San Francisco is an interesting town to say the least. The term “San Francisco values” has become a favored shibboleth of the right, a rallying cry meant to allude to all sorts of perversions that need to be stopped. But speaking as someone who had been there a few times before (besides Austin, that’s the only major stop for which I can say that), visiting once again only confirmed how much I liked San Francisco values.

This bastion of gay pride, sequestered within a state where marijuana is decriminalized, is obviously nowhere near the hotbed of iniquity that Newt Gingrich would have you believe. The appearance of a few gay erotica stores on Castro Street hasn’t caused a devolution into anarchy. And more to the point, it’s part of the open, accepting vibe of the city; from the dude in line to the bathroom to the guy at the train station who gave us a free pass because he liked the idea of our road trip, everyone we spoke to was friendly, helpful, and comfortable around people from different backgrounds.

The city also has an admirable dedication to promoting education and the arts. Its extensive public library system includes 27 branches and 4 roving bookmobiles. The downtown area, particularly around Yerba Buena Gardens, is packed with museums and art galleries. When we visited, the gardens were also the site of a Latin Music Festival.

Obviously, the city is not without its problems. The whole state of California is in very hot water right now; plus, San Francisco has a fairly large homeless population. Stratospheric housing prices and an absurdly high sales tax (8.25 percent) probably aren’t helping too much with that, either. But I don’t think that has anything to do with this supposed moral deficiency amongst the city’s residents. In fact, our stop there on the tour only convinced me that the other 49 states could only benefit from importing some more San Francisco values.