Good Morning, San Francisco

Broken clouds and 55 degrees out there — layer up, because 57 is your ceiling and that wind's got some teeth at 13 mph. The big story today: PG&E just restructured your bill so that using less electricity costs you more. Welcome to California.

PG&E's New Math Punishes You for Conserving Energy

PG&E doubled its monthly fixed charge from $12 to $23 this year while trimming per-kilowatt-hour rates — a move the utility frames as a simplification but which, in practice, shifts the burden from high-usage customers onto people who actually try to use less power. One Bay Area resident who used just 81 kilowatt-hours in a month — barely enough to keep the lights on — reported a bill of $44.39 for electricity alone, with a total statement near $70. Under the old structure, that same usage would have been significantly cheaper.

The mechanics here matter. When you double a fixed charge and shave per-unit costs, the utility can honestly say "rates went down" while bills go up for a huge chunk of its customer base. It's the kind of accounting sleight-of-hand that would get a private company dragged on social media but somehow passes as progressive rate reform when a regulated monopoly does it. Low-usage customers — renters in small apartments, people who travel frequently, seniors on fixed incomes — absorb the hit. High-consumption households, including those running electric vehicles and oversized HVAC systems, come out ahead.

This is the fundamental problem with monopoly utilities operating under regulatory capture. PG&E doesn't have to compete for your business. You can't switch providers. You can't negotiate. The California Public Utilities Commission approved this structure, and your recourse is... what, exactly? Writing a letter? The incentive alignment is completely backward: a rate structure that punishes conservation while rewarding consumption, delivered by a company that has already asked ratepayers to fund its wildfire liabilities and infrastructure negligence. If you wanted to design a system that discouraged personal responsibility, you'd be hard-pressed to do better.

The broader lesson is one San Franciscans keep learning the hard way — when government-backed monopolies set the terms, the little guy pays. Every time. The CPUC should be forced to justify how a rate structure that doubles fixed costs on the lowest-usage customers advances any stated climate or equity goal. Don't hold your breath.

The Rundown

City Hall & Politics

SFMTA quietly kills PayByPhone, leaves drivers scrambling. The city's parking agency ended its contract with PayByPhone on May 27 and switched to ParkMobile — without telling anyone first. No in-app notice, no signage at kiosks, no public announcement. Drivers showed up to meters that simply didn't work with their existing app. ParkMobile charges per-transaction convenience fees or offers a monthly subscription to waive them, meaning you now pay more for the privilege of paying for parking. This is what happens when a government agency treats a citywide service transition like an internal memo. A heads-up email would have cost literally nothing.

Chakrabarti campaign goes after Wiener's tech donors in CD16. Saikat Chakrabarti's team is circulating opposition research flagging contributions from tech billionaires and Garry Tan to Sen. Scott Wiener's congressional campaign. The framing is clear — Wiener is the establishment candidate bankrolled by Silicon Valley money. Whether that's a liability or an endorsement depends entirely on who you ask. Wiener hasn't responded publicly. The primary math in CD16 favors name recognition, and Wiener has plenty of it — but Chakrabarti's team is betting that "funded by billionaires" still stings in a district that prides itself on progressive bona fides.

Housing & Transit

BART Prom returns — yes, it's real, and yes, you need a suit. The annual rolling formal takes place on BART trains, where hundreds of strangers in prom attire ride the system together and end up at a bar somewhere. No tickets, no registration — just show up overdressed at the right station. Details circulate on Reddit. This is either peak San Francisco or the last thing you'd ever do on a Saturday. There is no middle ground.

Culture & Food

Beijing Duck House and Boiling Beijing are the Peking duck names to know. If you're serious about Peking duck, Beijing Duck House on Haight Street does the full multi-course preparation — but call ahead, because walk-ins face a 45-minute wait and the kitchen isn't always ready. Boiling Beijing in San Bruno is the other contender. Neither is cheap, but the regulars swear by them.

HeyTea opens a second SF location at Stonestown this summer. The Chinese premium tea chain's Metreon-adjacent SoMa spot is getting a sibling in the Sunset corridor. Whether Stonestown needs another tea option when Dots Cafe already owns the neighborhood is a fair question, but HeyTea is betting on the foot traffic.

Four comedy shows are worth your weekend. Crazy Funny Asians runs free, Puff Puff Laugh lets you consume at Moe Greens while you laugh, The Confessional does improv off audience-submitted secrets at $5 off, and Golden Gate Comedy Night puts you uncomfortably close to the comics. The HellaSecret Desi Comedy Night also has free tickets — register and they'll tell you where to go.

The Tenderloin's tiny parks are still holding on. The postage-stamp green spaces scattered through the neighborhood — some city-managed, some nonprofit-maintained, some surviving on sheer collective will — remain one of the most stubborn acts of civic optimism in a neighborhood that doesn't get enough credit for either.

Public Safety

Nothing major on the blotter today — which is itself worth noting.

One More Thing

There's apparently a mural in Ross Alley in Chinatown that's wholesome enough to make strangers on the internet feel feelings. No one can quite describe it. Go find it yourself — you could use the walk.