Forty. Plus. In a city where we can't seem to keep a Walgreens open, where storefronts sit empty for years tangled in permitting nightmares, and where commercial rents have driven out countless small businesses — we still have over forty independent bookstores. That's not just a nice cultural stat. It's a minor economic miracle.

A local newsletter called Same Page SF has actually catalogued every single one, complete with reader testimonials about what makes each shop special. It's the kind of civic resource that makes you appreciate what happens when passionate people build things without waiting for a city grant or a Board of Supervisors resolution.

And that's really the point worth making here. Independent bookstores are a case study in what small business can be when entrepreneurs are stubborn enough to survive San Francisco's notoriously hostile regulatory environment. These aren't shops propped up by subsidies. They're businesses that found their niche, built loyal communities, and kept the lights on through a pandemic, through the retail apocalypse, through Amazon eating the world.

Every time City Hall floats another tax on small businesses or layers on new compliance costs, remember that places like these are the ones absorbing the hit. The big chains and tech companies have armies of lawyers and accountants. Your neighborhood bookstore has a owner who probably also works the register.

So here's a radical fiscal policy idea: go buy a book. From an actual person, in an actual store, in your actual neighborhood. It's the most direct form of economic stimulus there is — no bureaucracy required.

If you want to find a shop near you, the Same Page SF bookstore database at samepagesf.com/bookstores-of-sf is a genuinely great starting point. Support the weird, wonderful, stubbornly independent corners of this city while they're still here.