San Francisco has been named one of “The World’s Happiest Cities” in an article posted Sept. 2, 2009 on Forbes.com. San Francisco, which ranks seventh out of ten listed cities, is the only city in North America to be included in what the magazine calls “urban centers closely associated with unmitigated joy.”

The San Francisco Travel Association, the City and County of San Francisco, and the San Francisco Tourism Improvement District (SFTID) continues to make great progress on delivering a two-year, $56 million upgrade and renovation of the Moscone Center, with an expected completion date of May 2012.

San Francisco has always opened its golden gates to gay and lesbian visitors. To reinforce this warm welcome, the San Francisco Travel Association has redesigned its gay travel website and developed a new marketing campaign to remind lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) travelers that “The Gate is Always Open for You.”

San Francisco’s Moscone Center has emerged from a two-year, $56 million renovation of the North and South buildings with a combined 1.2 million square feet of function space.

Mayor Edwin M. Lee today announced that San Francisco has received the distinction as the "greenest" city in North America in the first North American Green Cities Index. Announced at the 2011 Aspen Ideas Festival, San Francisco was ranked ahead of New York, Seattle, Denver and Boston as the top five "greenest" U.S. cities