The delegations to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation confab in San Francisco have gone, along with the motorcades and flashing police lights, the fleets of black SUVs and sedans, the closed streets, the black fencing blocking downtown sidewalks and the squadrons of local, state and federal police officers.
In their wake, local officials and boosters were floating on the feeling that The City had shone in the global spotlight and that the affair, for the most part, unfolded seamlessly despite some protest disruptions and small businesses suffering from security restrictions around Moscone Center, where the government and corporate big wigs gathered. The ebullience followed a weeklong gathering of leaders from 21 economies that was expected to draw more than 20,000 people and featured speeches by dignitaries domestic and foreign, a sideline meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, a three-day gathering of 1,000 business executives, and glitzy parties at the Exploratorium and the Legion of Hono