Mission Local

Mission Local News from San Francisco's Mission District

Saikat Chakrabarti’s campaign to succeed Rep. Nancy Pelosi in California’s 11th Congressional District cost $211.3 per v...
06/20/2026

Saikat Chakrabarti’s campaign to succeed Rep. Nancy Pelosi in California’s 11th Congressional District cost $211.3 per vote.⁠
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That is about $8.85 million spent for 42,049 votes, just 17.9 percent of the total votes cast.⁠
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The two candidates who beat him spent far less. ⁠
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Scott Wiener, the state senator who led the field with 40.7 percent of the vote, was backed by $5.86 million in spending. Each of his votes cost $61.24. ⁠
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District 1 supervisor Connie Chan, who took the second spot with 29.7 percent of the votes, spent just $1.75 million. Her cost per vote? $25.09. ⁠
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Now Chakrabarti plans to use his money to help one of the candidates he failed to beat. ⁠
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Already, his PAC has spent $425,000 for Chan as she heads toward the November election — 24 percent of what she spent during the entire run-up to the June vote. ⁠
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📸: Zoe Malen

Hayley Kiyoko graced the red yoga mat at the Castro Theater Thursday for Frameline’s screening of Girls Like Girls, her ...
06/19/2026

Hayley Kiyoko graced the red yoga mat at the Castro Theater Thursday for Frameline’s screening of Girls Like Girls, her directorial debut. Throngs of Gen Zers lined up along Castro street to see the film. ⁠
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“Hayley Kiyoko literally made me gay,” one exclaimed.⁠
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The film is a sapphic coming of age love story whose genesis lies in Kiyoko’s 2014 song of the same name, the 2015 music video that inspired a generation of le***an fueled Tumblr activity, and her 2023 New York Times bestseller.⁠
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“It’s hard to name 10 films off the top of your head starring two women of color falling in love, and my goal in life is to fill up that void and that space in this industry at large,” Kiyoko said. ⁠
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Kiyoko, who is Japanese and grew up in Los Angeles, said that much of the film was inspired by her own experiences (and trauma) growing up q***r. ⁠
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For many in the audience, those traumas were all-too relatable. ⁠
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“What do you have to say for yourself for re-traumatizing us?” someone in the audience asked during the Q&A. “You’re welcome,” Kiyoko responded.⁠
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📸: Zoe Malen

Third Thursdays on Treat, this time “Juneteenth x Pride,” kicked off what will be dozens of Pride and Juneteenth celebra...
06/19/2026

Third Thursdays on Treat, this time “Juneteenth x Pride,” kicked off what will be dozens of Pride and Juneteenth celebrations through the end of the month. ⁠
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About 10 Black and LGBTQ+ vendors lined the space at 957 Treat Ave. near 23rd Street with crocheted hats, $1 caricatures, specialty cupcakes and more. ⁠
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Some 50 visitors attended the event, which ran from 5 to 9 p.m. ⁠
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“Helping people be seen, helping people feel comfortable being in their own skin and living the life that they were meant to,” said vendor Bre Quinzel. ⁠
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“I want to bring color and different and brightness to the world of black and white,” said another vendor, Andrea Rivers. ⁠
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Most everyone at the Juneteenth x Pride event plans to take some time to celebrate both. ⁠
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📸: Zoe Malen

Mission Local has its eyes on the comings and goings on the streets of the Tenderloin, from plans for a “safe zone” for ...
06/18/2026

Mission Local has its eyes on the comings and goings on the streets of the Tenderloin, from plans for a “safe zone” for kids to a new location for a treasured local restaurant and the return of Frameline, the San Francisco International LGBTQ+ Film Festival. We’re keeping track of it all. ⁠
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Check out our latest column, Tenderloin Buzz, to see what’s happening. Also, check out our previous neighborhood columns, Richmond Buzz and Mission Buzz. ⁠ ⁠
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📸: Eleni Balakrishnan

Silicon Valley has its fair share of q***r founders, venture capitalists, and power brokers, according to data that it h...
06/18/2026

Silicon Valley has its fair share of q***r founders, venture capitalists, and power brokers, according to data that it has collected from VC funding sites like Crunchbase and PitchBook. ⁠
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But startups run by openly LGBTQ+ founders receive disproportionately low funding, despite on average creating more jobs and patents. ⁠
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StartOut aims to change that. ⁠
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A conference hosted by StartOut last week raised a question: Is it to better to wait until after you become rich and famous to come out? ⁠
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“Most of the money is invested in this town. You have so much allyship here that you should not be afraid,” said Sean Howell, founder of Hornet. ⁠
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Not everyone agreed. “I think it’s very unsafe to try this if you’re trans,” warned one participant. “It’s very different being gay than trans.” ⁠
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“It’s still a challenge,” said Brian Richardson, CEO of StartOut. “It’s a very personal decision that you have to make and figure out, when we battle those issues continuously.”⁠
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📸: Annelise Bowers

Federal and out-of-state agencies “improperly” searched San Francisco license-plate data gathered through the police dep...
06/18/2026

