Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, whose district includes Castro, acknowledged his constituents' ongoing concerns, telling The Standard, “The last two years have not been ideal, in my view.”

“Both years it went downhill to the point where it left a bad taste in the mouth of a lot of people in the neighborhood and a lot of businesses in the neighborhood,” he said.

However, Mandelman noted that the upcoming year-long renovation of the historic Castro Theater, which hosted the summit's speaker events, likely contributed to the decision to move the Lesbians Who Tech summit.

For local conference attendees like Tessa Brown, the San Francisco-based founder of encrypted messaging platform Germ Network, the exit from the conference is a real blow to the lesbian tech community, especially in an industry that remains so overwhelmingly male and is heterosexual.

Brown, who gave a workshop on communications and artificial intelligence at the Lesbians Who Tech summit, acknowledged that the event has actually probably outgrown Castro.

“There is an irony there because the Castro is there for anyone who needs it, regardless of gender identity,” she said. “The Castro is public space, and for a few days it really isn’t public space.”

Mandelman expressed hope that Lesbians Who Tech's move to the Big Apple would be temporary – and suggested finding a solution to bring one of San Francisco's premier lesbian professional conferences back to the city. This was also true for Brown, who appreciated only having to take a bus from her home in Twin Peaks to get to the summit.

But any return to Castro Street would likely have to come through an angry Castro community that feels burned by the summit.

“We do not welcome a complete takeover of our neighborhood to the exclusion of our entire community,” Bennett said.

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RALEIGH – Red Hat is moving a big tech conference to Denver, having cancelled its planned 2024 event in San Francisco.

Here’s what Raleigh-based Red Hat had to say:

“Sometimes, even when we make plans far in advance to host an event in a given city, we have to change plans based on date conflicts on our end or other circumstances. This is the case for Red Hat Summit 2024, which will be hosted in Denver,” Red Hat said in a statement as reported by TV station KRON.

A 2025 event in San Francisco also was cancelled.

Tech giant Meta dropped an event in the city as well.

For more, read the full story at KRON.

Red Hat

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San Francisco’s reputation as a premier destination for a corporate conference has taken a hit in recent years amid concerns about homelessness and street crime.

Cases in point: the decision by both Meta and Red Hat to shift corporate events away from San Francisco, as well as Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff’s standoff with the city over Dreamforce.  

But now, the city has lured a conference away from Florida after its organizers expressed concern about how racism in the state could hurt attendees.  

Originally scheduled for July 24-28 at the Diplomat Beach Resort in Hollywood, just north of Miami, the National Black Nurses Association conference has officially moved to the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Downtown San Francisco and will run July 23-28. 

“This ultimately is a matter of safety,” said Sheldon Fields, the organization’s president. “We are literally the National Black Nurses Association. We have Black in our name. I was not going to put signage up in a hotel and potentially invite anybody with a gun, or whatever have you, to come in and potentially harm anyone.”

The last time the association decided to pull a conference for political reasons was when Arizona refused to recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day decades ago.

The organization’s decision to move next year’s conference was made after 84% of respondents in a survey said they supported moving the event due to a string of state policies that Fields described as “anti-DEI and anti-Black.” These include laws prohibiting Florida’s public colleges and universities from spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion programs and banning high schoolers from taking AP African American studies courses.

Presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has spearheaded policies that has led Black-focused organizations like the NAACP and the National Society of Black Engineers to pull back activity in the state. | Source: Sean Rayford/Getty Images

Many of the policies Fields highlighted have been spearheaded by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who is currently running for president.  

“If you think about it, the conference would have been taking place in the summer before the presidential election, and we have no idea whether or not the rhetoric is going to be worse,” Fields said.

Another contributing factor was the fatal shooting of three Black people at a Dollar Tree in Jacksonville, Florida, in August. Racist manifestos were found in the gunman’s possession, and the killings are under investigation as a hate crime. 

The association’s moral stance comes with a concrete cost: roughly $592,000 in cancellation fees. 

Its decision will help buoy a relatively weak 2024 San Francisco convention calendar. It also represents a win for the city’s reputation as an open and welcoming destination amid challenging media narratives around public safety that have hampered the city’s pitch to conferences and group travel organizations. 

Outgoing SF Travel CEO Joe D’Alessandro said the city has lost convention business “because of the perception of San Francisco not being safe and the streets not being up to par.” He noted that competitors like Las Vegas have become more aggressive in utilizing these negative media narratives—in addition to the city’s higher costs—to siphon business away. 

