|
San Francisco
Find cheap accommodation here.
About San Francisco
The City and County of San Francisco (population 776,773),
the fourth-largest city in the state of California, United
States, is a consolidated city-county situated at the northern
tip of the San Francisco Peninsula that forms San Francisco
Bay.
The city is the focal point of the San Francisco Bay Area
metropolitan area whose total population is about 7 million.
Golden Gate BridgeThe first Europeans to settle in San Francisco
were the Spanish, in 1776. The city grew rapidly due to the
California gold rush starting in 1848.
The city was devastated by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake,
but was rebuilt quickly. Long enjoying a bohemian reputation,
the city became a counterculture magnet in the second half
of the 20th century. It was a center of the dot-com boom at
the end of the century.
San Francisco, California
City flag City seal
City nickname: "The Golden Gate City"
Location in the state of California
County City and County of San Francisco, California
Area
- Total
- Water
600.7 km² (231.9 mi²)
479.7 km² (185.2 mi²) 79.86%
Population
- Total (2000)
- Density
776,733
6,423.2/km^2
Time zone Pacific: UTC-8
Latitude
Longitude
37°46' N
122°26' W
The city is well known for its cable cars, the Golden Gate
Bridge and the Transamerica Pyramid.
History
European visitors to the Bay Area were preceded 10,000 to
20,000 years earlier by native people indigenous to the area.
These people, later called the Ohlone (a Miwok Indian word
meaning "western people"), lived in the coastal
area between Point Sur and the San Francisco Bay.
European discovery and exploration of the San Francisco Bay
Area began in 1542 and culminated with the mapping of the
bay in 1775. A Spanish party led by Juan Bautista de Anza
arrived on March 28, 1776 and established the sites for the
Presidio of San Francisco and Mission San Francisco de Asis
(named for Saint Francis of Assisi and now popularly known
as "Mission Dolores"). The area first began to develop
as a city under the name of Yerba Buena in 1822, when what
is now the downtown area was first settled by William Richardson,
an English whaler.
Yerba Buena remained a small town until the Mexican-American
War broke out and a naval force under Commodore John D. Sloat
took it in 1846 in the name of the United States. It was then
renamed "San Francisco" on 30 January 1847.
The California gold rush starting in 1848 led to a large
growth in population, including considerable immigration.
Between January 1848 and December 1849, the population of
San Francisco increased from 1,000 to 25,000. The Chinatown
district of the city is still one of the largest in the country.
Many businesses started at that time to service the growing
population are still present today, notably Levi Strauss clothing,
Ghirardelli chocolate, and Wells Fargo bank.
Like many mining towns, the political situation in early
San Francisco was chaotic. This was exacerbated by squabbling
in the United States Senate, where the Compromise of 1850
was igniting a fierce fight over slavery. Disgusted by increasing
corruption and crime, a group of San Franciscans formed a
Committee of Vigilance in 1851, and again in 1856. This military
government exiled many citizens, executed a few, and forced
several elected officials to resign. The Committee of Vigilance
relinquished power both times after it decided the city had
been 'cleaned up'.
San Francisco became the USA's largest city west of those
on the Mississippi River.
Market Street, early 20th centurySan Francisco County was
one of the original counties of California, created in 1850
at the time of statehood. Parts of the county were given to
San Mateo County in 1856.
Founded in 1855, The University of San Francisco was one
of the first universities in the West. The University will
celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2005. Located near Turk
and Masonic the campus can be seen from miles around. The
University of San Francisco is best known for its high academic
rigor, and Law school attracting students from around the
world.
The most colorful figure of late 19th century San Francisco
was "Emperor" Joshua A. Norton.
On April 18, 1906, a devastating earthquake struck the city.
This was estimated by modern scientists to have reached 8.25
on the Richter scale. The fires that followed were even more
destructive, burning out of control for days and destroying
the vast majority of the buildings in the city. Hundreds of
residents were killed (some say thousands actually died),
but the majority of the population escaped serious physical
harm. (The 1936 movie San Francisco is set in the midst of
these events.) Rebuilding of the city began almost immediately.
