nd Avenue)

The Outer Sunset’s Station 18 was last year’s First Place winner, and once again brings the biggest snowflakes and LED Christmas trees of any fire station in town. There’s also holiday projection mapping on the building’s facade and surrounding sidewalk, an inflatable Santa sleigh with a strobe light show, and a kick-ass American flag replica made entirely of Christmas lights.

STATION 35 (Pier 22½, The Embarcadero at Harrison Street)

Station 35 is “the world’s only floating fire station” (or at least that’s what SFFD says), and being right next to the Bay Bridge, it benefits from its surrounding holiday light awesomeness along the Embarcadero. There’s a meticulous string-light display, several inflatable holly-jollies outside the building, and Fireboat 3, aka the Saint Francis, often sitting next to a lovely “Deck the Halls” dock of lit-up Christmas merriment.

STATION 7 (2300 Folsom Street)

STATION 7 (2300 Folsom Street)

Folsom and 19th Street’s Station 7 took third place last year, in the condition seen above. This year’s current condition is, well, not that impressive yet.

You can go ahead and make the “head up his ass” jokes about the inflatables that are up there so far, and SFist did observe about a half-dozen other inflatables being applied when we popped by last night. Knowing Station 7, they are going to have this station a lot more tricked out by the time Saturday’s 5 pm block party rolls around.

Others stations may have completed their decorations by the time Saturday’s block parties start at 5 pm. You can keep an eye on the SF Fire Department's Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts for further information on block party locations.

This post will be updated with further information on Saturday’s block part locations.

The 2025 San Francisco Fire Station Community Holiday Decorations Competition Block Parties Saturday, December 20, between 5-10 pm at various participating fire stations across San Francisco. The decorations will remain up at least through New Year’s Eve.

Related: Photos: Every Single SF Fire Station That’s Decked Out for the Holiday Decorations Competition [SFist]

Images: Joe Kukura, SFist

RT Bistro's opening nears, a Rich Table chef de cuisine is breaking out on her own, and sandwich pop-up from Berlin is coming to SoMa after Xmas, all in This Week in Food.

The big news item of the week is that Rich Table's chef de cuisine Gizela Ho, who has been with the restaurant for eight years and change, is breaking off on her own to open her restaurant, called Good Morning 96. The name is a riff on a workman’s kitchen towel brand in Hong Kong called Good Morning 26, and an homage to Ho's grandfather, and Ho says that her restaurant will blend multiple cuisines, much like the Rich Table menu does — and there will be a heavy emphasis on snacks. The news is somewhat preliminary, as the Chronicle reports, becuase Ho has not yet secured a space for her vision, so we can't even say for sure that she'll be opening it next year. But perhaps.

In other Rich Table news, RT Bistro (205 Oak Street) is nearing it opening, likely on or around January 5. I got a preview of some dishes, which include a "one-layer lasagna" that's going to change with the season — currently featuring squash and black truffle — and a Japanese riff on Oysters Rockefeller. The space shares a wall with Rich Table, and will share a basement prep space, and the off-menu burger from Rich Table will be coming to the bistro menu as well. Expect 35 seats in a cozy, wood-lined space, inspired by Tahoe ski lodges, with cocktails and fun desserts to boot.

A fun sandwich pop-up, hailing all the way from Berlin, is coming to The Nosh Box (1116 Folsom) in SoMa next week, on December 27. It's called Smooches, and it's an operation from former San Francisco resident and sandwich lover Joe Peters. The pop-up, running from late morning to afternoon, will feature Smooches' breakfast sandwiches, served on homemade English muffins, with multiple sauce and add-on options. Says Peters, "Smooches started as a way to bring people joy in Berlin, and now I get to bring a little piece of that joy back home for the holidays."

Just in time for the health kick you'll be on come January, Goop Kitchen is now open on Morris Street in SoMa. The Gwyneth Paltrow-launched takeout and delivery operation, as we mentioned before, focuses on healthful salads and bowls, and offers vegan options including mushroom "carnitas." The SoMa location will be joined by two others sometime soon, and Goop Kitchen has so far only been in SoCal.

