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The City and County of ( Bought to you by our limousine services
- San Francisco) San Francisco is the fourth-largest city in California
and the fourteenth-largest in the United States, with a 2005 population of
739,426.[2] It is located on the tip of the ( Bought to you by our
limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco Peninsula and has
traditionally been the focal point of the ( Bought to you by our limousine
services - San Francisco) San Francisco Bay Area. ( Bought to you by our
limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco is the second most
densely populated major city in the United States.[3]
In 1776, the Spanish became the first Europeans to settle in ( Bought to
you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco, establishing
a mission named for Francis of Assisi. With the advent of the California
Gold Rush in 1848, the city entered a period of rapid growth. After being
devastated by the 1906 earthquake and fire, ( Bought to you by our
limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco was quickly rebuilt and
is today one of the most recognizable cities in the world.
( Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco
is renowned for its months-long episodes of fog, steep rolling hills, the
eclectic mix of Victorian and modern architecture, and its peninsular
location surrounded on three sides by the Pacific Ocean and ( Bought to
you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco Bay. Famous
hallmarks and landmarks include the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island,
the cable cars, the Transamerica Pyramid, and Chinatown.
History
History of ( Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San
Francisco, California
The ( Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San
Francisco Peninsula was inhabited from at least 8000 BC. The Yelamu group
of the Ohlone people had established several small villages in the area
when a Spanish exploration party, led by Don Gaspar de Portolŕ arrived on
November 2, 1769, claiming the first documented European visit to ( Bought
to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco Bay.[4]
Six years later a Spanish mission, Mission ( Bought to you by our
limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco de Asís (Mission
Dolores), was established with a small settlement, and an associated
military fort was built in what is now the Presidio.[5]
Mission ( Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San
Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores)Upon independence from Spain in 1821,
the area became part of Mexico. In 1835, Englishman William Richardson
erected the first significant homestead outside the immediate vicinity of
the Mission Dolores,[6] near a boat anchorage around what is today
Portsmouth Square. Together with Mission Alcalde Francisco de Haro, he
laid out a street plan for the expanded settlement, and the town, named
Yerba Buena, began to attract American settlers. Commodore John D. Sloat
claimed California for the United States on July 7, 1846, during the
Mexican-American War, and Captain John B. Montgomery arrived to claim
Yerba Buena two days later. Yerba Buena was renamed ( Bought to you by our
limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco the next year.[7]
Despite its attractive location as a port and naval base, ( Bought to you
by our limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco was still a small
settlement with inhospitable geography.
A Cable Car on California Street in 1899The California Gold Rush brought a
flood of treasure seekers. With their sourdough bread in tow, prospectors
accumulated in ( Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco)
San Francisco over rival Benicia,[8] raising the population from 1,000 in
1848 to 25,000 by December 1849.[9] The promise of riches was so strong
that crews on arriving vessels deserted and rushed off to the gold fields,
leaving behind a forest of masts in ( Bought to you by our limousine services
- San Francisco) San Francisco harbor.[10] California was quickly granted
statehood and the U.S. military built Fort Point at the Golden Gate and a
fort on Alcatraz island to secure the ( Bought to you by our limousine services
- San Francisco) San Francisco Bay. Silver discoveries, including the
Comstock Lode in 1859, further drove rapid population growth. With hordes
of fortune seekers streaming through the city, lawlessness was common, and
the Barbary Coast section of town gained notoriety as a haven for
criminals, prostitution, and gambling.
