San Francisco

San Francisco, California 

San Francisco is a city and port in northern California, United States, that is part of the San Francisco County. It is situated on a peninsula between the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay. It is one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the nation and the financial and cultural hub of the western United States. 46 square miles in size (120 square km). Population: 805,235 (2010); 1,776,095 (San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City Metro Division); 4,335,391 (San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont Metro Area); 873,965 (San Francisco-San Mateo-Redwood City Metro Division); 1,638,407 (San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley Metro Area); 4,749,008 (San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont 

Character of the City 

San Francisco, a cool, sophisticated, attractive, and worldly seaport with steep streets that provide spectacular vistas of one of the world's best bays, has a firm position in the romantic fantasy of the United States of America. The dream depicts San Franciscans as sophisticated sophisticates whose lives are filled to the brim with civilized delights like music, art, and delectable cuisine. They should feel sorry for their children because, as Nelson Doubleday's wife once observed, "They will undoubtedly grow up believing all cities are so great." San Franciscans view their city as a wonderful setting, nearly an island, protected from the sprawl and monotony that blight so much of urban California by geography and history.

However, since the end of World War II, San Francisco has had to deal with the harsh realities of urban living, including traffic jams, pollution of the air and water, crime and vandalism, and the general deterioration of the inner city. As families, mostly white and middle-class, have relocated to the suburbs, San Francisco's demographics have changed, leaving the city with a population that, when considered statistically, tends to be older and to have fewer married people. African Americans, East Asians, Filipinos, Samoans, Vietnamese, Latin Americans, or Native Americans make up more than one in every two San Franciscans today. Their aspirations call for a reality that progressively diverges from the romantic vision of San Francisco. But because they are intertwined in the structure of the city that could be dubbed Paradox-by-the-Bay, both dreams and reality are significant. The majority of San Franciscans still view the city as "the cool grey city of love," one of the most alluring, vibrant, and distinctive places to live, despite the fact that they frequently lament the city's traffic, homelessness, and high cost of living and incessantly discuss the good ol' days. 

Climate 

San Francisco experiences pleasant rainy winters, sunny springs, chilly summers, and warm sunny autumns. The average minimum and maximum temperatures are 51 °F (11 °C) and 63 °F (17 °C), respectively. The majority of the rainfall, or around 21 inches on average, falls between November and April (533 mm). Two-thirds of the total daily hours are spent in the presence of sunshine. The summer fog, which hovers low over the city until noon and causes concern among chilly tourists, is the most defining aspect of the climate. Warm, humid ocean air collides with cold water that is welling up from the ocean floor along the shore to produce this fog, which is a phenomenon of temperature differences. 

The People 

In contrast to other American cities, San Francisco experienced a markedly distinct pattern of immigration in the second half of the 19th century. Along with native-born Americans going west, new arrivals included Europeans who arrived immediately by ship and had never before lived for a while along the Eastern Seaboard. A real estate company that claimed it could "transact commerce in the English, French, German, Spanish and Italian languages" succinctly summarized the demographics of the gold-rush city. Italians continue to be the largest European group in San Francisco, followed by Germans, Irish, and British people. San Francisco continues to be one of the most Mediterranean American cities, along with New Orleans. Even before the 1849 gold rush, Jewish emigrants from Europe arrived in the city, and they deserve much of the credit for shaping San Francisco's culture. They established the city's first sense of refinement and constructed theaters, symphonies, and libraries.

Around 20,000 African Americans called the Bay Area home prior to World War II, with roughly 4,000 of them residing in San Francisco. The war, which brought at least 500,000 war workers to the Bay Area's shipyards and other businesses, set in action the enormous expansion in the black population that would occur over the course of the following 30 years. Tens of thousands of people from the South were among them; they largely settled in San Francisco, Oakland, and Richmond.

When the Japanese residents of those neighborhoods were forcibly relocated to internment camps during World War II, the old Carpenter Gothic homes in the neighborhoods along Fillmore Street were left vacant. By the 1980s, the neighborhood had changed once more as a result of the renovation of these homes and the exorbitant cost of real estate. Poorer African American citizens were evicted from their neighborhoods and forced into overcrowded slums in the southeast region of the city.

Willie Brown, who was elected mayor in 1995 and reelected in 1999, is only one example of the several African Americans who have gained prominence in the city's affairs. Many others have also earned elective office. 

The most well-known Chinese neighborhood in the country is Chinatown, which is also likely the least understood minority neighborhood in the city. Grant Avenue's vibrant stores and eateries conceal a shantytown of crammed tenements and sweatshops with the city's highest population density. On the nearby slopes of Russian Hill, in the middle-class communities of the Richmond district north of Golden Gate Park, where some of the city's most well-liked Chinese restaurants and bakeries are located on Clement Street, and in North Beach, which was formerly predominately Italian, Chinese residents have been increasing. Especially from Hong Kong, many of the people who live in Chinatown are relatively recent immigrants.

The terrible Executive Order 9066 of 1942, which forced Japanese people, both foreign-born and citizens, into "relocation centers," completely wiped off San Francisco's Japanese community, which had never reached Chinatown's size. Japantown (Nihonmachi), a few streets east of Fillmore Street and today a successful commercial and cultural hub, is the current center of the Japanese population. Although the younger generation of Japanese Americans frequently visit Japantown for imported items, social or cultural gatherings (like the yearly cherry blossom festival), or church services, their own roots are elsewhere.

The second-largest ethnic group in the city is Hispanic (the Chinese community being the first). The Mission District, named after the Mission Dolores, was predominately Irish and working class before World War II. Irish immigrants from Central America and Mexico who spoke Spanish took the place of the Irish in major part, while gentrification in the early twenty-first century brought in yet another wave of white settlers.

