A printmaker based in the UK recently shared a fresh run of a hand-carved linocut featuring San Francisco's iconic skyline — and it's the kind of thing that makes you pause your doomscrolling about budget deficits and broken escalators for just a moment.

Linocut, for the uninitiated, is an old-school printmaking technique where you carve an image into a block of linoleum, ink it up, and press it onto paper. No AI. No algorithms. No city grant funding required. Just a sharp tool, steady hands, and artistic vision. It's the kind of craft that reminds you beautiful things can be made without a six-figure public arts budget or a Board of Supervisors resolution.

The piece captures the layered, hilly geography that makes San Francisco one of the most visually distinctive cities on the planet — the kind of place that inspires someone thousands of miles away to spend hours painstakingly carving it into a block of linoleum. That's not nothing.

We spend a lot of time at The Dissent writing about what's going wrong in this city — and there's no shortage of material. But it's worth remembering that San Francisco still occupies an almost mythical place in the global imagination. People across the ocean still look at our skyline, our bridges, our fog-draped hills, and think: I want to make art about that.

The question is whether we can live up to the postcard. Can we keep the city worthy of the love letter? That means functioning transit, clean streets, responsible spending, and a government that respects both the people who live here and the beauty they're surrounded by.

An artist in the UK believes in San Francisco enough to carve it into a block of linoleum by hand. The least City Hall can do is believe in it enough to balance a budget.

In the meantime, if you're feeling burned out on local news, maybe do what one local suggested as a palate cleanser: "Ride the ferry for a few hours." Honestly? Not bad advice.