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10+ Great San Francisco Blogs
Updated in February 2009
We all have our reflexive favorites -- the San Francisco blogs we bounce back to everyday. This list includes 10 personal favorites, covering the spectrum from Muni hassles to restaurant reviews to photographic essays of San Francisco and the Bay Area.
There's no bias in the order here unless you'd like there to be -- just numbers folks. If you're a newcomer, these sites and blogs are a good place to get some local bearings as you explore the nuances of San Francisco and environs.
1. SFist
1. SFist
Part of the Gothamist network, and edited by daily contributor Brock Keeling, SFist blogs everything from news, entertainment and sports -- to more esoteric local coverage, photos of the day, Muni meltdowns, and "Day Around the Bay" roundups. SFist definitely has a POV, and it tends to skew sardonic. It's a great window on the macro and micro elements of the city -- a good place to start your surf.More »
2. Laughing Squid
2. Laughing Squid
Laughing Squid is among my favorites, partly because of its eclectic mix of tech, art and news. But also because Scott Beale, at the helm, posts great photo spreads of the events he shoots. Laughing Squid isn't 100 percent local in terms of its coverage, but it's close.More »
3. Eater SF
3. Eater SF
Part of the Curbed network, Eater SF keeps everyone in the loop on notable openings and closings in the restaurant realm -- not to mention the in-progress construction photos of restaurants to be. The site is devoted exclusively to the topic of San Francisco eats. And, they accept tips and gossip from residents in the know about their own neighborhoods.
See Curbed SF, on the same network, for local neighborhood and real estate discussion.More »
4. Michael Bauer - Between Meals
4. Michael Bauer - Between Meals
People can disagree with Michael Bauer -- and you can read about it at his blog when they do. But he's a still a go-to San Francisco source for reviews and lists of the tops in town. There's no dearth of diverse (and entertaining) opinion at sites like Yelp. But you still have to appreciate the three-visit minimum and other standards to which long-time food reviewers like Bauer hold themselves.More »
5. WHAT IM SEEING
5. WHAT IM SEEING
Another favorite, WHAT IM SEEING is exactly what it sounds like. It's a photographic representation of life in San Francisco and the Bay Area. Images range from big-time events, to strange juxtapositions of people and objects around town. WHAT IM SEEING is a great snippet of life seen through this one lens -- or two. Photographers "Plug 1" and "Plug 2" take credit for the snaps.More »
6. Beyond Chron
6. Beyond Chron
Beyond Chron covers politics and issues "distorted or ignored" by the San Francisco Chronicle. It's run by the Tenderloin Housing Clinic and provides daily and progressive coverage as an alternative to San Francsico's mainstream reporting.More »
7. 7x7 Clamour
7. 7x7 Clamour
This is the place to live vicariously if you're just too tired to breach the velvet ropes. 7x7 Magazine is the younger counterpart to San Francisco Magazine -- and by counterpart, I mean a zine covering the ways and means of the city of San Francisco. The Clamour blog covers music, performances, clubs, screenings and is a self-proclaimed SF Culture Mashup.More »
8. SF Gate's Culture Blog
8. SF Gate's Culture Blog
The Chronicle's Culture Blog features several contributing writers and editors who cover everything from cultural openings and critiques, to commentary on Gavin Newsom and his various travels, as well as issues of local interest.More »
9. Fog Bay
9. Fog Bay
Fog Bay is a daily photograph. But not just a photograph . . . usually a beautifully-shot image with some context and history describing the subject pictured. If you're new to San Francisco and the Bay Area, you can flip through Fog Bay's pages and just feel lucky you decided to move here. It's a lovely tribute by way of scenic, newsy, and colorful representations of the area.More »
10. Bottoms Up
10. Bottoms Up
Update: William Brand, author of the "What's On Tap" portion of "Bottoms Up" died in February 2009 after being struck by a Muni train. "What's On Tap" has been one of my favorite blog stops -- and the loss of Bill Brand as a writer and member of our community is tremendous.
Bottoms Up is actually two blogs merged into one in 2009 -- and home of two of my favorite topics: beer and wine. Jessica Yadegaran writes Corkheads a blog whose title sums up the content. Yadegaran explores the wine scene with near-daily snippets of news and reviews.More »
11. SF Citizen
11. SF Citizen
There's really no pigeon-holing SF Citizen unless the umbrella of anything and everything is a quantifiable designation. SF Citizen isn't so much random as it is comprehensive, along the lines of What I'm Seeing (above) in its focused approach on the item(s) of the day. The content of SF Citizen speaks to the way I myself like to experience San Francisco and the Bay Area, as a reflection of both the micro and macro levels. The blog posts range from photos of city scenes, to coverage of museum openings, to speculative entries on the news and happenings around town.More »
12. The Daily Clog (Berkeley)
12. The Daily Clog (Berkeley)
Have to throw one in from the east side of the Bay. The Daily Clog is a daily blog from the good people of the Daily Californian (UC Berkeley's newspaper). It's Berkeley-based and Berkeley-centric, but not always limited to Berkeley in terms of news coverage.More »
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