See also: 1906 San Francisco earthquake
A black-and-white photograph of the Golden Gate BridgeIn 1915,
the city hosted the Panama-Pacific Exposition, officially
to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal, but also as
a showcase of the vibrant completely rebuilt city less than
a decade after the Earthquake. On July 22, 1916 a bomb exploded
on Market Street during a Preparedness Day parade, killing
10 and injuring 40.
The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge was opened in 1936 and
the Golden Gate Bridge in 1937. During World War II, San Francisco
was the major mainland supply point and port of embarkation
for the war in the Pacific. The United Nations Charter was
drafted at San Francisco in 1945.
San Francisco has often been a magnet for America's counterculture.
During the 1950s, City Lights Bookstore in the North Beach
neighborhood was an important publisher of beatnik literature.
During the latter half of the following decade, the 1960s,
San Francisco was the center of hippie culture. Thousands
of young people poured into the Haight-Ashbury district of
the city during 1967, which was known as the Summer of Love.
At this time, the "San Francisco sound" emerged
as an influential force in rock music, with such acts as the
Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead achieving international
prominence, blurring the boundaries between folk, rock and
jazz traditions. The Church Of Satan was founded and made
its headquarters here in 1966.
In the 1970s, large numbers of gay people moved to San Francisco's
Castro district. Tensions arose in the city over the cultural
changes wrought by this migration, and these tensions led
to tragedy in 1978 when a conservative member of the Board
of Supervisors, Dan White, murdered a gay Supervisor, Harvey
Milk and the city's mayor George Moscone on November 27 (see
"Twinkie Defense"). Today, the gay population of
the city is estimated to be at about 15%, and gays remain
an important force in the city's politics.
During the 1980s, homeless people began appearing in large
numbers in the city, the result of factors that were affecting
the country at large combined with San Francisco's attractive
environment and forgiving policies: economic and social changes,
the popularity of new addictive drugs, and the wide dispersal
of Vietnam veterans are often cited as reasons for the growth
of the problem. Mayor Art Agnos(1988-92) was the first to
attack the problem, and not the last; it's a top issue for
San Franciscans even today. Agnos allowed the homeless to
camp in the Civic Center park, which led to its title of "Camp
Agnos." The failure of this lenient policy led to his
being replaced by Frank Jordan in 1992. Jordan launched the
"MATRIX" program the next year, which aimed to displace
the homeless through aggressive police action. And it did
displace them - to the rest of the city. His successor, Willie
Brown, was able to largely ignore the problem, riding on the
strong economy into a second term.
During the dot-com boom of the 1990s, large numbers of young
entrepreneurs and computer software professionals moved into
the city, followed by hordes of marketing and sales professionals,
and changed the economic landscape as once poorer neighborhoods
became gentrified. The rising rents forced many people and
businesses to leave, and this caused considerable tension
in the city's politics. The resulting backlash resulted in
a progressive majority winning control of the Board of Supervisors
in the 2000 election.
By 2001, the boom was over, and many of the dot com people
left in search of the next opportunity. SoMa, where many dot
com companies were located, had been bustling and crowded
with nearly no vacancies, but by 2002 was a virtual wasteland
of empty offices and for rent signs.
In November of 2002, three off-duty police officers (one
the son of the assistant chief) reportedly assaulted two civilians
over a bag of steak fajitas. The resulting scandal was dubbed
"Fajitagate" after it was alleged that high-ranking
officers within the Police Department had tried to cover up
the incident. Though top officials were formally indicted,
they were soon exonerated, but with considerable damage to
their reputations, and having brought the city nationwide
ridicule.
The 2003 mayoral election of Matt Gonzalez versus Gavin Newsom
was notable in that it was between a candidate of the progressive
left and a moderate liberal, conservative candidates having
had a hard time in the city. The newly elected Mayor Newsom,
who won by a close margin (thanks in part to almost unanimous
support by the city's Republican voters), burst onto national
political scene, when in defiance of state law, he led San
Francisco to become the first city in the U.S. to issue same-sex
marriage licenses in February, 2004. Newsom also helped enact
a strong new homeless policy, "Care Not Cash," in
which the checks that homeless people previously received
were replaced with vouchers for housing. This policy appears
to be having some effect; demand for the vouchers is much
weaker compared to the previous payment system.
