Portal:San Francisco Bay Area

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Portal:Bay Area)
WELCOME TO THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA   BAY AREA CITIES   RECOGNIZED BAY AREA CONTENT

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

People's Park in Berkeley, California, US, is a park located off Telegraph Avenue, bounded by Haste and Bowditch streets and Dwight Way, near the University of California, Berkeley. The park was created during the radical political activism of the late 1960s.

Today, People's Park is a free public park. Although open to all, it is mainly a daytime sanctuary for Berkeley's large homeless population who, along with others, receive meals from East Bay Food Not Bombs. Public toilets are available, and the park offers demonstration gardens, including organic community gardening beds and areas landscaped with California native plants, all of which were created by volunteer gardeners. Students use the basketball courts. A wider audience is attracted by occasional rallies, concerts, and hip-hop events conducted at the People's Stage, a wooden bandstand designed and built on the western end of the park by volunteers organized by the People's Park Council. Nearby residents, and those who try to use the park for recreation, sometimes experience conflict with the more aggressive homeless people.

The local Southside neighborhood was the scene of a major confrontation between student protesters and police in May 1969. A mural near the park, painted by Berkeley artist O'Brien Thiele and lawyer/artist Osha Neumann, depicts the shooting of James Rector, a student who died from shotgun wounds inflicted by the police on May 15, 1969. (more...)

Selected biography

Henry Edwards (August 27, 1827 – June 9, 1891), known as "Harry", was an English-born stage actor, writer and entomologist who gained fame in Australia, San Francisco and New York City for his theater work.

Edwards was drawn to the theater early in life, and he appeared in amateur productions in London. After sailing to Australia, Edwards appeared professionally in Shakespearean plays and light comedies primarily in Melbourne and Sydney. Throughout his childhood in England and his acting career in Australia, he was greatly interested in collecting insects, and the National Museum of Victoria used the results of his Australian fieldwork as part of the genesis of their collection.

In San Francisco, Edwards was a founding member of the Bohemian Club, and a gathering in Edwards' honor was the spark which began the club's traditional summer encampment at the Bohemian Grove.As well, Edwards cemented his reputation as a preeminent stage actor and theater manager. After writing a series of influential studies on Pacific Coast butterflies and moths he was elected life member of the California Academy of Sciences. (more...)

Selected city

Cali Mill Plaza
Cali Mill Plaza
Cupertino /ˌkpərˈtn/ is a city in Santa Clara County, California in the United States, directly west of San Jose on the western edge of the Santa Clara Valley with portions extending into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. An affluent city, Cupertino is the 11th wealthiest city with a population over 50,000 in the United States, with an estimated per-capita income of $51,965 and a median household income exceeding $160,000. The population was 58,302 at the 2010 census. Forbes ranked it as one of the most educated small towns. It is perhaps best known as being the home town of Apple Inc.'s corporate headquarters.

Money's Best Places to Live, America's best small towns, ranked Cupertino as #27 in 2012, the 2nd highest in California. It was also named as the 7th happiest suburb in the United States, ranking highly in the Income, Safety, Marriage, and Education categories. (more...)

Selected image


The Bay Area by year

1886
Plaque at original site of Student's Observatory
Plaque at original site of Student's Observatory

Selected historical image

San Francisco, 1881
image credit: Public domain

Did you know...

San Francisco Bay Salt Ponds
San Francisco Bay Salt Ponds

Previous Did you know...

Warning sign, posted at Skeggs Point in the El Corte de Madera Creek Open Space Preserve, in the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, San Mateo County
Warning sign, posted at Skeggs Point in the El Corte de Madera Creek Open Space Preserve, in the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, San Mateo County


February 2009

Selected periodic event

"Dykes on Bikes", the traditional leaders of the parade
"Dykes on Bikes", the traditional leaders of the parade

The San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Celebration, usually known as San Francisco Pride, is a parade and festival held at the end of June each year in San Francisco to celebrate lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people and their allies. The 40th anniversary parade in 2011 included over 200 parade contingents, and was the largest ever gathering of LGBT people and allies in the nation. (Dykes on Bikes pictured)

Quote

File:Gertrude Stein by Alvin Langdon Coburn.jpg
~ Gertrude Stein, Everybody's Autobiography (New York: Random House, 1937, p. 289)

Selected multimedia file

Radical Faeries event, San Francisco, 2012
credit: MrThistleFlower

Bay Area regions, geographic features and protected areas

Related Portals

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.

Things you can do

Selected panorama

San Francisco Bay Area categories


Full category tree
Select [►] to view the full category tree.

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Discover Wikipedia using portals

Purge server cache