SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — San Francisco has made national headlines because of the city’s issues with the unhoused, drugs, and crime. And now, the city is in the spotlight once again because of Super Bowl week.

The big game is this Sunday and there are visitors all over San Francisco. ABC7 Eyewitness News wanted to know what they think about the city and what surprised them the most.

Everyone is counting down to the Big Game and fans are pumped.

All the festivities for Super Bowl Week around the Bay Area are wowing visitors and locals alike.

MORE: Super Bowl live updates here

In San Francisco, out-of-towners are getting a good look at what the City is all about—the good and the bad.

Saurabh Raybaruah is visiting from Maryland.

“When I came 2 years back. I found it a little dirty, a little unfriendly. But now, it has changed. I love how it looks now. It’s clean. It’s beautiful,” said Raybaruah.

SUZANNE PHAN: “What surprised you the most? Raybaruah: How clean it got. It really got clean.”

Annie Dias from Boston said is visiting San Francisco for the first time.

SUZANNE PHAN: “What do you think?

ANNIE DIAS: “Beautiful city.”

On the Pat McAfee show, the host said Thursday San Francisco isn’t what he expected.

“We were so surprised by what we were told and expected versus when we walked through the streets,” said McAfee. “I think San Francisco is showcasing to us– I don’t know about the rest of the world– I don’t know how people are going to change their opinions about what’s going on. But, it’s a beautiful place.”

Kristina Foreman is celebrating her birthday. Her parents from Florida are seeing San Francisco for the first time.

“As we are walking around the first day today i feel fairly safe,” said Christopher Foreman, a Florida resident. “There was the presence of police and Coast Guard around. I thought it was going to be more smelly, more homeless than I’ve see– that I’ve heard about coming on the news. But, I haven’t seen as much of it around.”

MORE: Here’s an inside look at Super Bowl Experience in San Francisco

In the Mission District Thursday night, the buzz is all about one thing– this weekend’s half-time show performer.

“It’s a Bad Bunny look-alike contest. We want to see what the other good looking Bad Bunnies look like,” said Linda Sandoval.

Paul and Linda Sandoval of Penngrove are eager to check out the star attraction-the Bad Bunny look-alikes.

MORE: Will San Francisco increase encampment sweeps during Super Bowl week?

The Sandovals will be the first to tell you that San Francisco is worth the visit.

“There’s always lot to do. There’s ton of diversity,” said Linda Sandoval.

“They talk about what they see on TV. But that’s not what you see on the street. It’s very different,” said Paul Sandoval. “Sometimes they see homeless people and they hear about crime and things of that nature. You know what? It’s like that in every city everywhere.”

Many people who live and work in San Francisco say the city isn’t perfect, but they also believe it’s headed in the right direction.

SAN FRANCISCO – A 16-year-old boy was charged Thursday with murder and attempted murder in a shooting in San Francisco’s Western Addition that left a 15-year-old girl dead. 

“This was a life lost far too soon,” said San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins. The girl who died, Jayda Mabrey, was a 10th grader at Gateway High School.

“She was a girl who was beloved in her community, and to lose that life so soon, so early, under these circumstances, has really rocked the community,” Jenkins said.

Jayda was killed and two 16-year-old boys were wounded when a fight erupted into gunfire near Golden Gate Avenue and Laguna Street at about 5 p.m. Friday. Jayda’s younger sister witnessed the shooting.

First court hearing 

What we know:

On Thursday, both suspects appeared at a hearing at the Juvenile Justice Center that was open to reporters but closed to cameras.

The 16-year-old suspect was also charged with two counts of attempted murder and assault with a firearm. He repeatedly shook his head as the judge read the charges.

 A second suspect, a 15-year-old boy, was charged with attempted murder for wounding one of those boys.

Through their attorneys, both boys denied all charges, including conspiracy and gun allegations.

Murder case could be moved to adult court

What they’re saying:

Jenkins said she will determine at a later date whether to ask a judge to have the 16-year-old tried as an adult. The other defendant is too young, at age 15, to be transferred to adult court.

 “We have a lot of work to do when it comes to making sure that guns are not in the hands of our kids,” the prosecutor said.

If the case stays in juvenile court, the most the 16-year-old could stay in custody would be until he’s 25 years old. If he’s charged as an adult, he could face up to 25 years to life in prison.

 Jenkins said the juvenile justice system is broken because those two possibilities are extreme.

 “There’s a big gulf in between there that unfortunately needs to be considered,” Jenkins said.

Judge Anne Costin of San Francisco Superior Court ordered both teens held in custody at least until the next hearing later this month. 

Henry Lee is a KTVU crime reporter. E-mail Henry at Henry.Lee@fox.com and follow him on X @henrykleeKTVU and www.facebook.com/henrykleefan

Bad Bunny is expected to perform the Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday entirely in Spanish — which has inspired fans to quickly learn the language.

In October, the Puerto Rican singer — born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio — kicked off the 51st season of “Saturday Night Live” expressing pride over the achievement in Spanish, after which he said in English, “If you didn’t understand what I just said, you have four months to learn!”