Geography and climate
San Francisco and northern San Mateo County, from NASA Landsat
7San Francisco lies near the San Andreas Fault; a major source
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 another major earthquake like the 1906 one
plays a major role in the city's infrastructure development.
New buildings must be built to very high structural standards,
while many dollars must be spent to retrofit the city's older
buildings and bridges.
San Francisco is famous for its hills and the streets which
run straight up and down them. Three of San Francisco's notable
hill neighborhoods are Nob Hill, Russian Hill, and Telegraph
Hill, all located in or near the downtown area.
Near the geographic center of the city and away from the
downtown area, are a series of less 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.
Not to be missed are the beautiful homes and area of the
city known as Pacific Heights. San Francisco is also famous
for its cable cars (narrow gauge, 1067 mm (3'6")), which
were designed to carry residents up those steep hills. It
is still possible to take a cable car ride up and down Nob
and Russian Hills. San Francisco's cable cars are the only
mobile United States National Monument. Coit Tower, a notable
landmark dedicated to San Francisco's firefighters, is located
at the top of Telegraph Hill.
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 mild all year round, with
a so-called Mediterranean climate characterized by cool, foggy
summers and relatively warm winters; average daily high temperatures
in the summer typically range from the upper 60s to low 70s
Fahrenheit, while in the winter it virtually never reaches
freezing. Rain in the summer is extremely rare, but winters
can often be very rainy. Snow is virtually unheard of. The
Pacific Ocean off the west coast of the city is particularly
cold year round. The combination of cold ocean water and the
high heat of the California mainland mean that San Francisco's
western half is often shrouded in fog during the months of
July and August. Thus, the summer temperatures are significantly
lower in San Francisco than in other parts of inland California.
The fog is less pronounced during the month of September,
which is generally the warmest, most summer-like month of
the year.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city and
county has a total area of 600.7 km² (231.9 mi²).
120.9 km² (46.7 mi²) of it is land and 479.7 km²
(185.2 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 79.86%
water. The city itself is often reputed to be roughly a seven
mile by seven mile square, but in fact it is slightly smaller,
46.7 mi².
Economy
Some 40 miles south of San Francisco is the Silicon Valley,
which holds much of the computing business in the world.
Because of the California gold rush, San Francisco became
and is now the banking and financial center of the U.S. west
coast. It is the home of the twelfth district of the U.S.
Federal Reserve as well as major production facilities for
the U.S. Mint. The Pacific Exchange, a regional stock exchange,
is located in the financial district. Many major American
and international banks and venture capital firms have all
set up their regional headquarters in the city.
Companies headquartered in San Francisco
Charles Schwab
CNET
The Gap
Ghirardelli division of Lindt & Sprüngli
Levi Strauss
Macromedia
Pacific Gas & Electric
SEGA of America
The Sharper Image
Viz Communications
Wells Fargo
Apple Computer is based in nearby Cupertino. Oracle Corporation
is based in nearby Redwood City. Yahoo! is headquartered in
nearby Sunnyvale. ChevronTexaco and IPIX are based in nearby
San Ramon. Safeway is based in nearby Pleasanton. Google is
headquartered (at the "Googleplex") in Mountain
View, Santa Clara County, California.
Law and government
Supervisors
1
Jake McGoldrick
2
Michela Alioto-Pier
3
Aaron Peskin
4
Fiona Ma
5
Matt Gonzalez
6
Chris Daly
7
Sean Elsbernd
8
Bevan Dufty
9
Tom Ammiano
10
Sophie Maxwell
11
Gerardo Sandoval
San Francisco is both a city and a county, and is governed
by a mayor, who runs the executive branch of the city, and
a Board of Supervisors, who are elected to represent 11 districts
in the city. The current Board of Supervisors are listed in
the table on the left.
The current mayor is Gavin Newsom. The current President
of the Board of Supervisors is Matt Gonzalez.
The headquarters of the United States Court of Appeals for
the Ninth Circuit are in San Francisco.
