Hey there, San Francisco. 

Hope you had a nice (and safe) long weekend. Our thoughts are with the people of Highland Park, Illinois. 

A programming note at the top because it’s a big one – Our switch to Axios San Francisco is coming soon! 

Here’s how it’ll happen: 

• This Friday 7/8 will be the last day I send out The SF Minute newsletter. 

• I’m going to take a vacation to visit family and then start prepping with our second reporter, Megan Rose Dickey. We’ll launch Axios SF in early August. 

• As a reminder, you won’t have to do anything extra to follow along. If you’re signed up for The SF Minute, you’ll receive Axios SF. 

• But, we’d love for you to help spread the word and encourage friends/family to sign up here!

It’s been so much fun writing The SF Minute over the last year and a half. And all your support has been so incredible!

But I’m thrilled to officially join up with Axios, which is bringing its concise newsletter format and quality journalism to cities across the country. 

With Axios San Francisco, expect a daily newsletter similar to The SF Minute, but with a bit more original reporting – both serious and fun. I can’t wait to get started! 

And with that… onto the news… 

Quick bits: News to know 

🔥 A fire burned around two acres near Twin Peaks on Monday. No structures were damaged and no one was injured before officials said that they had contained the blaze at 6:45 pm. 

• The cause of the fire is still under investigation. (SFGATE) 

💉 The San Francisco Public Health Department has started offering monkeypox vaccinations to at-risk residents who may have been exposed to the virus. 

• You can find a list of vaccine sites here. 

• As the Bay Area Reporter writes: “While anyone can get monkeypox through close personal contact, the virus is primarily spreading within networks of gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men.” 

• As of July 1, the CDC had confirmed 460 cases in the US, including 16 in San Francisco. (Bay Area Reporter) 

🛳 The Warriors have “indefinitely delayed” construction on its 13-floor hotel/condo project that the team originally planned to open in 2023, the SF Business Times reports. 

• The building, which looks strikingly similar to a cruise ship from its renderings, would be connected to the Chase Center when completed. (SF Business Times) 

🏢 In other real estate news, Google’s Cloud division will reportedly take over Stripe’s former 300,000 square foot headquarters at 510 Townsend (right across from the downtown CalTrain station). 

• The SF Business Times said it's the largest lease or sublease in the city since the start of the pandemic. 

• Stripe announced in 2019 that it was moving its headquarters to Oyster Point in South San Francisco due, in part, to a lack of available office space in the city, the Chronicle reported at the time. (SF Business Times) 

🍕 Pie Punks recently opened in SoMa, offering three types of pizza – New York-style, Detroit-style, and thin squares that they call “grandma pies.” 

• They also serve Tiki drinks. (Hoodline) 

What else I’m reading: Links to browse

• S.F. fires nonprofit hired to clean Tenderloin amid allegations its workers sold drugs, harassed residents (Chronicle) 

• SF couple gets $1,500 fine for parking in their driveway despite doing so for nearly 40 years (ABC7) 

• Conservatory of Music has added a restaurant with live music, Uccelo Lounge (Hoodline) 

• Once a Crucial Refuge, ‘Gayborhoods’ Lose L.G.B.T.Q. Residents in Major Cities (NYT) 

And finally… BART hires a hawk 

In late May, BART hired a hawk named Pac-Man to help control the pigeon population at its El Cerrito del Norte Station in the East Bay. 

As the agency wrote in a statement, “Hawks such as Pac-Man are natural-born predators and their presence alone deters prey birds, like pigeons.” 

“We brought in owl statues, we tried nets, we tried various measures with noise… Nothing was successful,” BART project manager Wahid Amiri said. 

But apparently it’s working so far. 

“The first day I was here, there were pigeons everywhere,” said hawk handler Ricky Ortiz, who comes to the station three times a week for eight hours each day. “The next week, after Pac-Man showed up, there were way fewer.”

That’s all for today! Thanks so much for reading y’all and hope you enjoyed this AM edition of the SF Minute. I’m still on the road from the Fourth, so expect another early morning newsletter tomorrow as well. 

Have a great day and see you tomorrow! - Nick B. 🦅