The city's free Cinco de Mayo lunchtime concert series paired live music with a lineup of food trucks — the kind of low-overhead, high-fun event that reminds you city life doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. It's the rare municipal win where the government mostly just needs to stay out of the way and let vendors and musicians do their thing.

And yet, predictably, some corners of the internet still found reason to grumble about street closures and event logistics. As one Bay Area resident put it, complaining about annual Cinco de Mayo festivities is "like moving next to an airport and complaining about the noise from the planes." Fair point. The celebrations happen every year, on the weekend closest to May 5th, announced well in advance. If this catches you off guard, the problem isn't the party — it's your calendar.

Look, we spend a lot of time in this space talking about the ways San Francisco wastes money, over-regulates small businesses, and makes life harder than it needs to be. So credit where it's due: a free public concert with food trucks is about as close to a libertarian ideal of community gathering as you'll find in a city that usually can't resist slapping a permit fee and a DEI audit on everything.

More of this, please. Let small food vendors show up, let musicians play, let people eat tacos in the sun without a 47-page environmental impact report. San Francisco is at its best when it remembers that the best events are the ones the city doesn't overthink.