Federal and out-of-state agencies “improperly” searched San Francisco license-plate data gathered through the police department’s Flock system of surveillance cameras, a department audit released Wednesday found.⁠
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Police Chief Derrick Lew acknowledged issues with the Flock system when he revealed the leak at the city’s police commission meeting. ⁠
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“As helpful as the Flock cameras have been for the department, they have also caused immediate concern,” he told the commission. “It’s no secret ALPR [automated license-plate reader] is a controversial tool, and I think there are a lot of privacy concerns.” ⁠
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He said immigration enforcement agencies did not directly access the data.⁠
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San Francisco has since 2024 used Flock surveillance cameras to capture license plates on city streets. ⁠
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SFPD discovered that there had been 299 illegal inquiries of its Flock camera network over the course of a year, according to a department statement. This is at least the second such breach.⁠
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Even if agencies like ICE did not directly access the data, it does not mean they did not subsequently obtain the information from other agencies. There is ample data sharing among federal agencies — the IRS, for example, in 2025 agreed to share data with ICE. ⁠

📸: Via Wikimedia Commons

The expansion of Jerrold Commons, a Bayview homeless village that opened last April and was championed by Mayor Daniel L...
06/18/2026

The expansion of Jerrold Commons, a Bayview homeless village that opened last April and was championed by Mayor Daniel Lurie, has been stalled indefinitely after the neighborhood’s supervisor, Shamann Walton, blasted Lurie’s plans. ⁠
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Walton said that homeless people had been historically “warehoused” in the district, and that he was not consulted on the decision. ⁠
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Today, half a dozen empty cabins remain in storage at the shelter, awaiting a decision on whether to use them at Jerrold Commons. ⁠
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While hundreds of permanent supportive housing units and temporary shelters are slated to close, hundreds of “treatment” beds, which Lurie’s chief of Health and Human Services has said his administration will favor, have opened in their place. ⁠
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But Jerrold Commons has continued to be viewed unfavorably by the neighborhood supervisor’s office and other stakeholders. It is an example of one more homeless service in a neighborhood they say has been overburdened by them. ⁠
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📸: Marina Newman

Saikat Chakrabarti, who failed to score a place on the November ballot for California’s 11th congressional district, sai...
06/18/2026

Saikat Chakrabarti, who failed to score a place on the November ballot for California’s 11th congressional district, said Wednesday that he will support Connie Chan’s race through the November election. ⁠
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Already, his newly formed SF Solidarity PAC has spent $425,000 for Chan. ⁠
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“I’m gonna do what I can to help her win,” said Chakrabarti. ⁠
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Chakrabarti sees himself playing whatever role necessary to help the progressive movement and fix issues in the city. He’s been a generous donor to nonprofits, and he’s willing to contribute more right now when many are facing budget cuts. ⁠
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He’s also open to being a supporter — and possibly a sponsor — for ballot measures that represent causes he supports. ⁠
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Chakrabarti’s endorsement doesn’t mean his votes will automatically transfer to Chan. ⁠
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Before the primary, the general perception was that whichever candidate, Chan or Chakrabarti, advanced would need almost all of the other’s votes to have a chance to defeat Sen. Scott Wiener in November. ⁠
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📸: Yujie Zhou

A wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Eric Bigone, the 58-year-old man killed in the Outer Sunset last month, ...
06/18/2026

A wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Eric Bigone, the 58-year-old man killed in the Outer Sunset last month, alleges that the owners of a home rented by Bigone did so to sell the property. ⁠
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The civil lawsuit was filed on June 9 by Eric's son and the representative of his estate, seeking a court order that would freeze the sale of the property, as well as damages from the landlord, Philippe Chagniot, and his wife, Barbara Chagniot. ⁠
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It goes on to state that, starting in January of 2026, the Chagniots began harassing Bigone in an attempt to get Bigone to leave the property that he had rented from them since 2023. ⁠
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Bigone was shot and killed on May 17. Chagniot was arrested 11 days later on May 28 and charged with murder. According to a press release from the DA’s office, Bigone’s killer approached the house on a bicycle at 5 a.m., set a fire on the roof of Bigone’s car, then shot Bigone when he left the house to investigate.⁠
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The day after Bigone’s death, the suit adds, Barbara Chagniot called Bigone’s son, Dino, offered her condolences, and asked when he would be able to vacate the building. ⁠
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📸: Junyao Yang

Should a jury decide if San Francisco police violated the civil rights of 117 people, mostly children and teenagers, arr...
06/17/2026

Should a jury decide if San Francisco police violated the civil rights of 117 people, mostly children and teenagers, arrested during the 2023 Dolores Hill Bomb? ⁠
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Or should a federal judge resolve the class action lawsuit they have filed against the city, police department, and several individual officers who detained them that night? ⁠
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The plaintiffs want a jury trial. The city’s attorneys want the judge to deliver a summary judgement. ⁠
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The plaintiffs allege that officers did not appropriately assess who was and wasn’t a threat, and instead indiscriminately rounded up bystanders who happened to be near the popular, albeit verboten, annual skateboarding event by a busy intersection on July 8, 2023. ⁠
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“It wasn’t hard to tell who was involved,” countered City attorney Reilly Stoler. Officers did not need to make decisions to arrest one-by-one because they believed those detained were acting as an unlawfully assembled group, he argued. ⁠
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The judge’s decision about whether to issue a judgement or take the case to a jury could come anytime in the following months. ⁠
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📸: Kelly Waldron

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