Portal:San Francisco Bay Area

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The San Francisco Bay Area Portal

California Bay Area county map
California Bay Area county map

The San Francisco Bay Area (referred to locally as the Bay Area) is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses the major cities and metropolitan areas of San Jose, San Francisco, and Oakland, along with smaller urban and rural areas. The Bay Area's nine counties are Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma. Home to approximately 7.68 million people, the nine-county Bay Area contains many cities, towns, airports, and associated regional, state, and national parks, connected by a network of roads, highways, railroads, bridges, tunnels, and commuter rail. The combined statistical area of the region is the second-largest in California (after the Greater Los Angeles area), the fifth-largest in the United States, and the 43rd-largest urban area in the world with 8.80 million people.

The Bay Area has the second-most Fortune 500 companies in the United States, after the New York metropolitan area, and is known for its natural beauty, liberal politics, entrepreneurship, and diversity. The area ranks second in highest density of college graduates, after the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and performs above the state median household income in the 2010 census; it includes the five highest California counties by per capita income and two of the top 25 wealthiest counties in the United States. Based on a 2013 population report from the California Department of Finance, the Bay Area is the only region in California where the rate of people migrating in from other areas in the United States is greater than the rate of those leaving the region, led by Alameda and Contra Costa counties. (more...)

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The Mission Blue (Aricia icarioides missionensis) is a blue or lycaenid butterfly subspecies native to the San Francisco Bay Area of the United States. The butterfly has been declared as endangered by the US Federal Government. It is a subspecies of Boisduval's Blue (Aricia icarioides).

The Mission Blue depends on a very specific host plant called the lupine. As such, its habitat is restricted solely to the U.S. state of California. More specifically, it is limited to a range of five known areas where Mission Blue colonies have been confirmed. Those areas are subject to a range of conservation and habitat restoration action.

P. i. missionensis is federally endangered and found in only a few locations. Its habitat is restricted to the San Francisco Bay Area, specifically six areas, the Twin Peaks area in San Francisco County, Fort Baker, a former military installation managed by the National Park Service (NPS), in Marin County, the San Bruno Mountain area in San Mateo County, the Marin Headlands, in Golden Gate National Recreation Area (another NPS entity), Laurelwood Park & Sugarloaf Open Space in the city of San Mateo, and Skyline Ridge, also in San Mateo County. (more...)

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Gavin Newsom
Gavin Newsom

Gavin Christopher Newsom (born October 10, 1967) is an American politician. He is the 49th and current Lieutenant Governor of California, after being elected in 2010. In 2003, he was elected the 42nd Mayor of San Francisco, the city's youngest in 100 years. Newsom was re-elected in 2007 with 72 percent of the vote. In 2010, a Samepoint study named Newsom the Most Social Mayor in America's largest 100 cities.

In 1996, San Francisco mayor Willie Brown appointed Newsom to serve on the city's Parking and Traffic Commission, and then as a member of the Board of Supervisors the following year. Newsom drew voter attention with his Care Not Cash program, designed to move homeless people into city-assisted care.

Newsom graduated from Redwood High School and Santa Clara University. He has co-founded 11 businesses, 10 in which family friend Gordon Getty has been an investor.. (more...)

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Alameda is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is located on Alameda Island and Bay Farm Island, and is adjacent to and west of Oakland and in eastern San Francisco Bay across from San Francisco and South San Francisco, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Bay Farm Island, a portion of which is also known as "Harbor Bay Isle", is not actually an island, and is part of the mainland adjacent to the Oakland International Airport. In 2014 the city had a total population of 75,467. Alameda is a charter city, rather than a general law city, allowing the city to provide for any form of government. Alameda became a charter city and adopted a council–manager government in 1916, which it retains to the present. (more...)

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The Bay Area by year

1989
Collapse of the Cypress Street Viaduct
Collapse of the Cypress Street Viaduct
Kezar Stadium
Kezar Stadium

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Did you know...

San Francisco Bay Salt Ponds
San Francisco Bay Salt Ponds

Previous Did you know...

July 2014

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Bay to Breakers is an annual footrace in San Francisco on the third Sunday of May. The name reflects the fact that the race starts at the The Embarcadero adjacent to San Francisco Bay and finishes at the Great Highway adjacent to Ocean Beach and its "breaking waves". It is well known for many participants wearing costumes, and a few engaging in public nudity. The event was officially the world's largest footrace from 1986 (with 110,000 participants) until it was surpassed in 2010 by City2Surf in Sydney, Australia.

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~ Herb Caen, on San Francisco (ca. 1949)
*more quotes about San Francisco from Wikiquote

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