General San Francisco Information
(Chapter 1: Introduction)
Size: 47 square miles – you can drive it in an hour or less. This makes public transportation so easy.(Chapter 1: Introduction)
Location: The City (as locals call it, not “San Fran” or “Cisco”), is located in the Northern half of California. It is practically an island. The only way to get to it is from bridges to the North, South, and East of it. It is considered a peninsula.
Live CityCam Link: http://sfgate.com/liveviews/baybridge.shtml
Population: 776,733 – compared to Los Angeles’ near 4 million people!
Density (2000): 16,526 persons per square mile – more crowded than Los Angeles, who’s density is half this.
Climate: This is the major reason why I love this place! I love cold, but not that cold. I like warm, not hot. Even in summer, you can get fog and light rain mist and need a jacket. That is a peninsula for you! A nice constant Pacific Ocean breeze, clean air guaranteed.
Technically speaking, winters the City are wet and mild, with average highs in the 60's, snow. very rare. Summer average highs are in the 70's.
San Francisco experiences a lot of fog because the land east of it does tend to get very warm. Although there is an average distance of about 5 miles between the City and the mainland, temperature on the mainland can be up to 20 degrees higher or lower. This heat meets with the cool ocean air to create San Francisco's legendary fog!
Weather link: http://www.sfgate.com/weather/
Natural Resources: San Francisco contains no exploitable materials such as soil, minerals, or raw energy for economic gain. Tourism is the closest thing to a major exploitable resource. The Gold Rush of the 1800's helped San Francisco become a banking/financial city (Bank of America was born there). The Port of San Francisco was once a major area of commerce, but by 1930's the port closed and has since been developed into a major tourist attraction called The Embarcadero.
