San Francisco Bay Area
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- "Bay Area" redirects here. For other uses, see Bay Area (disambiguation).
The San Francisco Bay Area, also known as the Bay Area, is a geographically diverse metropolitan area that surrounds the San Francisco Bay in Northern California. Home to more than seven million people, it is composed of cities, towns, military bases, airports, and associated regional, state, and national parks sprawled over nine counties (ten, according to some agencies) and connected by a massive network of roads, highways, railroads, and commuter rail.
The Bay Area, unlike the typical metropolitan area, contains several distinct urban and suburban centers. While San Jose is the largest city in the Bay Area (having surpassed San Francisco in the 1990 census), for most of its history San Francisco was the largest city, and remains the focal point in the region. The area containing the city of San Francisco, together with Oakland and San Jose, is the sixth-largest consolidated metropolitan area in the United States.
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[edit] Subregions
[edit] North Bay
The region north of the Golden Gate Bridge is known locally as the North Bay. This area consists of Marin County and extends northward into Sonoma and Napa counties and eastward to Solano County. With some exceptions, this region is quite affluent: Marin County is ranked as the wealthiest in the nation. The North Bay is generally the least urbanized part of the Bay Area, with many areas of undeveloped parks and farmland. It is the only section of the Bay Area that is not served by a commuter rail transit service, and Sonoma-Marin service was recently voted down. The lack of transportation services is mainly because of the lack of population mass in the North Bay, and the fact that it is separated completely from the rest of the Bay Area by water, the only access points being the Golden Gate Bridge leading to San Francisco, the Richmond-San Rafael and Carquinez Bridges leading to Richmond, and the Benicia Bridge leading to Martinez.
[edit] San Francisco
The City and County of San Francisco is generally placed in a category by itself in terms of geography and culture. It is separated by water from the north, west and east, and by a county line from its neighbor cities to the South. San Francisco has long served as the cultural, financial and urban center of the region. For most of the Bay Area's history, it has also served as the key population center. However, the limitations of the size of the county prohibited the growth of the city and since the Great San Francisco Earthquake other cities and counties have received the larger share of population growth.
San Francisco was the first urban city of the Bay Area to experience the large socio-economic and demographic changes which swept the region in the after-math of the 1960's. A significant change occurred through repeal by the Federal government of immigration restriction and the passage of the 1965 and 1967 Immigration Acts. As a result of this acts large populations of foreign families moved into the Bay Area, first in San Francisco then other areas. Together with the social divisions accompanied by the 1960's, many native families felt threatened and sought better opportunity in other areas of the Bay, leaving the city. With their departure the city was transformed, a process which has been repeated and accelerated throughout the Bay Area, the State and the country, as the Immigration Acts and social changes of the 1960's continue to spread.
Today, San Francisco remains a cultural and financial center, but its population size and political weight have been eclipsed by larger, more affluent, and less diverse cities in the region.
[edit] East Bay
The eastern side of the bay, consisting of Alameda and Contra Costa counties, is known locally as the East Bay. The East Bay is split into two regions, the inner East Bay, which sits on the Bay coastline, and the outer East Bay, consisting of inland valleys separated from the inner East Bay by hills and mountains.
- The inner East Bay includes the cities of Oakland, Hayward, Fremont, Berkeley, and Richmond, as well as many smaller suburbs such as Emeryville, San Leandro, El Sobrante, Piedmont and El Cerrito. The inner East Bay is more urban, more densely populated, has a much older building stock (built before World War II) and a more ethnically diverse population. Oakland hosts the region's largest seaport and professional sports franchises in basketball, football, and baseball. As with many inner urban areas the Inner East Bay also features a high accumulation of crime as well as socio-economic problems. According to the FBI Uniformed Crime Reports, more than 50% of all homicides in the Bay Area in 2002 occurred within the city limits of Oakland and Richmond. The homocide rates have steadily increased, as 2005 had the highest homocide rates for both Richmond and Oakland.
- The outer East Bay consists of the cities of Orinda, Walnut Creek, Concord, Martinez, Pittsburg and Pleasant Hill,and Lafayette to the north (also referred as Central Contra Costa County) and the cities of Dublin, Pleasanton, Livermore, Danville, San Ramon to the south (sometimes referred to as the Livermore-Amador Valley or the Tri-Valley), as well as other smaller towns, such as Alamo and Orinda. They are connected to the inner East Bay by BART and by highways and the Caldecott Tunnel. The outer East Bay is mostly suburban to rural and was mostly built after World War II. The white population is still the majority population in this area however it is expected to become a minority within 10 years. Most of the white population moved to the area from San Francisco and the inner-East Bay to flee many of the socio-economic problems which afflict those areas and which are now spreading to the outer-East Bay. The result has been a fall in the quality of life and affluence of the region. In turn, this has lead to a declining white population which is leaving the area for other regions of the state or outside of the state.
