Jillian D’Onfro
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jillianiles.bsky.social
Jillian D’Onfro
@jillianiles.bsky.social
1.7K followers 670 following 310 posts
Business reporter at SF Standard, chronicling Bay Area stories✨ jdonfro@sfstandard.com 📧 Formerly writing and editing at SFGATE, Business Insider, CNBC, and Forbes. Send me news tips! jillianiles.33 on Signal
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jillianiles.bsky.social
The Bay Area pumpkin carver who wows people with her wild designs (sfstandard.com/2024/10/27/p...) was featured on "Halloween Wars" this year! 🎃
Screenshot from Paulina Goff's Instagram about being on The Food Network's "Halloween Wars" show
October 31, 2025 at 10:14 PM
jillianiles.bsky.social
Some 10/10 neighborhood name suggestions on this post... Lowest Haight! Zuni-Martuni Triangle! Castration! Mastrobaight! Tendermish! www.instagram.com/p/DQaF2mLk7w...
October 30, 2025 at 3:26 PM
jillianiles.bsky.social
🤘😈
A screenshot of a Gmail Inbox with 6,666 messages
October 15, 2025 at 6:27 PM
jillianiles.bsky.social
Tech Bro 2.0: The new Silicon Valley archetype dominating the AI age

sfstandard.com/2025/09/29/t...
September 29, 2025 at 6:38 PM
jillianiles.bsky.social
Some amazing photos of protestors in this story about Peter Thiel's antichrist talk in SF sfstandard.com/2025/09/16/p...
A photograph of a person with creepy makeup holding a handmade sign that says "Hail Destroyer of America" with a picture of Peter Thiel Picture of a protest sign that features Peter Thiel holding a suitcase of money that says "They get rich. We get surveillance, abductions, & genocide"
September 16, 2025 at 5:22 PM
jillianiles.bsky.social
C'mon San Francisco, this could be us!!!!

A modest proposal from
@kevinbtruong.bsky.social

sfstandard.com/2025/08/22/s...
A modified version of the movie poster for "We Bought a Zoo" — Instead it reads "We Bought A Mall," and includes pictures of the SF Centre mall
August 22, 2025 at 5:27 PM
jillianiles.bsky.social
First signs (literally) of Pop Mart going up on Powell
August 15, 2025 at 10:02 PM
jillianiles.bsky.social
This correction on a piece by a NYC-based writer made me lol www.wsj.com/style/fashio...
Screenshot that reads: "An earlier version of this article misidentified San Francisco's Bay Bridge as the Golden Gate Bridge."
August 15, 2025 at 7:37 PM
jillianiles.bsky.social
Days after Waymo first limited its service in SF, I just got this message sfstandard.com/2025/06/13/w...
June 16, 2025 at 11:15 PM
jillianiles.bsky.social
Blueberry pizza: unexpectedly delightful (from Flora King in the Castro!)
picture of a pizza with blueberries, blueberry chèvre, and fresh dill
June 7, 2025 at 7:33 PM
jillianiles.bsky.social
Today in depressing local headlines: California Academy of Sciences Confirms Five Dead Whales in San Francisco Bay Area this Week
Screenshot detailing deaths, text below: The California Academy of Sciences and partners at The Marine Mammal Center can confirm the unfortunate news that five gray whales have died in the wider San Francisco Bay Area region in the last week, bringing the total number of stranded whales in 2025 to 14. May 26, 2025: Suspected gray whale, Alcatraz; cause of death: undetermined (no necropsy performed) May 26, 2025: Gray whale, Point Bonita; cause of death: undetermined (no necropsy performed) May 22, 2025: Subadult female gray whale, Berkeley; cause of death: undetermined (no necropsy performed) May 22, 2025: Gray whale, Fisherman’s Bay, Southeast Farallon Island; cause of death: undetermined (no necropsy performed) May 21, 2025: Yearling gray whale, Bolinas; cause of death: undetermined (partial necropsy conducted on May 23, inconclusive) Necropsy response efforts and data collection have been challenging for a number of cases due to inaccessible locations that hinder full post-mortem investigations, as well as poor tissue quality from advanced decomposition, and the lack of available locations to tow for further investigation. As of today, May 28, 2025, a necropsy (animal autopsy) was conducted at Kirby Cove in the Marin Headlands. It is suspected that this subadult male is one of the two whales that was sighted on May 26, 2025. The cause of death is still under investigation. The other individual has not made landfall.
May 28, 2025 at 6:38 PM
jillianiles.bsky.social
okay i know we’re about to get a little heat wave but this SF sign is still lying :/
Sign in SF that says “you can stop bringing a jacket now”
May 27, 2025 at 11:28 PM
jillianiles.bsky.social
lolz fun fact: when i attended a wilderness survival class in april (for this story sfstandard.com/2025/04/18/r...) a tech company photographer joined us ... aaand now i'm featured in the pic for the class's "airbnb experiences" page 😅
A picture of a group of people (including me) building a debris shelter in the santa cruz mountains
May 22, 2025 at 10:41 PM
jillianiles.bsky.social
"When a local meets a landmark" via Reddit 🤩https://www.reddit.com/r/sanfrancisco/comments/1kgammo/when_a_local_meets_a_landmark/
Photo of a yawning coyote standing in the middle of blue tiled steps in San Francisco
May 6, 2025 at 7:28 PM
jillianiles.bsky.social
AI is now answering the phone at dozens of SF restaurants 🤖

