People don’t come to San Francisco just for its values, they come because those values are always presented as part of an enviable lifestyle. There’s a farmers’ market on Tuesdays and Saturdays where the produce includes California specialties like navel oranges, avocados, and artichokes. LEED, as you probably know by now, stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, and it is a checklist of strategies for making buildings more sustainable that’s been developed and promoted by an organization called the Green Buildings Council. Later in my visit, I mention to Chez Panisse’s Alice Waters, the inventor of California cuisine and lately a proponent of the Slow Food movement, that while green activism is often identified with things you can’t have—rules and prohibitions—this revolution in dining seems very much to be about pleasure. It’s local food, untainted by corporate culture, unsullied by jet travel. I find the Scandinavian décor of my room a little bland—it’s all pale wood and leaf patterns—but it is very comfortable, and the location, at Bush and Grant, where Chinatown hits Union Square, is just about perfect.

Actually, I think that’s the real draw. The Orchard Garden, which opened in late 2006, is built from concrete made of recycled fly ash and sustainably harvested wood. It’s become widely accepted—developers like having a checklist—and LEED certification is the au courant version of the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. I order a half-dozen Sweetwater oysters, harvested in Marin County’s Tomales Bay, and a Scrimshaw Pilsner, brewed up the coast in Fort Bragg.

Al Green’s greatest hits are playing on the sound system. The Saturday farmers’ market is over for the day by the time I arrive, so I take a seat at the Hog Island Oyster Bar inside the Ferry Building. I’m eating organic, drinking organic, looking out at the bay, listening to Green sing “Love and Happiness,” and thinking about how supremely intertwined virtue and pleasure are in this town.” The place pretty much radiates goodness. In 2003, after years of painstaking renovation, it reopened as a foodie haven with more than 30 vendors, selling everything from locally produced olive oil to chocolates.

The question I ask myself as I drive into town, feeling smug in my rented Honda Civic Hybrid (San Francisco is second only to Los Angeles in the number of hybrids purchased—practically every other car here is a Prius), is this: How do values inscribe themselves on the urban landscape?Just what might clue you in that this is a highly evolved new-millennium city and not a regressive leftover from the previous era?Also: What exactly does a values-oriented tourist do?What sorts of landmarks should I visit?What new attractions join Coit Tower and the revolving bar at the Hyatt? My first move is to check in to the Orchard Garden Hotel, which boasts that it’s America’s first LEED-certified property. .   My second move is to dash down to the Ferry Building, originally completed in 1898 wholesale electric faucet as the main gateway to the city. The building is well insulated, energy-efficient, and designed with “soothing, spa-inspired tones