Fields said well over 1,000 attendees were expected to attend the Florida conference, but he predicts an even greater number will be present in San Francisco. 

“We have not been in San Francisco in 20 years, so the return of our conference to the West Coast is very much being heralded as something long overdue,” Fields said. “Plus, all of our chapters west of the Mississippi will find it easier to get to San Francisco.” 

Fields admits that the organization doesn’t fully know how it will cover the cancellation fees—particularly if the Diplomat fails to book a replacement—but said the risk to the group’s members overrode those concerns. 

“With regards to that fee, I simply pose the question, ‘What is the life of a member worth?'” Fields said. “To me, there is no number.” 

With the help of a consultant, the organization identified other potential locations for its event and settled on San Francisco because of the presence of three strong chapters in Northern California.   

Several organizations focused on the Black community have pulled back on spending and travel to Florida. Black fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha announced it would move its 2025 general convention from Orlando, and the National Society of Black Engineers moved its 2024 conference away from the state. 

In May, the NAACP Board of Directors issued a formal Florida travel advisory, saying the state “devalues and marginalizes the contributions of and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color.” 

Earlier this month, Fields was in San Francisco with a few of his colleagues to check out the newly chosen venue and while he said he recognized the city’s significant challenges around homelessness, he was struck by the hotel’s proximity to destinations like the Embarcadero and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

“It’s nothing unlike what you see in major cities like Atlanta, Chicago and New Orleans,” Fields said. “But what hasn’t diminished in San Francisco is the fact that it is an accepting environment in quite a diverse city.”

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San Francisco can be a dirty city at times, depending on where you stand. It’s also a dating hellhole, depending on who you ask.

Now you can have the full dirty san francisco-meets-dating experience at a singles-only garbage truck.

The singles group met on Thursday for a stroll through the Marina District, picking up litter – and possibly a date. The event was one of around 1,000 garbage clean-ups hosted by Refuse Refuse, a local cleaning organization dedicated to making SF’s famously dirty streets sparkling clean.

“No, I didn’t come about the singles thing,” said Lauren Molina, an audiologist and a participant in Thursday’s cleanup. “I came for the rubbish. But it would be a nice little story, yes?”

CONTINUE READING: SF Drain Mom Miss Drizzle seeks ‘Drain Daddy’ as co-parent

The group was small, with only seven participants, most of whom were younger women. Vince Yuen, founder of Refuse Refuse, has expanded the cleanups to specific affinity groups, such as SF singletons, dog owners, or disco parties.

Lindsay Battenberg picks up rubbish at a singles rubbish cleanup at the Marina on Thursday. | Liz Lindqwister/The Standard

“Given the makeup of who is here, I’m not surprised. I actually told my friend that it’s probably going to be mostly girls,” said Lindsay Battenberg, a climate policy analyst. “My overall assessment of the straight men living here is that there doesn’t seem to be much urgency to settle down – the Peter Pan thing. […] Boys don’t want to grow up and they don’t have to grow up here.”

For others, however, it was all junk and no Tinder priority: contestant Jessica Palmer had picked up gallons of junk at over a dozen other Refuse-Refuse events; and an elderly man named Marinus, who wanted his last name omitted, simply wanted his beloved San Francisco to sparkle again.

“When I was a kid in 1967 and the world felt like it was about to collapse, I thought the only thing that came out of that year was positive — it was San Francisco and the Summer of Love,” Marinus said.

“I don’t have any relatives or friends here, but I do it for myself to feel good,” Marinus added.

Marinus, a Marina resident, cleans up the garbage in his neighborhood on Thursday. | Liz Lindqwister/The Standard

Refuse Refuse estimates it has collected 270,000 gallons of trash since its inception in 2021, and the organization has partnered with animal welfare groups, schools and local businesses to host sponsored pickups.

“In my 20s, I didn’t volunteer outside of volunteer days outside of the company,” Yuen said. “But now most of us will find the time, and you’ll feel rewarded and make some friends at the same time.”

The regular cleanups for non-singles typically draw between 30 and 60 participants, and the events have helped some volunteers build important values-based relationships in the Bay Area, organizers said.

Jessica Palmer holds a garbage bag with “Love Your City” written on the front. | Liz Lindqwister/The Standard

For his part, Yuen envisions a future where everyone in San Francisco actively works to keep their neighborhoods pristine. He’s elated to be at the center of SF’s dirtiest problem, even in a city whose garbage collection efforts are riddled with controversy.