Tablehopper has the sad news that Cookin', the delightfully quirky — and chaotic — store for "recycled gourmet appurtenances" on Divisadero, is closing for good after 37 years in that space, with owner Judith Kaminsky finally deciding to retire after threatening to do so for years. The closing date is reportedly January 1, and there is some sort of clearance sale happening, but Kaminsky would prefer only industry professionals and people who know exactly what they're looking for to stop through.

And the Chronicle brings word that 61-year-old Delta waterfront restaurant The Point, in Rio Vista, is closing on December 28. So head on up, especially if you have access to a boat, for a final bowl of chowder by next week.

In the area of restaurant reviews, it should be noted that Chronicle critic MacKenzie Chung Fegan is now on her second maternity leave, and we will not be seeing another review from her until June. She announced in the Bite Curious newsletter that her food department colleagues will be filling on newsletter duty, and Cesar Hernandez will still be filing restaurant reviews in her absence.

Top image courtesy of Smooches

Hank, the Frenchie who was stolen from outside a Castro neighborhood bar last week, has been located, he's safe, and he's been returned to his very distressed dads.

We learned of the terrible dognapping earlier this week, which took place outside the bar 440, at 440 Castro Street, on the night of Wednesday, December 10. Hank, the French bulldog, was in the care of one of his dads when a male suspect reportedly unleashed him and ran off with him into a waiting car.

Dog owner Parker Brumfield sought the media's help in getting the word out and helping the police find his stolen five-year-old pet, who he said, "He’s like not just a dog; he’s my child."

On Thursday we learned that the SFPD had taken a suspect into custody for the dognapping, but Hank was still missing. That suspect is 44-year-old Dante Shaw of Oakland.

Now, the SFPD has announced on Xitter that Hank has been located, thanks to the help of a good Samaritan. And the dog was reportedly found on Thursday, December 18, so perhaps not long after Shaw's arrest.

"Hank appeared to be in good physical health and is home safe," the SFPD said. "Thank you to everyone who assisted us in spreading our posts."

Keep your Frenchies safe, everyone! They're a hot commodity for thieves.

Previously: Castro Dog Dad Seeks Public's Help In Finding Dognapped Frenchie, Hank

A whole raft of Antioch Police Department scandals, including illegal steroid dealing, coordinated K-9 dog attacks, and credential fraud, are getting resolved out of court with a $4.6 million settlement for 23 victims.

When a racist text message scandal broke in the Antioch Police Department, that set off a course of events that uncovered misconduct far worse than just the workplace use of locker room humor. Investigations into the racist text messages exposed other improprieties among officers like illegal steroid dealing, siccing K-9 attack dogs on people just for laughs, and faking fraudulent course credits for officers to get promotions or raises for which they were not qualified.  

Many of these Antioch PD officers had their homes raided by the FBI over the allegations, though several Antioch PD officers refused to even show up for their court dates. And quite a few resigned because they knew discipline was coming, leaving the City of Antioch holding the bag.

And today, that bag is coming home to roost. KRON4 reports that the City of Antioch has agreed to pay a $4.6 million settlement, which will be distributed to 23 different victims of police misconduct committed by 45 different Antioch PD officers. (A total of 14 of those officers have either faced or are facing federal criminal charges.)

"The last few years have been difficult and, for many residents, deeply unsettling,” Antioch City Manager Bessie Scott said at a Friday morning press conference announcing the settlement, according to KTVU. “Today is about refusing to let the city remain defined by the failures and controversy that brought us to this point. Antioch deserves a government that listens, adjusts and delivers."  

There are also some other logistical reforms that the victims’ attorney, famed civil rights lawyer John Burris, managed to extract from the Antioch Police Department. The Antioch PD has agreed to more rigorous audits of their use-of-force and K-9 incidents, a vast expansion on when bodyworn camera recording is required, and a mandate that police misconduct allegations have reviews initiated within a 72-hour period.

Related: Several Antioch and Pittsburg Police Officers Arrested In Early Thursday Morning FBI Raids [SFist]

Image: Antioch Police Department via Facebook

The street closure and holiday festival on Stockton Street known as Winter Walk is back on, and it will be running through Christmas Eve, if you're planning to get any last-minute shopping done in Union Square.

It is true that there are still a lot of vacant storefronts on both Powell and Stockton streets in Union Square. But it is also true that a few of those storefronts have been temporarily reactivated as pop-ups for the holidays, including the Off the Grid market in the former Uniqlo store on Powell.

