There's something quietly radical about a peaceful morning in Golden Gate Park.

No committees debating renaming it. No supervisors holding a press conference about a new spending initiative on its grounds. No encampment crisis making headlines. Just 1,017 acres of green space doing exactly what it was designed to do over a century ago — giving San Franciscans a place to breathe.

On a good morning, the park is a reminder of what this city gets right. The fog is burning off the bison paddock, joggers are weaving through the trails near Stow Lake, and someone is inevitably doing tai chi in a meadow like it's their constitutional obligation. It's free. It's beautiful. It works.

And here's the thing worth noting: Golden Gate Park works because it was built with a clear purpose and has been largely left to do its thing. It wasn't redesigned every budget cycle. It wasn't subject to a revolving door of six-figure consultants proposing "reimagined community activation spaces." Someone planted trees, built paths, and trusted people to show up.

There's a lesson in that for a city government that seems convinced every problem requires a new department, a new tax, or a new task force. Sometimes the best thing the government can do is maintain what already works and get out of the way.

So if you haven't taken a morning walk through the park lately, consider this your nudge. It costs nothing, it asks nothing of you, and it's one of the few things in San Francisco that delivers exactly what it promises.

In a city where a public toilet can cost $1.7 million, that's practically a miracle.