San Francsico Travel & Vacation Information
San Francisco proper occupies just 48 hilly square miles at the tip of a slender peninsula, almost perfectly centered along the California coast. Arguably the most beautiful, certainly the most liberal city in the US, it remains true to itself: a funky, individualistic, surprisingly small city, whose people pride themselves on being the cultured counterparts to their cousins in LA — the last bastion of civilization on the lunatic fringe of America. It's a compact and approachable place, where downtown streets rise on impossible gradients to reveal stunning views of the city, the bay and beyond, and blanket fogs roll in unexpectedly to envelop the city in mist.
In a conservative America, San Francisco's reputation as a liberal oasis continues to grow, attracting waves of re-settlers from all over the US. It is estimated that over half the city's population originates from somewhere else. It is a city in a constant state of evolution, fast gentrifying itself into one of the most high-end towns on earth — thanks, in part, to the disposable incomes pumped into its coffers from its sizeable singles and gay contingents. Gay capital of the world, San Francisco has also been the scene of the dot.com revolution's rise and fall. The resultant wealth at one time made housing prices skyrocket — often at the expense of the city's middle and lower classes — but the closure of hundreds of start-up IT companies has brought real-estate prices back down to (almost) reasonable levels. Despite the city's current economic ebbs and flows, your impression of the city likely won't be altered — it remains one of the most proudly distinct places to be found anywhere.
San Francisco City Info
- Population (year 2000): 776,733,
- Elevation: 63 feet
- County: San Francisco
- Land area: 46.7 square miles
- Number of Radio Stations: 10 AM, 17 FM
- Number of Television Stations: 10
San Francisco Weather and Climate:
- Average daily temperature — Jan: 52.3 ?F; Sept.: 63.7 ?F
- Average annual rainfall — 22.1 inches
- Average annual snowfall — 0.4 inches
Distances to other Metropolitan Areas from San Francisco:
- Atlanta, GA — 2,479 miles
- Chicago, IL — 2,145 miles
- Dallas, TX — 1,733 miles
- Denver, CO — 1,278 miles
- Las Vegas, NV — 569 miles
- Los Angeles, CA — 383 miles
- Phoenix, AZ — 752 miles
- Portland, OR — 636 miles
- Sacramento, CA — 87 miles
- Washington, DC — 2,830 miles
San Francisco Safety Phone # and Major Hospitals:
- Ambulance: 911; Police: 911; Fire: 911
- California Pacific Medical Center Pacific Campus (2333 Buchanan Street)
- Chinese Hospital (845 Jackson St)
- Davies Medical Center (Castro Duboce Sts)
- Hebrew Home for the Aged & Disabled (302 Silver Ave)
- Kaiser Foundation Hospital (2425 Geary Blvd)
- Laguna Honda Hospital (375 Laguna Honda Blvd)
- Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute (401 Parnassus Avenue)
- San Francisco General Hospital (1001 Potrero Ave)
- St. Francis Memorial Hospital (900 Hyde St)
- St. Luke's Hospital (3555 Army St)
- St. Mary's Hospital Medical Center (450 Stanyan St)
- UCSF Medical Center (505 Parnassus Ave)
San Francisco Top Tourism Draws and Seasons:
San Francisco Major Shopping Areas:
- Chinatown: Bush Street and Grand Avenue
- Civic Center and Hayes Valley -- Hayes and Gough Streets
- Downtown And Union Square: Post and Stockton Streets
- Fisherman's Wharf
- North Beach and Telegraph Hill
- Fillmore Street and Japantown
- Pacific Heights & Presidio Heights
- San Francisco Shopping Center: Market and Powell Streets
- Chestnut Street: Chestnut and Scott Streets
- Embarcadero Center 1-4 Shopping: Sacramento to Clay Streets
- Fillmore Street Shopping: Fillmore and California Streets
- Haight Street Shopping: Haight and Ashbury Streets
- North Beach Shopping: Grand and Columbus Streets
- Mission Street Shopping: Valencia St. and 16th St.
