Portal:San Francisco Bay Area

WELCOME TO THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA   BAY AREA CITIES   RECOGNIZED BAY AREA CONTENT The San Francisco Bay Area Portal 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...) Selected article The eastern span replacement of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge is a construction project replacing an unsafe cantilever portion of the Bay Bridge with a new self-anchored suspension bridge (SAS) and viaduct. The new span crosses the San Francisco Bay between Yerba Buena Island and Emeryville. It was built between 2002 and 2013, and does not have an official name other than that of the bridge as a whole. The eastern span replacement is the largest public works project in California history, with an estimated cost of $6.4 billion. Originally scheduled to open in 2007, several problems delayed the opening until September 2, 2013. It is currently the world's widest bridge, according to Guinness World Records. (more...) Selected biography Jello Biafra (born Eric Reed Boucher; June 17, 1958) is the former lead singer and songwriter for San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys, and is currently a musician and spoken word artist. After he left the Dead Kennedys, he took over the influential independent record label Alternative Tentacles, which he had co-founded in 1979 with Dead Kennedys bandmate East Bay Ray. Although now focused primarily on spoken word, he has continued as a musician in numerous collaborations. Politically, Biafra is a member of the Green Party of the United States and actively supports various political causes. He ran for the party's Presidential nomination in 2000, finishing second to Ralph Nader. He is a staunch believer in a free society, who utilizes shock value and advocates direct action and pranksterism in the name of political causes. Biafra is known to use absurdist media tactics, in the leftist tradition of the Yippies, to highlight issues of civil rights and social justice. (more...) Selected city Cupertino /ˌkuːpərˈtiːnoʊ/ is a city in Santa Clara County, California in the United States, directly west of San Jose on the western edge of the Santa Clara Valley with portions extending into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. An affluent city, Cupertino is the 11th wealthiest city with a population over 50,000 in the United States, with an estimated per-capita income of $51,965 and a median household income exceeding $160,000. The population was 58,302 at the 2010 census. Forbes ranked it as one of the most educated small towns. It is perhaps best known as being the home town of Apple Inc.'s corporate headquarters. Money's Best Places to Live, America's best small towns, ranked Cupertino as #27 in 2012, the 2nd highest in California. It was also named as the 7th happiest suburb in the United States, ranking highly in the Income, Safety, Marriage, and Education categories. (more...) Selected image Willie McCovey at the 2012 World Series Champion Parade, San Francisco image credit: Holly Hickman The Bay Area by year 1973 Burst of Joy, depicting United States Air Force Lt. Col. Robert L. Stirm being reunited with his family, after spending more than five years in captivity as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, is taken at Travis Air Force Base (pictured) in Solano County 16 people are killed, during a string of racially motivated attacks, dubbed the Zebra murders, committed by African-American men against mostly white victims, in San Francisco, continuing into 1974 The Oakland A's win the World Series Bill Owens' photoessay Suburbia, featuring images of Livermore, is published by Straight Arrow Press in San Francisco Selected historical image San Francisco, 1881 image credit: Public domain Did you know... San Francisco Bay Salt Ponds ... that the vivid colors of the San Francisco Bay Salt Ponds (pictured), ranging from magenta to blue-green, come from the brine shrimp and microorganisms that thrive in the water? ... that the Laguna Creek watershed debouches into the San Francisco Bay near the site of the ghost town of Drawbridge? ... that the chase scene from the 1968 Steve McQueen film Bullitt starts on Cesar Chavez Street (then Army Street) before continuing through San Francisco? ... that the title of There There, a 2018 novel about urban Indians in Oakland, California, mirrors Gertrude Stein's quip about the city that "There is no there there"? Previous Did you know...  • ... that the 1985 Pacific Conference Games, held at Edwards Stadium in Berkeley, was the fifth and final Pacific Conference Games between Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and the United States?  • ... that California Gold Rush song collector John A. Stone composed Sweet Betsy from Pike? (songbook pictured)  • ... that during the Cold War Fort Cronkhite was used to house soldiers of the nearby SF-88 Nike Missile launch site?  • ... that Elizabeth Thacher Kent (pictured) helped create the Muir Woods National Monument by donating land to the government?  • ... that Mountain View based Made In Space, Inc.'s 3D Zero-G Printer was the first manufacturing device in space?  • ... that Marsh Creek State Park was named for John Marsh, the first non-Hispanic European to settle in what is now Contra Costa County? February 2015 Selected periodic event Steve Silver's Beach Blanket Babylon is America's longest-running musical revue. The show began its run in 1974, at Club Savoy Tivoli and has since moved to the larger Club Fugazi in the North Beach district of San Francisco. The show was created by Steve Silver (1944-1995) and continues under the direction of his widow, Jo Schuman Silver, with frequent changes and spoofs of pop and political culture. Performers wear disproportionately large hats/wigs and gaudy costumes while performing satirical renditions of popular songs. (Christopher Goodwin in character at the opening of the Tales of the City musical, pictured) Quote “ I don’t know of any other city where you can walk through so many culturally diverse neighborhoods, and you’re never out of sight of the wild hills. Nature is very close here. ” ~ Gary Snyder *more quotes about San Francisco from Wikiquote Selected multimedia file Play media Arrest in Chinatown, 1897 credit: Library of Congress Bay Area regions, geographic features and protected areas Regions East Bay North Bay Peninsula Santa Clara Valley Silicon Valley Wine Country West Marin Geographic features San Francisco Bay San Pablo Bay Suisun Bay Islands of the Bay Marin Headlands Diablo Range Berkeley Hills Santa Cruz Mountains Protected areas Golden Gate Recreation Area Farallones Marine Sanctuary Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge Point Reyes Seashore Mount Tamalpais State Park Henry Coe State Park Midpeninsula Open Space East Bay Regional Parks Things you can do *Write an article on a Bay Area-related subject *Propose new material or features for this portal *Add new selected articles *Add new selected biographies *Add new selected cities *Add new selected images *Add new selected historical images *Add new selected events *Add new selected multimedia files *Add new quotes *Add new historical events *Add new selected panoramas WikiProject You are invited to participate in the San Francisco Bay Area task force, a task force dedicated to developing and improving articles about the San Francisco Bay Area. 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