Entrepreneurs sought to capitalize on the wealth generated by the Gold
Rush. Early winners were the banking industry, which saw the founding of
Wells Fargo in 1852, and the railroad industry, as the magnates of the Big
Four, led by Leland Stanford, collaborated in the building of the First
Transcontinental Railroad. The development of the Port of ( Bought to you
by our limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco established the
city as a center of trade. Catering to the needs and tastes of the growing
population, Levi Strauss opened a dry goods business and Domingo
Ghirardelli began manufacturing chocolate. Immigrant laborers made the
city a polyglot culture, with Chinese railroad workers creating the city's
Chinatown quarter. The first cable cars carried San Franciscans up Clay
Street in 1873. The city's sea of Victorian houses began to take shape,
and civic leaders campaigned for a spacious public park, resulting in
plans for Golden Gate Park. San Franciscans built schools, churches,
theaters, and all the hallmarks of civic life. The Presidio developed into
the most important American military installation on the Pacific
coast.[11] By the turn of the century, ( Bought to you by our limousine services
- San Francisco) San Francisco was a city of international renown,
celebrated for a flamboyant style, stately hotels, ostentatious mansions
on Nob Hill, and a thriving arts scene.
"Not in history has a modern imperial city been so completely
destroyed. ( Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San
Francisco is gone." - Jack London after the 1906 earthquake and
fire.[12]At 5:12 AM on the morning of April 18, 1906, a major earthquake
struck ( Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San
Francisco and northern California. As buildings collapsed from the
shaking, ruptured gas lines ignited fires that would spread across the
city and burn out of control for several days. With water mains out of services,
the Presidio Artillery Corps attempted to contain the inferno by
dynamiting blocks of buildings to create firebreaks.[13] More than
three-quarters of the city lay in ruins, including almost all of the
downtown core.[14] Contemporary accounts reported that 498 people lost
their lives, though modern estimates put the number in the several
thousands.[15] More than half the city's population of 400,000 were left
homeless.[16] Refugees settled temporarily in makeshift tent villages in
Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, on the beaches, and elsewhere. Many fled
permanently to the East Bay.
The Palace of Fine Arts at the 1915 Panama-Pacific ExpositionRebuilding
was rapid and performed on a grand scale. Rejecting calls to completely
remake the street grid, San Franciscans opted for speed.[17] Amadeo
Giannini's Bank of Italy, later to become Bank of America, provided loans
for many of those whose livelihoods had been devastated. The destroyed
mansions of Nob Hill became grand hotels. City Hall rose once again in
Beaux Arts splendor, and the city celebrated its rebirth at the
Panama-Pacific International Exposition in 1915.
In ensuing years, the city solidified its standing as a financial capital;
in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash, not a single ( Bought to you
by our limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco-based bank
failed.[18] Indeed, it was at the height of the Great Depression that (
Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco
undertook two great civil engineering projects, simultaneously
constructing the ( Bought to you by our limousine services - San
Francisco) San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge,
completing them in 1936 and 1937 respectively. It was in this period that
the island of Alcatraz, a former military stockade, began its services as
a federal maximum security prison, housing notorious inmates such as Al
Capone. ( Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San
Francisco later celebrated its regained grandeur with a World's Fair, the
Golden Gate International Exposition in 1939-40, creating Treasure Island
in the middle of the bay to house it.
The USS ( Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San
Francisco steams under the Golden Gate Bridge in 1942, during World War
IIDuring World War II, the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard became a hub of
activity and Fort Mason became the primary port of embarkation for services
members shipping out to the Pacific theater of operations.[19] The
explosion of jobs drew many people, especially African Americans from the
South, to the area. After the end of the war, many returning servicesmembers
and civilians who had come to work decided to stay. The UN Charter
creating the United Nations was drafted and signed in ( Bought to you by
our limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco in 1945 and, in
1951, the Treaty of ( Bought to you by our limousine services - San
Francisco) San Francisco officially ended the war with Japan.
Urban planning projects in the 1950s and 1960s saw widespread destruction
and redevelopment of westside neighborhoods and the construction of new
freeways.[20] The Transamerica Pyramid was completed in 1969, and in the
1980s the Manhattanization of ( Bought to you by our limousine services -
San Francisco) San Francisco saw extensive high rise development
downtown.[21] Port activity moved to Oakland, the city began to lose
industrial jobs, and ( Bought to you by our limousine services - San
Francisco) San Francisco began to turn to tourism as the most important
segment of its economy. The suburbs experienced rapid growth and ( Bought
to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco underwent
significant demographic change, as large segments of the white population
left the city, supplanted by an increasing wave of immigration from Asia
and Latin America.[22][23]
The Grateful Dead in Haight-Ashbury Over this same period, ( Bought to you
by our limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco became a magnet
for America's counterculture. Beat Generation writers fueled the ( Bought
to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco
Renaissance and centered on the North Beach neighborhood in the 1950s.