“I’m the real Mr. Clean in SF — not the one who goes to jail,” Yuen joked.

Anyone can participate in future trash garbage clean-ups in neighborhoods across San Francisco. Those interested can register here.

Liz Lindqwister can be reached at [email protected]

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If you’re looking for work, the Orange County Convention Center might have a job for you.

The Convention Center is hosting a recruitment event on April 26 from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm

>>> CHANNEL 9 EYEWITNESS NEWS LIVE STREAM <<

Open positions include:

Read: “Totally Shocked”: You may be surprised at what your claims history says

• Environmental Services

• Event setup

• Rigging

• Warehouse clerk

• Security Officer

• Transport Monitor

• Supervisor

• Port Security Officer

• Management Coordinator

• Electrical/plumbing/sound and lighting technicians

READ: Florida government spent $30,000 on TikTok ads while calling the app a ‘security risk’

Learn more here.

Click here to download WFTV’s free news and weather apps, click here to download the WFTV Now app for your smart TV, and click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.

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The impact of digitization on growth and innovation and where technology will take the business of the future

DUBLIN, California., February 23, 2023 /PRNewswire/ —

WHAT: TriNet, a leading provider of comprehensive human resource resources for small and medium-sized businesses, will be there san francisco for PeopleForceX, an extension of the award-winning TriNet PeopleForce conference. The event brings together local thought leaders to discuss issues relevant to SMEs today and offers a thoughtful discussion centered around the importance of building critical networks in the face of near-constant market changes. san francisco Local business leaders will also be present. Registration link is here.

TriNet PeopleForceX SME Executive Event in San Francisco, Tuesday, February 28th

WHO: Jeff Hayward – Chief Technology Officer of TriNet
Jake Goldman – Owner, 10up
Eileen Mockus– General Manager, Coyuchi

IF: Tuesday February 28th
5:30pm – 8:30pm (PST)

WHERE: City view at Metreon
135 4th St.
San Francisco, CA 94103

PRESS ANSWERS: Renee Brotherton
408-646-5103
[email protected]
Josh Gross
347-423-8300
[email protected]

About TriNet
TriNet (NYSE: TNET) provides small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with full-service HR solutions tailored for the industry. To free SMBs from HR complexities, TriNet provides access to human capital expertise, benefits, risk mitigation and compliance, and payroll, all enabled through industry-leading technology capabilities. TriNet’s suite of products also includes services and software-based solutions to streamline workflows by connecting HR, benefits, employee engagement, payroll, and time and attendance. From Main Street to Wall Street, TriNet empowers SMBs to focus on what matters most to grow their business and empower their employees. TriNet, Incredible starts here. For more information, visit TriNet.com or follow us on Twitter.

SOURCE TriNet Group, Inc.

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The onset of spring means a shift toward warmer weather and blooming flowers, and while we’re not quite done with the storms, the rain should stop on Friday, just in time for another spring tradition: the launch of Season 13 of Off the Grid at Fort Mason. Of course, there will be a mix of new and returning food trucks for the Friday Night Series, along with cocktail and wine bars, live music and DJs, and a new reason to get excited about the food and drink at the weekly event. This year, Off the Grid is reintroducing pop-ups—for the first time since 2019—with a standout pop-up projects section designed to highlight 16 pop-ups from across the Bay Area, including Edith’s Pie, Junk Mail, and Musubi, among others , Bolita, Rocky Island Oyster Co. and La Cocina.

Edith’s cake

It’s been a rough couple of years for the food truck-centric event, with the 2020 season being canceled due to COVID, followed by 2021 when Off the Grid took the year off – but 2022 saw the group come back with a host of events in the whole city. “Coming back this year, we really wanted to put a lot of momentum and purpose behind it,” says Lex Scala, president of Off the Grid. “And that’s where the pop-up project came from.”

Scala and her team found a number of pop-ups across the Bay Area for the new section, and she’s pleased they’ve made more connections with food manufacturers outside of San Francisco to bring to Fort Mason. Junk Mail Musubi brings its over-the-top spam Musubis with ingredients like Flamin’ Hot Cheetos; Edith’s Pie, which is in the process of completing its permanent Oakland location, will serve a selection of sweet and savory pies; Eko Kitchen presents Chef Simileoluwa Adebajo’s Nigerian cuisine; Street Stix serves Asian street food like lumpia and shrimp balls; Meanwhile, Fish & Bonez serves tacos and Cali-Mex fare. La Cocina will also have a space to showcase a rotating mix of chefs from their incubator program in the pop-up area.

