The Morning After a City Throws a Party

A lesson from cities that actually work

After the 1906 earthquake, President William Howard Taft praised San Francisco’s quick recovery, calling it The City That Knows How.

I wish that name—its meaning and spirit—had stuck. And I wish the United States had a government that rooted for places like San Francisco rather than actively conspiring against them.

There’s this sense today that progressive politics killed places like San Francisco.

First of all, they’re not dead.

But despite their health status, the real story is more complicated.

Over time the governing ideas that once built and maintained American cities—competent public works, long-term planning, and an expectation that government could actually deliver large civic projects—were slowly hollowed out or abandoned. What replaced them was a mix of political theater and institutional dysfunction that made even basic urban management difficult.

Which brings me to what happened in my neighborhood last night—and happens every night—during Las Fallas.

It’s nothing short of remarkable.