Affordability and a drop in skilled workers fueled the area’s plummet in a new analysis of the nation’s best-performing cities.

Is South by Southwest still a good place for startups to hit up venture capitalists? Three S.F. startups that won a spot in the festival's pitch competition this year are hoping so.

The fire that started Thursday at the Vistra Energy battery plant in Moss Landing, roughly 80 miles (about 130 kilometers) south of San Francisco, led to 1,700 people evacuating, closed part of Highway 1 and generated huge flames and significant amounts of smoke. The cause is under investigation.

Founded in 2018 in San Francisco ... the company expanded with an office in Austin; at the same time, its founder and CEO Neha Sampat moved to the Texas capital. "I looked at it as a place ...