San Francisco

San Francisco is a consolidated city-county serving as the cultural and commercial center of the Bay Area and home to Silicon Valley's northern reaches. The city's policies on technology, housing, and transportation have disproportionate influence given its role as headquarters for major tech companies and the venture capital industry.

San Francisco's governance challenges - homelessness, housing costs, and tech-community tensions - represent the extreme case of technology-driven urban transformation. The city serves as both laboratory and cautionary tale for technology's urban impacts.