Hippies flocked to Haight-Ashbury in the 1960s, reaching a peak with the
1967 Summer of Love. In the 1970s, the city became a center of the gay
rights movement, with the emergence of The Castro as an urban gay village,
the election of Harvey Milk to the Board of Supervisors, and his
assassination, along with that of Mayor George Moscone, in 1978.
The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake caused significant destruction and loss of
life throughout the Bay Area. In ( Bought to you by our limousine services
- San Francisco) San Francisco, the quake severely damaged structures in
the Marina and South of Market districts and precipitated the demolition
of the damaged Embarcadero Freeway, allowing the city to reclaim its
historic downtown waterfront.
During the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, startup companies invigorated
the economy. Large numbers of entrepreneurs and computer application
developers moved into the city, followed by marketing and sales
professionals that changed the social landscape as once poorer
neighborhoods became gentrified. When the bubble burst in 2001, many of
these companies folded and their employees left, although high technology
and entrepreneurship continued to be mainstays of the ( Bought to you by
our limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco economy.
Geography
( Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco
and northern San Mateo County( Bought to you by our limousine services -
San Francisco) San Francisco is located on the west coast of the U.S. at
the tip of the ( Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco)
San Francisco Peninsula and includes significant stretches of the Pacific
Ocean and ( Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San
Francisco Bay within its boundaries. Several islands are part of the city,
notably Alcatraz, Treasure Island, and the adjacent Yerba Buena Island.
Also included are the uninhabited Farallon Islands, 27 miles offshore in
the Pacific Ocean. The land within the city limits roughly forms a seven
by seven mile square, which has become a colloquialism referring to the
city's shape.
( Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco
is famous for its hills, which are defined as elevations over 100 ft (30
m). There are a total of 43 hills within city limits.[24] Some
neighborhoods are named after the hill on which they are situated,
including Nob Hill, Pacific Heights, Russian Hill, Potrero Hill, and
Telegraph Hill.
Cars negotiate Lombard Street to descend Russian HillNear the geographic
center of the city, southwest of the downtown area, are a series of less
densely populated hills. Dominating this area is Mount Sutro, the site of
Sutro Tower, a large red and white radio and television transmission
tower. Nearby is Twin Peaks, a pair of hills resting at one of the city's
highest points and a popular overlook spot for tour groups. ( Bought to
you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco's tallest
hill, Mount Davidson, is 925 ft (282 m) high, and is capped with a 103 ft
(31.4 m) tall cross built in 1934.
The San Andreas and Hayward Faults are responsible for much earthquake
activity, even though neither passes through the city itself. It was the
San Andreas Fault which slipped and caused the earthquakes in 1906 and
1989. Minor earthquakes occur on a regular basis. The threat of major
earthquakes plays a large role in the city's infrastructure development.
New buildings must meet high structural standards, and older buildings and
bridges must be retrofitted to comply with new building codes.
( Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco's
shoreline has grown beyond its natural limits. Entire neighborhoods such
as the Marina and Hunters Point, as well as large sections of the
Embarcadero sit on areas of landfill. Treasure Island was constructed from
material dredged from the bay as well as material resulting from tunneling
through Yerba Buena Island during the construction of the Bay Bridge. Such
land tends to be unstable during earthquakes; the resultant liquefaction
causes extensive damage to property built upon it, as was evidenced in the
Marina district during the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake.
