San Francisco
San Francisco, California | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Nickname(s): The City by the Bay; Fog City | |
 Location of the City and County of San Francisco, California | |
| City-County | San Francisco |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Gavin Newsom |
| Population (2005) | |
| • City | 739,426 |
| • Urban | 3,385,000 |
| • Metro | 4,153,870[1] |
| Time zone | UTC-8 (Pacific Standard Time Zone) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-7 (Pacific Daylight Time) |
| Website | http://www.sfgov.org |
The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth-largest city in California and the fourteenth-largest in the United States, with a 2005 population of 739,426. It is located on the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula and has traditionally been the focal point of the San Francisco Bay Area, whose population exceeds seven million residents. San Francisco is the second most densely populated major American city after New York.
In 1776, the Spanish became the first Europeans to settle in San Francisco, which they named for St. Francis. With the advent of the California gold rush in 1848, and the Comstock Lode and silver mines in 1859, the city entered a period of rapid growth. After being devastated by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt and is today one of the most recognizable cities in the United States.
San Francisco has a unique mix of physical characteristics, including its months-long episodes of fog, its steep rolling hills, its eclectic mix of architecture (including Victorian style houses and modern highrises), and being surrounded on three sides by the Pacific Ocean and the San Francisco Bay. Famous hallmarks and landmarks include the San Francisco cable cars, the Transamerica Pyramid, the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island.
History
The Yelamu group of the Ohlone people, Native Americans, inhabited the San Francisco Peninsula from at least 8000 BCE until the early 19th century; the major villages on the land that would become San Francisco were Chutchui, Amuctac, Tubsinte, and Petlenuc. Within two generations of European contact, effects associated with the Spanish Mission system[2][3][4], including oppression and disease, drove the Yelamu people to extinction.
The first Europeans reliably known to visit San Francisco Bay arrived on November 2, 1769[5]. The English sea captain and explorer Sir Francis Drake may have sailed into the Golden Gate while circumnavigating the globe in 1579, but no concrete evidence of an English landing has been found. The Spanish exploration party lead by Don Gaspar de Portolà was seeking to expand the Spanish colonial territory from the south, in opposition to the Russian expansion from the north. The first Spanish mission in the area, Mission San Francisco de Asís, was established six years later. An associated military fort was also established in what is now the Presidio, as well as a small village called Yerba Buena. Though Spain held the port until the Mexican independence, (the earliest European explorer of California Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo in 1542 had missed San Francisco entirely). Russians also coexisted near the Spaniards, having colonized the north Pacific coast as far south as Fort Ross in Sonoma County.
In the 1830s the first city street plan was laid out by William Richardson, who also erected the first significant European built home. Richardson received a large Spanish land grant in Marin County and Richardson Bay to the north bears his name.
The area became Mexican upon its independence and fell into isolation. It was during this period that American and European settlement increased. The United States claimed the city on January 30, 1847, during the Mexican-American War. At that point, despite its useful location as a port and naval base, San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography. But two years later, the California gold rush brought a wave of migration and immigration, raising the population from 1,000 to 25,000 by December 1849. The railroad, banking, and mining industries became major economic forces in the city.
The influx of Chinese workers created a sizable Chinatown district, and Chinese Americans remain one of the city's largest ethnic groups. Hostility toward immigrants contributed to lynchings and race riots in the 1850s, and to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which drastically restricted immigration from China until 1943.
The 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and the fires that followed it (burning out of control due to the loss of water supply), destroyed approximately 80% of the city, including almost all of the downtown core. At least 3,000 died, while refugees settled temporarily in Golden Gate Park and in undeveloped areas.
The opening of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge in 1936 and 1937, respectively, made the city more accessible, and its population grew faster in the 1940s due to its importance as a military base in World War II. Urban planning projects in the 1950s further transformed the city, tearing down and redeveloping many neighborhoods and introducing major freeways.
In April 1945, the UN Charter creating the United Nations was drafted and signed in San Francisco. In 1951, the Treaty of San Francisco was also drafted and signed.
In the second half of the 20th century, San Francisco became a magnet for America's counterculture, drawing artists, Beat Generation writers, rock musicians and hippies. It also became a center of the Gay Liberation movement; San Francisco has a higher percentage of gay men and lesbians than any other major U.S. city.
The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake caused significant destruction and loss of life throughout the Bay Area. In San Francisco, the quake severely damaged many of the city's freeways, as well as the Marina District and the South of Market.
A further wave of economic expansion and physical development began in the mid 1980s with a boom in construction of skyscrapers and condominiums that some referred to as "Manhattanization". During the dot-com boom of the 1990s, large numbers of entrepreneurs and computer software professionals moved into the city, followed by marketing and sales professionals that changed the social landscape as once poorer neighborhoods became gentrified, driving up rents, housing prices and the cost and standard of living. When the dot-com bubble burst in 2001, it had a major impact on the city's employment and venture-capital markets as many of these companies and their employees left. High technology continues to be a mainstay of San Francisco's economy in the early 21st century. In addition, another wave of Manhattanization has started in the city in the mid-00's, with highrise condos sprouting in places like South of Market and Rincon Hill (also see One Rincon Hill). This second wave of highrises will significantly alter the San Francisco skyline once again and possibly take back the title of the tallest building on the West Coast from Los Angeles. Unlike the first wave of towers, this second wave has met little in the way of opposition from citizens and the city itself.
Homelessness has been a highly prevalent, controversial, and chronic problem for San Francisco since the early 1980's. The city has the highest number of homeless inhabitants per capita of any major city in the United States. In 2002, San Francisco had as many homeless people as the city of New York even though it has one-tenth of its population, and the number of people who died on the streets was twice that of the entire state of Florida. The problem is a source of much discussion, and has become a significant factor in the politics of the city, most importantly in the mayoral campaigns of Frank Jordan and Gavin Newsom.
