Dear readers,

When I first moved back to San Francisco about four years ago, one of the first things I did was to download a Muni route map on my computer. Ostensibly, this was for handy reference if I needed to know how to get somewhere new, but really I was just in love with the city's geography. I wanted to examine the way the neatly spaced streets of the Outer and Inner Sunset gave way to a snakelike tangle of roads spread over Twin Peaks and Diamond Heights, to match the candy-colored route lines to the streets and neighborhoods where I was living out my life. It was the beginning of a love affair with San Francisco, and four years later, I'm continuing that love affair with this current issue of [X]Press.

A lot has happened since we last saw you. In January, the world watched as Barack Obama was inaugurated as President of the United States. Then, in February, the U.S. unemployment rate reached its highest point in twenty-five years. "Financial crisis," "economic meltdown," or just plain "recession"--whatever you call it, it's hitting all of us hard. Here at [X]Press, budget cuts to the journalism department have resulted in a forty-eight-page magazine, rather than the usual sixty-four. So this issue of [X]Press is lighter than usual, but it's still heavy on content. On page 26, Lea Wiviott goes beyond statistics and talks to three San Francisco State students who have been deeply affected by the recession, and in our cover story on page 22, Shari Gab shows us that because of the de facto legalization of marijuana, even pot dealers have it rough.

The recession is hitting everyone hard, but that doesn't stop us from celebrating where we live. This month we're rolling out a new column, Faces of San Francisco, where we introduce you to a few of the 744,000 people that inhabit our city. On page 41, we interview a local band, The Stone Foxes, and on page 10, we invite you into a group of transgender people who meet once a month to explore their physical and spiritual metamorphosis. A hidden stretch of Balboa Street, a vegetarian restaurant in the Tenderloin that's all about good karma: yes, times are tough, but this issue of [X]Press is still a giant love letter to San Francisco. We hope that it shows you a new side of your favorite city by the bay and inspires your curiosity about the people with whom you share it.