The City and County of San Francisco (2004 estimated population 744,230) is the fourth-largest city in the U.S. state of California and the fourteenth largest in the United States. It is called "The City" by people who live in the San Francisco Bay Area (never "Frisco"). It has been known about the world as "The City That Knows How."
A metropolitan municipality since 1856, mainland San Francisco is located on the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula. Insular San Francisco includes several islands in the San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Strait, notably Alcatraz, Treasure Island, and the Farallon Islands 27 miles offshore in the Pacific Ocean and also most of the privately owned Red Rock Island near the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. (See Islands of San Francisco Bay.) Inland San Francisco includes: 1) additional land on the San Francisco Peninsula, notably the San Francisco International Airport - which is legally part of San Francisco despite being 15 miles south of the City, because "The City" is also a county, and it is legally impossible for two counties to occupy the same parcel of land; and, 2) a permanent leasehold on the Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park, granted by Congress in 1913 in The Riker Act.
San Francisco is the focal point of the San Francisco Bay Area, and forms part of the greater San Francisco-San Jose-Oakland Combined Statistical Area (CSA), whose population is over 6 million. With about 15,000 per square mile, San Francisco itself is the most densely populated American city after New York (which has about 25,000 people per square mile).
The first Europeans to settle in San Francisco were the Spanish, who founded the "pueblo" and mission of "San Francisco de Asis" in June 1776. The City and the rest of California became American in 1848 by the Treaty of Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) a few months after gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento. San Francisco entered a period of incredibly rapid growth in 1849 with the California Gold Rush. For more than a year, the City's population doubled every ten days, making city planning all but non-existent - and leaving a legacy of European-style narrow streets that continues to cause unique traffic problems today. The City experienced a second period of rapid growth in 1859 with the Comstock Lode and silver mines.
Devastated by the 1906 earthquake and fire, "The City That Knows How" proved worthy of its nickname. It only took one year for the City to be rebuilt to its former splendor. The phoenix on the city's flag represents San Francisco's "rebirth" from the ashes of the fire that resulted from the quake. Long enjoying a bohemian reputation the city became a counterculture magnet in the second half of the 20th century. It was a center of the dot-com boom and the explosive growth of the Internet at the end of the century.
San Francisco has unique characteristics when compared to other major cities in the U.S., including its steep rolling hills, an eclectic mix of architecture including both Victorian style houses and modern skyscrapers, and natural beauty, surrounded by the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay. Famous hallmarks and landmarks include the San Francisco cable cars and the Golden Gate Bridge, both of which are known worldwide.
As of the census of 2000, there are 776,733 people, 329,700 households, and 145,068 families residing in the city. The population density is 6,423.2/km2 (16,634.4/mi2), making it the second densest city of 500,000 or more, as well as the fifth densest county, in the country . . There are 346,527 housing units at an average density of 2,865.6/km2 (7,421.2/mi2). The racial makeup of the city is 49.66% White, 7.79% African American, 0.45% Native American, 30.84% Asian, 0.49% Pacific Islander, 6.48% from other races, and 4.28% from two or more races. 14.10% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. The ethnic makeup is 19.6% Chinese, 8.8% Irish, 7.7% German, and 6.1% English. San Francisco has the largest Chinese population in America and the largest Asian population outside of Hawaii. The City has the highest percentage of gay families (as well as a large numbers of single gay people) of any American county or large city. Gay men outnumber lesbians, who are more concentrated in the suburban East Bay.
There are 329,700 households out of which 16.6% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 31.6% are married couples living together, 8.9% have a female head of household with no husband present, and 56.0% are non-families. 38.6% of all households are made up of individuals and 9.8% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.30 and the average family size is 3.22. San Francisco has fewer children, in proportion to the population as a whole, than any other large city in the United States.
In the city the population is spread out with 14.5% under the age of 18, 9.1% from 18 to 24, 40.5% from 25 to 44, 22.3% from 45 to 64, and 13.7% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 36 years. For every 100 females there are 103.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 103.1 males.
The median income for a household in the city is $55,221, and the median income for a family is $63,545 one of the highest in the United States at 15th place overall and 3rd in a single large city. Males have a median income of $46,260 versus $40,049 for females. The per capita income for the city is $34,556 which is ranked as the 19th highest in the country. 11.3% of the population and 7.8% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 13.5% of those under the age of 18 and 10.5% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.
