Jump to content

San Francisco

Edit links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Paul.h (talk | contribs) at 00:04, 3 September 2006 (→Climate: extend reference). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

"San Francisco" redirects here. For other uses, see San Francisco (disambiguation).
San Francisco, California
Flag of San Francisco, California
Flag
Official seal of San Francisco, California
Seal
Nickname(s): 
The City by the Bay; Fog City
Location of the City and County of San Francisco, California
Location of the City and County of San Francisco, California
City-CountySan Francisco
Government
 • MayorGavin Newsom
Population
 (2005)
 • City739,426
 • Urban
3,385,000
 • Metro
4,152,688[1]
Time zoneUTC-8 (Pacific Standard Time)
 • Summer (DST)UTC-7 (Pacific Daylight Time)
Websitehttp://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.[2] It is located on the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula and has traditionally been the focal point of the San Francisco Bay Area. San Francisco is the second most densely populated major city in the United States.[3]

In 1776, the Spanish became the first Europeans to settle in San Francisco, establishing a mission named for Francis of Assisi. With the advent of the California gold rush in 1848, 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 world.

San Francisco is renowned for its months-long episodes of fog, steep rolling hills, the eclectic mix of Victorian and modern architecture, and its peninsular location surrounded on three sides by the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay. Famous hallmarks and landmarks include the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island, the cable cars, the Transamerica Pyramid, and Chinatown.

History

Main article: History of San Francisco, California

The Yelamu group of the Ohlone people inhabited the San Francisco Peninsula from at least 8000 BCE until the early 19th century. A Spanish exploration party, led by Don Gaspar de Portolà, arriving on November 2, 1769, was the first documented European visit to San Francisco Bay.[4] Six years later a Spanish mission, Mission San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores), was established with a small settlement, and an associated military fort was built in what is now the Presidio.[5]

File:CHS.J2289.jpg
Mission San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores)

The area became part of Mexico upon independence from Spain in 1821. In 1835, Englishman William Richardson erected the first significant homestead outside the immediate vicinity of the Mission Dolores,[6] near a boat anchorage around what is today Portsmouth Square. Together with Mission Alcalde Francisco de Haro, he laid out a street plan for the expanded settlement, and the town, named Yerba Buena, began to attract American settlers. Commodore John D. Sloat claimed California for the United States on July 7, 1846, during the Mexican-American War, and Captain John B. Montgomery arrived to claim Yerba Buena two days later. Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco the next year.[7] Despite its attractive location as a port and naval base, San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography.

The Cable Car on California Street in 1899

The California gold rush brought a flood of treasure seekers. With their sourdough bread in tow, prospectors accumulated in San Francisco over rival Benicia,[8] raising the population from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849.[9] California was quickly granted statehood and the U.S. military built Fort Point at the Golden Gate and a fort on Alcatraz island to secure the San Francisco Bay. Silver discoveries, including the Comstock Lode in 1859, further drove rapid population growth. San Francisco soon became the largest American city west of the Mississippi River. This period was also marked by lawlessness and chaotic growth, and the Barbary Coast area in the city gained notoriety as a haven for criminals, prostitution, and gambling.

Entrepreneurs sought to capitalize on the wealth generated by the gold rush. An early winner was the banking industry which saw the founding of Wells-Fargo by Henry Wells and William G. Fargo in 1852. The railroad industry took hold as the magnates of the Big Four, led by Leland Stanford, collaborated in the building of the First Transcontinental Railroad. The development of the Port of San Francisco established the city as a center of trade. Catering to the needs and tastes of the growing population, Levi Strauss opened a dry goods business and Domingo Ghirardelli began manufacturing chocolate. Immigrant laborers made the city a polyglot culture, with Chinese railroad workers creating the city's Chinatown quarter. The city's sea of Victorian houses began to take shape, and civic leaders, anticipating the pressures of future development, demanded a spacious public park, soon to be Golden Gate Park, to be set aside. San Franciscans built schools, streetcars, churches and all the hallmarks of civic life. The Presidio developed into the most important American military installation on the Pacific coast. By the turn of the century, San Francisco was a city of international renown, celebrated for a flamboyant style, stately hotels, ostentatious mansions on Nob Hill, and a thriving arts scene.

"Not in history has a modern imperial city been so completely destroyed. San Francisco is gone." – Jack London after the 1906 earthquake and fire.[10].

At 5:12 AM on the morning of 18 April 1906, a major earthquake struck San Francisco and northern California. As buildings collapsed from the shaking, ruptured gas lines ignited fires that would spread across the city and burn out of control for several days. With water mains out of service the Army dispatched the Presidio Artillery Corp to attempt to contain the inferno by dynamiting blocks of buildings to create firebreaks.[11] When it was all over, more than three-quarters of the city lay in ruins, including almost all of the downtown core.[12] Contemporary accounts reported that 567 people lost their lives, though modern estimates put the number in the several thousands.[13] More than half the city's population of 400,000 were left homeless.[14] Refugees settled temporarily in makeshift tent villages in Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, on the beaches, and elsewhere. Many fled permanently to the East Bay.

The Palace of Fine Arts at the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition

The rebuilding of the city was rapid and performed on a grand scale. Rejecting calls to completely remake the street grid, San Franciscans opted for speed. Amadeo Giannini's Bank of Italy, later to become Bank of America, provided loans for many of those whose livelihoods had been devastated. The destroyed mansions of Nob Hill became grand hotels. City Hall rose once again in Beaux Arts splendor, and the city celebrated its rebirth at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915.

