For years, the San Francisco Peninsula has been a weed wasteland, with no legal cannabis stores in the ultrawealthy area between the San Francisco airport and San Jose. But that’s changing all thanks to one pioneering city.

More than five years ago, officials in Redwood City made a bet on the legal cannabis industry. While all of the other municipalities on the Peninsula were blocking stores, the city in the center of the Peninsula plowed ahead, and in 2023, it opened the area’s first stores. Two years later, there’s growing evidence that the city has been rewarded for it.

State data shows cannabis stores in Redwood City have sold over $64 million worth of marijuana since 2023, and sent $1 million in direct tax revenue each year to the city, according to Almanac News. These sales have not brought an increase in crime or disorder that conservatives in other Silicon Valley towns feared a legal pot store would bring in.

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The exterior of Airfield Supply Co., a cannabis dispensary, advertises its selection in a storefront window in Redwood City, Calif., on Jan. 7, 2026.

Justin Cordova, retail manager at Airfield Supply Co., a cannabis dispensary, holds a flower marijuana sampler jar inside the store in Redwood City, Calif., on Jan. 7, 2026.

Justin Cordova, retail manager at Airfield Supply Co., a cannabis dispensary, holds a flower marijuana sampler jar inside the store in Redwood City, Calif., on Jan. 7, 2026.

Instead, the town has five cannabis stores that appear to be stable members of the business community. Marc Matulich, the founder of Airfield Supply in Redwood City, said his store sees 600 customers a day and has enough profit to pay its expenses — a rare feat in the legal........

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