Moved to Santa Cruz last year and finally got to SF for Memorial Day weekend. We had a blast. Public transit was super easy. We stumbled into random events everywhere. The food and drinks were pricier but worth it. The only areas we were told to avoid was the tenderloin. We never felt unsafe.
Glad you had fun! It's almost like you did the reverse trip (a lot of people in SF go to Santa Cruz for the long weekend lol).
Before the pandemic, SF literally had stuff to do every weekend, easy accessible by public transport (or Uber/Lyft subsidized by VC funds lol). Feel like this year is really a return to that.