In ensuing years, the city solidified its standing as a financial capital; in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash, not a single San Francisco-based bank failed.[15] Indeed, it was at the height of the Great Depression that San Francisco undertook two great civil engineering projects, simultaneously constructing the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge, completing them in 1936 and 1937 respectively. It was in this period that the island of Alcatraz, a former military stockade, began its service as a federal maximum security prison, housing notorious inmates such as Al Capone. San Francisco later celebrated its grandeur with a World's Fair, the Golden Gate International Exposition in 1939-40.

File:USSSanFranciscoGGBridge.jpg
The USS San Francisco steams under the Golden Gate Bridge in 1942, during World War II

During World War II, the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard became a hub of activity and Fort Mason became the primary port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific theater of operations.[16] The explosion of jobs drew many people, especially African Americans from the South, to the area, and many returning servicemembers and civilians who had come to work stayed after the end of the war. In April 1945, the UN Charter creating the United Nations was drafted and signed in San Francisco and, in 1951, the Treaty of San Francisco officially ended the war.

Urban planning projects in the 1950s and 1960s saw widespread destruction and redevelopment of westside neighborhoods and the construction of new freeways.[17] The Transamerica Pyramid was completed in 1969. Port activity moved to Oakland, the city began to lose industrial jobs, and San Francisco began to turn to tourism as the most important segment of its economy. The suburbs experienced rapid growth and San Francisco underwent significant demographic change, as large segments of the white population left the city, supplanted by an increasing wave of immigration from Asia and Latin America.[18][19]

File:Gdead5.jpg
The Grateful Dead in Haight-Ashbury

San Francisco became a magnet for America's counterculture. Beat Generation writers centered on the North Beach neighborhood in the 1950s. Hippies flocked to Haight-Ashbury in the 1960s, reaching a peak with the 1967 Summer of Love. In the 1970s, the city became a center of the gay rights movement, with the emergence of The Castro as an urban gay village, the election of Harvey Milk to the Board of Supervisors, and his assassination, along with that of Mayor George Moscone, in 1978.

The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake caused significant destruction and loss of life throughout the Bay Area. In San Francisco, the quake severely damaged structures in the Marina and South of Market districts and precipitated the demolition of the damaged Embarcadero Freeway, allowing the city to reclaim its historic downtown waterfront.

During the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, startup companies invigorated the economy. Large numbers of entrepreneurs and computer application developers moved into the city, followed by marketing and sales professionals that changed the social landscape as once poorer neighborhoods became gentrified. When the bubble burst in 2001, many of these companies folded and their employees left, although high technology and entrepreneurship continue to be mainstays of the San Francisco economy.

Geography

See also: Maps of San Francisco, California
File:San Francisco Landsat7 (Lg).jpg
San Francisco and northern San Mateo County

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, Treasure Island, and the adjacent Yerba Buena Island. Also included are the uninhabited Farallon Islands, 27 miles offshore in the Pacific Ocean. 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.

San Francisco is famous for its hills, which are defined as elevations over 100 ft (30 m). There are a total of 43 hills within city limits.[20] Some neighborhoods are named after the hill on which they are situated, including Nob Hill, Pacific Heights, Russian Hill, Potrero Hill, and Telegraph Hill.

Cars negotiate Lombard Street to descend Russian Hill

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, the site of Sutro Tower, a large red and white radio transmission tower. Nearby is Twin Peaks, a pair of hills resting at one of the city's highest points and a popular overlook spot for tour groups. San Francisco's tallest hill, Mount Davidson, is over 925 ft (282 m) high, on top which is a 103 ft (31.4 m) tall cross built in 1934.

Although neither pass through the city itself, the San Andreas and Hayward faults are responsible for much earthquake activity. It was the San Andreas Fault which slipped and caused the earthquakes in 1906 and 1989. Minor earthquakes occur on a regular basis. 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.

San Francisco's shoreline has grown from its natural state. Entire neighborhoods such as the Marina and Hunters Point, as well as large sections of the Embarcadero sit on areas of landfill. Treasure Island was constructed from material dredged from the bay as well as material resulting from tunneling through Yerba Buena Island during the construction of the Bay Bridge. Such land tends to be unstable during earthquakes; the resultant liquefaction causes extensive damage to property built upon it, as was evidenced in the Marina district during the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake.

Climate

Fog rolling over the Golden Gate Bridge.

A quotation incorrectly attributed to Mark Twain goes, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."[21] Surrounded on three sides by water, San Francisco's climate is strongly influenced by the cool currents of the Pacific Ocean. Average summertime high temperatures in San Francisco are 20°F (9°C) lower than they are in inland locations of the Bay Area like Livermore.[22] Winters are generally mild, almost never reaching freezing temperatures. The months of May-September are fairly dry, with rain a common occurrence from November-March. Snowfall is extraordinarily rare.[23]

The combination of cold ocean water and the high heat of the California mainland creates the city's characteristic fog that can cover the western half of the city all day during the summer and early fall. The fog is less pronounced in late spring and in September and October, which are warmest months of the year. The city also exhibits distinct microclimates, generally much more differentiated in the summer than in the winter. The high hills in the geographic center of the city protect neighborhoods directly to their east from the foggy and cool conditions experienced in the Sunset District. Template:San Francisco, California weatherbox

