UCSF's campuses — particularly Parnassus Heights and Mission Bay — offer some of the most stunning, underappreciated vistas in the entire city. We're talking sweeping panoramas of the Golden Gate, the Bay, Twin Peaks, and the downtown skyline that would cost you a $22 cocktail to glimpse from most rooftop bars. At UCSF? Free. Just show up.

Parnassus Heights, perched above the Inner Sunset, gives you that classic San Francisco moment where the fog rolls in below you and you feel like you're standing above the clouds. Mission Bay's newer campus offers a completely different aesthetic — waterfront views, the Bay Bridge lit up at night, and a reminder that San Francisco can actually build things when it really wants to (or when a world-class medical institution foots the bill).

Here's the thing: in a city where the median rent could make a grown adult weep, free public spaces with jaw-dropping scenery are a genuine public good. You don't need a reservation, you don't need to pay for parking validation at some overpriced mall, and nobody's going to ask you to buy a minimum of two items.

San Francisco's geography is its greatest asset — one that no amount of mismanagement can squander. The hills, the water, the light. It's the one thing City Hall can't mess up, though we're sure someone on the Board of Supervisors is workshopping a View Equity Task Force as we speak.

So next time the city's got you down, take a walk up to UCSF. The views are free, the air is fresh, and for five minutes, you can remember why you put up with all the rest of it.