See also: List of Mayors of San Francisco, California
Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there are 776,733 people, 329,700
households, and 145,068 families residing in the city. The
population density is 6,423.2/km² (16,634.4/mi²).
There are 346,527 housing units at an average density of 2,865.6/km²
(7,421.2/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 49.66%
White, 7.79% African American, 0.45% Native American, 30.84%
Asian, 0.49% Pacific Islander, 6.48% from other races, and
4.28% from two or more races. 14.10% of the population are
Hispanic or Latino of any race.
The Transamerica PyramidThere are 329,700 households out of
which 16.6% have children under the age of 18 living with
them, 31.6% are married couples living together, 8.9% have
a female householder with no husband present, and 56.0% are
non-families. 38.6% of all households are made up of individuals
and 9.8% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age
or older. The average household size is 2.30 and the average
family size is 3.22.
In the city the population is 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 are 65 years of age or older.
The median age is 36 years. For every 100 females there are
103.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there
are 103.1 males.
The median income for a household in the city is $55,221,
and the median income for a family is $63,545. Males have
a median income of $46,260 versus $40,049 for females. The
per capita income for the city is $34,556. 11.3% of the population
and 7.8% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the
total people living in poverty, 13.5% are under the age of
18 and 10.5% are 65 or older.
See also: Market Street Milk Shake
Contemporary life
San Francisco is one of the most densely populated cities
in the United States. The city is serviced by several public
transit systems. Muni is the city-owned public transit system
which operates buses, electric trolleybuses, streetcars and
the famous cable cars (see above). BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit)
is the regional transit system, which connects San Francisco
with the East Bay and the San Mateo County, California communities
on the San Francisco Peninsula. In addition, a commuter rail
service, Caltrain, operates between San Francisco, San Jose,
California and Gilroy, California.
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) opened in
1995.
San Francisco is the home of the San Francisco 49ers National
Football League team and the San Francisco Giants Major League
Baseball team.
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 (110K 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).
See also: Golden Gate Bridge, Northern California, San Francisco
Bay Area, Silicon Valley
Neighborhoods
Victorian houses ("Painted Ladies") at Alamo SquareBernal
Heights
The Castro
Chinatown
Financial District
Golden Gate Park
Haight-Ashbury
Hunters Point
Japantown
Marina District
Mission District
Noe Valley
North Beach
Pacific Heights
Potrero Hill
Richmond District
South of Market (SoMa)
Sunset District
The Tenderloin
Western Addition
Parks
Alcatraz Island in San Francisco BayAlamo Square
Balboa Park
Buena Vista Park
Dolores Park
Glen Canyon Park
Golden Gate National Recreation Area
Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate View Park
Grand View Park
Lincoln Park
The Presidio
Sutro Park
Yerba Buena Park
Culture
Architectural and Engineering achievements
Transamerica Pyramid
Ferry Building
"Painted Ladies", terraced houses
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Civic Center
California Palace of the Legion of Honor
Sutro Tower
Sutro Baths
Golden Gate Bridge
Bay Bridge
Lombard Street
A San Francisco cable car
The city in fiction
McTeague by Frank Norris
Martin Eden by Jack London
The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon
Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
Operating Instructions by Anne Lamott
The city in film
This city has been featured in many movies:
The Bachelor
Basic Instinct
Birdman of Alcatraz
Bullitt
The Conversation
Dirty Harry films
D.O.A.
Dopamine
Edtv
Fearless
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Hulk
Interview With the Vampire
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978 remake)
It Came from Beneath the Sea
Somewhat prominent in The Maltese Falcon
Mrs. Doubtfire
Pacific Heights
Play it Again Sam
The Princess Diaries
The Rock
San Francisco
So I Married an Axe Murderer
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Sweet November
Vertigo
Woman on Top
The city on television
Television programs that highlight the city and its people
include:
The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.