Geography
The City and County of San Francisco is located on the U.S. mainland at the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula, and includes significant stretches of the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay within its boundaries. Several islands are part of the city, notably Alcatraz Island, Treasure Island, and most of the Red Rock Island near the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. Also included are the uninhabited Farallon Islands, 27 miles offshore in the Pacific Ocean.
The city and county has a total area of 231.9 mi² (600.7 km²). 46.7 mi² (120.9 km²) of it is land and 185.2 mi² (479.7 km²) of it (79.86%) is water. The land within the city limits roughly forms a seven by seven mile square, which has become a colloquialism referring to the city's shape.
The geographical center of the city is on the east side of Grand View Avenue between Alvarado and Twenty-third Streets.
San Francisco is famous for its hills. A "hill" in San Francisco is an elevation that is over 100 ft (30 m). There are a total of 42 hills within city limits. Some of these hills are neighborhoods such as Nob Hill, Pacific Heights, Russian Hill, and Telegraph Hill, while some of these hills are public parks and open space such as Bernal Heights, Twin Peaks, Mount Sutro, Mount Davidson, and Buena Vista Park. Alamo Square and Lafayette Square in Pacific Heights are Parks on hills less strenuous for walking, and surrounded by wonderful Victorian and other fancy houses.
Near the geographic center of the city and away from the downtown area are a series of less densely populated hills. Dominating this area is Mount Sutro, which is the site of Sutro Tower, a large red and white radio transmission tower, that is a well known landmark to city residents. Nearby are the equally well known Twin Peaks, which are a pair of hills resting at one of the city's highest points. About 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Mount Sutro is San Francisco's tallest hill, Mount Davidson, which is over 925 feet (282 m) high. On top of Mount Davidson is a 103 foot (31.4 m) tall cross built in 1934.
San Francisco lies near the San Andreas and Hayward faults, two major sources of earthquake activity in California. The most serious earthquake, in 1906, is mentioned above. Earlier significant quakes rocked the city in 1851, 1858, 1865, and 1868. The Daly City Earthquake of 1957 caused some damage. The Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989, which also did significant damage to parts of the city, is also famous for having interrupted a World Series baseball game between the Bay Area's two Major League Baseball teams, the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics.
The threat of major earthquakes plays a large role in the city's infrastructure development. New buildings must meet high structural standards, and older buildings and bridges must be retrofitted to comply with code.
Entire neighborhoods of the city such as the Marina and Hunters Point were created and sit on man made landfill (made up of mud, sand, and rubble from past earthquakes) and other reclamation projects over the San Francisco Bay when flatland became scarce. Such land tends to be unstable during earthquakes; the resultant liquefaction during earthquakes causes extensive damage to property built upon it, as was evidenced in the Marina district during the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake.
The most impressive example of an "infill neighborhood" is Treasure Island. It was constructed from material dredged from the bay as well as material resulting from tunneling through Yerba Buena Island in the construction of the Bay Bridge. It was a site for the 1939 San Francisco World's Fair, and it was originally envisioned that Treasure Island would serve as the site for San Francisco's municipal airport, but it became a Navy base at the start of World War II. In 1997 Treasure Island was returned to the city and it provides a unique vantage point to view the San Francisco skyline.
Climate
Surrounded on three sides by water, San Francisco's climate is strongly influenced by the cool currents of the Pacific Ocean. The weather is remarkably cool all year round, characterized by foggy summers and rainy winters; average daily high temperatures in the summer typically range from 60°F to 75°F (15°C to 24°C), while in the winter it hovers between 50°F and 60°F (10°C to 15°C) during the day but can, on a very cold day, fall to between 41°F (5°C) and freezing at night, although during nearly all winters no temperatures at or below freezing are recorded in most parts of the city. Rain in the summer is rare, but winters can be very rainy. Snowfall is extraordinarily rare. [6]
Summers in San Francisco are uncharacteristically cold relative to the rest of California, and the United States as a whole. The Pacific Ocean, off the west coast of the city, is particularly cold year-round with temperatures at about 50°F (10°C) throughout the year. Summer temperatures in San Francisco are significantly lower than the inland locations of the Bay Area and parts of inland California such as the Central Valley, where temperatures regularly top 104°F (40°C) in the summer. In July and August, when most of the rest of the United States is experiencing its hottest weather of the year, it is not uncommon to see San Franciscans wearing sweaters and windbreakers. A famous quotation, incorrectly attributed to Mark Twain goes, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."[1]
The combination of cold ocean water and the high heat of the California mainland creates the city's characteristic foggy weather that can cover the western half of the city in fog all day during the summer and early fall, as well as cover the rest of the San Francisco metropolitan area as far as 35 to 50 miles (50 to 80 kilometers) inland (the fog often burns off during the day at inland locations). The fog is less pronounced during the late spring and during the months of September and October, which are generally the warmer, more "summer-like" months of the year in San Francisco.
Even within the city itself there are distinct microclimates, generally much more differentiated in the summer than in the winter. In the summer months it will regularly be very foggy and cool in the Sunset District in the western half of San Francisco at the same time that it is sunny and perhaps 10°F (5°C) warmer downtown or in the bayside neighborhood of Hunters Point.
In January, morning lows average 46°F (8°C) and afternoon highs average 58°F (14°C). In September (the warmest month), lows average 56°F (13°C) and highs average 71°F (22°C). San Francisco receives an average of 19.97 in (507.2 mm) of precipitation annually, 85% of which falls between November and March. May through September are almost completely free of precipitation.
