That's exactly what happened recently when a passerby spotted someone slapping up new street art — apparently tied to a local exhibit — in real time. No bureaucratic approval process. No arts commission meeting. No six-figure public funding request. Just someone with a vision, some tape, and a wall.

Say what you will about the state of San Francisco, but the city's guerrilla art scene remains one of its most honest cultural exports. It's the free market of creativity: if your work is good, people stop and look. If it's not, it gets pasted over by tomorrow. No taxpayer dollars required.

This is worth celebrating precisely because it stands in contrast to how San Francisco typically handles "the arts." The city spent over $70 million on its public arts programs in recent budget cycles, and yet some of the most talked-about pieces in town are the ones that cost the public exactly nothing. There's a lesson in there somewhere, if anyone at City Hall is paying attention.

Street art is also one of the few remaining democratizing forces in a city that increasingly prices out the creative class it loves to brag about. You don't need a studio in Dogpatch or a residency at SFMOMA to make people feel something. You need talent, nerve, and apparently a roll of tape.

We don't know who the artist is. We don't know how long the piece will last. And honestly? That's the point. The best things in this city have always been a little ungovernable.