WalletHub's 2026 study placed Pacifica at No. 1,334 out of 1,334 small U.S. cities for starting a business. Instead of disputing the score, local owners built a lemon-themed campaign around it.

On April 13, WalletHub published its 2026 ranking of the best and worst small U.S. cities for starting a business — 18 metrics, 1,334 cities evaluated — and Pacifica, the San Mateo County coast town known for its breaks and fog, came in at No. 1,334.

The study cited factors that local business owners know by feel: no centralized downtown, businesses spread across disconnected commercial corridors, a slow permitting process, coastal regulations that compress development options, no nearby angel investors, and costs that simply come with being in San Mateo County in California. "This is a very expensive market to be in," said Paige Miller, who owns the Magic Toybox. "Rent is my biggest expense, rent is my biggest concern."

The ranking spread online and landed hard. Jennifer Christiansen, who runs Art Space on the Coast, asked ABC7's camera crew whether she was allowed to swear. Resident Ed Ochi said he feared the obvious response: "Oh, you guys really suck for business, don't you?" Councilmember Mary Bier dismissed the finding's broader significance — "There is not a survey or ranking that is going to show the heart of Pacifica" — but acknowledged a potential role for the city's economic development committee.

What local businesses did instead of arguing about the score was build something around it. They called it Project 1334.

The campaign leans directly into the humiliation: the branding is lemons. Miller produced lemon-shaped stress balls to hand out. Robby Bancroft, who owns Breakers and Shore Shack restaurants, called the lemon symbol "our bat signal — something to believe in and something to get behind." Businesses across the city priced the number into their menus: Round Table Pizza listed a medium one-topping pizza at $13.34; Longboard Bar added a $13.34 Pineapple Margarita Float; Shore Shack put a 13.34% discount on merchandise. A Facebook group now promotes the effort citywide.

"One of the jokes was, well let's not suck as bad as they say we do," Christiansen said.

According to ABC7's reporting, efforts to reach WalletHub for comment were unsuccessful, and at least one resident who tried to engage the group directly — hoping to discuss improvements — received no reply.

The conditions that pushed Pacifica to the bottom of the list — scattered commercial corridors, permitting delays, coastal land constraints, venture capital that concentrates in places other than the shore — are structural, and no lemon branding resolves them. But Project 1334 is doing something different from disputing the data: it's trying to use the number as a rallying point for a business community that doesn't have a downtown to anchor one. Someone visiting a Pacifica shop this week might find a stress ball on the counter or a lemon in the window. The bat signal, Bancroft calls it.