Axios San Francisco

March 17, 2026
๐ฎ๐ช Slรกinte! It's Tuesday. Happy St. Patrick's Day!
โ๏ธ Today's weather: Sunny, with highs in the mid-80s, lows around 60.
๐ง Sounds like: "Get Your Brits Out" by Kneecap.
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Today's newsletter is 845 words โ a 3-minute read.
1 big thing: ๐ A new co-pilot for SF street parking
Ever wished for a cheat code to San Francisco's infamously complex street parking rules? A SF developer's new AI-powered app might have cracked it.
Why it matters: As we all know, parking in the city can be a real headache, circling the same four streets trying to figure out where one can and can't leave their ride.
- The new ParkSF app, made by developer Bowen Yin is one of several apps aimed at making parking easier in SF, but the level of detail and scale in ParkSF quickly blew up online.
How it works: The app maps out parking rules, dynamic pricing, meter schedules, street cleaning, occupancy by hour and citations by street in the last 90 days.
- For metered parking, different shades of blue and purple indicate pricing from low to high.
- You can also enter preset settings, such as duration and time of day, to see what's available.
- The data is refreshed every few days to ensure the map stays up to date, Yin told Axios. It's useful for "when you're in the moment trying to find parking but also if you're curious about broader trends," Yin said.

Zoom in: The programmer said he got the idea for the project after he received a parking ticket.
- "SF is like one of the hardest parking cities I've been to," noted Yin, who lives on the border of SoMa and Hayes Valley. "It seems there are so many regulations and rules."
- The parking app he previously used was convoluted and relied on outdated data, so he began poking around public data published by the city.
- "Basically, there's like a dataset for every aspect of parking," he said. "I fed all of that into Claude and asked it to process it for me, and then I created the visualization ... and just tried to interweave the data to represent each block of the city."
The parking ticket/citations data "is probably the most dynamic," he added, and it's made a splash on Reddit.
The intrigue: Several trends stood out to Yin as he put together the website.
- "For one thing, the parking prices can get really expensive in some places," he noted. "For metered parking like in the Marina or on Polk Street, it goes up to $11 an hour."
2. The Wiggle: ๐ฆ New downtown pop-ups
๐ฌ Legacy business Polly Ann Ice Cream and contemporary art studio GCS Agency are the latest pop-ups to open downtown as part of San Francisco's Vacant to Vibrant program. (SF New Deal)
- Berkeley-based chai cafe Elaichi Co. is also set to open a new location in Yerba Buena next month, while arts and crafts studio Craftivity has signed a long-term lease in the Financial District.
โ๏ธ It's gettin' hot in herre. San Francisco's high temperature is forecast to be at least 84 degrees for five straight days through Friday. (SF Chronicle)
๐ฌ Four ex-San Francisco mayors, including Willie Brown and London Breed, have weighed in on Mayor Lurie's recent Tenderloin altercation. (SF Standard)
3. ๐ SF's Irish roots

More than 63,300 San Francisco County residents, or 7.6% of the population, reported having Irish ancestry in 2024, per the latest census data.
- That's higher than across California (5.9%), and lower than the national average (9.4%).
The big picture: Irish people's presence in the Bay Area dates back as far as the Gold Rush.
State of play: From dance traditions to piglet protests, Irish people have plenty of history in San Francisco and have played key roles shaping the city's early identity.
- Their heritage is etched into the heart of the city with landmarks like Hibernia Bank, Downey Street and Buena Vista Cafe.
๐บ We'll raise a glass to that!
4. 1 fun thing: ๐ Celebrating St. Paddy's
Looking to celebrate St. Patrick's Day? We've got you covered. Here's where to go to enjoy some live music, Guinness and a little Irish cheer.
๐ป St. Patrick's Day Party at the SF Irish Center: Enjoy a full day of live Irish bands and dancing, hot corned beef and cabbage and plenty of beer. 12pm at 2700 45th Avenue.
๐ฅ St. Pat's on Front Street: Irish pride takes over this downtown block party. 2-10pm at 245 Front St.
๐ 20th Annual Irish Bank celebration: This party is always a banger, with live performances, celtic rock and traditional Irish tunes. 11am-11:30pm at 10 Mark Lane.
โ๏ธ Shawna tried an Irish coffee for the first time last week and whoa was it a doozy (in the best way possible!).
๐ Nadia is feeling grateful for all of her Irish friends, including her best friend Miles and her friend John who is celebrating his sister's wedding in Dublin this week!
๐๏ธ Claire had a fantastic time watching her friend singing up a storm at Club Fugazi last night!
Want more of what's happening in SF? Check out our Instagram for stuff to do, behind-the-scenes photos, videos and more!
This newsletter was edited by Geoff Ziezulewicz.
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