Neighborhoods
San Francisco has a Chinatown and Japantown; both are among the largest and oldest in the United States. It also has a budding Vietnamese community, a large homeless population in the Tenderloin neighborhood, Filipinos in Crocker-Amazon and South of Market, an Italian community in North Beach, a French Quarter, and Irish, Chinese, and Russian communities in the Richmond District. The Fillmore and Western Addition Districts are home to many African-Americans who swelled San Francisco's population during the boom years of World War II, and still populate the area. The Fillmore was a jazz mecca during the 1940s and 1950s, but little remains after redevelopment of the next two decades; San Francisco city officials are currently working to re-establish a jazz district in the Fillmore. The Mission District is the oldest neighborhood in the city, and is the site of Mission Dolores, established in 1776. The Mission was historically Italian and Irish, but is now largely Latino, home to Mexicans, El Salvadorians, and Nicaraguans, among others. Russian Hill is a residential neighborhood most famous for Lombard Street "the crookedest street in the world". However, Vermont Street in Potrero Hill is more crooked. Haight-Ashbury gained prominence during the "Summer of Love" 1960s for its counter-culture and concentration of hippies. The Castro neighborhood has a very high concentration of homosexuals. In addition to the predominantly gay Castro, there are significant concentrations of gays in Noe Valley, Diamond Heights, Bernal Heights, Potrero Hill, Haight-Ashbury, Hayes Valley, and SOMA. (See The Castro for more gay demographics.)
The larger homes in the city are located in the area known as Pacific Heights as well as Victorians in the Haight-Ashbury and the "painted ladies" of Alamo Square and the Castro. San Francisco is also famous for its cable cars, designed to carry residents up the steep hills. It is still possible to take a cable car ride up and down Nob and Russian Hills. Along with New Orleans' streetcars, San Francisco's cable cars are one of only two mobile United States National Monuments. Coit Tower, a notable landmark dedicated to San Francisco's firefighters, is located at the top of Telegraph Hill.
Current demographic and land use expansion is concentrated in the east and south. The South of Market neighborhood was the center of the dot-com boom in San Francisco during the late 1990s. A new neighborhood, Mission Bay, is being redeveloped from an industrial area at the far eastern end of South of Market. The cornerstones of this development are the AT&T Park baseball stadium and an extension of the University of California, San Francisco, housing major biomedical research facilities.
Parks
The best-known, as well as biggest, park is Golden Gate Park, which is 174 acres larger than New York's Central Park, and smaller than Los Angeles's Griffith Park. Another notable park is the former military base The Presidio at the south edge of the Golden Gate. The Presidio is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which includes Alcatraz, and many other large local parks. Buena Vista Park located in the Haight-Ashbury, is the city's oldest, established in 1867. Nearby Alamo Square is famous for its views of the city and the famous Victorian houses known as the Painted Ladies. A large fresh-water lake, Lake Merced, is located in the south west corner of the city near San Francisco State University and Fort Funston.
San Francisco also contains many public beaches, the most notable being Baker Beach and Ocean Beach, but they are not popular for swimming since the waters off the coast are cold and have deadly rip currents.
Demographics
| City of San Francisco Population by year [7] | |
| 1860 | 56,802 |
| 1870 | 149,473 |
| 1880 | 233,959 |
| 1890 | 298,997 |
| 1900 | 342,782 |
| 1910 | 416,912 |
| 1920 | 506,676 |
| 1930 | 634,394 |
| 1940 | 634,536 |
| 1950 | 775,357 |
| 1960 | 740,316 |
| 1970 | 715,674 |
| 1980 | 678,974 |
| 1990 | 723,959 |
| 2000 | 776,733 |
| 2005 | 739,426 |
With nearly 17,000 people per square mile, San Francisco is the second most densely populated major American city after New York (which has about 26,000 people per square mile). San Francisco is the focal point of the San Francisco Bay Area and forms part of the greater San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland Combined Statistical Area (CSA) whose population is over 7 million.
As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 776,733 people, 329,700 households, and 145,068 families residing in the city. The population density was 6,423.2/km² (16,634.4/mi²), making it the second densest city of 500,000 or more, as well as the fifth densest county, in the country [8]. There were 346,527 housing units at an average density of 2,865.6/km² (7,421.2/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 49.66% White, 30.84% Asian, 7.79% African American, 0.45% Native American, 0.49% Pacific Islander, 6.48% from other races, and 4.28% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 14.10% of the population. Major ethnic groups are people of Chinese (19.6%), Irish (8.8%), German (7.7%), and 6.1% English (6.1%) ancestry. San Francisco has the highest percentage of Asian Americans of any city in the United States. San Francisco also is believed to have the highest percentage of gay families (as well as a large number of single gay people) of any American county or large city. Gay men outnumber lesbians, who are more concentrated in the suburban East Bay.[9] According to a recent report by Reuters news service, almost one in five males above the age of 15 living in San Francisco is gay.[2]
There were 329,700 households, of which 16.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 31.6% were married couples living together, 8.9% have a female head of household with no husband present, and 56.0% were non-families. 38.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.30 and the average family size was 3.22. San Francisco has fewer children, in proportion to the population as a whole, than any other large city in the United States.
In the city the population was spread out with 14.5% under the age of 18, 9.1% from 18 to 24, 40.5% from 25 to 44, 22.3% from 45 to 64, and 13.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 103.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 103.1 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $55,221, and the median income for a family was $63,545, one of the highest in the United States at 15th place overall and third in a single large city. Males had a median income of $46,260 versus $40,049 for females. The per capita income for the city was $34,556 which is ranked as the 19th highest in the country. About 7.8% of families and 11.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13.5% of those under age 18 and 10.5% of those age 65 or over.