Because of the California gold rush, San Francisco is one of the banking and financial centers of the U.S. West Coast. It is the home of the twelfth district of the U.S. Federal Reserve as well as major production facilities for the United States Mint. The Pacific Exchange is located in the financial district. Many major American and international banks and venture capital firms have all set up their regional headquarters in the city.
Native Americans inhabited the San Francisco Bay Area at least 10,000 years ago; the most recent inhabitants prior to European settlement were the Yelamu. By the middle of the 19th century, disease and warfare with European settlers had virtually wiped out the indigenous tribes.
The first European to reach the San Francisco Bay was the Spanish explorer Don Gaspar de Portol, in 1770. The first Spanish mission, Mission San Francisco de Asis, was established six years later. A small military fort was also established in what is now the Presidio and on Alcatraz island in the bay, as well as a small village called Yerba Buena. Though Spain held the port until the Mexican revolution, there was also British settlement in the form of fur trading settlements in the area from 1792 onward following a visit from explorer George Vancouver (the earlier English explorer Sir Francis Drake had missed San Francisco entirely, due to the bay's characteristic foggy weather). Russians also coexisted with the Europeans, having colonized Northern California as far south as Fort Ross in Sonoma County.
The area became Mexican upon its independence and fell into isolation. It was during this period that American and European settlement increased. The United States claimed the city on January 30, 1847, during the Mexican-American War. At that point, despite its useful location as a port and naval base, San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography. But two years later, the California gold rush brought a wave of migration and immigration, raising the population from 1,000 to 25,000 by December 1849. The railroad, banking, and mining industries became major economic forces in the city.
The City of San Francisco was the seat of the County of San Francisco from 1849 to 1856. Because the population of San Francisco City was so disproprotionate to the rest of San Francisco County, the State of California decided to divide the county. A straight line was drawn across the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula just north of San Bruno Mountain. Everything south of the line became the new County of San Mateo, seated at Redwood City, while everything north of the line became part of the new consolidated City-County of San Francisco - California's first and, to date, only metropolitan municipality.
San Francisco was briefly the capital of California before it moved temporarily to the greater safety of San Jose, while the permanent capital was being built in Sacramento. San Francisco is still the seat of the California Supreme Court, making the City the de facto judicial capital of the state. California and Louisiana are the only two states whose judicial branches of government are not located in the formal state capital (the Louisiana Supreme Court being located in New Orleans instead of Baton Rouge).
The influx of Chinese workers created a sizable Chinatown district, and Chinese Americans remain one of the city's largest ethnic groups. Hostility toward immigrants contributed to lynchings and race riots in the 1850s, and to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which drastically restricted immigration from China until 1943.
The 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and the fires that followed it (burning out of control due to the loss of water supply), destroyed approximately 80% of the city, including almost all of the downtown core. At least 3,000 died, while refugees settled temporarily in Golden Gate Park and in undeveloped areas.
The opening of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge in 1936 and 1937 made the city more accessible, and its population grew faster in the 1940s due to its importance as a military base in World War II. Urban planning projects in the 1950s further transformed the city, tearing down and redeveloping many neighborhoods and introducing major freeways.
In the second half of the 20th century, San Francisco became a magnet for America's counterculture, drawing artists, Beat Generation writers, rock musicians and hippies. It also became a center of the Gay Liberation movement; San Francisco has a higher percentage of gay men and lesbians than any other major U.S. city.
The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake caused significant destruction and loss of life throughout the Bay Area. In San Francisco, the quake severely damaged many of the city's freeways, as well as the Marina District and the South of Market.
A further wave of economic expansion and physical development began in the 1980s, with a boom in construction of skyscrapers and high-rise apartments that some referred to as "Manhattanization". During the dot-com boom of the 1990s, large numbers of entrepreneurs and computer software professionals moved into the city, followed by marketing and sales professionals, and changed the social landscape as once poorer neighborhoods became gentrified; the boom was over by 2001. When the dot-com bubble burst, it had a major impact on the city's employment and venture-capital markets, but housing has remained expensive. High technology continues to be a mainstay of San Francisco's economy in the early 21st century.
Homelessness has been a controversial and chronic problem for San Francisco for many years. The city has the highest number of homeless inhabitants per capita of any major city in the United States. The problem is a source of much discussion, and has become a significant factor in the politics of the city, most importantly in the mayoral campaigns of Frank Jordan and Gavin Newsom.
Source:
SanFranciscoCalifornia.com
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