It has happened to everyone who lives in San Francisco: Out-of-towners visit and are shocked to discover that this city is not, in fact, the feces-strewn hellhole they’d been warned about by Fox News (opens in new tab). Last year, as we sat in Dolores Park watching the sun set over the city, a friend visiting from South Africa told me, “This is not the zombie apocalypse I was promised!”
This week, visiting celebrities, conservative podcasters, and regular-guy fans in town for the Super Bowl discovered the same thing. “I didn’t [k]now San Francisco was this beautiful,” photographer Alex Diaz posted Thursday on Threads, with a drone shot showing the city at night from the Ferry Building looking down Market Street.
All over social media, visitors are going gaga over our food scene, the natural beauty of the city, and the lack of dangerous criminals hiding behind every corner.
Controversial Barstool founder Dave Portnoy has been on a pizza-tasting tour of the city, which he refers to as “San Fran,” and surrounding area; he crowned Mama’s Boy in Oakland as the best. Senior Barstool producer TJ HItchings was enamored of the Tonga Room (as he should be!), writing Thursday that (opens in new tab) it “is the best bar I’ve ever been to in my life.”
The love fest continued on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show,” which invited Mayor Daniel Lurie to stop by. Lurie casually sank a basket on the set and got high-fives from all the sports bros, which seemed like a top-10 life experience for the mayor. McAfee, meanwhile, gushed. “I think San Francisco is showcasing to us it’s a beautiful place,” he told his audience. (Gov. Gavin Newsom tweeted (opens in new tab) that clip approvingly.)
It’s not just sports bros discovering the good sides of the city, of course. It’s everyone.
“Im in San Francisco right now, and I haven’t seen a homeless motherfucker yet,” Las Vegas-based comedian Lewis Belt posted Thursday on Instagram (opens in new tab). “I don’t know where y’all put em, but I hope y’all took care of em!” He captioned his video, “Am I trippin? It’s looks good out here tho.”
One tourist told ABC News (opens in new tab), “I thought it was going to be more smelly, more homeless.”
The food tourists over at the “Bussin’ with the Boys” podcast discovered La Taqueria and declared it (opens in new tab) to have “the best burrito in the country.” Locals were quick to jump into their mentions and suggest they check out El Farolito “down the street.”
Content creator Danny Healey, like many visitors to California, went straight to In-N-Out and was not disappointed. “Best fast food burger ever made on planet earth. Holy smokes,” he wrote on X (opens in new tab). Dick Fain, cohost of the “Softy and Dick” show (which is apparently the real name of a real radio show), beelined for what he called (opens in new tab) the “greatest Taco Bell in America,” located, of course, by the beach in Pacifica. (Not San Francisco, technically, but we claim it in spirit.)
Former NFL player turned podcaster Ross Tucker is enjoying the weather and discovering that in San Francisco, 59 degrees in February can feel genuinely balmy.
Of course, some people are keeping it real.
Others fear what will happen now that the secret about San Francisco is out. Will we be overrun with influencers? (We already are, and it’s fine, folks.)
Still others wonder if conservatives’ sudden approval of San Francisco is a sign of a political shift ahead.
I suspect that’s overthinking it. The truth is, San Francisco is just a gorgeous place, with great food, cool people, interesting architecture, weird subcultures, and tons to do — and just about everyone who visits realizes that. Even if they have to step over a few human turds along the way.
“It’s amusing to see everyone who visits realize that San Francisco isn’t a failing city,” remarked a local (opens in new tab) on Threads. “In fact, it’s better than most other places and has always been.”