Neighborhoods

Chinatown
Main article: Neighborhoods in San Francisco, California

The historic center of San Francisco is the northeast quadrant of the city bordered by Market Street to the south. It is here that the Financial District is centered, with Union Square, the principal shopping and hotel district, nearby. The historic cable cars carry residents and tourists alike up and over the steep hills to Nob Hill, once the home of the city's business tycoons, and Fisherman's Wharf, a tourist playground featuring Dungeness crab from a still-active fishing industry. Also in this quadrant are Russian Hill, a residential neighborhood with the famously crooked Lombard Street, North Beach, the city's version of Little Italy, and Telegraph Hill, which features Coit Tower, a landmark dedicated to San Francisco's firefighters. Nearby is San Francisco's Chinatown, established in the 1860s, and among the largest and oldest such neighborhood in the United States. The Tenderloin, often portrayed as the crime-infested underbelly of the city, today features a fledgling Vietnamese community in an area called Little Saigon. Government and cultural institutions, and a fair amount of the city's homeless population, are concentrated in Civic Center.

The Mission District in the center of the city is on the site the site of the earliest habitation in the city, based around the Mission Dolores.[24]. Previously a working-class Italian and Irish neighborhood, it is now populated predominantly by immigrants from Mexico and Central America and their families, but is also gentrifying and is the focal point of today's urban hipster scene. Its streets and alleyways have a large number of colorful community murals. Haight-Ashbury has few remaining vestiges of the influx of hippies that gained it prominence. The Castro, once with a large Scandinavian community when it was known as Eureka Valley, is a quaint gay village, having recovered from the devastation it suffered in the 1980s during the AIDS epidemic. Noe Valley features a vibrant commercial corridor.

The city's Japantown district is the oldest in the country, though not nearly as vibrant today as it was before its residents were forcibly removed during the second world war. The Fillmore, once a focal point of the jazz scene, has a large African American population, as does the nearby Western Addition. With the removal of the Central Freeway, Hayes Valley is undergoing a renaissance. The "Painted Ladies", a row of well-restored Victorian homes, stand alongside Alamo Square. The mansions of Pacific Heights were built by the San Francisco business elite in the wake of the 1906 earthquake. Other wealthy neighborhoods of Sea Cliff, the Marina, and Cow Hollow are on the northern edge of the city. Many of the former military facilities of the Presidio have been converted for residential and commercial use.

Mural in the Mission District

The Richmond District, the vast region north of Golden Gate Park that extends to the Pacific Ocean, once had a large Jewish population.[25] Today a portion is called "New Chinatown", but the district has also attracted people from other parts of Asia and recently seen an influx of Russian and Eastern European immigrants. South of Golden Gate Park is the Sunset District with a large Asian population. Together with the Richmond, it forms an area known as The Avenues. Abutting the Sunset is the Inner Sunset, a gentrifying commercial neighborhood close to UCSF. The neighborhoods west of Twin Peaks, including Forest Hill, West Portal and St. Francis Wood feature large detached homes. The southern and western portion of the city is influenced by students at S.F. State and CCSF. Ethnically-mixed working-class regions extend further east, including the Excelsior, Crocker-Amazon, Visitacion Valley, and Bayview-Hunters Point.

Current demographic and land use expansion is concentrated in the east. The South of Market, filled with decaying remnants of San Francisco's industrial past, has seen significant development in recent years. The construction of the SFMOMA, Yerba Buena Gardens, and the recently expanded Moscone Center have transformed the area between Third and Fifth Streets. The focus of the dot-com boom during the late 1990s, South of Market has seen new skyscrapers and condominiums dot the area, with future growth planned for Rincon Hill. Following the success of nearby South Beach, which profited from the construction of baseball stadium AT&T Park, a new neighborhood, Mission Bay, is being developed at the far eastern end of South of Market. A new campus of UCSF, housing biomedical research facilities, anchors the Mission Bay development. An extension of the city's light rail system will have an impact on the industrial Dogpatch area adjacent to gentrified Potrero Hill.

Beaches and Parks

The Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park
Baker Beach
Main article: Parks in San Francisco, California

Ocean Beach runs along the Pacific Ocean shoreline, and Baker Beach occupies a stunning setting just west of the Golden Gate Bridge. They are not suitable for swimming because the waters off the coast are cold and have deadly rip currents. The biggest and most well-known park is Golden Gate Park, stretching from the center of the city to the ocean. Once covered only in grass and sand dunes, the park is planted with thousands of non-native trees and plants and contains attractions such as the Conservatory of Flowers and Strybing Arboretum. The Presidio, a former military base, and its Crissy Field section, restored to its natural salt marsh condition, are part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which includes Alcatraz, and other regional parks. Buena Vista Park is the city's oldest, established in 1867. A large fresh-water lake, Lake Merced, is located in the southwest corner of the city.

