San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, also known as the Bay Area, is a geographically diverse metropolitan area that surrounds the San Francisco Bay in Northern California. Home to more than eight million people, it is composed of cities, towns, military bases, airports, and associated regional, state, and national parks sprawled over nine counties (ten, according to some agencies) and connected by a massive network of roads, highways, railroads, and commuter rail.
The Bay Area, unlike the typical metropolitan area, contains several distinct urban and suburban centers. While San Jose is the largest city in the Bay Area (having surpassed San Francisco in the 1990 census), for most of its history San Francisco was the largest city in the region, and remains the traditional, financial, and cultural center. The area containing the city of San Francisco together with Oakland and San Jose is the fifth-largest consolidated metropolitan area in the United States, behind New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington-Baltimore.
Subregions
North Bay
- Main article: North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area)
The region north of the Golden Gate Bridge is known locally as the North Bay. This area consists of Marin County and extends northward into Sonoma and Napa Counties and eastward to Solano County. With some exceptions, this region is quite affluent: Marin County is ranked as the wealthiest in the nation. The North Bay is generally the least urbanized part of the Bay Area, with many areas of undeveloped parks and farmland. It is the only section of the Bay Area that is not served by a commuter rail transit service, though Sonoma-Marin service has entered the planning phase. The lack of transportation services is mainly because the lack of population mass in the North Bay, and the fact that it is separated completely from the rest of the Bay Area by water, the only access points being the Golden Gate Bridge leading to San Francisco, the Richmond-San Rafael and Carquinez Bridges leading to Richmond, and the Benicia Bridge leading to Concord.
San Francisco
- Main article: San Francisco, California
The City and County of San Francisco is generally placed in a category by itself geographically, mentally and culturally. It is separated by water from the north, west and east, and by a county line from its neighbor cities to the South. San Francisco serves as the cultural, financial and urban center of the region.
East Bay
- Main article: East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area)
The eastern side of the bay, dominated by the city of Oakland but also including Alameda, Berkeley, Fremont, Livermore, Hayward and several small cities, is known locally as the East Bay. The East Bay is split into two regions, the inner East Bay, which sits on the Bay coastline, and the outer East Bay, consisting of inland valleys separated from the inner East Bay by hills and mountains.
- The inner East Bay consists of Oakland, Hayward, Fremont, Berkeley, and smaller suburbs surrounding or surrounded by these four major cities, such as Emeryville, San Leandro, Piedmont and Richmond. The inner East Bay is more urban, more densely populated, has a much older building stock (built before World War II) and a more ethnically diverse population. Oakland hosts the region's largest seaport and professional sports franchises in basketball, football, and baseball. As with many inner urban areas the Inner East Bay also features a high accumulation of crime as well as socio-economic problems. According to the FBI Uniformed Crime Reports, more than 50% of all homicides in the Bay Area in 2002 occurred within the city limits of Oakland and Richmond.
- The outer East Bay consists of the cities of Walnut Creek, Concord, Antioch and Pleasant Hill, to the north (also referred as Central Contra Costa County) and the cities of Dublin, Pleasanton, Livermore, Danville, San Ramon to the south (sometimes referred to as the Livermore-Amador Valley or the Tri-Valley), as well as other smaller towns, such as Alamo and Orinda. They are connected to the inner East Bay by BART and by highways and the Caldecott Tunnel. The outer East Bay is mostly suburban to rural and was mostly built after World War II.
Peninsula
- Main article: San Francisco Peninsula
The area between the South Bay and the City and County of San Francisco is the San Francisco Peninsula, known locally as The Peninsula. This area consists of a series of small cities and suburban communities in San Mateo County and the northwestern part of Santa Clara County, including Palo Alto and Stanford University, Mountain View, Daly City, San Mateo, and Foster City, as well as various towns along the Pacific coast, such as Pacifica and Half Moon Bay.
South Bay
- Main article: South Bay (San Jose, California)
The communities along the southern edge of the Bay are known as the South Bay, Santa Clara Valley, and Silicon Valley. Some Peninsula and East Bay towns are sometimes included in the latter. It includes the city of San Jose, and its smaller neighbors including Gilroy and the high-tech hubs of Santa Clara, Cupertino, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale as well as many other suburbs.