[edit] Peninsula
The area between the South Bay and the City and County of San Francisco is the San Francisco Peninsula, known locally as The Peninsula. This area consists of a series of small cities and suburban communities in San Mateo County and the northwestern part of Santa Clara County, including Palo Alto and Stanford University, Los Altos, Menlo Park, Mountain View, Daly City, San Mateo, and Foster City, Burlingame, Hillsborough, Redwood City, San Carlos, Atherton, as well as various towns along the Pacific coast, such as Pacifica and Half Moon Bay. This area is also extremely diverse, although it contains significant populations of affluent family households. Many of the cities and towns had originally been centers of rural life until the post-World War II era when large numbers of middle and upper class Bay area residents moved in and developed the small villages. Since the 1980's the area has seen a large growth rate of middle and upper class families who have settled there as part of the technology boom of Silicon Valley. Many of these families are of foreign background and have significantly contributed to the diversity of the area.
[edit] South Bay
The communities along the southern edge of the Bay are known as the South Bay, Santa Clara Valley, and Silicon Valley. Some Peninsula and East Bay towns are sometimes included in the latter. It includes the city of San Jose, and its outlying neighbors including Gilroy and the high-tech hubs of Mountain View, Santa Clara, Milpitas, Cupertino, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale as well as many other suburbs like Los Altos, Saratoga, Campbell and Los Gatos. Home of Silicon Valley, the South Bay was also an early development of working and middle class families who left the coastal cities of the Eastern Bay south of Oakland and Alameda. Large numbers of families during the post-World War era also moved there for the aerospace industry. This area has long been developed and expanded and is often featured as a stereotype of the typical California suburban city. Today, the growth continues, primarily fueled by technology and cheap immigrant workers. The result has been a huge increase in the value of property forcing many middle class families out of the area or into nascent ghettos in older sections of the region.
Befitting of the title Silicon Valley, this region is home to a vast number of technology sector giants. Some notable tech companies headquartered in the South Bay are Intel, AMD, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Apple Computer, Google, and Yahoo!.
[edit] Santa Cruz
There is disagreement over whether Santa Cruz County is part of the San Francisco Bay Area.[citation needed] Many residents do not consider Santa Cruz as being part of the Bay Area; however, there is no formal definition of "San Francisco Bay Area" (such as by the US Census Bureau), so the term is somewhat flexible. Some tourist guide books (Lonely Planet) group Santa Cruz in the San Francisco Bay Area section, while others (Eyewitness Travel Guides) do not. Some California agencies include Santa Cruz as part of the Bay Area region, such as the state's parks department, <ref name=parks>Find a park - San Francisco Bay Area Region. California State Parks. Retrieved on June 20, 2006.</ref> while other agencies such as the Association of Bay Area Governments and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission do not.
More importantly, some residents of the Santa Cruz Mountains (Boulder Creek, Brookdale, Ben Lomond, Felton, Scotts Valley) do not usually consider themselves to be residents of the Bay Area, rather just of the Santa Cruz Mountains themselves. The Santa Cruz Mountains run along the spine of the San Francisco Peninsula, beginning in San Francisco and continuing down to their terminus near the City of Gilroy, effectively creating the Santa Clara Valley.
Santa Cruz is usually considered a part of the Monterey Bay area since the city lies on the north end of the Monterey Bay. The city is also sometimes regarded as the northernmost point of the California Central Coast, which extends along the state's coastline to Santa Barbara.
