With only about 1,700 residents, the Northern California town of Colma considers itself small — but that’s only if you count the living. Add the dead, and it becomes the Bay Area’s largest “city,” home to more than 1.5 million eternal residents buried across 17 historic cemeteries.

Known as the “City of Souls,” Colma is shaped as much by its dead as its living. Children play among headstones, and locals see ornate mausoleums daily on their way to run errands; the graveyards woven into public life as parks and libraries are in other cities.

A longtime resident since 1977 and city councilmember, Helen Fisicaro said the view from her home — framed by acres of memorial parks — has never been unsettling.

“It’s very calming,” she said. “We raised our kids here, and they never thought anything

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