The Bay Area was elevated to the national stage this past week as festivities for America's biggest sporting event overtook our streets.

The big picture: As your eyes and ears on the ground, here are some of our top non-football takeaways from Super Bowl LX.

🎉 We know how to turn up.

• Hundreds of people danced to Bad Bunny tracks at the Downtown First Thursdays block party, while Tacolicious' Bad Bunny lookalike contest drew crowds to the Mission.
• Cardi B made a surprise appearance at a Don Julio event, Pharrell was photographed at the Chinese restaurant San Tung and Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce sang along to fiancée Taylor Swift's "Blank Space" at a Sports Illustrated party attended by dozens of other A-listers.

🚉 So-so transportation.

• BART, Muni, Caltrain and the VTA all saw ridership boosts, but traveling across the Bay Area wasn't as seamless as some expected.
• Fans who chose to drive on game day were spotted jumping out of cars and walking along the highway with traffic backed up as early as 11:30am. (This journalist did the same along the Great America Parkway.)

📢 Politics and sports.

• Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was on many people's minds amid an influx of federal agents for Super Bowl security.
• Homegrown band Green Day called out ICE agents at a private concert Friday, telling them to quit their jobs and "come on this side of the line." (They decided to play it safer at the pre-game show.)
• Bad Bunny fans sporting frog heads handed out "F--k ICE" stickers at Dolores Park on Saturday, while activists distributed more than 25,000 "ICE OUT" towels to Super Bowl attendees outside the stadium on game day.

🏟️ The devil is in the details.

• Behind-the-scenes tours gave us a glimpse of the amount of prep involved — from nurturing grass for the field and training medical workers for game day emergencies to organizing 6,000 media credentials and coordinating security across local, state, federal and private personnel.

👋 So much for the doom loop narrative.

• Pleasant surprise seemed to be the sentiment among visitors.
• We saw people jumping on photo ops, queuing up around the corner for a taste of La Taqueria and taking in cityscape views aboard cable cars.

Full story

"'Benito Bowl' took over San Francisco on Sunday as Bad Bunny dominated the Super Bowl LX halftime show at Levi's Stadium, turning the biggest stage in sports into a global celebration of music, dance and Latino culture.

Why it matters: Bad Bunny's performance at the NFL stage has made an entertainment spectacle into a cultural milestone for millions of Latinos watching.

• The historic moment where the Puerto Rican artist, born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, stood at the center of America's most-watched broadcast performing in Spanish was a defining moment for Latino visibility in mainstream American culture.

The vibe: Across San Francisco — but especially in the Mission — bars and restaurants hosting Bad Bunny–themed watch parties and community celebrations transformed the halftime show into a shared expression of pride and belonging.

• At El Rio, fans donning Bad Bunny merchandise and anti-ICE t-shirts lined up around the block before opening to watch the performance. The bar buzzed with energetic chatter, dancing and singing, bursting in cheers once he took the stage.

What they're saying: "I feel like I was caught in tears at some moments, because it means the world to see a Latino present and show out for all of us," San Francisco resident Kristina Duran, 30, told Axios. "His message is so beautiful. To us Latinos, we're better together."

Between the lines: It became clear that for many in attendance, the game itself mattered less than Bad Bunny's presence — from the roar that greeted his opening song "Tití Me Preguntó" to sing-alongs that drowned out all talk of the score.

Flashback: Backlash followed when the NFL announced Bad Bunny as the halftime performer in September, with critics questioning language, identity and who belongs on America's biggest stage. The NFL's choice of the Spanish-language superstar sparked debate over his politics, including comments against ICE.

• The All-American Halftime Show emerged as a conservative alternative to Bad Bunny's performance.

💭 My thought bubble: Sorry was there a football game going on? I hadn't noticed.

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💰 San Francisco is offering one-time grants between $50,000 and $100,000 to fill empty storefronts in the Excelsior. (Mission Local)

📄 Mission District street food vendors say new regulations proposed by the city's public health department, such as obtaining a pushcart with a washing station and cooking mostly at a certified commissary kitchen, could increase costs so much that they're put out of business. (Mission Local)

🦝 San Francisco Animal and Control rescued a juvenile raccoon last week after it fell down a city roof's lightwell. (KRON 4)

🏈 San Francisco 49ers legend Roger Craig, one of the greatest pass-receiving running backs in NFL history, was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame at the NFL Honors awards show. (SF Chronicle)