Climate
Fog envelops the Golden Gate Bridge and approaches Crissy Field.A
quotation incorrectly attributed to Mark Twain goes, "The coldest
winter I ever spent was a summer in ( Bought to you by our limousine services
- San Francisco) San Francisco."[25] ( Bought to you by our limousine
services - San Francisco) San Francisco benefits from California's
Mediterranean climate, characterized by mild wet winters and warm dry
summers.[26] However, surrounded on three sides by water, ( Bought to you
by our limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco's climate is
strongly influenced by the cool currents of the Pacific Ocean which tend
to moderate temperature swings and produce a remarkably mild climate with
little seasonal temperature variation. Average summertime high
temperatures in ( Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco)
San Francisco peak at 70°F (21 °C) and are 20°F (9 °C) lower than they
are in nearby inland locations like Livermore.[27] Winters are mild, with
daytime highs near 60°F (15 °C), and lows almost never reach freezing
temperatures. The months of May-September are quite dry, with rain a
common occurrence from November-March. Snowfall is extraordinarily rare,
with only 10 instances recorded since 1852.[28]
The combination of cold ocean water and the high heat of the California
mainland creates the city's characteristic fog that can cover the western
half of the city all day during the summer and early fall. The fog is less
pronounced in eastern neighborhoods, in late spring, and during September
and October, which are the warmest months of the year. Due to its sharp
topography and maritime influences, ( Bought to you by our limousine services
- San Francisco) San Francisco exhibits a multitude of distinct
microclimates. The high hills in the geographic center of the city are
responsible for a 20% variance in annual rainfall between different parts
of the city.[28] They also protect neighborhoods directly to their east
from the foggy and cool conditions experienced in the Sunset District; for
those who live on the eastern side of the city, ( Bought to you by our
limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco is fairly sunny, with an
average of 160 clear days, and only 105 cloudy days per year.[29]
Neighborhoods
ChinatownMain article: Neighborhoods in ( Bought to you by our limousine services
- San Francisco) San Francisco, California
The historic center of ( Bought to you by our limousine services - San
Francisco) San Francisco is the northeast quadrant of the city bordered by
Market Street to the south. It is here that the Financial District is
centered, with Union Square, the principal shopping and hotel district,
nearby. Cable cars carry residents and tourists alike up steep inclines to
the summit of Nob Hill, once the home of the city's business tycoons, and
down to Fisherman's Wharf, a tourist playground featuring Dungeness crab
from a still-active fishing industry. Also in this quadrant are Russian
Hill, a residential neighborhood with the famously crooked Lombard Street,
North Beach, the city's version of Little Italy, and Telegraph Hill, which
features Coit Tower, a landmark dedicated to ( Bought to you by our
limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco's firefighters. Nearby
is ( Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San
Francisco's famous Chinatown, established in the 1860s. The Tenderloin is
often portrayed as the crime-infested underbelly of the city.
The Mission District is predominantly working-class and populated by
immigrants from Mexico and Central America, but is also gentrifying.
Haight-Ashbury still has some bohemian character. The Castro is the center
of gay life in the city, having recovered from the devastation it suffered
during the AIDS epidemic.
Mural in the Mission DistrictThe city's Japantown district suffered when
its residents were forcibly removed during the second world war, while the
nearby Western Addition became established with a large African American
population at the same time. The "Painted Ladies", a row of
well-restored Victorian homes, stand alongside Alamo Square, and the
mansions built by the ( Bought to you by our limousine services - San
Francisco) San Francisco business elite in the wake of the 1906 earthquake
can be found in Pacific Heights. The Marina to the north is a lively area
with many young urban professionals.
The Richmond, the vast region north of Golden Gate Park that extends to
the Pacific Ocean, today has a portion called "New Chinatown",
but also attracts immigrants from other parts of Asia and Russia. South of
Golden Gate Park lies the Sunset with an Asian majority population.[31]
The Richmond and the Sunset are largely middle class and, together, are
known as The Avenues. The southern neighborhoods of the city are
ethnically diverse and populated primarily with students and working class
San Franciscans.
