13 Reasons Why People In San Francisco Should Be Proud Of Their City
Back in 2012, Bloomberg Businessweek voted San Francisco as America’s Best City. But we don’t really need some arbitrary list to tell us that. San Francisco is not only stunningly gorgeous, it’s also proudly progressive in nearly every sense of the word. The city has often been the first to pass crucial regulations to defend human rights, protect the environment, and promote sustainability efforts. The people here also know how to throw one helluva good party. Here are a few more reasons people in San Francisco should be proud of their city.
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1. We are on our way to becoming a zero waste city. In fact, every citizen is required to sort your trash, recycling, and compost. Sure, it can get confusing sometimes, but we don’t mind.
2. We also find plastic bags despicable (we’ll use them to create weird walking bag monsters instead). San Francisco was the first city in the country to ban them, which means you better have a handy stash of tote bags lying around.
3. The food scene continues to impress culinary critics worldwide (as well as us average joes). In fact, last year, Bon Appetit named San Francisco the best food city in the country. You’ll also find a ridiculous amount of James Beard Award winners and Michelin stars, as well as one of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
4. Our openness to all is world-renowned. And our pride comes in all forms, with the biggest and brightest celebration of it happening every June for San Francisco Pride, “the largest gathering of LGBT people and allies in the nation,” according to the official website.
5. Along with Pride, San Franciscans love a good festival, and the city surely provides. Best part: A lot of them are free! Here are 14 Unique Festivals in San Francisco worth checking out.
6. San Francisco has a rich, fascinating cultural history. The San Francisco Renaissance brought revolutionary poets to the city in the mid-1900s. This eventually, helped inspire the counterculture and the San Francisco Sound made famous by legends like the Grateful Dead and Janis Joplin. Even the world’s first openly gay chorus began here.
7. Like the techies or not, San Francisco has always been a hub for world-changing innovation, from Levi’s Jeans to Airbnb to these fancy brewing pots at Blue Bottle.
9. San Francisco truly values the great outdoors. There are over 220 parks and open spaces dotted throughout the city. Shout out to the Pavement to Parks program for continuing to help create more public spaces from underused areas.
12. Between the epic hills, the spectacular stairways, and the incredible hiking, it’s hard not to clock in your daily 10,000 steps in here. Just a few of the reasons San Francisco has some of the country’s healthiest citizens.
Stephanie is a freelance writer and editor based in San Francisco, California. When she's not tapping at a keyboard, she can be found leading groups on gourmet chocolate walking tours (best job ever) or running the many lovely hills and stairs of the city (to burn off all that chocolate, of course). She also runs a travel blog with her husband at Big & Small Travel (bigandsmalltravel.com).
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