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...)

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Google is an American multinational corporation specializing in Internet-related services and products. These include online advertising technologies, search, cloud computing, and software. Most of its profits are derived from AdWords.

Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were Ph.D. students at Stanford University. Together they own about 14 percent of its shares but control 56 of the stockholder voting power through supervoting stock. They incorporated Google as a privately held company on September 4, 1998. An initial public offering followed on August 19, 2004. Its mission statement from the outset was "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," and its unofficial slogan was "Don't be evil." In 2006 Google moved to headquarters in Mountain View, California, nicknamed the Googleplex. (more...)

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Curry with the Warriors in 2015
Curry with the Warriors in 2015
Wardell Stephen "Steph" Curry II (born March 14, 1988) is an American professional basketball player who plays for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Listed at 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) tall and weighing 190 lb (86 kg), Curry plays the point guard position and is considered by some to be the greatest shooter in NBA history. The 2015 NBA Most Valuable Player and a two-time NBA All-Star, he is the son of former NBA player Dell Curry.

Curry played college basketball for Davidson. There, he was twice named Southern Conference Player of the Year and set the all-time scoring record for both Davidson and the Southern Conference. During his sophomore year, Curry also set the single-season NCAA record for three-pointers made.

Curry was selected with the seventh overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft by the Golden State Warriors. During the 2012–13 season, he set the NBA record for three-pointers made in a regular season with 272. The next season, Curry and teammate Klay Thompson set the NBA record for combined threes in a season with 484 as the pair were given the nickname the "Splash Brothers". In 2014–15, Curry eclipsed his own record by knocking down his 273rd three-pointer on April 9, 2015, finishing the regular season with 286 three-pointers and was named MVP after leading the Warriors to a franchise-record and NBA-best 67 wins on the season. (more...)

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Walnut Creek is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. With a total estimated population of 67,673, Walnut Creek serves as a hub for its neighboring cities because of its location at the junction of the highways from Sacramento and San Jose (I-680) and San Francisco/Oakland (SR-24) and its accessibility by BART. Its active downtown neighborhood features hundred-year-old buildings and extensive high-end retail establishments, restaurants and entertainment venues.

Walnut Creek owns more open space per capita than any other community in the state of California. In 1974, Walnut Creek voters approved a $6.7 million bond measure that allowed the city to purchase 1,800 acres (730 ha) of undeveloped hillsides, ridge lines, and park sites. Walnut Creek owns parts of Lime Ridge Open Space, Shell Ridge Open Space, Acalanes Ridge Open Space, and Sugarloaf Open Space. (more...)

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The Bay Area by year

1926
Big Dipper at Playland
Big Dipper at Playland
Mural detail from the Mark Hopkins
Mural detail from the Mark Hopkins

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Cable car in front of Safeway, Chestnut and Taylor Streets, San Francisco (1963)
image credit: Eric Fischer

Did you know...

San Francisco Bay Salt Ponds
San Francisco Bay Salt Ponds

Previous Did you know...

Fusakichi Omori, pioneering Japanese seismologist
Fusakichi Omori

May/June 2011

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SFJAZZ Center
SFJAZZ Center

Debuting in 1983, the San Francisco Jazz Festival is an annual fall three-week event, with over 30 concerts. It is produced by SFJAZZ (pictured), a non-profit organization dedicated to jazz and jazz education.

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~ Rudyard Kipling
*more quotes about San Francisco from Wikiquote

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Bay Area regions, geographic features and protected areas

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