Government and politics
| Supervisors | |
| 1 | Jake McGoldrick |
| 2 | Michela Alioto-Pier |
| 3 | Aaron Peskin |
| 4 | Fiona Ma |
| 5 | Ross Mirkarimi |
| 6 | Chris Daly |
| 7 | Sean Elsbernd |
| 8 | Bevan Dufty |
| 9 | Tom Ammiano |
| 10 | Sophie Maxwell |
| 11 | Gerardo Sandoval |
As the official name implies, the City and County San Francisco is a consolidated city-county, being simultaneously a charter city and charter county with a consolidated government, a status it has had since 1856. It is the only such consolidation in California and the only California county with a mayor who is also the county executive. San Francisco is the only California city with a board of supervisors, which is also the city council.
San Francisco's unique status also makes it a municipal corporation and an administrative division of the state. It is in the latter capacity that San Francisco exercises jurisdiction over property that would otherwise be located outside of its corporation limit. San Francisco International Airport, for example, is located in San Mateo County but is owned and operated by the City and County of San Francisco. Because counties are administrative divisions of the state, it is legally impossible for two counties to occupy or exercise jurisdiction over the same piece of land. Thus, the airport, which is about 15 miles (24 km) south of downtown San Francisco, is legally part of San Francisco because the municipality owns it.
San Francisco exercises jurisdiction over the Hetch Hetchy Valley and watershed, in Yosemite National Park, pursuant to a perpetual leasehold granted by Act of Congress in 1913, the Raker Act.
Under the current charter, the Government of San Francisco is constituted of two co-equal branches - the executive or administrative branch, which is headed by the mayor and includes other city-wide elected and appointed officials, and the civil service; and the legislative branch, which is constituted of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, which exercises general oversight over all city and county functions.
The mayor is elected every four years, in the odd-numbered year that precedes the U.S. presidential election. The current mayor is Gavin Newsom.
If the mayor dies or resigns, the President of the Board of Supervisors assumes the office until a special election can be held.
| Year | GOP | Dems |
|---|---|---|
| 2004 | 15.2% 54,355 | 83.0% 296,772 |
| 2000 | 16.1% 51,496 | 75.5% 241,578 |
| 1996 | 15.7% 45,479 | 72.2% 209,777 |
| 1992 | 17.8% 57,352 | 72.4% 233,263 |
| 1988 | 26.1% 72,503 | 72.8% 201,887 |
| 1984 | 31.4% 90,219 | 67.4% 193,278 |
| 1980 | 31.9% 80,967 | 52.4% 133,184 |
| 1976 | 40.3% 103,561 | 52.1% 133,733 |
| 1972 | 41.8% 127,461 | 56.1% 170,882 |
| 1968 | 33.7% 100,970 | 59.2% 177,509 |
| 1964 | 28.7% 92,994 | 71.2% 230,758 |
| 1960 | 41.8% 143,001 | 57.8% 197,734 |
The 11 members of the Board of Supervisors (as of January 2005) are listed in the table at right by district number[10]. The current president of the Board is Aaron Peskin, who represents District 3.
The Mayor and members of the Board of Supervisors are subject to term limits under the San Francisco Charter. None may serve more than two consecutive terms.
An instant runoff voting system of elections was approved by the electorate and implemented in time for the 2004 general election. This system replaced the old, expensive system of run-off elections. Eyed warily by some and optimistically by others - in both cases owing to the belief that single-transfer voting might favor so-called "progressive" and "minority party" candidates over so-called "conservative" and "mainstream party" candidates - the 2004 general election results showed that belief to be unfounded, as all incumbent Supervisors were returned to office.
The Mayor's 2005-2006 proposed budget forecasts general fund expenditures of $2.44 billion.
As the largest city on the west coast before World War I, San Francisco became and remains the legal hub for the western United States. The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and the U.S. District Court for Northern District of California are headquartered in San Francisco. The Supreme Court of California is also headquartered in San Francisco, making it the de facto judicial capital of the state. California and Louisiana - its Supreme Court is in New Orleans - are the only U.S. jurisdictions whose highest court and judicial seat is not in the official state or territorial capital. In addition, the city is the seat of the First Appellate District of the State Court of Appeals and the San Francisco County Superior Court.
San Francisco currently has the second highest sales tax rate in California, which stands at 8.50%. It lies behind Alameda County's 8.75%.
County jails
San Francisco County operates eight jails, with approximately 55,000 people booked annually. Two of these jails are located in the Hall of Justice on Bryant Street. One of the jails is located in ward 7A in San Francisco General Hospital. Two jails are located at the San Bruno Complex Program Facility, located ten miles south of San Francisco.
The jails are administered by 800 deputy sheriffs of the San Francisco Sheriff's Department. [3] The department is headed by the San Francisco Sheriff, currently Michael Hennessey. [4]
The newest San Francisco jail complex is located near the Hall of Justice on Seventh Street. Opened in 1994, the complex is actually two jails. This main complex jail is a "direct supervision facility [that] has become a national model for program-oriented prisoner rehabilitation." The second, which acts as the main intake and release facility for the city, was praised by Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic Allan Temko as "a stunning victory for architectural freedom over bureaucratic stupidity."[11]
- Intake & Release
- County Jail #9 (425 7th Street, near Hall of Justice, San Francisco)
- Classification
- County Jail #8 (Hall of Justice, 6th Floor, San Francisco)
- Housing
- County Jail #1 (Hall of Justice, 6th Floor, San Francisco)
- County Jail #2 (Hall of Justice, 7th Floor, San Francisco)
- County Jail #3 (San Bruno)
- County Jail #7 (San Bruno)
- County Jail #5 (San Francisco General Hospital)
- County Jail #8 (425 7th Street, San Francisco)
City flag and seal
The flag depicts a rising Phoenix, often assumed to be symbolic of the City's recovery from the 1906 fire, though it dates several years earlier. Underneath the phoenix it has a motto written in Spanish: "Oro en Paz, Fierro en Guerra", which translates into: "Gold in Peace, Iron in War"
The seal, which was adopted in the 1850s, depicts two working men, on one side a miner and on the other a sailor with a sextant. Above is a rising phoenix and behind is the bay with sailing ships. The Phoenix symbolizes the city's emergence from the ashes of several devastating fires in the early 1850s.
