Here's a fun quirk of living in San Francisco: you help fund a 55-acre botanical garden in Golden Gate Park through your tax dollars, and then the city charges you up to $13 to walk through it. Generous, right?

But there is a workaround, and it's worth knowing about. Every second Tuesday of the month, the San Francisco Botanical Garden opens its gates for free to everyone — no proof of residency required, no hoops to jump through. Just show up.

Now, to be fair, SF residents with valid ID already get in free year-round, which is how it should work for a publicly funded amenity. But if you're a resident who's never bothered to figure out the ID policy, or you've got out-of-town friends visiting on a budget, these free Tuesdays are the move.

The Botanical Garden is genuinely one of the best things the city operates — 8,000 plant species from around the world, gorgeous paths, and a level of quiet that feels almost illegal in a city where someone is always jackhammering something. It's the rare case where a government-run institution actually delivers serious value.

That said, the broader principle nags at us. Public parks and gardens funded by taxpayer money shouldn't feel like a subscription service. The admission fee structure — free for residents, paid for visitors — is a reasonable compromise, but the fact that many San Franciscans don't even know they can get in free tells you something about how well the city communicates with the people footing the bill.

So mark your calendar: second Tuesday, every month, free admission. Bring a book, skip the coffee shop for an afternoon, and enjoy something your tax dollars are actually doing right for once. They don't get enough credit when they earn it, and this one does.