The soul of the city: San Francisco honors literary hero Lawrence Ferlinghetti

The co-founder of the City Lights Bookstore had global stature but remained a neighborhood fixture

By early afternoon, a small memorial of flowers and a can of Pabst had begun to accumulate outside the door of City Lights Books, to commemorate the death of its co-founder Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

And by the evening, a vigil for Ferlinghetti, one of the last living links to the Beat generation, was being held in the adjacent Jack Kerouac Alley, a tiny side street that separates the bookstore – a tourist attraction and official city landmark for decades – from the celebrated Beat hangout Vesuvio Cafe.

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Ephemeral edible: gingerbread monolith appears on San Francisco hilltop, then collapses

Christmas day sweet sighting in Corona Heights park attracted visitors who took pictures and even took a bite

Like the other monoliths that have mysteriously appeared across America and the world in the waning weeks of 2020, the one that popped up on a California hilltop on Christmas Day seemed to come out of nowhere.

Also like the others, it was tall, three-sided and it rapidly attracted crowds of curious visitors before an untimely destruction.

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Mathematician explains cracking California Zodiac Killer cipher – video

The Australian mathematician Samuel Blake describes how he and and two other cryptologists finally solved an encrypted message written by the unnamed serial killer 51 years ago.

The FBI confirmed the code, cracked with help from a supercomputer called Spartan, is accurate, but they said it did not help with identification

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Zodiac: cipher from California serial killer solved after 51 years

Message from still unidentified killer reads: ‘I hope you are having lots of fun in trying to catch me’

It took 51 years and a team of experts from three countries to crack the code to a cipher left by the still unidentified Zodiac Killer, who haunted northern California communities in the 1960s and 70s. But, on Friday, the code-breaker David Oranchak revealed for the first time, the ominous message sent by the murderer.

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‘It’s a ghost town’: Can America’s oldest Chinatown survive Covid-19?

The pandemic has devastated small businesses across the US, and San Francisco’s Chinatown has been particularly hard-hit

Iron gates and metal doors appeared to shutter the fronts of every other shop, their once-bustling entrances overflowing with brightly colored knickknacks now quiet and tightly contained. Some art stores still had ornate sculptures visible, collecting dust in the dark behind the gates. Others were completely empty, cavernous and blank.

Related: Fatigued Californians are back in lockdown. Will it work?

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Harvey Milk’s murder is a stark reminder of the persistence of police brutality

Few realize Milk and San Francisco mayor George Moscone were killed in part due to their opposition to police violence and abuse

Like millions around the world, last May the image of the Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin killing George Floyd sickened and angered me and drove me to the streets to demonstrate in support of Black Lives Matter. It also reminded me of events that occurred in my hometown of San Francisco 42 years ago on Friday.

Many people know who Harvey Milk was, are familiar with his contributions to the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement and remember that he was assassinated on 27 November 1978 after being in office for less than a year. Fewer people are aware that one of the proximate reasons why Milk and San Francisco’s progressive mayor George Moscone were killed was because of their opposition to police violence and abuse.

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Nancy Pelosi says she was ‘set up’ in hair salon mask dispute – video

House speaker Nancy Pelosi says she was 'set up' after she was photographed in a San Francisco hair salon without a face covering, breaking the city's coronavirus prevention rules. 'I take responsibility for trusting the word of a neighbourhood salon that I have been to over the years many times,' she said. 'I don't wear a mask when I'm washing my hair. Do you wear a mask when you're washing your hair?' Security camera footage of Pelosi in the salon was obtained by Fox News, sparking outcry over the incident which was pounced on by Donald Trump

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‘A giant wheezing kazoo’: Golden Gate Bridge starts to ‘sing’ after design fix

Strange sound coming from bridge explained by new bicycle-path railings that make ‘music’ as wind passes through

San Francisco’s famous Golden Gate Bridge has started “singing” following recent changes to bicycle-path railings that appear to make music as the wind blows through them, residents have reported.

Related: George Floyd killing: Washington expecting biggest march yet as mourners prepare for second memorial service – live

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San Francisco: D-Day ship saved from huge fire on Fisherman’s Wharf

  • No injuries reported after 130 firefighters tackle blaze
  • SS Jeremiah O’Brien is among tourist attractions on piers

A huge fire engulfed a warehouse on Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco early on Saturday, sending a thick plume of smoke over the waterfront and threatening to spread to a historic second world war ship before firefighters brought the flames under control.

No injuries were reported but firefighters were making multiple searches to ensure no one was inside the building on Pier 45, San Francisco Fire Lt Jonathan Baxter told reporters.