Economy
Tourism is the mainstay of San Francisco's economy as it is one of the top ten tourist destinations in the United States and one of the top 50 in the world. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit in 2004, an estimated 15 million tourists visited the city bringing in a revenue of $6.7 billion.[12] The Department of Commerce has recently reported that San Francisco is the third most visited city in United States by foreign tourists after New York and Los Angeles. Conde Nast's travellers guide has ranked the city above Florence, Italy to second place right behind Sydney, Australia. The majority of the tourists come from the UK, Japan, France, and Australia. [5]
The legacy of the California gold rush turned San Francisco into the main banking and financial center of the U.S. West Coast. Montgomery Street in the financial district is known as the "Wall Street of the West". It is the home of the twelfth district of the U.S. Federal Reserve, which the largest in region and economy, as well as major production facilities for the United States Mint. It was once home to the Pacific Exchange before it was bought out by the NYSE owned Archipelago Holdings, and demutualized. Many large financial institutions are based in San Francisco, including VISA, Wells Fargo and Charles Schwab. San Francisco is also home to other major American and international banks including Barclays Global Investors, and venture capital firms have all set up their regional headquarters in the city mainly to service nearby Silicon Valley. As a leading financial center, San Francisco is one of 10 Beta World Cities as ranked by Globalization and World Cities Study Group & Network.
Recently, San Francisco has been positioning itself as a biotechnology and biomedical hub and research center. In May 2005, San Francisco was chosen as the headquarters of California's stem cell research program. Much of the city's biotech and biomed research has been focused in the new Mission Bay neighborhood in the south east corner of the city.
Entrepreneurship is also a major economic force in San Francisco. Nearly 90% of businesses operating within city limits have fewer than 100 employees.[6]
Media
The major newspaper in the city is the San Francisco Chronicle, which also extensively covers news in the metropolitan area as well. Other newspapers include the San Francisco Examiner, which once rivaled the Chronicle in terms of readership and prominence and operated under a joint printing agreement, until declining readership and ownership changes over the years reduced it to a tabloid. Alternative weekly newspapers include the San Francisco Bay Guardian, The Onion, the New Times-owned SF Weekly, and the San Francisco Bay View.
Most of the above papers are center-left or left in their political stance with the clear exception of the Bay Guardian, which is very left-wing. One example of this is that the SF Weekly often does thorough investigative journalism on inner-city as well as national and international issues such as health care, crime, and corruption while the Bay Guardian focuses purely on local issues that are perceived to harm or benefit the working class or progressive ideals.
Local glossy magazines include San Francisco Magazine and 7x7 Magazine
San Francisco is also the center of gay media with newspapers and magazines such as the Bay Area Reporter and the Bay Times, among the many gay and lesbian-themed media in the city. Women's magazines Curve, Girlfriends and On Our Backs are all headquartered in the city. Bar rags include SF Spectrum, Pink, Gloss Magazine, and Outlook Magazine. Online communities PlanetOut and Gay.com are also headquartered here.
San Francisco also boasts of many newspapers catering to its many ethnic minorities with the largest being the Chinese Sing Tao Daily which was founded in San Francisco in 1975 and moved to Hong Kong.
Many cities in the San Francisco Bay Area also have their own daily newspapers whose coverage and availability overlaps into San Francisco including the San Jose Mercury News, the Contra Costa Times, The East Bay Express and The Oakland Tribune among others.
Many national and international publications such as Financial Times, TIME Magazine, The Economist, and Newsweek among others have also set up regional offices to cover news from Silicon Valley.
San Francisco is served by a wide variety of local television stations, as the metro area is the sixth largest designated market area (DMA) in the U.S.. The major network television affiliates include KGO-TV 7 (ABC), KPIX 5 (CBS), KTVU 2 (FOX), KNTV 11 (based out of San Jose) (NBC), KBWB 20 (WB), and KBCW 12/44 (UPN). There are multiple PBS stations serving the city, most prominently KQED 9. CNN and BBC have major regional offices here. Sutro Tower provides the primary source of broadcast coverage in the city.
Several independent television stations also operate in the area, including KRON 4 (which was once the NBC affiliate) and KICU 36 (operated by KTVU Television). KTSF 26 is the primary Asian TV channel and the largest Asian-owned TV station in the U.S. As is the case with the newspapers, several independent stations in the metropolitan area as a whole, extend, or overlap their coverage into San Francisco proper.
San Francisco served as the home of the technology themed channel TechTV from 1998 up until the channel was bought by G4 Media and moved to Los Angeles in 2004.
Radio Stations include KQED among others
Education
The city is served by San Francisco Unified School District, the Archdiocese of San Francisco's dozens of Catholic elementary and high schools, and many other private schools.
Despite its limited geographical space, San Francisco is home to a multitude of colleges and universities.
Colleges and universities
Public colleges and universities include:
- University of California, San Francisco, primarily a graduate level health-sciences school, located in the Parnassus Heights/Inner Sunset neighborhood and in Mission Bay
- San Francisco State University located in the southwest corner of the city near Lake Merced
- University of California, Hastings College of the Law located downtown at its Civic Center
- City College of San Francisco, one of the largest community colleges in the country is located in the Ingleside, with several extension campuses.
