🥛 The best part about Tuesday? It's not Monday. We're a glass half-full bunch.

⛅ Today's weather: Partly sunny with highs around 70, lows near 60.

🎂 Happy birthday to our members Edward Ward and Vivian Gavros!

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🎧 Sounds like: “Traffic” by Thom Yorke.

Today's newsletter is 879 words — a 3.5-minute read.

Another traffic headache is settling in for anyone trying to get between Russian Hill, North Beach and Chinatown anytime soon.

State of play: The Broadway Tunnel this week entered a long stretch of construction that's expected to snarl traffic for the next 14 months.

• The tunnel will remain open throughout the project — just at half its usual capacity.
• One tunnel bore will carry all traffic, with a single lane open in each direction. The first phase closes the eastbound tunnel for about seven months before crews swap sides, CBS News reports.

The big picture: The tunnel is a major east-west connection across the city's northeast side and the lane reductions could mean backups spilling onto nearby streets, particularly during rush hour, when traffic is already at its heaviest.

Zoom in: The disruption is largely tied to the city's $76 million renovation of the Chinatown Public Health Center, which sits above the tunnel's eastern entrance.

• The '70s-era health center is considered the most seismically vulnerable facility in San Francisco's public health network, per the city's Public Works department.
• Since the building and tunnel share structural elements, crews need access underground to carry out the seismic upgrades.
• The tunnel itself is also getting improvements, including brighter lighting, new wall and ceiling tiles and upgrades to its roadway and pedestrian paths, per SFGATE. (So overall, less of that liminal nightmare, dystopian passageway kind-of-vibe.)

Catch up quick: If the Broadway Tunnel has ever given you the creeps, you're not alone. The narrow walkways and amplified roar of passing cars have helped earn it a reputation as one of San Francisco's scariest places to bike or walk.

• Fittingly, the tunnel also made a cameo in the 1978 sci-fi horror classic "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."

Zoom out: The construction comes amid a particularly busy stretch for Chinatown, where the city is also renovating Portsmouth Square and the Chinatown/Him Mark Lai Branch Library.

What's next: The project is expected to wrap up next October.

The bottom line: Give yourself extra time if you're driving through this part of town — especially during peak hours — or consider taking public transit.

Tell a commuter

Google searches for "solo travel" hit a nationwide record high this year.

Why it matters: Solo travel is booming as more people embrace the freedom of going wherever they want, whenever they want — without waiting for someone else's PTO to line up.

By the numbers: In Hostelworld's recently released 2025 survey of more than 3,300 solo travelers, 64% said freedom and spontaneity were among the best parts of traveling alone.

• But solo doesn't necessarily mean lonely: 58% said they wanted to meet new people, up from 43% in 2024.
• And 63% of first-time solo travelers said they planned to do it again.

Zoom out: The trend isn't just for 20-something backpackers, either.

• While younger travelers are driving much of the boom, tour operators like Collette are also seeing a growing demand from older travelers — particularly among women 50 and over.
• Some couples are even increasingly comfortable vacationing separately, per the New York Times, which profiled spouses who happily take trips without each other.

Stunning stat: As solo trips go mainstream, they're also becoming a major business. The global market was worth an estimated $550 billion in 2025.

💭 Nadia's thought bubble: There's something unmatched about traveling alone.

• I've wandered Mexico City, explored Portugal's Algarve region and traversed cities like New York, Raleigh, and Chicago by myself.
• Freedom can be its own kind of luxury.

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🎒 38,000 public school students returned to class yesterday, including nearly 200 who became the first students at Mission Bay School, SFUSD's first new school opening in 20 years. (SF Chronicle)

🎶 Stern Grove Festival's ticket lottery left roughly 80% of hopeful concertgoers without tickets this summer, as demand soared to an average of 100,000 entries per show for the 12,000-person venue. (SF Standard)

💻 A historic former Army barracks site in the Presidio is being transformed into a 40,000-square-foot members-only Canopy co-working space. (SF Chronicle)

🎤 The Jonas Brothers are bringing their "Burning Up Tour All Over Again" to the Chase Center on Nov. 21. (NBC)

🦇 Creatures of the night, assemble.

🖤 Hot Goth GF will be spinning industrial, post-punk and dark EBM hits late into the night at Emmy's Spaghetti Shack this Friday during dinner service.

• The East Bay-based DJ, whose name is Christina C. Villanueva, has become a fixture in the local goth scene, curating events that center queer and trans people of color and the community's freakiest misfits.
• DJ Hopeless will join her.

Pro tips: Reservations are encouraged. Wear black. Order pasta. (The chicken parm ($26) is a reliable favorite.)

If you go: 9-11pm at 3230 Mission St.

😔 Nadia is bummed that the Broke Ass Stuart merch store is shutting down.

This newsletter was edited by Geoff Ziezulewicz.