Since World War II, the Filipino community has expanded dramatically, especially in the South of Market neighborhood, and is now present throughout the entire city. The Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian communities have grown significantly since the 1980s, though not as much as in southern California. This has led to conflicts with blacks and Hispanics over low-income housing and a proliferation of ethnic restaurants in the troubled Tenderloin neighborhood between the Civic Center and Union Square.

Because San Franciscans have traditionally viewed their city as tolerant and lax, homosexuals have likely felt at home there. The affluent Castro neighborhood, which is officially Eureka Valley close to Twin Peaks, has drawn homosexuals and lesbians from all over the nation and is now regarded as the most well-known gay neighborhood in the entire globe. Its streets are lined with tastefully renovated Victorian mansions and historical sites that symbolize pivotal moments in the fight for LGBT rights. It is stated that without the support of the gay community, no local leader can win an election. 

Economy 

San Francisco became the most important city in the West during the gold rush of 1848–1849, and it was referred to as the City from the Oregon border to the Los Angeles Pueblo. It remains a significant hub for business and manufacturing, the financial and administrative center of the West, and a significant port.

The relationship between San Francisco and the technology sector is widely known. Although many San Franciscans travel to Silicon Valley, the hub of the country's technology industry, which is located just south of the bay, the city itself is also home to a number of smaller technology firms and start-ups. Another sizable share of the city's workforce is working in the financial sector. Retail trade, the tourism and convention industry, professional services, building maintenance, security, computers and data processing, and business services are among other prominent job sectors. Many businesses have their national headquarters in the Bay Area, including Levi Strauss & Co., maker of blue jeans, one of San Francisco's most recognizable goods. 

Education 

One of the nation's major centers for higher education is the Bay Area. Two of the area's universities—the University of California, Berkeley (campus opened in 1873), across the bay, and Stanford University, Palo Alto's neighbor down the peninsula (opened in 1891), though they cannot technically be considered San Francisco institutions—are among the country's most prestigious institutions. The University of San Francisco was founded in San Francisco in 1855 as a Jesuit academy, and San Francisco State University was established in San Francisco in 1899 as a normal school, became a four-year college in 1935, and was granted university status in 1972. Other institutions include the San Francisco Art Institute, City College of San Francisco, a two-year public college founded in 1935, and Golden Gate University, founded in 1853. (1871). 

Arts 

San Francisco's reputation as a major cultural hub has long been a major draw. By 1880, it had the biggest hotel in the nation, one of the biggest opera theaters, a public park, magnificent churches and synagogues, and a skyline dotted with millionaires' villas. There, drama and music flourished, and notable performers including Sarah Bernhardt, Edwin Booth, Luisa Tetrazzini, James O'Neill, Lillie Langtry, and Lotta Crabtree all made appearances. In actuality, Isadora Duncan started instructing modern dance in San Francisco.

However, the city's primary aesthetic calling has been as a haven for authors. Mark Twain was one of the first, arriving just in time for the great silver boom that began about 10 years after the gold bubble peaked. Other notable authors included Jack London, Bret Harte, Frank Norris, Gertrude Atherton, Ambrose Bierce, who had fled the city after horrifying experiences in the American Civil War, and Robert Louis Stevenson, who resided in extreme poverty in a boarding house. Later writers included Dashiell Hammett, Stewart Edward White, Kathleen Norris, Erskine Caldwell, William Saroyan, and Wallace Stegner. San Francisco rose to prominence as a hub of the Beat movement in the middle of the 1950s, and one of the movement's most well-known hangouts was poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti's City Lights Bookstore, which was the nation's first to sell paperbacks. Amy Tan, Herbert Gold, Anne Lamott, Ethan Canin, Danielle Steele, and Dave Eggers are more recent Bay Area authors.

There are two significant musical institutes in San Francisco. Summertime pop performances are presented by the San Francisco Symphony at Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall. The San Francisco Opera presents an early season to enable its top singers to fulfill their obligations at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. The professional theatre scene in the city is essentially nonexistent, with the exception of American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T. ), a resident repertory company. The touring companies of popular Broadway productions frequently fill the remaining downtown theaters. 

Residents of San Francisco think their city is a refuge for artists. This is true for those who appreciate public sculpture and architecture, although the East Coast or Los Angeles have better painting collections. The jades and porcelains at the Asian Museum, the Rodin sculptures at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, the Museum of Modern Art in the city center, and the other treasures in tiny museums like the Fire Department Pioneer Memorial Museum are noteworthy, though. Even while San Francisco's artistic scene is not as well-known as its literary scene, it has given birth to prominent individuals like Wayne Thiebaud and Richard Diebenkorn. 

Top 2 News Stations in San Francisco, California 

#1 KTVU 2 News 

Serving San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, and the whole Bay Area, KTVU FOX 2 provides local and breaking news coverage from all throughout the region. 

#2 NBC Bay Area 

Bay Area news, local news, weather, traffic, entertainment, breaking news, and much more are all available from NBC Bay Area. KNTV, known under the name NBC Bay Area, was established in 1955 and holds a license for San Jose, California. It broadcasts NBC shows to the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Government 

San Francisco, which became a city in California in 1850, is the only one with a combined city-county administration. The city-county continues to be governed by the freeholders' charter from 1932, which gives the mayor broad executive powers but also gives the controller and chief administrative officer significant responsibility. An elected board of supervisors is vested with the legislative power. The manager of utilities and the superintendent of schools are the other two important authorities who are both appointed. 

Current City Mayor 

The city and county of San Francisco's 45th mayor, London N. Breed, is aiming to make the city more resilient and egalitarian for all residents. She has targeted programs and policies to deal with some of the most important problems the City is currently facing, including as housing, homelessness, employment development, public safety, climate change, and COVID-19 pandemic recovery.