In November 2023, downtown San Francisco underwent a sudden transformation. Its streets were power washed, graffiti was erased, trash was cleared, and the city’s sizable homeless population was relocated. For a city grappling with a mass exodus fueled by these very problems, the cleanup revealed that it was never a matter of feasibility but rather a lack of political will that was to blame for the city’s condition. Public officials who insisted such efforts were impossible, in an instant, demonstrated that a cleaner, safer city was always within reach.