Portal:San Francisco Bay Area

The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California, United States. The region encompasses the major cities and metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, 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 7.44 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 urban area of San Francisco and San Jose is the second largest in California (after the Greater Los Angeles area), the fifth largest in the United States, and the 56th largest urban area in the world. The United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) does not use the nine-county definition of the San Francisco Bay Area. The OMB has designated a more extensive 12-county Combined Statistical Area (CSA) titled the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area which also includes the three counties of San Joaquin, Santa Cruz, and San Benito that do not border San Francisco Bay, but are economically tied to the nine counties that do. The San Francisco Bay Area is known for its natural beauty, liberal politics, entrepreneurship, and diversity. The area has high incomes, performing 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...) Template:/box-footer Kaiser Permanente is an integrated managed care consortium, based in Oakland, California, United States, founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney Garfield. Kaiser Permanente is made up of three distinct groups of entities: the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and its regional operating subsidiaries; Kaiser Foundation Hospitals; and the autonomous regional Permanente Medical Groups. As of 2006, Kaiser Permanente operates in nine states and the District of Columbia, and is the largest managed care organization in the United States. Kaiser Permanente has 9.3 million health plan members, 167,300 employees, 14,600 physicians, 37 medical centers, and 611 medical offices. For 2011, the non-profit Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals entities reported a combined $1.6 billion in net income on $47.9 billion in operating revenues. Each independent Permanente Medical Group operates as a separate for-profit partnership or professional corporation in its individual territory, and while none publicly report their financial results, each is primarily funded by reimbursements from its respective regional Kaiser Foundation Health Plan entity. (more...) Jello Biafra (born Eric Reed Boucher; June 17, 1958) is the former lead singer and songwriter for San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys, and is currently a musician and spoken word artist. After he left the Dead Kennedys, he took over the influential independent record label Alternative Tentacles, which he had co-founded in 1979 with Dead Kennedys bandmate East Bay Ray. Although now focused primarily on spoken word, he has continued as a musician in numerous collaborations. Politically, Biafra is a member of the Green Party of the United States and actively supports various political causes. He ran for the party's Presidential nomination in 2000, finishing second to Ralph Nader. He is a staunch believer in a free society, who utilizes shock value and advocates direct action and pranksterism in the name of political causes. Biafra is known to use absurdist media tactics, in the leftist tradition of the Yippies, to highlight issues of civil rights and social justice. (more...) Concord (/ˈkɒŋkərd/ KON-kərd; formerly Todos Santos) is the largest city in Contra Costa County, California, in the United States. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 122,067. Founded in 1869 as the community of Todos Santos by Salvio Pacheco, the name was changed to Concord within months. The city is a major regional suburban East Bay center within the San Francisco Bay Area, and is 31 miles (50 km) east of San Francisco. (more...) Building, SRI International image credit: Disavian Template:/box-header 2016 February The Denver Broncos beat the Carolina Panthers, in Super Bowl 50, held at Levi's Stadium (halftime show pictured) Apple Inc says it will not comply with an FBI request to provide unblocking software for an IPhone owned by one of the perpetrators of the 2015 San Bernardino attack March An Altamont Corridor Express train derails in Sunol [1] Ben Bagdikian, journalist, author, and dean emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, dies in Berkeley [2] The first Silicon Valley Comic Con, organized by Steve Wozniak and Stan Lee, is held at the San Jose Convention Center Former Intel CEO and chairman Andy Grove (pictured), one of the major figures in the growth of Silicon Valley, dies The wreck of the USS Conestoga (pictured) is confirmed in the Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, 95 years after it had gone missing Tesla Motors announces the Model 3, pre-orders of which reach 115,000 within 4 hours of the announcement [3] April The Oakland Tribune ceases publication after 142 years, and is replaced by the East Bay Times [4] Hundreds of pages of University of California, Berkeley records are released, showing a pattern of documented sexual harassment and firings of non-tenured staff [5] The San Francisco Board of Supervisors passes a parental leave law requiring employers to offer six weeks of fully paid leave for new parents, the first city in the US to do so [6] The long closed UC Theatre in Berkeley , formerly a revival house movie theater, reopens as a music venue [7] The Golden State Warriors win against the Memphis Grizzlies, their 73rd win of the season, breaking the previous NBA record, held by the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, for the most victories in a single season [8] Napster founder and philanthropist Sean Parker donates $250 million to create the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, with funds going to over 300 scientists at 40 laboratories, in 6 institutions, including the University of California at San Francisco [9] The San Francisco Board of Supervisors passes a law requiring all new buildings below 10 stories to have rooftop solar panels, making it the first major US city to do so [10] Sanford and Joan Weill