Private colleges and universities:
- The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM), located in the heart of downtown
- San Francisco Art Institute, alma mater of photographer Annie Leibovitz, performance artist Karen Finley
- San Francisco Conservatory of Music
- The University of the Pacific Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry
- The Jesuit-run University of San Francisco, one of the first universities established west of the Mississippi, located in the center of the city
- Golden Gate University, a business and law school located downtown
- California Institute of Integral Studies in several locations
- New College of California located in the Mission District
- California Culinary Academy Le Cordon Bleu program located in the Tenderloin
- California College of the Arts undergraduate programs in architecture and design, and graduate programs in Potrero Hill
- Academy of Art University
- Art Institute of California, San Fransisco
- San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking
- Alliant International University
- Wharton West, offering their top-ranked MBA locally in San Francisco, located in the Financial District
The three most notable universities in the metropolitan area outside of the city limits are:
- University of California, Berkeley located 12 miles east across the bay in Berkeley, California.
- Stanford University located 33 miles south of the city in Palo Alto, California.
- Carnegie Mellon West, the West Coast campus of Carnegie Mellon University, offering graduate education and research in Software Engineering and Management located 36 miles south of the city in the NASA Research Park of Mountain View, California.
Public schools
- Main article: San Francisco Unified School District
San Francisco Unified School District is one of the oldest school districts in California. The school district operates all public schools in the city of San Francisco. Lowell High School is the oldest public high school in the U.S. west of the Mississippi, is widely renowned for its academic achievement, and is one of the few public schools frequently placed on lists of the best high schools in the United States.
Private schools
San Francisco has many private schools. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco manages many of San Francisco's private Catholic schools as well as Catholic schools in surrounding communities.
High schools
- Archbishop Riordan High School
- Saint Ignatius College Preparatory
- Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory
- International High School of San Francisco
- Lick-Wilmerding High School
- San Francisco University High School
- The Urban School of San Francisco
- San Francisco Waldorf High School
- Stuart Hall High School
- Convent of the Sacred Heart High School
- Mercy High School
Culture and contemporary life
- Main article: Culture of San Francisco
In the years following World War II, San Francisco accelerated its transformation into a center of alternative culture and lifestyles. Movements instrumental in this change include the beat generation or beatniks (the term beatnik was coined by a local journalist Herb Caen), the San Francisco Renaissance in the 1950s, hippie culture, women's liberation, gay civil rights, and the Summer of Love in the Haight Ashbury in the 1960s.
During these times, San Francisco moved dramatically to the left and is now considered to be one of the hypocenters of liberalism in the United States, and is a major stronghold for the Democratic party. Green party candidates also do well as several prominent Green party members hail from San Francisco. The city's board of supervisors regularly passes liberal resolutions such as banning U.S. Military recruiters on school campuses that have drawn the ire and ridicule of conservatives nationwide.
In early 2006 San Francisco passed into law a regulation that would ban private possession of handguns and ammunition in the city limits, and prohibits the sale, manufacture, transfer and distribution of any firearms within city limits. A similar law was overturned in 1982 on the grounds that it violated the state constitution. The law, intended to go into effect March 1, 2006, was immediately challenged on state constitutional grounds by the National Rifle Association. The law is currently on hold pending a court decision in the case, Fiscal v. San Francisco.
In the last decade, driven by the allures of its salutary climate and culture, and enabled by the great wealth generated by the tech revolution, San Francisco has seen major gentrification. Significant numbers of the wealthy and high income-earners have settled in the city driving up the cost and the standard of living. It has become difficult for low and middle-income earners to live in San Francisco, as many have moved out of the city, most notably across the bay to Oakland and Berkeley (as well as completely out of the state). San Francisco has the smallest share of children of any major U.S. city, with city's 18 and under population at just 14.5 percent. [7]
Behind New York, Los Angeles and Moscow, San Francisco is 4th in the world in terms of numbers of billionaires living within its city limits, while having less than 10% the population of the above. San Francisco has been ranked by many private companies such as the Mercer human resources firm as one of the best cities to live in United States (second to Honolulu) and 28th best in the world.[13]
The high concentration of gay people in the Castro, coupled with the city's historical contributions to gay rights, has earned San Francisco the reputation of the "Gay Mecca". It is the world's most popular destination for gay tourists and hosts San Francisco Pride, the world's best known gay pride parade and festival, in June. The Castro is also home to the Castro Theatre, a 1922 movie palace which is home to many film festivals, and known nationally for the quality of its programming of both new and classic films.
Literature, film & music
San Francisco has served as the backdrop of many diverse works of literature. Writers that are the most associated with the city are Armistead Maupin and the Tales of the City, Amy Tan and the Joy Luck Club, and Dashiell Hammett, and the Maltese Falcon along with other stories associated with his main character, Sam Spade.
San Francisco has famously served as a backdrop to a number of film classics ranging from action and adventure films such as Bullitt, Dirty Harry, and The Towering Inferno, to drama and mystery films such as Vertigo, the Maltese Falcon, Guess who's coming to Dinner, and romance films such as San Francisco. It has also served as the backdrop of famous television sitcoms such as Full House, Monk, and the Streets of San Francisco.
San Francisco has also produced some famous popular music ranging from Tony Bennett's I left my Heart in San Francisco, to the Scott McKenzie song "San Francisco". Bands such as the Greatful Dead and Jefferson Airplane started in San Francisco.
Museums and performing arts
Notable San Francisco museums include the Exploratorium, the Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), the Palace of the Legion of Honor, the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. Other museums include the International Museum of Women, the Museum of the African Diaspora, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, the Museum of Craft & Folk Art, the Cartoon Art Museum, and the Mexican Museum.
