San Francisco

A cosmopolitan city

Seal and Flag

A beautiful, Cosmopolitan and liberal city.

Neighborhoods

. This spectacular location on a peninsula adds to San Francisco’s charm.. Its small size allows visiting the city in a pleasant walk.. Tourism is the backbone of the San Francisco’s economy.

San Francisco is famous for its

hills (more than 50) from which the views are spectacular.

Steep rolling hills

Mild climate

The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San

Francisco(Attributed to Mark Twain)

Fog in summer

Temperatures between 7º and 23º C

An eclectic mix of Victorian and modern architecture, little houses and skyscrapers.

The Golden

Gate Bridge

Chinatown

Excellent Chinese cuisine

Cable CarsThey are oldfashioned, but everybody loves using them.

Fisherman's Wharf

Alcatraz IslandA federal “maximun security” prison renowned for housing notorious inmates such as Al Capone.

DEMOGRAPHICS

Population:

Ethnic Distribution:

15.4% Gay and Lesbian

800,000 (city)7 million (including the Bay Area)60% born elsewhere35% born outside the USA

45% Non-Hispanic white33% Asian American (20% from China)14% Hispanic7.3% African-American

Immigrant laborers made the city a”polyglot”culture.Very few children.Homelessness is a chronic problem since the 1980s.High rates of violent and property crime.

HISTORY1776 The Spanish established a fort at the Golden Gate and a mission (Mission Dolores).1821 S.F. became part of Mexico (Yerba Buena).1846 Mexico ceded it to Usa and was renamed San Francisco.

1848 Gold Rush. Rapid growth (1,000 to 25,000 people by the end of Banking industry ( Wells Fargo). 1849). Railroald (1869) (transcontinental). Development of the Seaport of San Francisco. Bussiness ( Levi Strauss...). Cable cars. Victorian architecture.

Earthquake and Fire (1906)

1906 Earthquake and fire

1930s Great Depression

Not in modern history has a city been so completely destroyed. More than three-quarters of the city in ruins. 3,000 people died. More than half the city population(400,000)homeless Rapid rebuilding.

1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition

Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay Bridge. The island of Alcatraz started as a federal “maximum security” prison.

A LIBERAL CITYReputation for Liberalism:

Proud of its freedom, tolerance, intelligence and responsibility.

Attractiveness for writers and artists:

Mark Twain and Robert Louis Stevenson (in the late 1800s).

Jack London, Dashiel Hammet , Diego Rivera and Frida khalo (in the early 1900s).

Beat Generation in the 1950s. North Beach neighborhood.

Protest culture (Hippies) in the1960s. Haight-Ashbury “Summer of love” in 1967.

Center of the Gay rights movement in the 1970s.

The Castro District.

Election and assassination of Harvey Milk in 1978.

“Gay capital of the world.”

Liberal activism:

Social policies:

Democrats and Greens dominating city politics.

Healthy San Francisco program (2006)

SAN FRANCISCO

SAN FRANCISCO