Demographics

Population (thousands) by year [26]
See also: Maps of San Francisco, California

The population of San Francisco peaked at 776,733 in 2000, at the height of the dot-com boom, declining by about 35,000 residents by 2005. With nearly 16,000 people per square mile, San Francisco is the second most densely populated major American city after New York.[27] San Francisco is the traditional 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 - the fifth largest in the United States.[28]

San Francisco is a minority-majority city as non-Hispanic Whites make up less than 44% of the population. Asian Americans, principally Chinese, comprise nearly 31% of the population, giving the city the highest such concentration of any city in the continental United States. Hispanics of any race make up just over 14% of the population. At less than 8% of the population, San Francisco has a lower concentration of African Americans than the United States as a whole.[29]

San Francisco has the highest percentage of same-sex households of any American county, with the Bay Area having a higher concentration than any other metropolitan area.[30] Gay men outnumber lesbians; it has been estimated that one in five males over the age of 15 is gay.[31] Few of San Francisco's residents have lived there their whole lives. Only 35% of its residents were born in California; 39% were born outside the United States.[32] An outmigration of middle class families has left the city with a lower proportion of children, 14.5%, than any other large city in the United States.[33]

Government

See also: List of Mayors of San Francisco

The City and County of San Francisco is a consolidated city-county, a status it has had since 1856. It is the only such consolidation in California. The mayor is also the county executive and the city council acts as the county board of supervisors.

San Francisco City Hall

Because of its unique status, it exercises jurisdiction over property that would otherwise be located outside of its corporation limit. San Francisco International Airport, though located in San Mateo County, is owned and operated by the City and County of San Francisco. San Francisco was also granted a perpetual leasehold over the Hetch Hetchy Valley and watershed in Yosemite National Park, by the Raker Act in 1913.

Under the current charter, the Government of San Francisco is constituted of two co-equal branches. The executive branch is headed by the mayor, elected every four years, and includes other city-wide elected and appointed officials, and the civil service. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the legislative branch, is headed by a President (currently Aaron Peskin) and exercises general oversight over all city and county functions. If the mayor dies or resigns, the President of the Board of Supervisors assumes the office, as Dianne Feinstein did after the assassination of George Moscone in 1978. The 11 members of the Board of Supervisors are elected as representatives of specific districts within the city.[34] Elected officials may not serve more than two consecutive terms due to term limits.

The federal government utilizes San Francisco as the regional hub for many arms of the federal bureaucracy, including the U. S. Court of Appeals, the Federal Reserve Bank, and the United States Mint. Alcatraz was formerly used as a military stockade and as a maximum-security federal prison. Until decommissioning in the early 1990s, the city had three major military installations - the Presidio, Treasure Island, and Hunters Point - a legacy still reflected in the annual celebration of Fleet Week.

The State of California uses San Francisco as the home of the state Supreme Court and other state agencies. Foreign governments have located in excess of thirty foreign consulates in San Francisco.[35] The municipal budget is greater than $5 billion.[36]

Economy

See also: Companies Headquartered in San Francisco, California

Tourism is the backbone of the San Francisco economy. The city attracts the fifth highest number of foreign tourists of any city in the United States,[37] and is one of the top 50 destinations in the world.[38] More than 15 million visitors came to San Francisco in 2005, injecting nearly $7.5 billion into the economy.[39] With a large hotel and restaurant infrastructure and a world-class facility in the Moscone Center, San Francisco also is a popular destination for conventions and conferences.

The San Francisco skyline including Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill and the Transamerica Pyramid in the Financial District

The legacy of the California gold rush turned San Francisco into the main banking and financial center of the West Coast. Montgomery Street in the Financial District is known as the "Wall Street of the West", home to the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and formerly the site of the Pacific Exchange. Bank of America, a pioneer in making banking services accessible to the middle class, was founded in San Francisco. Many large financial institutions, including VISA, Wells Fargo and Charles Schwab, are still based in the city. Major multinational banks and venture capital firms set up regional headquarters in the city. A large support infrastructure of professional services, including law, public relations, architecture, and graphic design firms, also populates the downtown. San Francisco is one of 10 Beta World Cities.

San Francisco's economy has increasingly become tied to that of Silicon Valley to the south, sharing a need for highly educated workers with specialized skills. It has been positioning itself as a biotechnology and biomedical hub and research center. The Mission Bay neighborhood, site of a new campus of UCSF, fosters a budding industry and serving as headquarters of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the public agency funding stem cell research programs statewide. The city is also home to the McKesson Corporation, number 16 on the Fortune 500[40] and the largest medical device supplier in the United States.

The penetration of national big box retail chains into the city has been slow. The Small Business Commission supports local merchants in an effort to keep a larger share of retail dollars in the local economy.[41] Small businesses with fewer than ten employees and self-employed firms make up 85% of city establishments.[42] The number of San Franciscans employed by firms of greater than 1000 employees has fallen by half since 1977.[32]

Media

"One day if I do go to heaven...I'll look around and say, 'It ain't bad, but it ain't San Francisco.'" – Herb Caen, columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle

The San Francisco Chronicle, a broadsheet for which Herb Caen famously published his daily musings, is northern California's most widely circulated newspaper.[43] The San Francisco Examiner, once the cornerstone of William Randolph Hearst's media empire, has declined in circulation over the years and been reduced to a small tabloid.[44][45] Sing Tao Daily claims to be the largest of several Chinese language dailies that serve the Bay Area.[46] Alternative weekly newspapers include the San Francisco Bay Guardian and SF Weekly. San Francisco Magazine is a major glossy magazine. There are numerous community-specific papers that serve niche markets and individual neighborhoods

The San Francisco metro area is the sixth largest designated market area in the United States.[47] All the major television networks have affiliates serving the Bay Area region, with most of them based in the city. There are also some unaffiliated stations. CNN and BBC have regional offices in San Francisco.