[edit] Affluence
Image:SF vs US Income.jpg The San Francisco Bay Area is one of the wealthiest regions in the United States. According to the United States Census Bureau, of the 280 defined metropolitan areas, the San Francisco Bay Area has the highest median household income in the nation with $62,024 in the year 2000. The Census Bureau also released data in August 2006 citing San Jose as having the second highest median household income among large cities. Among medium-sized cities, Pleasanton has the highest household income in the country, and Livermore the third highest.<ref name=affluence>Pleasanton tops county in median household income. Inside Bay Area. Retrieved on October 15, 2006.</ref>
While only 26% of households nationwide boast incomes of over $75,000 a year, 48% of households in the San Francisco Bay Area feature such incomes.<ref name="Stanford University, study of US Departement of Commerce statistics concerning income in California">Stanford University, study of US Departement of Commerce statistics concerning income in California. Retrieved on 2006-11-06.</ref> The percentage of households with incomes exceeding the $100,000 mark in the Bay Area was double the nationwide percentage. Roughly one third (31%) of households in the San Francisco Bay Area had a six figure income, versus less than 16% at the nationwide level.<ref name="US Census 2005 Economic Survey, income data">US Census 2005 Economic Survey, income data. Retrieved on 2006-06-29.</ref> In June 2003, a study by Stanford University reviewing US Census Bureau statistics determined the median household income in the San Francisco Bay Area to be roughly 60% above national average.<ref name="Stanford University, study of US Departement of Commerce statistics concerning income in California">Stanford University, study of US Departement of Commerce statistics concerning income in California. Retrieved on 2006-11-06.</ref> Overall the largest income bracket in the Bay Area were households making between $100,000 and $150,000 annually, who constituted roughly 18% of households.<ref name="Stanford University, study of US Departement of Commerce statistics concerning income in California">Stanford University, study of US Departement of Commerce statistics concerning income in California. Retrieved on 2006-11-06.</ref> On a national level the largest income bracket were households with incomes between $30,000 and $40,000 who constituted 13% of all households nationwide.<ref name="US Census 2005 Economic Survey, income data">US Census 2005 Economic Survey, income data. Retrieved on 2006-06-29.</ref>
Six of the top ten California places with the highest per capita income are in the San Francisco Bay Area (Belvedere, Atherton, Woodside, Portola Valley, Diablo). Of the 100 highest income counties by per capita income in the United States, six are in the San Francisco Bay Area (Marin, San Mateo, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Contra Costa, Alameda). According to Forbes Magazine, published in 2005, 12 of the top 50 most expensive Zip Codes are in the Bay Area (Hillsborough, Atherton, Ross, Diablo, Tiburon, Los Altos, Nicasio, Portola Valley, Los Gatos, San Francisco).
Forty-two San Francisco Bay Area residents made the Forbes magazine's 400 richest Americans list, published in 2006<ref>http://www.nbc11.com/news/9910976/detail.html</ref>. Thirteen live within San Francisco proper, tying Moscow and London with the most billionaires in the world. Among the forty-two were several well-known names such as Steven Paul Jobs, George Lucas, and Charles Schwab. The highest-ranking resident is Larry Ellison of Oracle at No. 4. He is worth $19.5 billion.
A study by Claritas indicates that in 2004, 5% of all households within the San Francisco and San Jose metropolitan areas held $1 million in investable assets [1], and Wells Fargo estimates that there are 180,000 millionaire households in the Bay Area, 10% of which have $5 million or more in assets [2].
[edit] Living expenses
The popularity of the region, owing both to its mild weather and its cultural and economic diversity, combined with limited buildable areas, has led to high housing costs, especially for ownership and for commercial property leases. Owing to the relatively lower costs of outlying housing and limited public transportation, long, expensive, and often unpleasant automobile commutes are common in the region, and these costs tend to trickle down throughout various activities, making many other activities such as dining out, theaters tickets, etc. more expensive than in other areas of the country. For only a limited portion of the population have wages kept pace with the increased expenses and many minimum wage earners, even those holding multiple jobs, (and many families with multiple members employed) are classified as "working poor", while the higher incomes necessary for a satisfactory lifestyle in the region lead to higher taxes, especially at the federal level for persons not qualifying for high mortgage or self employment related deductions.
[edit] Weather
Because the hills, mountains, and large bodies of water produce such vast geographic diversity within this region, the Bay Area offers a significant variety of microclimates. The areas near the Pacific Ocean are generally characterized by relatively small temperature variations during the year, with cool foggy summers and mild rainy winters. Inland areas, especially those separated from the ocean by hills or mountains, have hotter summers and colder overnight temperatures during the winter. Few residential areas ever experience snow, but peaks over 2000 feet are often dusted with snow several times each winter (including Mount St. Helena, Mount Hamilton, Mount Diablo, and Mount Tamalpais). The coast north of San Francisco, where year-round cool, moist conditions enable redwoods to grow, has almost nothing in common with Livermore, just 40 miles inland across the bay, which has desert-like precipitation and heat. San Jose at the south end of the Bay averages fewer than 15 inches of rain annually, while Napa at the north end of the Bay averages over 30 and parts of the Santa Cruz Mountains just a few miles west of San Jose get over 55. In the summer, inland regions can be over 40 degrees Fahrenheit (22 degrees Celsius) hotter than the oceanic coast when a hot spell is breaking down.
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[edit] Geology and landforms
[edit] Multiple terrains
The area is well known worldwide for the complexity of its landforms, the region being composed of at least six terrains (continental, seabed, or island arc fragments with distinct characteristics) pushed together over millions of years by the forces of plate tectonics. As a consequence, many types of rock and soil are found in the region. Formations include the sedementry rocks of sandstone, limestone, and shale in uplifted seabeds, metamorphic serpentine rock, coal deposits, and igneous forms as the basalt flows and ash deposits of extinct volcanos. Pleistocene-era fossils of mammals are abundantly present in some locations.
