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The San Francisco Bay Area, also known, simply, as the Bay Area, is a geographically diverse metropolitan area that surrounds the San Francisco Bay in Northern California. Home to almost eight million people, it is composed of cities, towns, military bases, airports, and associated regional, state, and national parks sprawled over nine counties and connected by a massive network of roads, highways, railroads, and commuter rail.
The Bay Area, unlike a typical metropolitan area, does not contain a single dominating city. San Jose is the largest city in the Bay Area, surpassing San Francisco in the 1990 census. However, San Francisco, remains the cultural, financial, tourist, and urban center of the region. The metropolitan area comprising the city of San Francisco together with Oakland and San Jose is the fifth-largest in the United States, behind New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington-Baltimore.
Subregions
East Bay
- Main article: East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area)
The eastern side of the bay, dominated by the city of Oakland but also including Alameda, Berkeley, Fremont, Livermore, Hayward and several small cities, 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 consists of Oakland, Hayward, Fremont, Berkeley, and smaller suburbs surrounding or surrounded by these four major cities, such as Emeryville, San Leandro, and Richmond. 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 outer East Bay consists of the cities of Walnut Creek, Concord, and Pleasant Hill, 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.
North Bay
- Main article: North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area)
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, and is generally the least urbanized part of the Bay Area, with many areas of undeveloped park and farmland. It is the only section of the Bay Area that is not served by a commuter rail transit service, though Sonoma-Marin service has entered the planning phase. The lack of transportation services is mainly because 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 Concord.
San Francisco & The Peninsula
- Main article: San Francisco & San Francisco Peninsula
The City and County of San Francisco is known, locally, simply as The City. It is generally placed in a category by itself geographically, mentally and culturally. 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 serves as the cultural, tourist, financial and urban center of the region.
The area between the South Bay and the City and County of San Francisco is known as the San Francisco Peninsula, locally just as The Peninsula. This area consists of a series of small cities and suburban communities along the Bay such as Palo Alto and Stanford University, Mountain View, Daly City, San Mateo, and Foster City, as well as various towns along the Pacific coast, such as Pacifica and Half Moon Bay.
South Bay
- Main article: South Bay (San Jose, California), Santa Clara Valley, and Silicon Valley
Affluence
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. 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 (Atherton, Ross, Diablo, Tiburon, Los Altos, Nicasio, Portola Valley, Los Gatos, San Francisco).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. Most of the major residential areas never experience snow (the last noticeable snowfall at the sea level regions occurred on February 5, 1976), while the highest of the surrounding peaks are dusted with snow half a dozen times each winter (including Mount St. Helena, Mount Hamilton, Mount Diablo, Mount Tamalpais). Sometimes, if a strong cold front moves through, the mountains could get more than a dusting of snow, like in 2001 when 30 inches of snow fell on Mount Hamilton. 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. At the south end of the Bay, San Jose 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 to the west get over 55.Transportation
- Main article: Transportation in the San Francisco Bay Area
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.
Higher education
The region is home to several universities and seminaries, most notably the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University.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, Shiite-Muslim, Sikh, Sunni-Muslim, and numerous other religious communities.
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
Regional counties, cities and suburbs
Cities in bold serve as county seat.Counties
Cities with more than 300,000 inhabitants
Cities with 100,000 to 300,000 inhabitants
Municipalities and suburbs with 10,000 to 100,000 inhabitants
Municipalities and suburbs with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants
See also
- Islands of San Francisco Bay
- List of San Francisco Bay Area writers
- List of San Francisco Bay Area wildflowers
- United States metropolitan area
References
External links
- Bay Area Experiences.com Community-built site with fun, non-touristy things to do in San Francisco and surrounding areas.
- Bay Area Shiite-Muslims Association Meet the Bay Area Shiites
- San Francisco Bay Area Shia Islamic Council (sfbasic.org) Information about the Bay Area Shia
- SFCalendar.org Bringing you inspirational, cultural, educational, entertaining talks, discussions, films and other events in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Geography of California | Metropolitan areas of the United States | San Francisco Bay Area
Район на Санфранциския залив | San Francisco Bay Area | San Francisco Bay Area | San Francisco Bay Area | Область залива Сан-Франциско | サンフランシスコ・ベイエリア | San Francisco Bay Area | 舊金山灣區
- Main article: San Francisco & San Francisco Peninsula
The City and County of San Francisco is known, locally, simply as The City. It is generally placed in a category by itself geographically, mentally and culturally. 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 serves as the cultural, tourist, financial and urban center of the region.
"San Francisco Bay Area"