Here's something City Hall can't tax, regulate, or screw up: surfers catching waves under the Golden Gate Bridge at sunset.

If you've driven across the bridge lately around golden hour — or better yet, walked Baker Beach or Fort Point — you've seen them. A handful of wetsuit-clad locals paddling out into the cold Pacific chop, silhouetted against a sky that looks like it was art-directed by someone with a very generous budget. It's one of those scenes that reminds you why people put up with $3,200 studio apartments and streets that smell like a chemistry experiment gone wrong.

No permits were filed. No environmental impact report was commissioned. No Board of Supervisors hearing was convened to discuss equitable wave access. Just people, boards, and saltwater — the way recreation is supposed to work.

Fort Point, tucked right at the base of the bridge's south anchorage, has been a known surf spot for decades. The break isn't for beginners — currents are serious and the water temperature hovers in the low 50s — but for experienced surfers, it's a uniquely San Francisco experience. You're riding waves in the shadow of a 90-year-old engineering marvel while cargo ships glide past toward the open ocean.

As one local put it, "This is the stuff that makes SF worth it. Not the tech launches, not the restaurant openings. Just the raw beauty that was here before all of us and will be here after."

We spend a lot of time in this space talking about what's broken in San Francisco — and there's plenty. But it's worth pausing to acknowledge what works. The natural beauty of this city is an asset that no amount of municipal mismanagement can fully squander. The sunsets are free. The waves don't require a subscription. And the Golden Gate Bridge doesn't care about your politics.

Get out there before the fog rolls back in. It always does.