If you heard what sounded like a small war breaking out along the Embarcadero last night, congratulations — you experienced unannounced fireworks launched from Pier 27. No public notice. No heads up on city channels. Just sudden, thunderous explosions that rattled windows from the waterfront to the East Bay.

Residents across the city — and beyond — were caught completely off guard. "I've never been able to feel fireworks before," one SF resident said, describing the sheer intensity of the blasts. Another local noted they could hear the show clearly from Oakland, which gives you a sense of the scale we're talking about.

Look, nobody hates a good fireworks display. San Francisco's Fourth of July show over the Bay is one of the great urban spectacles in America. But there's a meaningful difference between a scheduled, publicized celebration and surprise pyrotechnics that send your heart rate through the roof on a random weeknight.

This is a city with veterans, pets, people with PTSD, and — as one resident wryly pointed out — a geopolitical backdrop that makes surprise explosions a particularly poor choice of ambiance. When you're a block from the launch site and in the shower with no warning, it's not exactly a magical experience.

The deeper issue here is one we keep coming back to: basic government communication. San Francisco has an entire bureaucratic apparatus dedicated to permits, public safety, and community notification. Somewhere in that chain, someone approved a fireworks show powerful enough to rattle East Bay windows and apparently decided residents didn't need to know about it in advance.

Whoever organized this — whether it was a private event, a corporate production, or some city-adjacent celebration — the permitting process should require meaningful public notice for pyrotechnics of this magnitude. A push notification through SF's alert system, a post on the city's website, something. It's not a big ask. It's the bare minimum.

A little transparency goes a long way. Especially when you're literally shaking people's apartments.