- Prime Outlets at Tracy: 1005 Pescadero Ave., Tracy, CA 95304; 209-833-1895 (one hour east of San Francisco)
- Petaluma Village Premium Outlets: 2200 Petaluma Blvd. North, Petaluma, CA 94952; 707-778-9300; (35 minutes north of San Francisco)
- Vacaville Premium Outlets: 321 Nut Tree Rd., Vacaville, CA 95687; 707-447-5755; (one hour east of San Francisco)
- Napa Premium Outlets: 629 Factory Stores Dr., Napa, CA 94558; 707-226-9876
San Francisco Major Dining Areas:
- Castro Street and Noe Valley
- Chinatown
- Cow Hollow and Union Street
- Fisherman's Wharf & Ghirardelli Square
- Fillmore Street
- Sacramento Street in Pacific Heights
- SOMA (South of Market Street)
- Chestnut Street in the Marina District
- The Mission District
- The Sunset
- SBC Park — Home of the Giants
- Ghirardelli Square Chocolate Festival — September
- Red & White Fleet
San Francisco Famous Landmarks & Historic Places:
San Francisco Famous Natives and Residents:
- Luis Walter Alvarez, inventor
- Gertrude Atherton, author
- Deavid Belasco, playwright and producer
- Isadora Duncan, Dancer
- John Front, explorer
- Robert Frost, poet
- Jerry Garcia, guitarist and singer
- Charles P. Ginsburg, inventor
- William Randolph Hearst, publisher
- Jack London, author
- Lincoln Steffens, journalist and author
Notable Moments in San Francisco History:
- 1542 — European discovery and exploration of the San Francisco Bay Area and its islands began in 1542 and culminated with the mapping of the bay in 1775.
- 1579 — Captain Drake and crew, midway through their piratical circumnavigation of the globe, steered their Golden Hind into a foggy North Pacific cove surrounded by buff cliffs that reminded them of the White Cliffs of Dover. They stayed five weeks at the place they dubbed Nova Albion, repairing and supplying the ship and getting along famously with the natives.
- 1776 — The first colonizing party arrived in 1776 to found the Presidio of San Francisco and Mission Dolores. La Misi?n de San Francisco de Asis (Mission Dolores) is designated as Registered Landmark Number One of the City and County of San Francisco.
- 1848 — It was in the first part of January, 1848, when the gold was discovered at Coloma.
- 1869 — September 6 - The first westbound train arrives in San Francisco.
- 1882 — In the 1840s and 1850s, Chinese laborers were recruited to build the railroads, work the mines, and tend the fields of a growing, prosperous America. By the 1870s, with the motherlode running dry and the economy turning shaky, anti-Chinese sentiment swelled. In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, barring all Chinese immigration--a law that was not repealed for more than sixty years
- 1929 — With the Great Highway and Ocean Beach Esplanade, costing more than $1,000,000, and financed from the $9,380,000 highway bond issue voted by the people, completed, San Francisco today stands to show visitors from all over the world the finest stretch of highway ever constructed Completion of the highway was climaxed Sunday, June 9, by a monster celebration. More than 50,000 people massed at the end of Lincoln Way. Music from a band of 1014 musicians filled the air in joyous riot, while thousands of autoists tooted horns to add to the noise of the occasion.
- 1936 — The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opened on November 12, 1936. It remains one of the largest bridges in the world and carries more traffic than any other toll bridge - over 270,000 vehicles each day. 152K tons of steel 1Mil cu yrds concrete 200,000 gal paint 8.25 miles long 70,815 miles of cable 185 ft above high water, piers 50-242 ft. deep cost: $77,200,000
- 1950 — The 49ers struggled in their NFL debut, winning only three games. A rival coach described them as "not big enough or tough enough."
- 1987 — In June of 1987, a small group of strangers gathered in a San Francisco storefront to document the lives they feared history would neglect. Their goal was to create a memorial for those who had died of AIDS, and to thereby help people understand the devastating impact of the disease. This meeting of devoted friends and lovers served as the foundation of The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt.
- 1989 — October 17, 1989 - 7.1 magnitude Earthquake hits Bay Area
- 1992 — Mayor Frank Jordan announces a state of emergency and a curfew after looters and vandals hit downtown following the Rodney King beating verdict. Police Chief Hongisto is fired after he orders his officers to clear the racks of 2000 copies of an issue of the gay Bay Times which criticizes his tactics against King demonstrators
Interesting facts about San Francisco:
- San Francisco Bay is considered the world's largest landlocked harbor.
- The average rate of motion across the San Andreas Fault Zone during the past 3 million years is 56 mm/yr (2 in/yr). This is about the same rate at which your fingernails grow. Assuming this rate continues, scientists project that Los Angeles and San Francisco will be adjacent to one another in approximately 15 million years.
- The San Andreas Fault was named in 1895 by geologist A.C. Lawson. He named it after the San Andreas Lake, a sag pond through which the fault passes about 20 miles south of San Francisco. He likely did not realize at the time that the fault ran almost the entire length of California!
San Francisco is approximately 7 miles long and 7 miles wide. Many people believe that the square mileage of the city led to the choice of the 49-Mile Drive moniker for the sightseeing trail that winds throughout the city.