Santa Cruz
- Main article: Santa Cruz, California
There is disagreement over whether Santa Cruz County is part of the San Francisco Bay Area [citation needed]. Many residents do not consider Santa Cruz as being part of the Bay Area; however, there is no formal definition of "San Francisco Bay Area" (such as by the US Census Bureau), so the term is somewhat flexible. Some tourist guide books (Lonely Planet) group Santa Cruz in the San Francisco Bay Area section, while others (Eyewitness Travel Guides) do not. Some California agencies include Santa Cruz as part of the Bay Area region, such as the state's parks department [1], while other agencies such as the Association of Bay Area Governments and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission do not.
More importantly, some residents of the Santa Cruz Mountains (Boulder Creek, Brookdale, Ben Lomond, Felton, Scotts Valley) do not usually consider themselves to be residents of the Bay Area, rather just of the Santa Cruz Mountains themselves. The Santa Cruz Mountains run along the spine of the San Francisco Peninsula, beginning in San Francisco and continuing down to their terminus near the City of Gilroy, effectively creating the Santa Clara Valley.
Santa Cruz is usually considered a part of the Monterey Bay area since the city lies on the north end of the Monterey Bay. The city is also sometimes regarded as the northernmost point of the California Central Coast, which extends along the state's coastline to Santa Barbara.
Affluence
The San Francisco Bay Area is one of the wealthiest regions in the United States. According to the United States Census Bureau, of the 280 defined metropolitan areas, the San Francisco Bay Area has the highest median household income in the nation with $62,024. Six of the top ten California places with the highest per capita income are in the San Francisco Bay Area (Belvedere, Atherton, Woodside, Portola Valley, Diablo). Of the 100 highest income counties by per capita income in the United States, six are in the San Francisco Bay Area (Marin, San Mateo, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Contra Costa, Alameda). According to Forbes Magazine, published in 2005, 12 of the top 50 most expensive Zip Codes are in the Bay Area (Hillsborough, Atherton, Ross, Diablo, Tiburon, Los Altos, Nicasio, Portola Valley, Los Gatos, San Francisco).
Living expenses
The popularity of the region, owing both to its mild weather and its cultural and economic diversity, combined with limited buildable areas, has led to high housing costs, especially for ownership and for commercial property leases. Owing to the relatively lower costs of outlying housing and limited public transportation, long, expensive, and often unpleasant automobile commutes are common in the region, and these costs tend to trickle down throughout various activities, making many other activities such as dining out, theaters tickets, etc. more expensive than in other areas of the country. For only a limited portion of the population have wages kept pace with the increased expenses and many minimum wage earners, even those holding multiple jobs, are classified as "working poor", while the higher incomes necessary for a satisfactory lifestyle in the region lead to higher taxes, especially at the federal level for persons not qualifying for high mortgage or self employment related deductions.
Weather
Because the hills, mountains, and large bodies of water produce such vast geographic diversity within this region, the Bay Area offers a significant variety of microclimates. The areas near the Pacific Ocean are generally characterized by relatively small temperature variations during the year, with cool foggy summers and mild rainy winters. Inland areas, especially those separated from the ocean by hills or mountains, have hotter summers and colder overnight temperatures during the winter. Few residential areas ever experience snow, but peaks over 2000 feet are often dusted with snow several times each winter (including Mount St. Helena, Mount Hamilton, Mount Diablo, and Mount Tamalpais). Sometimes, if a strong cold front moves through, snow will accumulate on the lower elevations such as in 2006, when snow-laden roads caught motorists off-guard and were blamed for several accidents. The coast north of San Francisco, where year-round cool, moist conditions enable redwoods to grow, has almost nothing in common with Livermore, just 40 miles inland across the bay, which has desert-like precipitation and heat. San Jose at the south end of the Bay averages fewer than 15 inches of rain annually, while Napa at the north end of the Bay averages over 30 and parts of the Santa Cruz Mountains just a few miles west of San Jose get over 55. In the summer, inland regions can be over 40 degrees Fahrenheit (22 degrees Celsius) hotter than the oceanic coast when a hot spell is breaking down.