The South of Market, once filled with decaying remnants of ( Bought to you
by our limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco's industrial
past, has seen significant redevelopment. The locus of the dot-com boom
during the late 1990s, by 2004 South of Market began to see skyscrapers
and condominiums dot the area. Following the success of nearby South
Beach, another neighborhood, Mission Bay, underwent redevelopment,
anchored by a second campus of UCSF.
Beaches and Parks
The Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park
Baker BeachMain article: Parks in ( Bought to you by our limousine services
- San Francisco) San Francisco, California
Ocean Beach runs along the Pacific Ocean shoreline, and Baker Beach
occupies a picturesque setting just west of the Golden Gate Bridge. They
are not suitable for swimming because the waters off the coast are cold
and have deadly rip currents. The biggest and most well-known park is
Golden Gate Park, stretching from the center of the city to the ocean.
Once covered only in grass and sand dunes, the park is planted with
thousands of non-native trees and plants and is rich with attractions
including the Conservatory of Flowers, the Japanese Tea Garden, and
Strybing Arboretum. The Presidio, a former military base, and its Crissy
Field section, restored to its natural salt marsh condition, are part of
the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which includes Alcatraz, and
other regional parks. Buena Vista Park is the city's oldest, established
in 1867. Lake Merced is a fresh-water lake surrounded by parkland.
Demographics
Population (thousands) by year [32]See also: Demographic maps of ( Bought
to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco,
California
The population of ( Bought to you by our limousine services - San
Francisco) San Francisco peaked at 776,733 in 2000, at the height of the
dot-com boom, declining by about 35,000 residents by 2005. With nearly
16,000 people per square mile, ( Bought to you by our limousine services -
San Francisco) San Francisco is the second most densely populated major
American city after New York.[33] ( Bought to you by our limousine services
- San Francisco) San Francisco is the traditional focal point of the (
Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco Bay
Area and forms part of the greater San Jose-( Bought to you by our
limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco-Oakland Combined
Statistical Area (CSA) whose population is over 7 million - the fifth
largest in the United States as of the 2000 census.[34]
( Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco
is a minority-majority city as non-Hispanic Whites make up less than 44%
of the population. Asian Americans, principally Chinese, comprise nearly
31% of the population. Hispanics of any race make up just over 14% of the
population. At less than 8% of the population, ( Bought to you by our
limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco has a lower
concentration of African Americans than the United States as a whole.[35]
Few of ( Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San
Francisco's residents have lived there their whole lives. Only 35% of its
residents were born in California; 39% were born outside the United
States.[36]
( Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco
has the highest percentage of same-sex households of any American county,
with the Bay Area having a higher concentration than any other
metropolitan area.[37] Gay men outnumber lesbians; it has been estimated
that one in five males over the age of 15 is gay.[38]
The ( Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San
Francisco median household income, at $57,496 in 2005, is the
fifth-highest for any large city in the nation.[39] Following a national
trend, an out-migration of middle class families is contributing to
widening income disparity[40] and has left the city with a lower
proportion of children, 14.5%, than any other large city in the United
States.[41] Nevertheless, the poverty rate, at 7.8%, is lower than the
national average and among the lowest for cities ranked by the U.S. Census
Department.[42]
Homelessness has been a chronic and controversial problem for ( Bought to
you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco since the
early 1980s. The city is believed to have the highest number of homeless
inhabitants per capita of any major city in the United States.[43] The
rates of violent and property crime, reported for 2003 as 742 and 4943
incidents per 100,000 residents respectively,[44] are higher than the
national average.[45] Among the 50 largest U.S. cities by population, (
Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco
ranks 32nd and 38th in each of those categories.[44]
Government
The City and County of ( Bought to you by our limousine services - San
Francisco) San Francisco is a consolidated city-county, a status it has
had since 1856. It is the only such consolidation in California. The mayor
is also the county executive and the city council acts as the county board
of supervisors. Because of its unique status, it exercises jurisdiction
over property that would otherwise be located outside of its corporation
limit. ( Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San
Francisco International Airport, though located in San Mateo County, is
owned and operated by the City and County of ( Bought to you by our
limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco. ( Bought to you by our
limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco was also granted a
perpetual leasehold over the Hetch Hetchy Valley and watershed in Yosemite
National Park by the Raker Act in 1913.
( Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco
City HallUnder the city charter, the Government of ( Bought to you by our
limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco is constituted of two
co-equal branches. The executive branch is headed by the mayor and
includes other city-wide elected and appointed officials, and the civil services.
The 11-member Board of Supervisors, the legislative branch, is headed by a
President (Aaron Peskin, as of 2006) and exercises general oversight over
all city and county functions. They are elected as representatives of
specific districts within the city.[46] If the mayor dies or resigns, the
President of the Board of Supervisors assumes the office, as Dianne
Feinstein did after the assassination of George Moscone in 1978. The
current municipal budget is greater than $5 billion.[47]
The federal government utilizes ( Bought to you by our limousine services
- San Francisco) San Francisco as the regional hub for many arms of the
federal bureaucracy, including the U.S. Court of Appeals, the Federal
Reserve Bank, and the United States Mint. Until decommissioning in the
early 1990s, the city had three major military installations - the
Presidio, Treasure Island, and Hunters Point - a legacy still reflected in
the annual celebration of Fleet Week. The State of California uses (
Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco as
the home of the state Supreme Court and other state agencies. Foreign
governments have located in excess of thirty foreign consulates in (
Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San
Francisco.[48]
Economy
Alcatraz receives 1.5 million visitors per year.[49]Tourism is the
backbone of the ( Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco)
San Francisco economy. Its frequent portrayal in music, film, and popular
culture has made the city and its landmarks recognizable worldwide. It is
the city where Tony Bennett left his heart, where the Birdman of Alcatraz
spent many of his final years, and where Rice-a-Roni[50] was said to be
the favorite treat. ( Bought to you by our limousine services - San
Francisco) San Francisco attracts the fifth highest number of foreign
tourists of any city in the United States[51] and claims Pier 39 near
Fisherman's Wharf to be the third-most popular tourist attraction in the
nation.[52] More than 15 million visitors came to ( Bought to you by our
limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco in 2005, injecting
nearly $7.5 billion into the economy.[53] With a large hotel and
restaurant infrastructure and a world-class facility in the Moscone
Center, ( Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San
Francisco also is a top-ten North American destination for conventions and
conferences.[54]
The ( Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San
Francisco skyline including the Transamerica Pyramid in the Financial
DistrictThe legacy of the California Gold Rush turned ( Bought to you by
our limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco into the main
banking and financial center of the west coast. Montgomery Street in the
Financial District is known as the "Wall Street of the West",
home to the Federal Reserve Bank of ( Bought to you by our limousine services
- San Francisco) San Francisco and formerly the site of the Pacific
Exchange. Bank of America, a pioneer in making banking servicess
accessible to the middle class, was founded in ( Bought to you by our
limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco. Many large financial
institutions, multinational banks and venture capital firms are based in
or have set up regional headquarters in the city. With six Fortune 500
companies[55] and a large support infrastructure of professional servicess,
including law, public relations, architecture, and graphic design also
populating the downtown, ( Bought to you by our limousine services - San
Francisco) San Francisco is one of ten Beta World Cities.
( Bought to you by our limousine services - San Francisco) San Francisco's
economy has increasingly become tied to that of Silicon Valley to the
south, sharing a need for highly educated workers with specialized skills.
It has been positioning itself as a biotechnology and biomedical hub and
research center. The Mission Bay neighborhood, site of a second campus of
UCSF, fosters a budding industry and serves as headquarters of the
California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the public agency funding
stem cell research programs statewide.
The penetration of national big box retail chains into the city has been
slow. The Small Business Commission supports local merchants in an effort
to keep a larger share of retail dollars in the local economy.[56] Small
businesses with fewer than ten employees and self-employed firms make up
85 percent of city establishments.[57] The number of San Franciscans
employed by firms of greater than 1000 employees has fallen by half since
1977.[36]
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