Performing arts venues in San Francisco include the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Opera and the San Francisco Ballet. San Francisco's Ballet and Opera are some of the oldest continuing performing arts companies in the United States. The city is also home to the American Conservatory Theater, also known as A.C.T., which has been a leading force in Bay Area performing arts since its founding in 1965.
In addition to professional, mainstream performing arts, San Francisco is home to the 200-member San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus, the world's first gay chorus, as well as the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band, the world's first gay marching band. Two additional gay choruses, the Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco and Golden Gate Men's Chorus, also perform throughout the year.
Coffee houses
Since the time of the Beat Generation, San Francisco has been a mecca for the counter culture. From the late 1950s forward, coffee houses, which are located throughout the city, came to be a central meeting place where artists, poets, and political activists came to congretate and exchange ideas. Francis Ford Coppola famously wrote large portions of The Godfather trilogy in Caffe Trieste, the first San Francisco coffee shop, established in 1956. [8] As the years have progressed the clientele of the coffee houses have expanded to include every element of San Franciscan society. To date, there are over two hundred coffee houses that are in operation within the city boundaries of San Francisco. Guided coffee shop tours cover this vital aspect of the city's personality. [9]
Nightlife
San Francisco also has varied nightlife ranging from bars to lounges to clubs. Major areas of nightlife in San Francisco are North Beach, the Mission District, the Marina, the Castro, and South of Market. San Francisco boasts legendary pop music venues such as The Fillmore and The Warfield.
Crime
Crime has risen sharply in the past couple years, especially in the form of homicides.
Most homicides are gang and drug related, and generally occur repeatedly within the same neighborhoods. Hot spots for violence include: the Bayview/Hunter's point, Tenderloin, Western Addition/Fillmore, and Mission districts.
In 2005, San Francisco voters approved a measure that would ban the sale, purchase, and possession of firearms.
Sports
San Francisco is the home of the San Francisco 49ers National Football League team, who play at Monster Park, the San Francisco Giants Major League Baseball team (which was once the New York Giants), who play at AT&T Park, and the San Francisco Dragons Major League Lacrosse team, who play at Kezar Stadium. The Greater San Francisco Bay Area is home to the Golden State Warriors National Basketball Association Franchise in Oakland, California as well as the Oakland Raiders of the National Football League and the Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball, whom both play in the McAfee Coliseum also in Oakland. The South Bay is the home of the San Jose Sharks of the National Hockey League, the San Jose Sabercats of the Arena Football League, and the San Jose Stealth of the National Lacrosse League.
College sports include the USF Dons, San Francisco State Gators and the CCSF Rams. Other regional college sports teams include the Stanford Cardinal, the San Jose Spartans and the California Golden Bears. The NCAA football Emerald Bowl is held in San Francisco each December.
The city is also the home of the annual Bay to Breakers footrace, which holds the world records for greatest number of participants in a footrace (110,000 in 1986) as well as longest consecutively running footrace (annually since 1912). Records aside, the race is best known for its colorful costumes and celebratory community spirit (it was initiated after the disastrous 1906 earthquake as a way to boost the city's spirits).
The city is also home to some famous golf courses, including the Harding Park Golf Course and the courses of the Olympic Club. In 2004 San Francisco and New York City were the two finalists chosen by the U.S. Olympic committee to represent the U.S. in the International bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. Ultimately, New York won the U.S. bid but eventually lost to London to host the 22nd Olympiad. However, San Francisco Bay Area Sport Officials are showing interest in yet another bid, for the 2016 games.
Transportation
Roads and highways
Because of its unique geography—making "beltways" somewhat impractical—and the results of the "freeway revolts" of the late 1950s, San Francisco is one of the few cities in the U.S. including Boston and New York City that has opted for European-style arterial thoroughfares instead of a large network of major highways.
From San Francisco, the Bay Bridge is the only direct automobile link to the East Bay. Similarly, the Golden Gate Bridge is the only direct road access from San Francisco to Marin County.
The major highways in San Francisco are Interstate 80, which begins at the Bay Bridge and goes eastbound, and U.S. Route 101 which extends Interstate 80 to the south toward Silicon Valley. Northbound, U.S. 101 uses arterial streets, Van Ness Avenue and Lombard Street to the Golden Gate Bridge and Marin County. Interstate 280 runs from South-of-Market south toward Silicon Valley. Highway 1 bisects the west side of the city as an arterial thoroughfare.
Public transportation
San Francisco has the most extensive public transit system on the U.S. West Coast and one of the most diverse in the country. It also has one of the highest riderships; 35% of the city's population use public transit as part of their daily commute.
Muni is the city-owned public transit system which operates the Muni Metro light rail system, the F Market heritage streetcar line and the San Francisco cable car system, together with buses and trolleybuses. Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is the regional rapid transit system which connects San Francisco with the East Bay through an underwater tunnel (the Transbay Tube), and Northern San Mateo County, California communities and San Francisco International Airport on the San Francisco Peninsula.
In addition, a commuter rail service, Caltrain, runs between San Francisco, San Jose and (with limited service) Gilroy, in southern Santa Clara County. Caltrain also stops at many places on the San Francisco Peninsula between San Francisco and San Jose. A small fleet of commuter ferries operate from the Embarcadero to points in Marin County, Oakland, and north to Vallejo in Solano County.
Airports
San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is located 8 miles (12.9 km) south of the city in San Mateo County on a landfill extension into the San Francisco Bay. Towns adjacent to SFO are: Millbrae, San Bruno, and South San Francisco. It is the second major international hub airport in California, after LAX in Los Angeles. During the late 1990s economic boom, SFO was the sixth busiest international airport in the world, but has since fallen off of the top ten during the economic depression of 2000-2001. Despite this, SFO is the 9th largest airport in the United States, and 14th largest in the world, handling 51 million people in 2005. [10]
Rail extensions there include BART and Caltrain via BART at nearby Millbrae, California.