Geology and landforms
Multiple terrains
The area is well known worldwide for the complexity of its landforms, the region being composed of at least six terrains (continental, seabead, or island fragments with distinct characteristics) pushed together over millions of years by the forces of plate tectonics. As a consequence, many types of rock and soil are found in the region. Formations include the sedementry rocks of sandstone, limestone, and shale in uplifted seabeds, metamorphic serpentine rock, coal deposits, and igneous forms as the remnants and ash deposits of extinct volcanos. Pleistocene-era fossils of mammals are abundantly present in some locations.
Vertical relief
The region has considerable vertical relief in its landscapes. In combination with the extensive water regions this has forced the fragmented development of urban and suburban regions and has lead to extensive building on poor soils in the limited flatland areas and considerable expense in connecting the various subregions with roads, tunnels, and bridges.
Earthquake faults
The region is also traversed by at least four major slip-strike fault systems with dozens of related faults that are "sister faults" of the infamous San Andreas Fault, all of which are activated to some extent by the relative motion between the Pacific Plate and the North American plate. Significant thrust faults are associated with portions of the Santa Cruz Mountains and the northern reaches of the Diablo Range and Mount Diablo.
Earthquakes
The region is particularly exposed to hazards associated with large earthquakes, owing to a combination of factors:
- Numerous major active faults in the region.
- A combined thirty year probablity of a major earthquake in excess of seventy percent.
- Poorly responding soil conditions[1] in many places near the bay and in inland valleys, soils which amplify shaking.
- Large areas of filled marshlands and bay muds that are significantly urbanized, with most subject to liquefaction, becoming unable to suport structures.
- A large inventory of older buildings, many of which are expected to perform poorly in a major earthquake.
- Extensive building in areas subject to landslide, mudslide, and in some locations directly over active fault surface rubble zones.
- Most lowrise construction is not fireproof and so subject to destruction by large urban fires after a large earthquake.
Some of these hazards are being addressed by seismic retrofitting, education in household seismic safety, and even complete replacement of major structures such as the eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
For an article concerning a typical fault in the region and its associated hazards see Hayward Fault Zone.
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Transportation
- Main article: Transportation in the San Francisco Bay Area
The Bay Area is served by many public transportation systems, including three international airports (SFO, OAK, SJC), six overlapping bus transit agencies, four rapid transit and regional rail systems including BART, and multiple public ferry services.
The freeway and highway system is very extensive; however, many freeways are heavily congested during rush hour, especially the trans-bay bridges.
Higher education
The region is home to several universities and seminaries, most notably the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University.
Religious life
The San Francisco Bay Area has a very diverse religious life with thousands of churches, mosques, temples, and other religious centers. The Bay Area is home to Buddhist, Catholic, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, and numerous other religious communities.
Sports
- NCAA Division I College Sports
- California Golden Bears
- St. Mary's College Gaels
- San Francisco Dons
- San José State Spartans
- Santa Clara Broncos
- Stanford Cardinal
Regional counties, cities and suburbs
The following lists are based on the ten-county definition of the Bay Area. Cities in bold serve as county seat. The places listed in italics are located in Santa Cruz county, which is excluded by the nine-county definition.
Counties
Cities with more than 200,000 inhabitants
- San Jose, 953,679
- San Francisco, 799,263
- Oakland, 412,318
- Fremont, 243,413
Cities with 100,000 to 200,000 inhabitants
Municipalities and suburbs with 10,000 to 100,000 inhabitants
Municipalities and suburbs with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants
See also
- Islands of San Francisco Bay
- List of San Francisco Bay Area writers
- List of San Francisco Bay Area wildflowers
- United States metropolitan area
References
- ^ "Find a park - San Francisco Bay Area Region". California State Parks. Retrieved June 20.
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External links
- Template:Wikitravel
- Bay Area Experiences.com Community-built site with fun, non-touristy things to do in San Francisco and surrounding areas.
- SFCalendar.org Bringing you inspirational, cultural, educational, entertaining talks, discussions, films and other events in the San Francisco Bay Area.