Fish & Bone

Rocky Island oysters

Scala was also thrilled to announce Off the Grid’s new addition to oysters, with the arrival of Richmond’s Rocky Island Oyster Co., which will also have caviar on hand should groups feel like splurging on an indulgent add-on. Kivelstadt Cellars Wine Bar will also be on-site with some refreshments including a canned Chardonnay that will be exclusive to Off the Grid – “I can’t wait to bring these two together,” says Scala.

The pop-up initiative is just another way for Off the Grid to bring together a variety of different kitchens and chefs and bring their food to new audiences. After 13 seasons of Off the Grid, Scala is proud to watch chefs as they’ve grown their food truck businesses over the years, whether that’s by expanding their fleet or moving to permanent restaurants across the Bay Area. Now it’s time to add a new class of pop-ups for attendees to enjoy. “At the end of the day,” says Scala, “our mission is to find the best of the best, create exceptional events, be part of those creators’ journeys, and watch them grow.”

Off the Grid: Fort Mason Center (2 Marina Blvd) debuts Friday, March 24 from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. The season continues every Friday through June 23rd.

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SACRAMENTO — Count another dent in Donald Trump’s once-impenetrable armor: California Republicans are no longer marching in unwavering lockstep behind him — and some are saying so publicly for the first time.

Her preferred alternative: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

“I’m leaning toward DeSantis,” Rep. Tom McClintock, of R-Elk Grove, Sacramento County, told The Chronicle at the three-day California Republican Party convention that ended Sunday. “He’s offering all of Donald Trump’s policies without the drama.”

McClintock is believed to be the first member of the 12-member California GOP House delegation to publicly support DeSantis and, perhaps more importantly, break with Trump. But he wasn’t the only member of the delegation to drop support for the former president. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale (Butte County), who represents some of the most conservative parts of California where Trump is popular, told The Chronicle he was undecided.

Their voices — like those of other California Republicans — will carry unusual weight in this presidential campaign, which is in full swing with DeSantis’ visit to Iowa on Friday, Trump’s landing on Monday and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley already visiting .

While California’s Republican Party is virtually powerless within the state — a Republican has not won a statewide office since 2006, and Democrats hold a supermajority in the legislature — Republican voters will enjoy an intergenerational opportunity to make their voices heard in next year’s presidential campaign To provide.

Ballots will arrive in California mailboxes in the second week of February for the March 5 state primary. The last time there was a GOP open field was in 2016, Trump completed the nomination when Californians cast their ballot in June.

This time, however, candidates must run in California if they want to win the GOP nomination. In the 2016 open primary, California provided the largest number of delegates (172) and will probably do so again.

The weekend’s state convention provided the party’s leaders and grassroots activists – the people who do the political grunt work of a campaign – the first opportunity to speak their minds.

Often her silence said the most.

Even if Republicans did not publicly support DeSantis — who is not yet an official candidate — many did not knee-jerkly support Trump, which would have been viewed as heresy in previous election cycles.

Instead, DeSantis has shown his power in California in other ways.

Fred Whitaker, chairman of the influential Orange County Republican Party Chapter, saw the power of DeSantis in action this month when the Florida governor led a fundraiser there that drew 900 people and raised $742,000 for the local party. Whitaker called it “the greatest event the Orange County Republican Party has ever had.”

“That showed me that there is tremendous interest in 2024,” he said. “And there’s tremendous interest in Governor DeSantis.” Whitaker, who is not engaged in the presidential race, said DeSantis’ accomplishment was even more impressive because Whitaker had just one month to complete the annual fundraiser instead of the typical five to plan.

“People are ready for something different,” Whitaker said.

Look no further than the 2020 results in Orange County, arguably California’s toughest battleground region. Republican Representatives Michelle Steel, R-Seal Beach and Young Kim, R-Fullerton each received a higher share of the vote (51%) than Trump (44%).

“I read the voters,” Whitaker said as he assessed DeSantis’ growing strength, “and I read the donors.”

Ivy League-educated DeSantis (with a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a law degree from Harvard Law School) connects with the party’s “intellectual conservative base,” Whitaker said, “but he’s also a tough person,” which “will push back .”

