America’s most beautiful big city is back from the dead

Published August 20, 2026 11:00am ET



If your impression of San Francisco was formed during the pandemic, it is time to update it.

The city portrayed as a dystopian collection of homeless encampments, open-air drug markets, boarded-up storefronts, and empty office towers still exists in the public imagination. Some of those problems remain, but that version of San Francisco is increasingly outdated.

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