Public broadcasting outlets include both a television station and a radio station, broadcasting under the name KQED out of a facility in Potrero Hill. KQED-FM is the most-listened to National Public Radio affiliate in the country.[48]

San Francisco pioneered the use of the internet as a media outlet. Salon.com is based in San Francisco, as is the gay-oriented online community PlanetOut.

Education

Colleges and universities

See also: List of colleges and universities in San Francisco

Though somewhat overshadowed by nearby Stanford University in Palo Alto and the University of California in Berkeley, San Francisco is home to several noteworthy schools. San Francisco State University is part of the California State University system and is located near Lake Merced. The school has close to 30,000 students and awards undergraduate and master's degrees in more than 100 disciplines. The City College of San Francisco, with its main facility in Ingleside, is one of the largest two-year community colleges in the country, claims an extensive continuing education program and an enrollment of about 65,000.[49] Founded in 1855, the Jesuit-run University of San Francisco, located on Lone Mountain, focuses on the liberal arts, and is one of the oldest universities established west of the Mississippi.

File:UCSF-Mission Bay.jpg
The Mission Bay campus of UCSF

The University of California, San Francisco is one of the ten campuses of the University of California system, and is San Francisco's second largest employer. It is the medical school of the University of California and ranked among the top-five in the United States.[50] It also operates the UCSF Medical Center, ranked among the top 10 hospitals in the United States.[51] A 43-acre Mission Bay campus, complementing its original facility in Parnassus Heights, opened in 2003. It contains research space and facilities to foster biotechnology and life sciences entrepreneurship and will double the size of UCSF's research enterprise. The University of California, Hastings College of the Law, founded in Civic Center in 1878, is the oldest law school in California and claims more judges on the state bench than any other institution.[52]

Visual arts are served by the San Francisco Art Institute, an accredited school of contemporary art, and Academy of Art University, the largest private school of art and design in the USA.[53] The San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the only school of its kind on the west coast, grants degrees in orchestral instruments, chamber music, composition, and conducting. The California Culinary Academy, associated with the Le Cordon Bleu program, offers programs in the culinary arts, baking & pastry arts, and hospitality & restaurant management.

Primary and secondary schools

San Francisco Unified School District operates all public schools in San Francisco. Lowell High School, the oldest public high school in the U.S. west of the Mississippi, is the larger of San Francisco's two magnet schools.

San Francisco has more than 100 private schools.[54] Just under 30 percent of the city's school-age population attends private or religious schools, compared to a 10 percent rate nationwide..[54] The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco manages nearly 40 of those schools.[55]

Culture and contemporary life

Main article: Culture of San Francisco, California

The great wealth and opportunity generated by the information revolution in the 1990s drew many high income earners to San Francisco. The cost and standard of living in the city was driven up.[56] At the same time, downtown saw a renaissance driven by the redevelopment of the Embarcadero, including the renovation of the Ferry Building as a high-end food mrketplace[57] and the construction of a new baseball stadium in South Beach.

Boutiques along Fillmore Street in Pacific Heights

Property values, per capita income, and cost-of-living are among the highest in the nation.[58][59] As a result of the high cost of living, many middle class families have left, moving to other cities within the San Francisco Bay Area, and the population of children is among the lowest for major American cities.[33]

Although the centralized commerce and shopping districts downtown, including the Financial District and the area around Union Square, are well-known, San Francisco is also characterized by a rich street environment featuring many mixed-use neighborhoods anchored around central commercial corridors to which residents and visitors alike can walk. They feature a mix of businesses and restaurants catering to the daily needs of the community and drawing in visitors. Some are highly gentrified, dotted with boutiques, cafes and nightlife, such as Union Street in Cow Hollow, Columbus Avenue in North Beach and 24th Street in Noe Valley. Others are less so, including Irving Street in the Sunset or Mission Street in the Mission.

The rainbow flag in The Castro.

The international character San Francisco has had since its founding is witnessed today by large numbers of immigrants from Asia and Latin America. With 39% of its residents born overseas[32], San Francisco has numerous neighborhoods filled with businesses and civic institutions catering to new arrivals. In particular, the arrival of many ethnic Chinese, which accelerated beginning in the 1970s, complemented the already-established community based in Chinatown and has transformed the annual Chinese New Year Parade into the largest cultural event of its kind[60]

The writers and artists of the 1950s established a coffeehouse culture that lingers today. Following the social upheavals of the 1960s, San Francisco became one of the hypocenters of liberal activism, with Democrats, Greens, and progressives dominating city politics. The gay rights movement of the 1970s precipitated the powerful presence gays and lesbians have in city life. A popular destination for gay tourists, it hosts San Francisco Pride, the world's best known gay pride parade and festival.

San Francisco has been ranked by the Mercer human resources firm as one of the best cities to live in United States.[61] The city's residents have been judged to be among the healthiest[62] and fittest[63] in the United States.

Although the poverty rate is among the lowest for major American cities,[64] homelessness has been a chronic and controversial problem for San Francisco since the early 1980s. The city is believed to have the highest number of homeless inhabitants per capita of any major city in the United States.[65]The problem became a significant issue in the mayoral campaigns of Frank Jordan and Gavin Newsom.

Performing Arts

Inside the War Memorial Opera House

San Francisco's War Memorial and Performing Arts Center features some of the longest running performing arts companies in the United States. The War Memorial Opera House houses the San Francisco Opera and San Francisco Ballet, while the San Francisco Symphony plays in Davies Symphony Hall. The Herbst Theatre stages an eclectic mix of music performances, as well as public radio's City Arts & Lectures.