And as has happened for over a decade, since the days of the Central Subway construction in 2014 when Stockton Street was all torn up, the street has been covered in Astroturf and turned into a holiday party and night market in December. The street closure was so popular that there was talk back then about making it permanent — and a move like that to create a pedestrian-friendly environment might have helped to save Union Square from the fate it's experiencing lately.

Winter Walk, as it was called, ran through 2018, then took a break and the pandemic hit, and then it was revived two years ago. And now it's back, having kicked off last weekend, and it runs from 11 am to 9 pm this weekend, and 11 am to 7 pm Monday to Wednesday, and again until 9 pm on Christmas Eve.

The event is sponsored by JPMorgan Chase along with United Airlines, Build Group, Gap Inc., Amazon and others.

It features live music and performances — see the schedule here — along with food trucks, cocktail stations, and more.

Simultaneously, over at the Cable Car Turnaround at Powell Street, there are daily events including caroling and jazz performances.

So, yes, the big draws for shopping are just Macy's, Neiman's, the Apple Store, the Nike Store, and the Nintendo Store, along with the high-end boutiques like Dior that are still occupying space around the square. But there is plenty to do and see down there this week and next, and Mayor Daniel Lurie will thank you for showing Union Square some love this holiday season.

We're about to enter one of the kookiest election years in California's 175-year history, with a bevy of Congressional seats up for grabs, and a wide open governor's race that already has too many Democrats in it.

It's looking like the coming winter and spring will bring plenty of drama and infighting among California Democrats, who in a normal year would likely be duking it out for two primary slots in the governor's race — with the state doing open primaries since 2011 in which the top two vote getters, regardless of party, advance to the general election.

The open primary will also apply in the state's 52 congressional districts, many of which are being redrawn in Democrats' favor thanks to Prop 50.

As CalMatters discusses this week, all this madness is going to create "one of the oddest election cycles in California’s 175 years as a state, albeit one that puts the state’s convoluted politics in the national spotlight."

Assuming they all stay in the race — and the California Democratic Party would be wise to try to push some of them out before it's too late — we're looking at over a dozen or more Democrats running for governor against a handful of Republicans, and this could play in Republicans' favor, with the Dems doing a lot of vote-splitting.

The two most prominent Republicans in the race as of now, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and former TV commentator Steve Hilton, could conceivably be the two biggest vote getters in an open primary with just 10% or 15% of the vote apiece, as CalMatters notes. For that to happen, Democrats like Katie Porter, Rep. Eric Swalwell, billionaire Tom Steyer, former LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and former Attorney General and Biden cabinet member Xavier Becerra would each have to be polling under 10% going into June, with lesser known candidates siphoning off some of the Democratic vote.

It's an unlikely scenario, but scary that we're even discussing it seven months out. And it's happening in part because a more major figure like Kamala Harris is not in the running.

California political soothsayer Willie Brown gave a recent prescient comment to Politico, saying, "The field is not considered of a quality that you as a Democrat would expect in California."

Brown added, "We’re still pretty much carried away with stardom, with individuals who have some impact … We don’t have any candidates like that at the moment."

So, California Democrats need someone, or several someones, to play some kind of consigliere role and keep this from getting messy. As Politico writes, "the prospect of a humiliating pile-up, with no clear powerbroker to act as traffic cop, has put the state’s political class increasingly on edge with each new entrant into the field."

Porter may still maintain an advantage by being the only significant female candidate in the race — and she's recently been joking saying "It’s raining men" with regard to many male entrants to the governor's race, and the rumors of several more. But who knows what will matter most when all is said and done — or if that weird viral gaffe in which she almost walked out of an October interview with a reporter has actually done her some damage.

There was also, in October, another video from 2021 that surfaced in October showing Porter berating a staffer, yelling, "Get out of my fucking shot!" during a Zoom-style webinar she was recording for the Biden administration.

The latest pulse-check poll of voters, which the Sacramento Bee just reported on today, finds Hilton and Bianco, the two Republicans, currently leading with 18% and 14% of voters respectively, and new entrant Swalwell in third place with 12%. Porter trails in this poll at 9%, and Becerra has a dismal 1%.

Related: Rep. Eric Swalwell Officially Launches Campaign for California Governor

Photo by hayleigh b