... which means that sometimes robots are talking to other robots

sfstandard.com/2025/05/01/a...
Screenshot from the story that reads: "What happens more frequently? Robots interacting with robots. Hom said one of Hostie’s chatbots will encounter an automated caller, like Google’s AI reservation service, “every day.” Sometimes the two AIs will get freaked out, but more often, the robots hum merrily along, handling the drudgery on both sides of the equation. “We’re already in that world,” Hom said with a shrug. “It works.”
May 1, 2025 at 7:44 PM
jillianiles.bsky.social
It happened to me: Something I wanted to buy is no longer available to ship to the US because of tariffs 😭
A screenshot that reads: “Shipping to the US is temporarily suspended due to tariffs starting 2nd May - Please subscribe to our mailing list for updates about when services will resume”
April 28, 2025 at 5:47 PM
jillianiles.bsky.social
I wrote about international tourism in SF, including how some would-be visitors are cancelling trips bc they're afraid of being detained at the border / getting their cell phones searched / etc

Top comments on Reddit? More anecdotes about folks not visiting sfstandard.com/2025/04/23/i...
A screenshot from Reddit where people are commenting that people they know are choosing not to visit San Francisco from Europe because of US politics and policies
April 25, 2025 at 5:42 PM
jillianiles.bsky.social
Weirdest one of these I've gotten lately
A screenshot of a CAPTCHA that says "click all the animals staring straight at you" with nine different weird dog images
April 22, 2025 at 9:12 PM
jillianiles.bsky.social
New estimates on how tariffs could raise the annual costs of car insurance sfstandard.com/2025/04/03/t...
April 11, 2025 at 9:16 PM
jillianiles.bsky.social
I've now gotten multiple promotions offering "Recession Special" sales, but I think this one wins given its emoji use and "ELON" discount code 🥴
Email subject line that starts with a penguin emoji and then says: "It's a Recession Special. Take 10% off with the code ELON"
April 7, 2025 at 10:14 PM
jillianiles.bsky.social
Most unfortunately my lease doesn't allow dogs or else oh my gosh I think I would have to adopt Ethan right this second. That face! Those teeth! The outfits! My heart melts 🥹 muttville.org/mutt/ethan-1...
Picture of a perfect angel dog posing for the camera — a 12 pound maltese mix with fluffy white fur and an underbite Picture of a perfect angel dog posing for the camera — a 12 pound maltese mix with fluffy white fur and an underbite
April 1, 2025 at 10:46 PM
jillianiles.bsky.social
SF sighting that feels straight out of another time: Robinhood has fire spinners dancing outside The Mint as part of a product launch where it’s giving away 1,000 gold bars
A video that shows fire spinners dancing outside the SF Mint which has a hanging banner out front that says “Lost City of Gold”
March 26, 2025 at 1:14 AM
jillianiles.bsky.social
A commuting first: hamster backpack on BART
March 17, 2025 at 4:13 PM
jillianiles.bsky.social
The theme of SF's 2025 Pride celebration is "Queer Joy is Resistance" and organizers say that "Meta will not be included" (though other tech companies who have also slashed DEI programs still will be) www.sfchronicle.com/entertainmen...
Screenshot of a SF Chronicle article that says the following: "Ford explained that this year’s Pride will focus more on values-driven participation, particularly in terms of corporate sponsorships. As part of this shift, San Francisco Pride ended its relationship with Meta, the tech giant behind Facebook and Instagram, which recently eliminated its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and scaled back its content moderation policies. “I’m both proud and sad that we don’t have a relationship with Meta,” Ford said. “Meta will not be included.”"
March 5, 2025 at 12:57 AM
jillianiles.bsky.social
uhhh so the SF Emergency Alert link that went out this afternoon originally 404’d… And now it links to a tweet about that 404? 😵‍💫😬
February 10, 2025 at 11:13 PM