The Fillmore is a music venue located in the Western Addition. It is the second incarnation of a venue which gained fame in the 1960s under concert promoter Bill Graham and was where the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, and Jefferson Airplane got their start and fostered the San Francisco Sound. Beach Blanket Babylon is a zany musical revue and civic institution. It has performed to sold out crowds in North Beach since 1974.

The American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) has been a leading force in Bay Area performing arts, routinely staging original productions. San Francisco frequently hosts national touring productions of Broadway shows and has in recent years also been used for trial pre-Broadway runs of new ones.

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art from Yerba Buena Gardens

Museums

See also: List of Museums in San Francisco

The Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) contains 20th Century and contemporary pieces. It moved to its iconic building in South of Market in 1995 and attracts 600,000 visitors annually.[66] The Palace of the Legion of Honor contains primarily European works. The De Young Museum and the Asian Art Museum have significant anthropological and non-European holdings.

The Palace of Fine Arts, originally built for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition, today houses the Exploratorium, a popular science museum dedicated to teaching through hands-on interaction. The California Academy of Sciences is a natural history museum and hosts the Morrison Planetarium and Steinhart Aquarium. The San Francisco Zoo in the southwestern part of the city cares for 250 animal species.

Sports

The San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League are the longest-tenured major professional sports franchise in the city. They began play in 1946 and moved to their present location in Monster Park on Candlestick Point in 1971. They reached prominence in the 1980s and 1990s, winning five Super Bowl titles behind stars Joe Montana, Steve Young, and Jerry Rice.

A Muni light rail passes AT&T Park, home of the San Francisco Giants

The San Francisco Giants Major League Baseball team of the National League famously left New York for California prior to the 1958 season, supplanting the minor league San Francisco Seals. Though boasting stars such as Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, and Barry Bonds, they have yet to win the World Series while based in San Francisco. Game 3 of the 1989 World Series in San Francisco was infamously pre-empted by the Loma Prieta Earthquake. The Giants play at AT&T Park which was opened in 2000, a cornerstone project of the South Beach and Mission Bay redevelopment.[67]

Although the San Francisco Warriors, before moving to Oakland, played for a time at the Cow Palace, which also briefly hosted the San Jose Sharks, neither the NBA nor the NHL currently has a franchise in the city. The San Francisco Dragons of Major League Lacrosse play at Kezar Stadium. The San Francisco Pilots of the fledgling American Basketball Association play at Kezar Pavilion.

The Dons, the athletic teams of the University of San Francisco, compete in NCAA Division I. Bill Russell led the Dons to NCAA men's basketball championships in 1955 and 1956. The San Francisco State Gators compete in Division II.

The Bay to Breakers has been held annually since 1912, the longest consecutively run footrace in the world. It is best known for its colorful costumes and celebratory community spirit. The San Francisco Marathon is also an annual event.

Transportation

The Bay Bridge connects to Oakland and the East Bay.

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. that has opted for European-style arterial thoroughfares instead of a large network of freeways. City residents continued this trend following the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, choosing to demolish the Embarcadero Freeway and a portion of the Central Freeway and convert them into street-level boulevards.

Interstate 80 begins at the approach to the Bay Bridge and is the only direct automobile link to the East Bay. U.S. Route 101 extends Interstate 80 to the south along the San Francisco Bay toward Silicon Valley. Northbound, 101 uses arterial streets Van Ness Avenue and Lombard Street to the Golden Gate Bridge, the only direct road access from San Francisco to Marin County and points north. Highway 1 also enters San Francisco at the Golden Gate Bridge, but diverts away from 101, bisecting the west side of the city as the 19th Avenue arterial thoroughfare, and joining with Interstate 280 at the city's southern border. Interstate 280 continues this route along the central portion of the Peninsula south to San Jose. Northbound, 280 turns north and east and terminates in the South of Market area. Major east-west thoroughfares include Geary Boulevard, the Lincoln Way/Fell Street corridor, and Market Street/Portola Drive.

Public transportation

A cable car climbing Nob Hill

Public transit solely within the city of San Francisco is provided predominantly by the San Francisco Municipal Railway (Muni). The city-owned system operates both a combined light rail/subway system (the Muni Metro) and a bus network that includes both trolleybuses and standard diesel buses. Additionally, Muni runs the F Market historic streetcar line and the iconic San Francisco cable car system.

Commuter rail is provided by two complementary agencies. Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is the regional rapid transit system which connects San Francisco with the East Bay through the Transbay Tube. It extends south of the city through northern San Mateo County to San Francisco International Airport. Caltrain is a separate system that runs along the Peninsula from San Francisco to San Jose, stopping in many communities in between, and continuing further south with limited service to Gilroy in southern Santa Clara County.

The Transbay Terminal serves as the terminus for long range bus service (such as Greyhound) and as a hub for regional bus systems AC Transit (to Alameda County), SamTrans (San Mateo County), and Golden Gate Transit (Marin and Sonoma Counties). Amtrak also runs a shuttle bus from San Francisco to its rail station in Emeryville.

A small fleet of commuter and tourist ferries operate from the Ferry Building and Pier 39 to points in Marin County, Oakland, and north to Vallejo in Solano County.

