It's a charmingly analog approach in a digital world, and honestly, we respect the hustle. But before you go wheat-pasting your QR codes all over every lamp post from the Sunset to SoMa, there are a few things worth knowing.

San Francisco actually has rules about posting flyers — rules that are, like many things in this city, selectively enforced and widely ignored. Technically, you can't post on public utility poles, street signs, or city property without permission. Private businesses with community boards — coffee shops, laundromats, bookstores — are your best bet, and they're usually happy to help if you ask nicely. Some neighborhoods are more receptive than others: try the bulletin boards at places in the Mission, the Haight, or around Irving Street in the Inner Sunset.

As one SF resident put it, your flyer campaign will probably be "one of the least unusual things the average San Franciscan sees in the park on the daily." Fair point. This is a city where, as another local noted, "you could do it naked, and nobody's gonna say anything."

But here's our unsolicited fiscal-conservative two cents: flyers cost money, they create litter, and the conversion rate is roughly somewhere between "abysmal" and "why did I do this." You're writing a digital newsletter. Promote it digitally. Instagram reels, local Facebook groups, cross-promotions with other Bay Area creators — all free, all more effective, and none of them end up soggy in a gutter on Market Street for a city crew to clean up on the taxpayer's dime.

We love that people are still passionate enough about San Francisco to catalog its hidden gems. The city needs that energy. Just maybe channel that entrepreneurial spirit into a strategy that doesn't involve a Kinko's receipt and a staple gun.

Good luck out there. And hey — if the Substack is actually good, drop us a link. We'll read it.