[edit] Vertical relief
The region has considerable vertical relief in its landscapes that are not in the alluvial plains leading to the bay or in inland valleys. In combination with the extensive water regions this has forced the fragmented development of urban and suburban regions and has led to extensive building on poor soils in the limited flatland areas and considerable expense in connecting the various subregions with roads, tunnels, and bridges.
Several mountains are associated with some of the many ridge and hill structures created by compressive forces between the Pacific Plate and the North American plate. These provide spectacular views (in appropriate weather) of large portions of the Bay Area and include Marin County's Mount Tamalpais at 2,571 feet (784 metres). Contra Costa County's Mount Diablo at 3,849 feet (1,173 metres), Alameda County's Mission Peak at 2,517 feet (767 m), and Santa Clara County's Mount Hamilton at 4,213 ft (1,284 m), the latter with significant astronomical studies performed at its crowning Lick Observatory.
The three major ridge structures are all roughtly parallel to the major faultlines:
- The Coast Range, which is the spine of the San Francisco Penninsula and Marin County
- The Oakland-Berkeley Hills and their southern ridgeline extension through Mission Peak.
- The Diablo Range, containing Mount Diablo and Mount Hamilton.
[edit] Earthquake faults
The region is also traversed by at least four major slip-strike fault systems with hundreds of related faults many of which are "sister faults" of the infamous San Andreas Fault, all of which are stressed by the relative motion between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate or by compressive stresses between these plates. Significant blind thrust faults (faults with near vertical motion and no surface rupture)s are associated with portions of the Santa Cruz Mountains and the northern reaches of the Diablo Range and Mount Diablo.
[edit] Earthquakes
The region is particularly exposed to hazards associated with large earthquakes, owing to a combination of factors:
- Numerous major active faults in the region.
- A combined thirty year probability of a major earthquake in excess of seventy percent.
- Poorly responding native soil conditions in many places near the bay and in inland valleys, soils which amplify shaking as shown in the map to the right.
- Large areas of filled marshlands and bay muds that are significantly urbanized, with most subject to liquefaction, becoming unable to support structures.
- A large inventory of older buildings, many of which are expected to perform poorly in a major earthquake.
- Extensive building in areas subject to landslide, mudslide, and in some locations directly over active fault surface rubble zones.
- Most lowrise construction is not fireproof and water systems are likely to be extensively damaged and so large areas subject to destruction by fire after a large earthquake.
Some of these hazards are being addressed by seismic retrofitting, education in household seismic safety, and even complete replacement of major structures such as the eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
For an article concerning a typical fault in the region and its associated hazards see Hayward Fault Zone.
[edit] Transportation
The Bay Area is served by many public transportation systems, including three international airports (SFO, OAK, SJC), six overlapping bus transit agencies, four rapid transit and regional rail systems including BART, and multiple public ferry services.
The freeway and highway system is very extensive; however, many freeways are heavily congested during rush hour, especially the trans-bay bridges.
[edit] Higher education
The region is home to several universities and seminaries, most notably Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley.
[edit] Religious life
The San Francisco Bay Area has a very diverse religious life with thousands of churches, mosques, temples, and other religious centers. The Bay Area is home to Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, and numerous other religious communities. San Francisco has historically been predominantly Roman Catholic, mainly due to the Italian and Irish immigrant population of the early 20th century.
[edit] Sports
- NCAA Division I College Sports
- California Golden Bears
- St. Mary's College Gaels
- San Francisco Dons
- San José State Spartans
- Santa Clara Broncos
- Stanford Cardinal
[edit] Regional counties, cities and suburbs
The following lists are based on the ten-county definition of the Bay Area. Cities in bold serve as county seat. The places listed in italics are located in Santa Cruz county, which is excluded by the nine-county definition.
[edit] Counties
[edit] Cities with more than 200,000 inhabitants
- San Jose, 953,679
- San Francisco, 799,263
- Oakland, 412,318
- Fremont, 210,158
[edit] Cities with 100,000 to 200,000 inhabitants
[edit] Municipalities and suburbs with 10,000 to 100,000 inhabitants
[edit] Municipalities and suburbs with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants
[edit] See also
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to: |
- Islands of San Francisco Bay
- List of San Francisco Bay Area writers
- List of San Francisco Bay Area wildflowers
- United States metropolitan area
[edit] References
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[edit] External links
- San Francisco Bay Area travel guide from Wikitravel
- Bay Area Experiences.com Community-built site with fun, non-touristy things to do in San Francisco and surrounding areas.
- SFCalendar.org Bringing you inspirational, cultural, educational, entertaining talks, discussions, films and other events in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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