A moment of Super Bowl schadenfreude: be glad you're not in San Francisco this weekend

By Virginia K. Smith | February 5, 2016 - 1:59PM

Given that San Francisco's real estate prices have actually surpassed our own as of late, we'll admit that we're not above the occasional bit of "hey, at least we don't have it as bad as them" self-soothing. This week, we're doing it for a slightly different reason: utter relief at the fact that unlike 2015, ours isn't the city being overrun for the Super Bowl.

While New York's Super Bowl wasn't without its logistical messes (namely: that mass transit meltdown after the game), since the game was out in the Meadowlands, most of the city was largely unaffected, other than the area right around Penn Station.

But given that this is the 50th Super Bowl, the event seems to have fairly well taken over the City by the Bay: a major downtown roadway has been shut down in SF from January 23rd through February 12th to make room for "Super Bowl City" (a free, Super Bowl themed "village"); protesters are expected by some to descend on the event and shut down more key thoroughfares; and one city official has even recommended escaping the city altogether for a "vacation" if none of this sounds like your cup of tea. All of which makes us feel downright giddy just to be watching from a flatscreen in our tiny apartments, not dodging throngs of excitable tourists.

Granted, playing host to a historic Super Bowl isn't a gig without its perks: the improved network service being set up for the game by At&T, Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile will stay put and benefit the city long term, and locals have rightly been having fun messing with the movable letters on all those Super Bowl statues that've cropped up around town. That, and we're willing to bet at least half of the city is making a mint renting out their places on Airbnb this weekend.

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