Look, we spend a lot of time in this space talking about budget deficits, bureaucratic incompetence, and the myriad ways City Hall finds to light your tax dollars on fire. So consider this a palate cleanser.

Ocean Beach put on an absolute show yesterday evening. The sunset was, to use a technical term, immaculate. The kind of sky that makes you stop doomscrolling, put your phone down for one second, and remember that San Francisco — for all its dysfunction — sits on one of the most beautiful stretches of coastline on the planet.

No government program produced that sunset. No committee approved it. Nobody had to file an environmental impact report or wait 18 months for a permit. Nature just delivered, free of charge, to anyone who bothered to show up. There's a lesson in there somewhere.

And showing up is the thing. Ocean Beach remains one of the great democratic spaces in the city — no cover charge, no reservation, no app required. You get the same sunset whether you're a tech founder from Pacific Heights or a line cook from the Outer Sunset. That's increasingly rare in a city that seems determined to gate-keep every experience behind a fee, a waitlist, or a means-tested application.

For those of you who missed it: make a point to get out there this week. The days are long right now, parking along the Great Highway is still free (enjoy it while it lasts, given how this city operates), and the evening light has been consistently spectacular.

Sometimes the best argument for living in San Francisco isn't an argument at all. It's just standing at the edge of the continent watching the Pacific swallow the sun and thinking, yeah, okay, this is worth it.

At least until your next rent check clears.