Airports

See also: List of airports in the San Francisco Bay area

San Francisco International Airport (SFO), though located 13 miles (21 km) south of the city in San Mateo County, is under the jurisdiction of the City and County of San Francisco. It is a hub for United Airlines, its largest tenant,[68] and the decision by Virgin America to base its future operations out of SFO[69] reverses the trend of low-cost carriers opting to bypass SFO for Oakland and San Jose. SFO is the second-most important departure point for international traffic leaving the west coast, with the largest international terminal in North America.[70] The airport is built on a landfill extension into the San Francisco Bay. During the economic boom of the late 1990s, when traffic saturation led to frequent delays, it became difficult to respond to calls to relieve the pressure by constructing an additional runway as that would have required additional landfill. Such calls subsided in the early 2000s as traffic declined, and SFO is now the 14th busiest airport in the United States,[71] and 23rd largest in the world,[72] handling 32.8 million people in 2005.[73]

Seaports

The Ferry Building along the Embarcadero
Main article: Port of San Francisco

The Port of San Francisco was once the largest and busiest seaport on the West Coast. It featured rows of piers perpendicular to the shore, where cargo from the moored ships was handled by cranes and manual labor and transported to nearby warehouses. The port handled cargo to and from trans-Pacific and Atlantic destinations, and was the west coast center of the lumber trade. The 1934 West Coast Longshore Strike, the largest in American history, and an important episode in the history of the American labor movement, brought the port to a standstill. The advent of container shipping made pier-based ports obsolete and most commercial berths have now moved to the Port of Oakland.

Many piers remained derelict for years until the demolition of the Embarcadero Freeway reopened the downtown waterfront, allowing for redevelopment. The centerpiece of the port, the Ferry Building, while still receiving commuter ferry traffic, has been restored and redeveloped as a gourmet marketplace. The port's other activities now focus on developing waterside assets to support recreation and tourism.

