The sun graced San Francisco, the typically very foggy city, during the Fourth of July weekend.

The view of the Golden Gate Bridge was clear, as were the glimpses of the bay and ocean from the rolling streets downtown.

I wondered where everyone was. Later, Jordan Hollan, a resident, reassured me the lack of people was to be expected.

“San Francisco is notoriously sleepy over the Fourth of July because it’s funky,” she confessed. But tourism is also lower than it was, say five years ago, she added.

Hollan spoke to me a few years ago, when I was reporting a story about the city’s steep decline.

What’s different now?

Back then, she told me the city had forced her to accept a “crazy reality.” As a parent, Hollan and her husband longed for safer streets and a change in leadership, and the

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