Portal:San Francisco Bay Area

WELCOME TO THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA   BAY AREA CITIES   RECOGNIZED BAY AREA CONTENT edit   The San Francisco Bay Area Portal The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California, United States. The region encompasses the major cities and metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, 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 7.44 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 urban area of San Francisco and San Jose is the second largest in California (after the Greater Los Angeles area), the fifth largest in the United States, and the 56th largest urban area in the world. The United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) does not use the nine-county definition of the San Francisco Bay Area. The OMB has designated a more extensive 12-county Combined Statistical Area (CSA) titled the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area which also includes the three counties of San Joaquin, Santa Cruz, and San Benito that do not border San Francisco Bay, but are economically tied to the nine counties that do. The San Francisco Bay Area is known for its natural beauty, liberal politics, entrepreneurship, and diversity. The area has high incomes, performing 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...) edit   Selected article United States v. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled that practically everyone born in the United States is a U.S. citizen. This decision established an important precedent in its interpretation of the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. Wong Kim Ark, who was born in San Francisco to Chinese parents around 1871, had been denied re-entry to the United States after a trip abroad, under a law restricting Chinese immigration and prohibiting immigrants from China from becoming naturalized U.S. citizens. He challenged the government's refusal to recognize his citizenship, and the Supreme Court ruled in his favor, holding that the citizenship language in the Fourteenth Amendment encompassed essentially everyone born in the U.S.—even the U.S.-born children of foreigners—and could not be limited in its effect by an act of Congress.(more...)]] edit   Selected biography Wally Bill Hedrick (1928 in Pasadena, California – December 17, 2003 in Bodega Bay, California) was a seminal American artist in the 1950s California counterculture, gallerist, and educator who came to prominence in the early 1960s. Hedrick’s contributions to art include pioneering artworks in psychedelic light art, mechanical kinetic sculpture, junk/assemblage sculpture, Pop Art, and (California) Funk Art. Later in his life, he was a recognized forerunner in Happenings, Conceptual Art, Bad Painting, Neo-Expressionism, and image appropriation. Hedrick was also a key figure in the first important public manifestation of the Beat Generation when he helped to organize the Six Gallery Reading, and created the first artistic denunciation of American foreign policy in Vietnam. Wally Hedrick was known as an “idea artist” long before the label “conceptual art” entered the art world, and experimented with innovative use of language in art. (more...) edit   Selected city Foster City is a planned city located in San Mateo County, California, 94404. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 30,567. Forbes ranked Foster City #10 on their 2009 list of America's Top 25 Towns to Live Well. Money has also recognized Foster City multiple times as one of the Best Places to Live. Foster City is sometimes considered to be part of Silicon Valley for its local industry and its proximity to Silicon Valley cities. Foster City was founded in the 1960s on engineered landfill in the marshes of the San Francisco Bay, on the east edge of San Mateo. The city was named after T. Jack Foster, a real estate magnate who owned much of the land comprising the city and who was instrumental in its initial design. His successor firm, Foster Enterprises, run by his descendants, is still active in real estate affairs throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. (more...) edit   Selected image Sather Gate, University of California, Berkeley image credit: Franco Folini edit   Recently in the Bay Area 2015 May Golden State Warriors basketball player Stephen Curry (pictured) is awarded the 2015 NBA Most Valuable Player Award The San Mateo–Hayward Bridge closes to traffic, for the first time since opening in 1967, for resurfacing and maintenance [1][2] San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón orders a review of at least 3,000 arrests over the last 10 years, in response to evidence that some San Francisco Police Department officers may have shown racial bias, based on their having sent racist and homophobic text messages [3] San Francisco becomes the first city in the United States to ban chewing tobacco at sports venues, including AT&T Park, the home of the San Francisco Giants [4] The Regional Renewable Energy Procurement Project dedicates its first project, a future solar farm at Hayward's former landfill site [5] Dead Gray Whales wash ashore at Half Moon Bay, then at Portuguese Beach in Sonoma County, with a Sperm Whale also washing ashore at Point Reyes National Seashore, the third, fourth and fifth dead whales found on Bay Area beaches (among eight in Northern California) in less than 2 months [6][7][8] Oakland based start-up Next Thing Co. raises over $1.5m in its Kickstarter campaign for its forthcoming $9 miniature computer, Chip [9] The population of San Jose is now officially over 1,000,000, making it the tenth largest city in the United States, according to the U.S. Census [10] Vandals damage an inflatable dam across Alameda Creek in Fremont, releasing 50 million gallons of drinking water into San Francisco Bay [11] The Solar Energy Research Center opens at the newly built Chu Hall at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley [12] The Golden State Warriors beat the Houston Rockets in the National Basketball Association Playoffs, and advance to the NBA Finals for the first time since 1975 June Surgeons at University of California, San Francisco and California Pacific Medical Center successfully complete 18 surgeries in the nation's first nine-way, two-day kidney transplant chain in a single city [13][14][15] Six people are killed and eight