donate $185 million to the University of California, San Francisco to create the Weill Institute for Neurosciences [11] May A poll of 1,000 people, by the Bay Area Council, showed that 34 percent are considering leaving the area, due primarily to the high costs of living and housing, and traffic [12] McDonald's tests garlic fries at four restaurants in the South Bay, using locally grown garlic from Gilroy (Gordon Biersch Brewing Company garlic fries pictured)[13] The Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry (pictured) is named NBA MVP, in their first unanimous vote [14] It is revealed that the FBI hid microphones outside an Oakland Alameda County Superior Court building, between March 2010 and January 2011, as part of an investigation into bid rigging and fraud by Alameda and San Mateo County real estate investors, this done without a warrant [15] The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art reopens after the completion of a two-and-a-half-year expansion, by architecture firm Snøhetta, more than doubling the gallery space [16][17] Pittsburg moves to install surveillance cameras along California State Route 4, in response to a series of 20 freeway shootings in the area that have taken the lives of six people, and injured 11, in the past year [18] Scientists find evidence of methane-producing microbes in water coming from underground at The Cedars, freshwater springs along Austin Creek in Sonoma County, the first time these methanogens that thrive in harsh environments have been discovered beyond the ocean floor [19] The San Jose Sharks win against the St. Louis Blues in the Stanley Cup ice hockey playoffs, advancing them to the Stanley Cup Finals, their first trip to the finals since their founding in 1991 San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr resigns after the officer-involved shooting death of a woman [20] The Golden State Warriors beat Oklahoma City Thunder in the National Basketball Association Playoffs, and advance to the NBA Finals for the second year in a row [21] 1868  • An earthquake estimated at 6.8–7.0 on the Richter scale hits the Bay Area, with an epicenter in the East Bay. It causes significant damage throughout the region, and comes to be known as the "Great San Francisco Earthquake". (damage in the Haywards area pictured, right)  • The Convent of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (pictured, right) in Oakland is established by members of the Sisters of the Holy Names from Canada  • The University of California (logo pictured, left) is established in Berkeley, along with the first campus in the system, the University of California, Berkeley  • Santa Rosa in Sonoma County is incorporated  • Vallejo in Solano County is incorporated  • Bret Harte begins publishing the Overland Monthly in San Francisco  • The Guittard Chocolate Company is founded in San Francisco Macintosh SE "easter egg", featuring the computer's engineering team (Apple, Inc., Cupertino, ca 1987) image credit: Autopilot ... that the Lemon Drop cocktail (example pictured) was invented sometime in the 1970s at Henry Africa's, a fern bar in San Francisco? ... that in 1997 the Linguistic Society of America passed a resolution supporting the Oakland Unified School District board's decision to teach some students using African American Vernacular English? ... that Zvezdelina Stankova (pictured) brought ideas from her Bulgarian mathematical education to California by founding the Berkeley Math Circle? ... that conservationist Caroline Sealy Livermore was able to ensure protection for Angel Island and have it declared a state park, with the highest mountain on Angel Island subsequently named Mount Livermore?Template:/box-footer PG&E General Office Building entrance  • ... that the Pacific Gas and Electric Company General Office Building and Annex (pictured, left), is a Beaux-Arts building designed by the Bakewell & Brown architecture firm?  • ... that the Matson Building (pictured, right), built in 1922-24, was the headquarters of the Matson Navigation Company, then the largest shipping and transportation company between the West Coast and Hawaii?  • ... that Dr. Mervyn Silverman, as San Francisco Director of Health, on October 9, 1984, ordered 14 bathhouses and sex clubs to close immediately, saying they were '"fostering disease and death" by allowing indiscriminate sexual contacts that could spread AIDS?  • ... that Gold Rush-era pioneer George Treat was the first person to import angora goats to California?  • ... that Ecocity Builders, in 1994, removed the Codornices Creek water channel from its cement culvert along the Albany/Berkeley border and created a mile-long park?  • ... that the landscape painter Willis E. Davis was informed over the phone of his daughter's elopement? November 2014 Albert Dieudonné in Abel Gance's Napoleon San Francisco Silent Film Festival is a film festival first held in 1996 and presented every July at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco. It is the largest silent film festival in the United States. In 2012, The festival presented, in association with American Zoetrope, The Film Preserve, Photoplay Productions, and the British Film Institute, a restored version of Abel Gance's Napoléon. (Albert Dieudonné as Napoléon pictured) “ I always see about six scuffles a night when I come to San Francisco. That’s one of the town’s charms. ” ~ Erroll Flynn *more quotes about San Francisco from Wikiquote Template:/box-header Regions East Bay North Bay Peninsula Santa Clara Valley Silicon Valley Wine Country West Marin Geographic features San Francisco Bay San Pablo Bay Suisun Bay Islands of the Bay Marin Headlands Diablo Range 74px Berkeley Hills Santa Cruz Mountains Protected areas Golden Gate Recreation Area Farallones Marine Sanctuary Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge Point Reyes Seashore Mount Tamalpais State Park Henry Coe State Park Midpeninsula Open Space East Bay Regional Parks Template:/box-footer Template:/box-header Portal:San Francisco Bay Area/Things you can do Template:/box-footer 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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