For a city that often struggles to deliver on its grand ambitions — looking at you, every transit project ever — the Pyramid laser installation was a rare bright spot (literally). It was free, it was beautiful, and it made you feel something other than existential dread about the state of downtown. The kind of project that reminds you why people fell in love with this city in the first place.

Here's what made it work: private initiative, public benefit, zero taxpayer dollars wasted on a bloated bureaucratic process. Illuminate, the nonprofit behind the installation, has a track record of making San Francisco's skyline more interesting without requiring a decade-long environmental review. No sixteen-member oversight committee. No $4 million feasibility study. Just art, executed well, enjoyed by thousands.

The closing night view from Columbus and Pacific was apparently stunning — the kind of San Francisco moment that used to be commonplace before the city decided its primary exports would be tent encampments and supervisor squabbling.

The bigger question is what comes next. Downtown San Francisco desperately needs more reasons for people to actually show up after 6 PM. Installations like this prove that creative activation of existing spaces can draw crowds and generate goodwill without costing taxpayers a dime. It's almost like the private sector knows how to create value when you let it.

So if City Hall is paying attention — and that's always a big if — the lesson here is simple: get out of the way, let creative people do creative things, and watch San Francisco start feeling like San Francisco again. The Pyramid lasers showed us what's possible. Now do more of it.