“So many of our constituents who are close to President Trump say, ‘I don’t want a woke country,’ and they like someone who’s willing to hit back,” Whitaker said. “Governor DeSantis has this unique ability to marry the two different wings.”

It is revealing that even longtime Californian Trump supporters do not reflexively back a candidate. That includes Harmeet Dhillon, the San Francisco attorney who ran for Republican National Committee chair this year and lost to incumbent Ronna McDaniel. DeSantis kick-started Dhillon’s RNC presidential campaign by praising her on the eve of the vote, saying the party needs “fresh blood.” Returning the praise at Congress, Dhillon said voters like him because “he’s a very impressive governor.”

That’s kudos from Dhillon, an attorney who still represents Trump in a few legal cases across the country.

“He’s conservative. He is effective. He has a good track record in his state. Not only do people like his rhetoric, they like his results,” DeSantis’ Dhillon told me. “So I think he’s a natural choice for someone looking for the next generation of Republican leaders. But when it comes to rhetoric and politics, he’s not that different from Trump. And I think in that sense they’re both competing for the same voters.”

Gonzalo Vergara is a two-time Trump voter, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who lives in El Dorado County and said he supports DeSantis.

“I think Trump had his four years and he could have done better than what he did,” Vergara, 68, told me.

“It’s kind of a hard-to-swallow dish,” Vergara said. “I don’t think he can win because I think there are more people who are against him because they don’t like him. It would give the Democratic Party, whoever they nominate, a win by default.”

Steve Frank, a longtime California Conservative chronicler and 2019 party presidential candidate, has seen the momentum swing toward DeSantis during the 75 speeches Frank delivers annually to Republican clubs across the state.

“Many of the people who were previously Trump are publicly saying they are dating Trump. Privately, much of this state’s conservative leadership will go with DeSantis,” Frank said.

Not only do they like DeSantis’ likely campaign mantra — “In Florida, waking is to die for” — they like that he backs it with legislation and opposes what they see as the tyrants of the left and the media.

“They say that not only is this a guy who could hold his own against the Democrats, but also against people like Putin and Xi,” Frank said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. “They see him as President.”

Grassroots support buoyed a February Berkeley IGS poll in California that showed DeSantis leading a field of 11 current and potential GOP candidates with 37% of the Republican vote, followed by Trump at 29% and Haley at 7%.

LaMalfa, the congressman representing a district where Trump received 58% of the vote in 2020, told me that “Trump still has the nomination to lose.”

But LaMalfa, who has endorsed Trump twice before, has not yet decided who he will endorse in 2024. He advised Trump not to get bogged down in attacks on his challengers.

“He needs to focus on his race and not worry about what the other contestants are doing,” LaMalfa told me. “You don’t have to run at DeSantis; You don’t have to go after Nikki Haley.” He also said that given his popularity in that part of California, voters in his part of the state don’t want DeSantis to attack Trump.

“DeSantis is a great candidate, but I think Ron would be wise not to confuse it with Trump,” LaMalfa said.

Trump still has fans here. The party was considering a resolution to support Trump in negotiations to end the war between Ukraine and Russia. On Sunday, however, 75% of the congress participants rejected it.

Joan Leone, president of the Republican Club of San Francisco, still supports Trump. She said, “DeSantis is great, but I don’t want him to leave Florida right now,” for fear it might fall into Democrat hands. And Leone has a wish for Trump.

“He has to completely forget what happened in 2020,” Leone said. “He doesn’t have to have cute little names for the other candidates. Focus on what he did (as President) because I loved my 401(k) when Trump was President.”

Younger Republicans are also waiting.

“We’re waiting to see who comes out,” said David Chan, a 20-year-old UC Berkeley student and leader of the College Republicans of California, who voted for Trump last time.

Other Republicans remain nervous about expressing their preference for anyone.

“It’s a pretty tricky time right now and nobody wants their name in block letters,” said Scott Woodworth, a San Jose resident who chairs the California Young Republicans Federation. “The party is still working on the vision and direction in which it wants to go. You have different factions and we will see which will win.”

Even Marty Miller, who sold Trump T-shirts and pins at the convention, hedged his bets. He peddled DeSantis buttons next to those that read, “Presidents Are Temporary/Trump Is Forever.”

Miller is a Trump supporter. What gives?

Said Miller, “I’m a capitalist, baby.”

Reach Joe Garofoli: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @joegarofoli

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