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Explore San Francisco, California and the surrounding area. Below you can find community information, including vital statistics, information on local schools as well as resources for finding real estate for sale and homes for sale in San Francisco.
The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth-largest city in California and the fourteenth-largest in the United States, with a 2005 population of 739,426. It is located on the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula and has traditionally been the focal point of the San Francisco Bay Area.
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 San Francisco Bay. Famous hallmarks and landmarks include the Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz Island, the cable cars, the Transamerica Pyramid, and Chinatown.
San Francisco is famous for its hills, which are defined as elevations over 100 feet (30 m). There are a total of 43 hills within city limits. Some neighborhoods are named after the hill on which they are situated, including Nob Hill, Pacific Heights, Russian Hill, Potrero Hill, and Telegraph Hill.
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.
Climate
San Francisco benefits from California’s Mediterranean climate, characterized by mild wet winters and warm dry summers. However, surrounded on three sides by water, 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 San Francisco peak at 70 °F (21 °C) and are 20 °F (9 °C) lower than they are in nearby inland locations like Livermore. 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.
The San Francisco median household income, at $57,496 in 2005, is the fifth-highest for any large city in the nation. Following a national trend, an out-migration of middle class families is contributing to widening income disparity and has left the city with a lower proportion of children, 14.5%, than any other large city in the United States. 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.
Homelessness has been a chronic and controversial problem for 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. The rates of violent and property crime, reported for 2003 as 742 and 4943 incidents per 100,000 residents respectively, are higher than the national average. Among the 50 largest U.S. cities by population, San Francisco ranks 32nd and 38th in each of those categories.
Education
Colleges and universities
Though somewhat overshadowed by nearby Stanford University in Palo Alto and the University of California in Berkeley, San Francisco is home to several noteworthy schools. San Francisco State University is part of the California State University system and is located near Lake Merced. The school has close to 30,000 students and awards undergraduate and master's degrees in more than 100 disciplines. The City College of San Francisco, with its main facility in the Ingleside district, is one of the largest two-year community colleges in the country. It has an enrollment of about 65,000 students, and offers an extensive continuing education program.[68] Founded in 1855, the Jesuit-run University of San Francisco, located on Lone Mountain, focuses on the liberal arts, and is one of the oldest universities established west of the Mississippi.
Primary and secondary schools
Public schools are run by the San Francisco Unified School District. Lowell High School, the oldest public high school in the U.S. west of the Mississippi, and the smaller School of the Arts High School are San Francisco's two magnet schools. Just under 30 percent of the city's school-age population attends one of San Francisco's more than 100 private or parochial schools, compared to a 10 percent rate nationwide. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco manages nearly 40 of those schools.
Biggest public primary/middle schools in San Francisco:
- A. P. GIANNINI MIDDLE (Students: 1,324; Location: 3151 ORTEGA ST.; Grades: 06 - 08)
- HERBERT HOOVER MIDDLE (Students: 1,247; Location: 2290 14TH AVE.; Grades: 06 - 08)
- PRESIDIO MIDDLE (Students: 1,189; Location: 450 30TH AVE.; Grades: 06 - 08)
- MARINA MIDDLE (Students: 1,068; Location: 3500 FILLMORE ST.; Grades: 06 - 08)
- APTOS MIDDLE (Students: 898; Location: 105 APTOS AVE.; Grades: 06 - 08)
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%)
Hospitals/medical centers in San Francisco:
- CA PACIFIC MEDICAL CTR 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)
Airports
San Francisco International Airport (SFO), though located 13 miles (21 km) south of the city in San Mateo County, is under the jurisdiction of the City and County of San Francisco. It is a hub for United Airlines, its largest tenant, and the decision by Virgin America to base its future operations out of SFO reverses the trend of low-cost carriers opting to bypass SFO for Oakland and San Jose. SFO is an international gateway, with the largest international terminal in North America. The airport is built on a landfill extension into the San Francisco Bay. During the economic boom of the late 1990s, when traffic saturation led to frequent delays, it became difficult to respond to calls to relieve the pressure by constructing an additional runway as that would have required additional landfill. Such calls subsided in the early 2000s as traffic declined, and, in 2005, SFO was the 14th busiest airport in the United States and 23rd largest in the world, handling 32.8 million passengers.
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