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San Francisco, California
The City of San Francisco is the fourth-largest city in California and the 14th-largest in the United States, with a 2005 population of 799,263. It is located on the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula and is the focal point of the San Francisco Bay Area, whose population is seven million. San Francisco is the second most densely populated major American city, after New York. The city is famous for its history in progressive social movements.
In 1776, the Spanish became the first Europeans to settle in San Francisco, which they named for St. Francis. With the advent of the California gold rush in 1848, and the Comstock Lode and silver mines in 1859, the city entered a period of rapid growth. After being devastated by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt and is today one of the most recognizable cities in the United States.
San Francisco has a unique mix of physical characteristics, including its months-long episodes of fog, its steep rolling hills, its eclectic mix of architecture (including Victorian style houses and modern highrises), and its being bordered on three sides by the Pacific Ocean and the San Francisco Bay. Famous hallmarks and landmarks include the San Francisco cable cars, the Transamerica Pyramid, the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island.
The local economy
A leading commercial center, San Francisco is one of 10 Beta World Cities as ranked by Globalization and World Cities Study Group & Network.
Tourism is a mainstay of San Francisco's economy as it is one of the top ten tourist destinations in the United States and one of the top 50 in the world. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit in 2004, an estimated 15 million tourists visited the city bringing in a revenue of $6.7 billion. The Department of Commerce has recently reported that San Francisco is the third most visited city in United States by foreign tourists after New York and Los Angeles. Conde Nast's travellers guide has ranked the city above Florence, Italy to second place right behind Sydney, Australia. The majority of the tourists come from the UK, Japan, France, and Australia.
The legacy of the California gold rush turned San Francisco into the main banking and financial center of the U.S. West Coast. Montgomery Street in the financial district is known as the "Wall Street of the West". It is the home of the twelfth district of the U.S. Federal Reserve, which the largest in region and economy, as well as major production facilities for the United States Mint. It was once home to the Pacific Exchange before it was bought out by the NYSE owned Archipelago Holdings, and demutualized. Many large financial institutions are based in San Francisco, including VISA, Wells Fargo and Charles Schwab. San Francisco is also home to other major American and international banks, including Barclays and venture capital firms have all set up their regional headquarters in the city mainly to service nearby Silicon Valley.
Recently, San Francisco has been positioning itself as a biotechnology and biomedical hub and research center. In May 2005, San Francisco was chosen as the headquarters of California's stem cell research program. Much of the city's biotech and biomed research has been focused in the new Mission Bay neighborhood in the south east corner of the city.
Entrepreneurship is also a major economic force in San Francisco. Nearly 90% of businesses operating within city limits have fewer than 100 employees.
Source - Wikipedia: San Francisco, California
Recent San Francisco Business News
Links to recent headlines via Topix.net
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See also
External links
- Official website
- San Francisco business Chamber of Commerce
- San Francisco event calendar