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Drone footage shows San Francisco deserted under coronavirus lockdown – video

The effect of the three-week-long lockdown on daily life in San Francisco is revealed in drone footage showing empty streets and deserted landmarks. The city was the first in the US to announce a 'stay-at-home' order on 16 March, restricting all but essential activities

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Queer activists escorted out of Pete Buttigieg event in San Francisco – video

Queer activists were met with chants of ‘Boot-Edge-Edge’ after they disrupted a private fundraiser for Pete Buttigieg in San Francisco on Friday evening. The activists, escorted out of the event, reflected unease among the LBGTQ+ community over the Buttigieg campaign

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Why are California’s mayors lining up to endorse Mike Bloomberg?

London Breed, San Francisco’s first black female mayor, joins campaign following support from Stockton and San Jose mayors

There’s nothing surprising about a billionaire winning the support of the mayor of San Francisco, a city flush with tech wealth and new money.

But when the billionaire is Mike Bloomberg – and the endorsement is the latest from a string of California mayors he mentored and supported – the vow of support raises some eyebrows.

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Changing violence requires the same shift in understanding given to Aids

Violence is a contagious and epidemic health problem and those exposed to it deserve treatment, compassion and care, writes Gary Slutkin

When the Aids epidemic first hit in the early 1980s, I was beginning my career in epidemiology at San Francisco general hospital. There was fear everywhere, especially in cities with large LGBT populations such as San Francisco. People didn’t understand what was happening and where Aids would strike next.

Today, Aids remains a major public health threat, but anxiety over the spread has largely abated. The thing that made the biggest difference in getting us here was the shift in how the world looks at people affected by Aids: from immoral people or bad people, to people with a contagious health problem who deserve to receive compassion and care.

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San Francisco transit boss apologizes to rider detained over a sandwich

Encounter between police officer and man eating on Bart platform prompts protests and allegations of racism

The head of a San Francisco Bay Area commuter train system apologized to a black rider who was detained and cited by police for eating a breakfast sandwich on a train platform. The official promised an investigation after an outcry from people who assailed enforcement of a no-food rule as racist.

More than two dozen people staged an “eat-in” at a Bay Area Rapid Transit (Bart) station over the weekend and others continue to protest the 4 November encounter, which ended with a 31-year-old man who was headed to work in handcuffs and unable to leave until he had told Bart police his name.

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Giant Greta Thunberg mural to watch over San Francisco’s downtown

Project by Argentinian artist Andrés Iglesias is poised for completion next week in eco-conscious city

San Francisco, a city that prides itself on its eco-consciousness, will soon have a giant likeness of Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg gazing upon its downtown, reminding residents to respect the planet.

Related: 'Greta Thunberg effect' driving growth in carbon offsetting

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After a Halloween party shooting, focus on Airbnb policy draws outrage

A community is frustrated by the lack of empathy for the five victims shot at an event in an affluent San Francisco Bay area city

Five days after a mass shooting at an Airbnb in a small, wealthy community left five people dead, residents across California’s Bay Area are frustrated by the response from law enforcement and news media and their focus on Airbnb policies rather than the victims of the killing.

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Airbnb to ban party houses in wake of Halloween shooting in California

Airbnb’s CEO said the company ‘must do better’ after five people were killed at a party in San Francisco

Airbnb’s chief executive has said the company will ban “party houses” following a deadly shooting at a Halloween party held at an Airbnb rental home in California.

In a series of tweets, Brian Chesky said on Saturday that the San Francisco-based company would expand manual screening of “high risk” reservations and remove guests who fail to comply with policies banning parties at Airbnb rental homes.

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Thirty years after devastating quake, is San Francisco ready for the next?

The 6.9-magnitude Loma Prieta quake killed 63 in 1989. Decades later, the Bay Area is still plagued by structural threats and flammable fuels

On the afternoon of 17 October 1989, a 6.9-magnitude earthquake rocked the San Francisco Bay Area, killing 63 people and causing $13bn in damages as it toppled a chunk of the Bay Bridge, colapsed a section of freeway in Oakland, and crumbled thousands of buildings from San Francisco to Santa Cruz.

Thirty years later, California will launch an earthquake early warning app, the first to cover the whole state, developed by UC Berkeley and the California Office of Emergency Services. The decades since the Loma Prieta quake have been remarkably quiet – yet it’s not a matter of if, but when, the next large earthquake will rattle the Bay Area, and the consequences will undoubtedly be severe.

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Native American canoes circle Alcatraz to honor 50 years since occupation – in pictures

Native American tribes from up and down the west coast came together on the San Francisco Bay to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day on 14 October. Starting at dawn people rode traditional tribal canoes around Alcatraz Island – the famous former prison site which was occupied by Native Americans from 1969-71. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the historic act of resistance that launched the modern era of indigenous rights

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