Other large airports in the region include Oakland International Airport (OAK), 20 miles (32.2 km) east of San Francisco and Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC), 44 miles (70.8 km) southwest of San Francisco.
Seaports
The Port of San Francisco was once the largest and busiest seaport on the west coast, but that title is now held by the joint ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. While the Bay Area remains a major port, most of the commercial berths have now moved to the Port of Oakland on the east side of the bay, with its available space and better land transport connections.
Like many early U.S. ports, San Francisco was developed as a pier-based port, with rows of piers erected perpendicular to the shore. Cargo was handled by cranes and manual labor from ships moored at these piers to warehouses on the piers. These piers handled long distance trade, both to cross-Pacific destinations and to Atlantic destinations, and local west coast trade, including the major west coast lumber trade.
The advent of container shipping made San Francisco's pier-based port obsolete. Many of the piers remained derelict for years until recently, when the port converted many of the piers to office space and sold them. Most of the port's activities are now mostly for commuter ferries that leave from the Ferry Building, cruise ship docking, and tourism. There are now plans in the works to build a major cruise ship terminal/mall similar to Pier 39 at Piers 27-31, southeast of Pier 39.
Trivia
- Opera Tenor Enrico Caruso, who was in town during the 1906 Earthquake and fire, swore to never return to San Francisco. Later in his life, he recanted that vow, although he died before he was able to make the voyage.
- The first reinforced concrete bridge in America, the Alvord Lake Bridge, was constructed in Golden Gate Park in 1889.
- The Golden Grain Company's popular Rice-A-Roni brand mentions the city in its slogan "The San Francisco Treat" both in its advertisements and on packaging of the product.
- Other nicknames include "Baghdad by the Bay", coined by columnist Herb Caen, and "The City that Knows How".
- Despite experiencing firsthand the earthquake of 1865, Mark Twain often remarked that San Francisco was by far his favorite place. He worked there as a humorous writer in his early life until earning enough financial security to travel abroad.
Famous San Franciscans
Many notable people have hailed from or lived in San Francisco. Some notable examples are photographers Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange, "mother" of Modern Dance Isadora Duncan, author Armistead Maupin, and Scottish 19th century author Robert Louis Stevenson.
American football player O.J. Simpson, baseball legend Joe DiMaggio and Olympic gold medalist and Football Hall-of-famer Ollie Matson are all sports figures with San Francisco connections.
U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, former Governors of California Jerry Brown and Pat Brown, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, former U.S. Secretaries of Defense Robert McNamara and Caspar Weinberger, and current FBI director Robert Mueller.
San Francisco is a haven for many filmmakers and actors, both mainstream and independent. Notable artists include actress/comedienne Gracie Allen, actors Clint Eastwood and Bruce Lee, and film directors Francis Ford Coppola, and George Lucas (who recently moved the LucasFilm, Industrial Light and Magic, and Lucas Arts studios to the Presidio).
Other famous San Franciscans include philanthropist Gordon Getty, publisher William Randolph Hearst, journalist Ambrose Bierce, and co-founder of Intel Corporation and the author of Moore's law, Gordon E. Moore.
Sister cities
San Francisco has 15 sister cities, [11] [12]:
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References
- ^ Annual Estimates of the Population of Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2004 (CBSA-EST2004-01)
- ^ "The Impact of the Missions". California History Online. Retrieved March 23.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ Jackson, Robert H. Indians, Franciscans, and Spanish Colonization: The Impact of the Mission System on California Indians. ISBN 0826317537.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ De La Perouse, Jean Francois. Life in a California Mission: Monterey in 1786 : The Journals of Jean Francois De La Perouse. ISBN 0930588398.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ "Don Gaspar de Portola, October 31, 1769". Hallman.org. Retrieved March 23.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "San Francisco Historical Snowfall". Retrieved January 28.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "POPULATION OF THE 100 LARGEST CITIES AND OTHER URBAN PLACES IN THE UNITED STATES: 1790 TO 1990 U.S. Bureau of the Census, Washington, D.C., June 1998". Retrieved January 29.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "G.I.S. Lounge U.S. Population Density, 2000 Census". Retrieved January 29.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "CENSUS 2000 S.F. upstaged as gay mecca West Hollywood has higher ratio of same-sex couples". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved June 5.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "Board of Supervisors District Information". Retrieved January 29.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "San Francisco Sheriff's Department : Jail". San Francisco Sheriff's Department. Retrieved March 23.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "Economist.com Cities Guide San Francisco Facts and figures". Retrieved March 6.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "City Mayors: Quality of city life". City Mayors. Retrieved March 23.
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See also
- San Francisco Bay Area
- Culture of San Francisco, California
- List of Sister Cities in the United States, California
- List of places named after Saint Francis
- 49-Mile Scenic Drive
External links
Definitions from Wiktionary
Media from Commons
News from Wikinews
Quotations from Wikiquote
Texts from Wikisource
Textbooks from Wikibooks
Resources from Wikiversity
- Official website for the City and County of San Francisco
- Template:Wikitravelpar
- The San Francisco Wiki (SFWiki)
- Bay Area Public Transit Info, Schedules and Maps
- Museum of the City of San Francisco
- San Francisco History Index
- Shaping San Francisco, the lost history of San Francisco
- Historic Pictures of 19th Century San Francisco, from the Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum
- Historic San Francisco photographs, including the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, by JB Monaco, a local photographer during that period
- Chinatown history, from the University of California
- Videos of San Francisco from the Prelinger Collection at archive.org
- Videos of San Francisco from the Shaping San Francisco collection at archive.org
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