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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...)

Selected article

Fruitvale BART station, near where Grant was killed
Fruitvale BART station, near where Grant was killed
Oscar Grant III was fatally shot by BART Police officer Johannes Mehserle in Oakland, California, United States, in the early morning hours of New Year's Day 2009. Responding to reports of a fight on a crowded Bay Area Rapid Transit train returning from San Francisco, BART Police officers detained Grant and several other passengers on the platform at the Fruitvale BART Station. Officer Johannes Mehserle and another officer were restraining Grant, who was lying face down and allegedly resisting arrest. Officer Mehserle stood and, according to his attorney, said: "Get back, I'm gonna Tase him." Then Mehserle drew his gun and shot Grant once in the back. During his court testimony, Mehserle said that Grant then exclaimed, "You shot me!" Grant was unarmed; he was pronounced dead the next morning at Highland Hospital in Oakland.

The events were captured on multiple digital video and cell phone cameras. The footage was disseminated to media outlets and to various websites, where it was watched millions of times. The following days saw both peaceful and violent protests. (more...)

Selected biography

Ronald Vernie "Ron" Dellums (born November 24, 1935) served as Oakland's forty-fifth (and third African-American) mayor. From 1971 to 1998, he was elected to thirteen terms as a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Northern California's 9th Congressional District, after which he worked as a lobbyist in Washington D.C..

Dellums was born into a family of labor organizers, and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps before serving on the Berkeley, California, City Council. Dellums was the first African American elected to Congress from Northern California and the first openly Socialist successful non-incumbent Congressional candidate since World War II. His politics earned him a place on President Nixon's enemies list.

During his career in Congress, he fought the MX Missile project and opposed expansion of the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber program. When President Ronald Reagan vetoed Dellums' Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986, a Democratic-controlled House and a Republican-controlled Senate overrode Reagan's veto, the first override of a presidential foreign policy veto in the 20th century. (more...)

Selected city

Mill Valley is a city in Marin County, California, United States, located about 14 miles (23 km) north of San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge. The population was 13,903 at the 2010 census.

Mill Valley is located on the western and northern shores of Richardson Bay. Beyond the flat coastal area and marshlands, it occupies narrow wooded canyons, mostly of second-growth redwoods, on the southern slopes of Mount Tamalpais. The Mill Valley 94941 ZIP code also includes the following adjacent unincorporated communities: Almonte, Alto, Homestead Valley, Strawberry and Tamalpais Valley. The Muir Woods National Monument is also located just outside the city limits. (more...)

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The Bay Area by year

2017
Kevin Starr
Kevin Starr
Trump inauguration protest SF Jan 20 2017
Trump inauguration protest SF Jan 20 2017
"Bridge Together Golden Gate"
"Bridge Together Golden Gate"
San Bruno explosion and fires, at night
San Bruno explosion and fires, at night
Protesters at San Francisco International Airport, 2017
Protesters at San Francisco International Airport, 2017
Representative Mike Honda speaks at a San Francisco protest of Executive_Order_13769 in February 2017
Representative Mike Honda speaks at a San Francisco protest of Executive_Order_13769 in February 2017
Series of Storms Battering California Tracked by NASA's AIRS Instrument
Series of Storms Battering California Tracked by NASA's AIRS Instrument
Third Street, San Francisco
Third Street, San Francisco
Anderson Lake dam and spillway
Anderson Lake dam and spillway
Warm Springs BART station on opening day
Warm Springs BART station on opening day
The United States of America, Arthur Szyk (1945)
The United States of America, Arthur Szyk (1945)
Robert Taylor in 2008
Robert Taylor in 2008
Customers waiting to purchase the Tesla 3 in Walnut Creek, California
Customers waiting to purchase the Tesla 3 in Walnut Creek, California
Satellite image of smoke from California wildfires
Satellite image of smoke from California wildfires
If not now, when?
If not now, when?
Acting San Francisco Mayor London Breed
Acting San Francisco Mayor London Breed

Selected historical image

The mid-1920s, San Francisco (from personal collection)
image credit: John Atherton

Did you know...

San Francisco Bay Salt Ponds
San Francisco Bay Salt Ponds

Previous Did you know...

San Francisco Ballet Building
San Francisco Ballet Building
California Hotel
California Hotel

 • ... that before The Jabberwock was a Berkeley folk music club, it was the jazz club Tsubo, where Wes Montgomery recorded his live album Full House on July 25, 1962?
 • ... that the San Francisco Ballet Building (pictured, right), designed by architect Beverly Willis, was “the first building in the United States to be designed and constructed exclusively for the use of a major ballet company”?
 • ... that Oakland's California Hotel (pictured, left), starting in 1953, was the only full service hotel in the East Bay that welcomed black people?
 • ... that El Tecolote, published in San Francisco, is the longest running bilingual newspaper in California that is printed in both English and Spanish?
 • ... that the Sir and Star hotel in Olema was constructed by the area's original Spanish land grantee, Rafael Garcia, in 1876 as part of a 9,000 acre land grant from Mexico?
 • ... that after the San Francisco Fire of 1851, "Nothing remained of the city but the sparsely settled outskirts"?
 • ... that the Manhattan Project's calutrons used 14,700 short tons (13,300 t) of silver?

November 2015

Selected periodic event

The Roxie Theater
The Roxie Theater

The San Francisco Jewish Film Festival is the oldest and largest Jewish film festival in the world. The three-week summer festival features contemporary and classic independent Jewish film from around the world. The festival was first held at the Roxie Theater (pictured) in San Francisco in 1980.

Quote

~ San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown
*more quotes about San Francisco from Wikiquote

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San Francisco at night
credit: "Editor"

Bay Area regions, geographic features and protected areas

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