That declaration further stoked the anger of some conservatives who have vilified Bad Bunny for speaking out against President Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant policies. The singer canceled the U.S. portion of his tour last year out of fear that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents would target his fans.

There’s been a frenzy online of people posting about Bad Bunny lyrics, including Puerto Ricans explaining slang used by the singer and non-Spanish speakers documenting their journey to learn Spanish.

Anticipation for his halftime performance has only intensified since last weekend, when his album, ” Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” became the first Spanish-language album to win the Grammy for album of the year. He did not shy away from addressing targeted federal immigration operations at the awards.

“Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say ICE out,” he said in English after winning his first Grammy for música urbana album. “We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans.”

Fans are learning Spanish before the Super Bowl

Niklaus Miller, 29, has been buckling down on learning Bad Bunny lyrics since the singer’s SNL appearance months ago.

“I am delusional enough to be like ‘this would be easy. I could pick it up pretty quickly,’” Miller said.

The fervor to learn a new language within a short time span highlights the powerful impact of Latino culture in the U.S. despite the president’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and actions.

“It felt like a form of protest,” Miller said. “What can I do right now besides what everyone is doing that is trying to help? It just feels good.”

Miller said he has gotten messages from people who watch his videos with their parents since he started posting about the process of learning Spanish. They say they feel seen and appreciated.

While Miller hasn’t learned Bad Bunny’s entire discography, he has learned portions of six songs that he feels will be part of the halftime show, including “Tití Me Preguntó,” “DtMF” and “Baile Inolvidable.”

The day after Bad Bunny was announced as the halftime act, O’Neil Thomas, 28, a New York City actor and content creator, started learning the singer’s catalog.

“I was just so excited because he wasn’t an artist that I expected,” Thomas said. “And given how we are right now with the state of the country I think he is the perfect person to headline such a humongous stage.”

The response to his TikTok videos – showing Thomas learning “NUEVAYoL” and other tracks — have been really positive, Thomas added. Many Puerto Rican people have reached out, saying they’re proud that someone outside the community is attempting to learn about their culture.

Latin music and culture intensify interest in language

“People were already starting to make the effort with learning Spanish as a result of their interest in Latin music,” said Vanessa Díaz, associate professor of Chicano and Latino studies at Loyola Marymount University. “The Super Bowl itself is an additional push for a trend that was already happening.”

Díaz, who is the co-author of “P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance,” says the rise of Latin music over the past decade has pushed non-Spanish speakers to learn the language. Bad Bunny’s clear messaging in his lyrics, videos and performances amplifies that interest, Díaz said.

Spanish is the most spoken language at home behind English in the U.S. — except in three states, according to U.S. Census data. Over 13% of residents age 5 and older speak it.

For Thomas, Bad Bunny’s music offered the perfect opportunity to take on the challenge of learning a new language.

“I love Spanish and I always wanted to learn it,” Thomas said. “So, this has been a fun introduction for me to finally hone in.”

Both Miller and Thomas said that learning Spanish, specifically Puerto Rican Spanish, in a short period of time has been a unique challenge.

Thomas said listening to Bad Bunny’s music casually is a different experience than learning the lyrics.

“Listening to his music is really fun,” Thomas said. “The amount of times I’ve pressed rewind just to get a phrase, I can’t even count.”

Miller said the hard part about learning the songs is that the Puerto Rican dialect tends to chop some words and it is very fast. Miller said if he hasn’t worked on understanding a song for days, he might forget the pronunciation and it’s hard to come back to it.

“It’s fun but then stressful because I am a Type-A person, so that’s been hard, honestly,” Miller said. “I’m firing on all cylinders.”

A landmark for Latino culture is also politically divisive

Bad Bunny’s booking at the Super Bowl has been divisive from the start. Trump called the selection “ridiculous.” Conservatives have called it anti-American — even though native-born Puerto Ricans are also U.S. citizens. Turning Point USA is putting on an alternative “All-American Halftime Show” with a lineup led by Kid Rock.

This all comes against the backdrop of Latinos and Spanish-speaking communities being targeted in Trump’s immigration crackdowns. His executive actions have vastly expanded who is eligible for deportation and routine hearings have turned into deportation traps for migrants.

For Bad Bunny, the halftime show is the ultimate stage to showcase his music, heritage and global influence. For the NFL and Apple Music, it’s a balancing act: deliver a spectacle that celebrates diversity without igniting controversy that scares off advertisers.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has stood by the choice, citing Bad Bunny’s immense popularity.

Petra Rivera-Rideau, associate professor of American studies at Wellesley College and co-author of “P FKN R,” said there’s a long history in the U.S. of Spanish being criminalized.

Bad Bunny is making it cool to know the language and changing the narrative around it, Diaz said. Now Spanish is something that people are aspiring to learn.

Díaz doesn’t think his performance will necessarily shift how Latinos are perceived in the U.S. but she says it will create an interesting conversation depending on “how people are going to grapple with the magnitude of having someone like Bad Bunny on the stage.”

At a time when “the U.S. is targeting Latinos and migrants and Spanish speakers or even those who are just perceived to be any of those things in a way that we haven’t seen in our lifetimes,” his visibility is powerful, Diaz said.