💬 Friday has entered the chat.

☀️ Today's weather: Sunny with highs near 70, lows around 50.

🎂 Happy early birthday to our member Karyn Smith!

🎧 Sounds like: "I Wanna Get High To The Music" by Pardoner.

Today's newsletter is 570 words — a 2-minute read.

Oktoberfest takes over downtown today, bringing giant beers, lederhosen and a little Bavarian revelry to Front Street.

State of play: The free block party has become a major draw for a part of the city that's still working to bring more foot traffic back after office hours.

🥨 The vibe: Expect polka, yodeling, stein-holding and plenty of beer, plus live music, food specials, costume contests and themed games.

• Ladyhosen, a Bavarian-style polka and yodeling band, and the cover band Pop Rocks will perform. Participants are encouraged to break out their lederhosen and dirndls.
• Food and drinks will be available from Schroeder's, Harrington's Bar & Grill and Royal Exchange.

By the numbers: More than 6,000 people attended last year's Oktoberfest on Front, per organizers.

• The broader Front Street Entertainment Zone has drawn more than 70,000 visitors across 17 events since launching in September 2024.

🍺 Catch up quick: Oktoberfest began in 1810 in Munich, Germany, as a celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese. Eventually, it evolved into an annual festival known for beer, Bavarian food, traditional dress, music and dancing.

• The tradition was later brought stateside by German immigrants, who helped inspire celebrations across the U.S.

Flashback: The city's celebration grew out of a longstanding Oktoberfest tradition at Schroeder's, the city's oldest Bavarian beer hall.

If you go: The party runs 2–10pm today in downtown. Admission is free.

Tell a friend

🍗 Giants fans have a new gripe at Oracle Park: The nearly $20 chicken tenders appear to have gotten noticeably smaller and thinner. (SFGATE)

⚖️ A former San Francisco Standard employee is suing the news outlet and CEO Griffin Gaffney, alleging sexual harassment, gender discrimination and retaliation after she raised concerns about his treatment of women.

• The company disputes the allegations. (SFGATE)

🐕 Officials are looking to tighten dog-safety rules and accountability at city-funded housing after a brutal pit bull attack in the Tenderloin left a woman severely injured. (ABC7)

💻 The AI boom is poised to create massive wealth around companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, but many laid-off tech workers and engineers are finding themselves left out of the windfall. (Bloomberg)

🛟 Three injured boaters were rescued near the Golden Gate Bridge yesterday after their vessel ran into trouble. (KRON4)

🫠 In case you were wondering how my Thursday started: Mimi knocked over a still-unassembled bed frame rail while playing with her ball, which toppled into my 6-foot-tall mirror and shattered it into a thousand pieces.

• Oh, the woes of moving.
• I still don't understand how one tiny dog managed to cause this much destruction. But what followed was a truly nightmarish cleanup involving an alarming amount of broken glass and some serious questions about whether I'm now doomed to an eternity of bad luck.

🤞 I'll burn some sage, cleanse the apartment of whatever bad juju comes with obliterating a mirror and hope the seven-year rule has an exemption for dog-related incidents.

• Mimi, meanwhile, remains unfazed and entirely unrepentant.

🤦‍♀️ Nadia is reading this column on the back patio permitting issues forcing Eli's Mile High Club to close, and how reapplying would strip the 50-year-old venue of its grandfathered-in rights.

This newsletter was edited by Geoff Ziezulewicz.