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

An 1880s lithograph of the original California State Normal School campus in San Jose
An 1880s lithograph of the original California State Normal School campus in San Jose
San Jose State University (often abbreviated San Jose State or SJSU) is a comprehensive public university located in San Jose, California, United States. It is the founding school of the 23 campus California State University (CSU) system, and holds the distinction of being the oldest public institution of higher education on the West Coast of the United States.

Located in downtown San Jose, the SJSU main campus is situated on 154 acres (62 ha), or roughly 19 square blocks. SJSU offers 134 bachelor's and master's degrees with 110 concentrations and five credential programs with 19 concentrations. The university also offers three joint doctoral degree programs and will launch its first independent doctoral program in 2014. SJSU is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). (more...)

Selected biography

Installation of Hedrick's 1967 "War Room"
Installation of Hedrick's 1967 "War Room"
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...)

Selected city

Daly City is the largest city in San Mateo County, California, United States, with a 2010 population of 101,123. Located immediately south of San Francisco, it is named in honor of businessman and landowner John Daly. It remained a relatively small community until the late 1940s, when developer Henry Doelger established Westlake, a major district of homes and businesses, including the Westlake Shopping Center. (more...)

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image credit: Victorgrigas


The Bay Area by year

2005

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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

Zack & Aeris cosplayers
Zack & Aeris cosplayers

FanimeCon is an annual anime convention. It is the largest anime convention in Northern California and the 5th largest North American anime convention as of 2013. It has been held at the San Jose Convention Center since 2004. (Zack Fair and Aerith Gainsborough cosplayers pictured)

Quote

~ Cecil Beaton

Selected multimedia file

Radical Faeries event, San Francisco, 2012
credit: MrThistleFlower

Bay Area regions, geographic features and protected areas

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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Oakland, California. Junior Employment Service. Filling out applications. The girls want part time work in domestic service. 1940
Oakland, California. Junior Employment Service. Filling out applications. The girls want part time work in domestic service. 1940

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Bay view from China Camp State Park
image credit: Kevin Collins

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