are injured, some with life-threatening injuries, after a balcony collapses in Berkeley, near the campus of the University of California, Berkeley; five of the casualties are Irish students. (NBC News), (AP) The Golden State Warriors win the National Basketball Association Finals against the Cleveland Cavaliers, their first championship since 1975 The surviving members of the Grateful Dead play the first concerts of their Fare Thee Well farewell tour, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Dead, at Santa Clara's Levi's Stadium July Former state senator Leland Yee pleads guilty to a federal racketeering charge, confessing to using his bids for secretary of state and Mayor of San Francisco to extort bribes [16] A gunman opens fire at Pier 14 in San Francisco's Embarcadero district, killing Kathryn Steinle. An illegal immigrant from Mexico, Francisco Sanchez, is subsequently arrested and charged with murder. The Wragg Fire wildland fire (pictured) starts just off of California State Route 128 near Lake Berryessa in Napa County August Alphabet, a holding company and conglomerate owning several companies owned by or sprung from Google, is founded September The Valley Fire encroaches into Napa and Sonoma Counties Tesla Motors begins shipping the Model X SUV (pictured) from its Fremont factory [17] UC Berkeley chemistry and materials science professor Peidong Yang (pictured) is awarded a MacArthur "Genius" grant [18] Filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi releases the documentary San Francisco 2.0, chronicling the recent high tech takeover and gentrification of the City [19] The Golden State Warriors finalize the purchase of 12 acres of land in Mission Bay, San Francisco, to house a future stadium [20] edit   The Bay Area by year 1926 George Whitney becomes general manager of a variously named complex of seaside attractions next to Ocean Beach in San Francisco, and christens it "Playland-at-the-Beach" (Big Dipper pictured) The law firm of Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison is founded Marin Junior College in Kentfield is founded The Leimert Bridge in Oakland, a cement and steel arch bridge spanning 357 feet and rising 117 feet above Sausal Creek, becomes the largest single span bridge on the West Coast The Weeks and Day designed Mark Hopkins Hotel opens on Nob Hill in San Francisco (interior mural pictured) edit   Selected historical image Merchant and Body Guard, Old Chinatown, San Francisco, Arnold Genthe (ca. 1896-1906) image credit: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art edit   Did you know... ... that a cruffin is a hybrid of a croissant and a muffin, popularized by Mr. Holmes Bakehouse in San Francisco? ... that herpetologist Joseph Richard Slevin is commemorated in the scientific names of over a dozen species or subspecies of animals and plants? ... that UC Hastings College of Law professor Dorit Rubinstein Reiss (pictured) has called for examination of the possible legal liabilities which should be faced by parents who opt for non-vaccination, including those who obtain legal exemptions? ... that the Rio Vista Bridge (pictured) won an American Institute of Steel Construction class IV (movable bridges) prize bridge award in 1960? ... that San Francisco music studio Golden State Recorders recorded the Grateful Dead's Birth of the Dead in 1965, which was not released until 2003? ... that U.C. Berkeley professor Richard M. Eakin gave lectures dressed as Charles Darwin, Louis Pasteur, and other famous scientists, one of whom he knew personally? ... that biologist Robert C. Stebbins once dosed Galápagos lava lizards with radiation and tracked them with a Geiger counter? edit   Previous Did you know... ... that Josiah Belden (pictured) was a member of the first party to use the California Trail, and the first mayor of San Jose? ... that Zentatsu Richard Baker was an influential American Zen priest who played a leading role in founding Tassajara, the first Buddhist training monastery outside of Asia? ... that Elmer Robinson was the 33rd mayor of San Francisco? ... the callsign of KFRC in San Francisco, California in the U.S. stood for "Known For Radio Clearness"? In fact, when the AM radio station signed on with 50 watts in 1924, it was heard as far away as New Zealand, far exceeding anyone's expectations. January - June 2005 edit   Selected periodic event The Festival del Sole is an annual ten-day jazz and classical music, food, wine, and art festival held in Napa Valley. Founded in 2006 by Richard Walker and Barrett Wissman, the festival attracts over 8,000 attendees annually. Performers at the festival have included Monica Mancini, Pinchas Zukerman, Dmitry Sitkovetsky and Arturo Sandoval (pictured, at a White House performance). edit   Quote “ There are just three big cities in the United States that are “story cities” – New York, of course, New Orleans, and, best of the lot, San Francisco. ” ~ Frank Norris *more quotes about San Francisco from Wikiquote edit   Selected multimedia file Scheherazade', Opus 35, first movement, Rimsky-Korsakov, as performed by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra conducted by Pierre Monteux credit: San Francisco Symphony Orchestra edit   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 edit   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 edit   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. edit   Related Portals Greater Los Angeles San Diego County California United States edit   Selected panorama Vineyards in Napa Valley image credit: Brocken Inaglory edit   San Francisco Bay Area categories Bay Area | San Francisco Bay | San Francisco | San Jose | Oakland | Cities | Census-designated places | Historic Places | National Landmarks | Counties: Alameda | Contra Costa | Marin | Napa | San Mateo | Santa Clara | Solano | Sonoma Architecture | Attractions | Books | Culture | Economy | Education | Environment | Events & Festivals | Geography | Government | History | Landmarks | Law | Media | Military | Music | Organizations | Parks | People | Politics | Science | Sports | Transport edit   Associated Wikimedia The following Wikimedia sister projects provide more on this subject: All Portals Overview Glossaries Indices Lists Outlines Categories Reference Culture Geography Health History Mathematics Nature People Philosophy Religion Society Technology Featured portals About portals