- As far as population per square mile goes, those charmingly close together Victorian houses contribute to San Francisco's status as the second densest area in the U.S., with 15,000 people per mile. For comparison's sake, note that New York City is first, with 24,000 people per square mile, while Los Angeles is relatively spacious with roughly 7,000 people per square mile.
- With a population of 724,000 people, San Francisco proper is the 14th largest city in the nation. But looking at the people in the city itself doesn't tell the whole story since there are more than 6 million in the San Francisco metropolitan area, making it the 4th largest metropolitan statistical area in the United States.
- Mark Twain once noted that "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." San Francisco's famous fog may have been partially to blame for the seemingly unseasonable weather Twain experienced, although it is true that it rarely gets really hot within the city of San Francisco (note that this generalization applies only to the city proper and not to surrounding areas).
San Francisco Population and Demographics:
- Males: 394,828 (50.8%), Females: 381,905 (49.2%)
- Median resident age: 36.5 years
- Median household income: $55,221 (year 2000)
- Median house value: $396,400 (year 2000)
- Races in San Francisco:
- White Non-Hispanic (43.6%)
- Chinese (19.6%)
- Hispanic (14.1%)
- Black (7.8%)
- Other race (6.5%)
- Filipino (5.2%)
- Two or more races (4.3%)
- Other Asian (1.5%)
- Japanese (1.5%)
- Vietnamese (1.4%)
- American Indian (1.2%)
- Korean (1.0%)
- Asian Indian (0.7%)
- Ancestries:
- Irish (8.9%)
- German (7.7%)
- English (6.1%)
- Italian (5.0%)
- Russian (2.8%)
- French (2.3%)
San Francisco Colleges and Universities:
- San Francisco State University (Location: 1600 Holloway Ave)
- City College of San Francisco (Location: 50 Phelan Ave)
- University of San Francisco (Location: 2130 Fulton St)
- Academy of Art College (Location: 79 New Montgomery)
- University of California-San Francisco (Location: 500 Parnassus Ave)
- Golden Gate University-San Francisco (Location: 536 Mission St)
- California Culinary Academy (Location: 625 Polk St)
- University of California Hastings College of Law (Location: 200 McAllister St)
- Heald College-San Francisco (Location: 350 Mission St)
- California Institute of Integral Studies (Location: 1453 Mission St 4th St)
- San Francisco Art Institute (Location: 800 Chestnut St)
- Fashion Institute of Design And Merchandising-San Fran (Location: 55 Stockton St)
- New College of California (Location: 50 Fell St)
- Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center (Location: 450 Pacific Avenue)
- Bryman College (Location: 814 Mission St)
- California College of Podiatric Medicine (Location: 1210 Scott St)
- The Art Institutes International at San Francisco (Location: 1170 Market St)
- San Francisco Conservatory of Music (Location: 1201 Ortega St)
- American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Location: 455 Arkansas St)
- Trinity College (Location: 939 Market St)
San Francisco Economy & Business:
- Industries providing employment:
- Professional, scientific, management, administrative, and waste management services (19.3%)
- Educational, health and social services (16.2%)
- Arts, entertainment, recreation, accommodation and food services (11.2%)
- Retail trade (10.3%)
- Finance, insurance, real estate, and rental and leasing (10.2%)
- Companies headquartered in San Francisco
- Bank of America
- Bechtel Corporation
- Charles Schwab
- CNET
- The Gap
- Ghirardelli division of Lindt & Springli
- Levi Strauss & Co.
- Macromedia
- Pacific Gas & Electric (Frequently referred to as PG&E)
- SEGA of America
- The Sharper Image
- Viz Communications
- Wells Fargo
- Japanese Weekend
- Craigslist
- Method
San Francisco Hispanic Community Media and Churches:
- El Observador, Hispanic Newspaper
- Hispanic Churches:
Templo El Calvario Assemblies of God: 1419 Howard St., San Francisco, CA 94103; 415-863-4059
Spanish Speaking Baptist Church: 2970 Folsom St., San Francisco, CA 94110; 415-648-7949
Oakland Seventh Day Adventist Spanish Church: 2410 East Fifteenth St., Oakland, CA 94601; 510-533-8874
First Spanish Baptist Church: 1660 23rd Ave., Oakland, CA 94606; 510-562-1341
- Spanish Radio stations
KEMR 98.9 FM
KIQI 1010 AM
- Spanish Television:
KSSF TeleFutura, Channel 66
KDTV Univision, Channel 14
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