References

  1. ^ Annual Estimates of the Population of Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2005 (CBSA-EST2005-01). Does not include San Jose or the South Bay. Retrieved on August 24, 2006.
  2. ^ Census Bureau Estimates Program (2005)
  3. ^ "2000 Census: US Municipalities Over 50,000: Ranked by 2000 Population". Demographia For cities greater than 200,000. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help); Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ "Don Gaspar de Portola, October 31, 1769". Hallman.org. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ De La Perouse, Jean Francois. Life in a California Mission: Monterey in 1786 : The Journals of Jean Francois De La Perouse. ISBN 0-930588-39-8. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ "From the 1820s to the Gold Rush". The City of San Francisco Virtual History Museum. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ History of Yerba Buena Gardens Yerba Buena Gardens Accessed August 28, 2003
  8. ^ San Francisco's First Brick BuildingThe Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco, Accessed August 28, 2006
  9. ^ Richards, Rand (1991). Historic San Francisco: A Concise History and Guide. Heritage House. ISBN 1-879367-00-9.
  10. ^ The Story of an Eyewitness by Jack LondonThe Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco, Accessed August 29, 2006
  11. ^ "Presidio of San Francisco: Firefighting and Dynamiting". National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior Golden Gate National Recreation Area. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  12. ^ Remembering the 1906 Earthquake National Public Radio, Accessed August 29, 2006
  13. ^ "Who Perished" A list of Persons Who Died as a Result of the Great Earthquake and Fire in San Francisco on April 18, 1906 "The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco" Accessed August 27, 2006
  14. ^ 1906 Earthquake and Fire The Presidio of San Francisco Accessed August 29, 2006
  15. ^ San Francisco Gold Rush Banking "The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco" Accessed August 27, 2006
  16. ^ World War II in the San Francisco Bay Area National Park Service Accessed August 29, 2006.
  17. ^ Urban Renewal Revisited: A Design CritiqueSan Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, Accessed August 28, 2006
  18. ^ Willia, James et al. San Francisco Planning Department Census Data Analysis (PPT) San Francisco State University Department of Urban Studies Accessed August 31, 2005.
  19. ^ Minton, Torri Race through Time [[San Francisco Chronicle (September 20, 1998). Accessed September 1, 2006.
  20. ^ Hansen, Gladys (1995). San Francisco Almanac. Chronicle Books. ISBN 0-8118-0841-6.
  21. ^ Nolte, Carl (August 19, 2005). "FOG HEAVEN: The sun will come out tomorrow. Or maybe not. It's summer in the city, and that means gray skies". San Francisco Chronicle. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  22. ^ "Weatherbase.com climate data for Livermore, California". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  23. ^ "San Francisco Historical Snowfall". Golden Gate Weather Services. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  24. ^ California Mission History: Mission San Francisco de Asís CaliforniaMissions.com Accessed August 27, 2006
  25. ^ Ungaretti, Lorri (2005). San Francisco's Richmond District. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 0738530530.
  26. ^ "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". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  27. ^ "G.I.S. Lounge U.S. Population Density, 2000 Census". {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  28. ^ Census 2000 PHC-T-29. Ranking Tables for Population of Metropolitan Statistical Areas, Micropolitan Statistical Areas, Combined Statistical Areas, New England City and Town Areas, and Combined New England City and Town Areas: 1990 and 2000 (XLS) U. S. Census Bureau December 30, 2003. Accessed August 31, 2006.
  29. ^ Table DP-1. Profile of General Demographic Characteristics: 2000 Geographic Area: San Francisco County, California (PDF) U. S. Census Bureau Accessed August 31, 2006.
  30. ^ "Gay and Lesbian Families in the United States: Same-Sex Unmarried Partner Households (PDF)" (PDF). Human Rights Campaign. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  31. ^ "San Francisco may be the World's Gayest City". People's Daily (China). April 10, 2006. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  32. ^ a b c "An Overview of San Francisco's Recent Economic Performance" (PDF). City and County of San Francisco. May 3, 2006. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  33. ^ a b Leff, Lisa (May 24, 2005). "Child Population Dwindles in San Francisco". San Francisco Chronicle. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  34. ^ "Board of Supervisors District Information". www.sfgov.org. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  35. ^ Search for consulates in San Francisco, CA Yellowpages.com, Accessed August 27, 2006
  36. ^ "A Guide to San Francisco's Budget Process, April, 2005 (PDF)" (PDF). City and County of San Francisco Controller's Office. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  37. ^ Overseas Visitors To Select U.S. Cities/Hawaiian Islands 2002-2001"U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Travel & Tourism Industries" Accessed August 27, 2006
  38. ^ World's Top 50 Tourist Destinations www.Srikumar.com Accessed August 27, 2006
  39. ^ Raine, George. Tourism dollars add up: San Francisco seeing more visitors, more cash -- it's our No. 1 industry. San Francisco Chronicle (May 13, 2006). Accessed August 23, 2006.
  40. ^ Fortune 500 2006 CNNMoney.com Accessed August 31, 2006
  41. ^ Said, Carolyn (November 29, 2005). "Main Street Fights Chain Street". San Francisco Chronicle. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  42. ^ Tan, Aldrich M. (April 12, 2006). "San Francisco is gateway city for immigrants and Silicon Valley Technology". San Francisco Sentinel. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  43. ^ Top 200 Newspapers by Largest Reported Circulation Audit Bureau of Circulations Accessed August 28, 2006
  44. ^ Rosenberg, Scott (March 20, 2000). "The San Francisco Examiner, 1887-2000". Salon.com. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  45. ^ Nolte, Carl (November 22, 2000). "Examiner Staff Ends and Era With Tears, Newsroom Tales". San Francisco Chronicle. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  46. ^ Hua, Vanessa (August 3, 2004). "Newspaper war in the Bay Area: Ming Pao becomes 6th Chinese-language daily". San Francisco Chronicle. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  47. ^ Nielsen Media Research Local Universe Estimates Accessed August 27, 2006
  48. ^ Top 30 Public Radio Subscribers - Winter 2004 Arbitron "Radio Research Consortium" Accessed August 27, 2006
  49. ^ Enrollment Report 2002 City College of San Francisco. Accessed August 27, 2006 (PDF).
  50. ^ America's best graduate schools 2007. U.S. News and World Report. Accessed August 26, 2006.
  51. ^ Best Hospitals 2006 U.S. News and World Report. Accessed August 26, 2006.
  52. ^ Hastings Quick Facts Accessed August 30, 2006
  53. ^ About Us Academy of Art University Website, Accessed August 27, 2006.
  54. ^ a b Knight, Heather (May 31, 2006). "Many reluctantly chose private schools". San Francisco Chronicle. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  55. ^ School Directory Department of Catholic Schools. Accessed August 27, 2006.
  56. ^ San Francisco by the Numbers: Planning after the 2000 Census. San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, Accessed August 28, 2006
  57. ^ Ferry Building HistoryFerry Building Marketplace, Accessed August 30, 2006
  58. ^ Sadovi, Maura Webber (April 10, 2006). "San Francisco's Home Prices Remain Among the Highest in U.S." The Wall Street Journal. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  59. ^ It may not feel like it, but your shot at the good life is getting better. Here's why San Francisco Magazine Accessed August 28, 2006
  60. ^ Lam, Eric San Francisco Chinese New Year Parade Embroiled in Controversy The Epoch Times (December 22, 2005) Accessed August 31, 2006.
  61. ^ "City Mayors: Quality of city life". City Mayors. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  62. ^ "Study: San Jose is Healthiest, June 16, 2005". CBSNews. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  63. ^ "America's Fattest Cities". Men's Fitness. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  64. ^ Johnson, Jason B. (August 31, 2005). "U.S. Census finds more are poor" (HTML). San Francisco Chronicle. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  65. ^ Pratt, Timothy (August 13–14, 2006). "Critics say regional plan won't solve the problem" (HTML). Las Vegas Sun. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: date format (link)
  66. ^ Corporate Sponsorship (SFMOMA Facts and Audience) San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Accessed September 1, 2006
  67. ^ EPA Study: SBC Park Environmental Protection Agency, Accessed August 28, 2006
  68. ^ Young, Eric (April 2, 2004). "Pact keeps United from flying away" (HTML). San Francisco Business Times. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  69. ^ Raine, George (December 9, 2005). "Taking to the air: Low-fare startup Virgin America says it has the funding to fly" (HTML). San Francisco Chronicle. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |accessmonthday= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  70. ^ International Terminal Fact Sheet. Retrieved on August 22, 2006.
  71. ^ North America's largest airports by number of passengers. Retrieved on August 23, 2006.
  72. ^ World's largest airports by number of passengers. Retrieved on August 23, 2006.
  73. ^ San Francisco International Airport 2005 Passenger Fact Sheet. Retrieved on August 23, 2006.

See also

Template:USLargestCities

Template:Link FA Template:Link FA

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=San_Francisco&oldid=73484666"