“Sunset Buzz” is a recurring column on changes, tidbits and other news from the Sunset. Got news? Send us tips at junyao@missionlocal.com.
For years, the yellow campaign signs with black text that covered the Sunset were synonymous with the fight to reopen the Great Highway to cars.
That was the design for materials opposing Prop. K in 2024, which closed the roadway in exchange for Sunset Dunes park, and for the recall of former Supervisor Joel Engardio who advocated for the park in 2025.
But this year’s campaign for Prop. G, the latest ballot measure to bring cars back to the Great Highway on weekdays, has ditched its signature black and yellow. In its place, advocates for Prop. G opted for what resembles a pedestrian crossing sign and reads “Safe streets & great parks, SF needs both.”
But pedestrian safety advocates at the nonprofit Walk SF, which opposes Prop. G, said they were “frankly horrified” when they saw the new signs, calling them “deceptive tactics.”
“This is a complete misappropriation of pedestrian safety symbolism,” said Marta Lindsey, the communications director at Walk SF. “In what world does adding vehicle traffic to a road make pedestrians safer?”
The Yes on G campaign claimed that “traffic injuries rose 34% in the Sunset” and “accidents increased when Great Highway commuters were routed through neighborhoods.” But city data shows that there has been no increase of traffic injuries in District 4 since the road closure.
Jamie Hughes, the spokesperson for the Yes on G campaign, argued that reopening the roadway would make the neighborhood streets safer by decreasing the number of “frustrated” drivers speeding down the avenues after sitting in traffic.
“This isn’t about ‘I wanna drive my car all the time,’” Hughes said. “If you have to get to your job in Daly City that starts at 8:30 in the morning and drop off your kids at school on the way, driving is the only viable option.”
A new restaurant Istanbul Kebab & Gyros is coming to the former space of LaLe in the Inner Sunset. Photo by Junyao Yang on Aug. 27, 2026.
After the 11-year-old Mediterranean restaurant LaLe closed last November in the Inner Sunset, its doors remained shut, its parklet empty — until recently. Construction is underway at the former space of LaLe and a new restaurant offering similar cuisine, Istanbul Kebab & Gyros, will open in its place, according to business filings.
The new owner, Hayri Kabulantok, also runs Mesopotamia Kitchen, another Mediterranean restaurant in Noe Valley on 24th Street.
This is the newest addition to a thriving Mediterranean cuisine scene in the Inner Sunset that includes Lavash, Mezze and Moore II and Park Gyros.
A new cafe may be coming to 725 Lincoln Way, the longtime home for Cuschieri’s Cabinet Shop. Photo by Junyao Yang on Aug. 27, 2026.
It feels like in every Sunset Buzz there’s a coffee shop opening.
This time it’s a new cafe that may be coming to the vacant space at 725 Lincoln Way near Ninth Avenue as soon as next year. A new building permit filed on Tuesday indicated “proposed tenant improvement for a coffee shop” at the site.
The owner wants to open a grab-and-go cafe serving coffee, tea, salad and perhaps sushi for park-goers to bring across the street to Golden Gate Park, said Jefferson Jin, a designer helping the building owner with permitting. The details haven’t been finalized, he said.
The space was occupied for over 60 years by Cuschieri’s Cabinet Shop, run by Paul Cuschieri, a veteran who made custom furniture.
Jackie, an employee at the neighboring Sip Tea Room, remembered “an old man” who had been doing wood work in that space for almost all his life. “There were these beautiful wood work pieces all over the place,” he recalled. The storefront windows were covered by wooden frames, soldiers and chess boards.
Cuschieri died in 2020 and the building was sold in 2024. The new owner has been doing “construction nonstop,” Jackie said.
An additional eating area for Irving Subs at 1046 Irving St. is closed and the owner is planning something different. Photo by Junyao Yang on Aug. 27, 2026.
For a while, residents who frequent Irving Subs in the Inner Sunset could sit down and eat their dutch crunch at an additional dining area a few doors down at 1046 Irving St. The sandwich shop itself has very limited seating, just a public bench in the front.
But Irving Subs owner, Frankie Lee, recently shuttered that dining area and said he was thinking of different projects for the space.
“It was not really necessary. It was always empty,” Lee said of that space.
When he first leased the spot a couple of years ago — it was too good of a deal to miss — he planned to open a vegan spot, but that didn’t pan out.
“Stuff with the city. Too much going on,” he explained. He hasn’t decided what to do with the space yet, but if anything were to come to fruition, it would be around the holiday season, he said.