The Californians
Charmed
Dharma & Greg
Full House
Half & Half
Have Gun Will Travel
Ironside
Kindred: The Embraced
The Jackie Chan Adventures
McMillan and Wife
MDs
Monk
Nash Bridges
Party of Five
Poltergeist: The Legacy
Presidio Med
Sliders
Suddenly Susan
The Streets of San Francisco
Tales of the City
That's So Raven
Too Close for Comfort
Museums and galleries
Among San Francisco's famous museums and galleries are:
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)
The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
The California Palace of the Legion of Honor
The De Young Museum
The Exploratorium in the Palace of Fine Arts, remaining from
the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (1915)
The Internet Archive
The Cartoon Art Museum
Offbeat Museums
Some of San Francisco's other museums:
Antique Vibrator Museum
Hello Gorgeous -A small museum devoted to Barbra Streisand.
Musee Mecanique - A museum dedicated to penny arcade machines.
Museum of Ophthalmology
Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum
Stamp Francisco/Stamp Art Gallery -rubber stamps not postal
stamps.
Tattoo Art Museum - display of old tattoo machines and instruments.
UFO, Big Foot and Loch Ness Monster Museum
Wax Museum at Fisherman's Wharf
Airports
Local
San Francisco International Airport, 8 miles south of the
city in San Mateo County
Further Away
Oakland International Airport, 20 miles from San Francisco
San Jose International Airport, 44 miles from San Francisco
Famous San Franciscans
Albert Abrams, medical equipment inventor
Ansel Adams, photographer
Gracie Allen, comedian
Abe Attell, boxer
Bill Bixby, actor
Barry Bonds, baseball player
Bobby Bonds, baseball player
Lisa Bonet, actress
Benjamin Bratt, actor
Stephen Breyer, Supreme Court Associate Justice
Jerry Brown, former Governor of California
Pat Brown, former Governor of California
Margaret Cho, comedian and actress
Isadora Duncan, "mother" of Modern Dance
Clint Eastwood, actor and movie director
Dianne Feinstein, US Senator
Abigail Folger, Charles Manson murder victim
Robert Frost, poet
Jerry Garcia, singer
Clifford Geertz, anthropologist
Danny Glover, actor
Vince Guaraldi, composer of music for Peanuts animated cartoons
Kirk Hammett, musician
William Randolph Hearst, publisher
Shirley Jackson, author
Lewis Lapham, editor of Harper's
Mervyn LeRoy, film director and producer
Huey Lewis (of Huey Lewis & the News), Singer and actor
Jack London, author
Courtney Love, musician
Robert McNamara, former Secretary of Defense
Gordon E. Moore, co-founder of Intel Corporation and the author
of Moore's law
Liev Schreiber, actor
Alicia Silverstone, actress
Gary Snyder, poet
Mia St. John, boxer and model
O.J. Simpson, football player, murderer
Lincoln Steffens, journalist
Phillip Terry, actor
Walter Tevis, author
William Ware Theiss, costume designer
Courtney Thorne-Smith, actress
Alice B. Toklas, lover of writer Gertrude Stein, Toklas' memoirs
and autobiography after the death of Stein
Jay Ward, creator and producer of animated TV series (E.G.
Rocky & Bullwinkle)
Caspar Weinberger, former Secretary of Defense
Stuart Whitman, actor
Naomi Wolf, writer
Beatrice Wood, artist
Natalie Wood, actress
John W. Young, astronaut
Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr., US Navy Admiral
Notable non-native San Francisco residents:
Tony Bennett, singer
Clark Blaise, Canadian author
Victor Burgin, artist
Chris Columbus, film director
M.C. Hammer, rapper
George Hearst, politician
Phoebe Hearst, first woman Regent of the University of California
Jason Kidd, NBA player
James Lick, real estate investor
Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, activists, first same-sex couple
to get a marriage license in San Francisco
Harvey Milk, former city supervisor of San Francisco
Joe Montana, football player
Emperor Norton, notable local eccentric
Gary Payton, NBA player
Michael Savage, conservative radio personality
Danielle Steele, author
Robert Louis Stevenson, from 1879 to 1880
Mark Twain, author
Robert Wartenberg, neurologist
Robin Williams, actor
Martin Yan, television chef
This article is licensed
under the GNU
Free Documentation License. It uses material from the
Wikipedia
article "san francisco'.
|
Home