Newsom Releases Overdue Tax Returns Under Federal Scrutiny

Hal Brenner, Managing Editor

From Noe Valley to Solano County, today's desks logged a Bay Area that keeps counting: new permits, closed kitchens, a conference gone to Phoenix after fifty years, a student dead on a campus designed for safety. We're reading it all under a clear sky holding at 57°F — the kind of Sunday morning that makes you grateful for the broadsheet and suspicious of the governor.

Bex Connolly — Politics

The Marin hilltop suit challenges exactly 40 of 337 approved homes on the specific theory that state density-bonus waivers cannot override a hillside ordinance that Marin County's own planners refused to amend — a narrow ask with a statewide answer still pending. In November, Solano County voters will rule on a data-center tax drafted before a single server has been racked in the county, which is either foresight or a campaign document depending on whether the industry actually shows up. Newsom's tax returns landed under a federal cloud he didn't control, and the years of delay now look like the wrong calculation.

• A Marin Hilltop, 40 Homes, and a Test of How Far California's Density-Bonus Law Can Stretch
• SFPD Floods a Two-Block Stretch of Mid-Market With 24/7 Foot Patrols After Three Shootings in Five Days
• Reem's California to shutter Mission Street kitchen for two months after hit-and-run
• Grand Lake Kitchen Brings Its Oakland Brunch to Noe Valley's Old Mr. Digby's Space
• A Carpentry Student Was Killed at an East Oakland Campus Built to Keep People Safe
• Newsom Finally Released His Tax Returns — Late, and Under a Federal Cloud
• …and 2 more from this desk — see them all

Casey Wong — Neighborhoods

At 952 and 960 Howard, a single $1.5 million permit filed July 30 would convert three floors of manufacturing space into housing and PDR — two buildings on one application, which isn't standard procedure, and tells you someone has decided SoMa's industrial era is over for these parcels and isn't waiting on anyone to agree. On Third Street, the T-Line got its first platform overhaul since 2007, and a grant-backed oyster bar is filling the storefront a café left in 2021 — public infrastructure and a new restaurant arriving at roughly the same moment on a corridor that's been promised both for a decade. Six people on Raymond Avenue in Visitacion Valley have been without a home since Friday morning, when a fire burned through the second story before 7 a.m.

• On Howard Street, Two Manufacturing Buildings File One Permit to Become Housing
• A $1 Permit at 930 Geary: The Amsterdam Café Moves to Make Its Crowds Official
• On Harrison Street, an $80,000 Permit Turns an Office Into a Spa the City Calls a Massage Parlor
• Six Displaced After an Early-Morning Fire Takes the Second Story on Raymond Avenue
• On Third Street, a Refreshed T-Line and an Oyster Bar for a Storefront Dark Since 2021
• On Ninth Avenue, a Vintage Shop Takes the Cheese Shop's Shelves; on Irving, Lomo Libre Goes Dark After Five Years

Devon Park — Tech

October 13 is the last date Semicon West occupies Moscone, and the move to Phoenix isn't a venue preference — TSMC's Arizona fabs relocated the industry's center of gravity years before SEMI made it official, and a conference can't stay where the supply chain isn't. Bloom Security's $20 million seed is a real and named round; the "dozens of enterprises" traction line in the same press release is not, which matters when the pitch is that most corporate security budgets haven't priced in this threat yet. OhmConnect's enrolled households were always what Renew Home wanted — the app was the door, and that door closed in March 2024 when the $100M-backed virtual power plant absorbed the users.

• OhmConnect, the Startup That Paid You to Turn Off the Lights, Is Closing. It Didn't Die — It Got Absorbed.
• Semicon West Leaves San Francisco for Phoenix After 50 Years — The Conference Followed the Fabs
• The Team Palo Alto Networks Bought Just Raised $20M to Do It Again

Jules Martinez — Food

Plank's twelve-year run on Embarcadero West ends today — bowling lanes, arcade, bocce, beer garden, and a sports bar across the same footprint — which is a lot of square footage to go dark on a waterfront Oakland has spent a decade trying to activate. Pucquio's abrupt exit from College Avenue, no reason given, is the quieter alarm: acclaimed rooms on Rockridge's strongest dining corridor don't post Instagram goodbyes without a story behind them that we don't have yet. Against both, Bonita's siblings opened at 4063 24th in a space that's burned through three tenants in five years — which is either stubborn optimism or a very good read on what Noe Valley will actually support.

• Plank Closes at Jack London Square After Nearly 12 Years
• Bonita Taqueria y Rotisserie Opens Third Location on Noe Valley's 24th Street
• Pucquio, Acclaimed Rockridge Peruvian Spot, Closes Abruptly on College Avenue

Drew Bennett — Things to Do

705 Jackson Street is where to be at 11 this morning — Leung's White Crane's 55th anniversary brings lion and dragon dancers to Chinatown along with a rarely performed "awakening" ceremony that almost never leaves the school's training floor, free, no RSVP, and done by 12:30. The de Young has a time-sensitive split today: "Boom and Bust" closes tonight — meaning this afternoon is the last free shot at the homegrown California photography survey — while "Treasures of the Pharaohs" opens with 130 royal artifacts and a $40 timed ticket that runs through January. On the Harry Potter concert at Davies next weekend, the live-orchestra-plus-film format is the real draw; that $50 deal circulating online is worth a confirmation call before you click.

• Lion and Dragon Dancers Fill Chinatown Today as Leung's White Crane Turns 55
• A Live Orchestra Plays 'Deathly Hallows Part 2' at Davies Aug 8–9 — and a Word on That $50 Deal
• The de Young Flips Its Marquee This Weekend: Egypt Arrives as "Boom and Bust" Takes Its Last Bow

Sal Moreno — Sports

Ricky Pearsall survived a 17-year-old with a gun in Union Square and couldn't beat a PCL — surgery confirmed, year gone, and what I can't shake is that most of those resolve without a scalpel and his didn't. Meanwhile the Giants clock reads under 22 hours: Arráez at .326 is the most coveted rental at this deadline, the club is reportedly eating north of $8 million on Robbie Ray's contract to make it movable, and 47-64 is Buster Posey's official verdict on this group.

• Padres Have a Reason to Show Up. The Giants Have a Countdown Clock.
• The Bullet He Beat, the Knee He Couldn't

Hal Brenner

Plank closes and Leung's White Crane turns 55 on the same Sunday — Oakland losing twelve years of square footage on the waterfront while Chinatown performs a ceremony that almost never leaves the training floor, which is about as clean a summary of this city's ledger as we're going to get. Go find the lion dancers before noon.