In a city where a one-bedroom apartment will run you $3,200 a month, a decent burrito costs $16, and the government somehow needs $14 billion a year to keep the lights on (debatable whether they even manage that), it's worth remembering: the best thing San Francisco offers doesn't cost a dime.

Twin Peaks at sunset is the great equalizer. No reservations. No $22 cocktail minimum. No nonprofit middleman taking a cut. Just 922 feet of elevation and a sky that looks like someone spilled watercolors across the Pacific. It's the kind of view that makes you briefly forget you just paid $6.50 for a single MUNI ride.

There's something almost subversive about a place this beautiful being completely free and open to everyone. No permits required, no equity consultants hired to study access patterns, no blue-ribbon commission on Optimal Sunset Viewing Frameworks. You just… show up. Revolutionary concept for a city that usually needs three public comment periods and a environmental impact report before approving a park bench.

Of course, San Francisco being San Francisco, enjoy it while it lasts. Give it a few years and someone at City Hall will probably propose a sunset viewing fee to fund a new Office of Atmospheric Equity.

But for now, Twin Peaks remains proof that not everything in this town needs a budget line item to be extraordinary. The fog rolls in on its own schedule, the sun sets without a single city employee supervising, and for a few minutes each evening, San Francisco justifies every absurd penny we pay to live here.

If you haven't made the drive — or better yet, the hike — lately, do yourself a favor. It's free. Which, around here, might be the most radical thing of all.