USGS satellite photo of the San Francisco Bay Area taken in 1999.

Location of the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland CSA and its component metropolitan areas:

The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, or the Bay, is a geographically and ethnically diverse metropolitan region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo bays in Northern California.

It encompasses large cities such as San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas. Overall, the Bay Area consists of nine counties, 101 cities, and 7,000 square miles.^[1] The nine counties are Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma.^[2]

As of July 2007, the Bay Area is home to approximately 7.1 million people.^[3] It is one of the wealthiest regions in the United States, according to the United States Census Bureau. The area has the highest median household income in the nation at over $65,000. The Bay Area hosts many cities, towns, military bases, airports, and associated regional, state, and national parks, connected by a massive network of roads, highways, railroads, bridges, tunnels and commuter rail. The combined urban area of San Francisco and San Jose is the 47th largest urban area in the world.

While San Jose, California is the largest city in the Bay Area, having surpassed San Francisco in the 1990 census, for most of its history San Francisco was the area's most populous city. In addition to having the highest median household income in the nation, the Bay Area has the highest per capita income of any metropolitan area in the United States^[4] and is also one of the most politically liberal areas in the nation.^[5] The cost of living is also one of the highest in the nation.^[6]

Subregions

San Francisco

The City and County of San Francisco is generally placed in a category by itself in terms of geography and culture even within the Bay Area, and is known locally as "The City." It is separated by water from the north, west and east, and by a county line from its neighbor cities to the South. San Francisco has long served as the cultural, financial and urban center of the region. For most of the Bay Area's history, it was the key population center. However, the limitations of the size of the county (47 square miles, making it the second most densely populated major city in the United States after New York City) constrained the growth of the city and, since the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, other cities and counties have received the larger share of population growth. Despite these limitations, San Francisco has a larger commuter and daytime population than any other city in the Bay Area.

North Bay

Napa Valley is most famous for its wine.

Peninsula

View of Colma, California, looking down from San Bruno Mountain

East Bay

Looking west from the Berkeley Hills. Visible clockwise around the bay from the distant Golden Gate (upper center) are Marin County (Upper Right). Albany (Lower Right), Berkeley (Center and foreground), Emeryville (Lower Left), Oakland (Far Lower Left), South San Francisco (Far Upper Left) and San Francisco (Upper Left)

• The inner East Bay includes the western portions of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, including the cities of Oakland, Hayward, Fremont, Berkeley, and Richmond, as well as many smaller suburbs such as Alameda, Castro Valley, Newark, Union City, Emeryville, Albany, San Leandro, San Pablo, El Sobrante,Pinole, Piedmont, and El Cerrito. The inner East Bay is more urban, more densely populated, has a much older building stock (built before World War II) and a more ethnically diverse population. Oakland hosts the region's largest seaport and professional sports franchises in basketball, football, and baseball. As with many inner urban areas, the Inner East Bay also features a high incidence of crime as well as other socio-economic problems. According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reports, more than 50% of all homicides in the Bay Area in 2002 occurred within the city limits of Oakland and Richmond. The homicide rates have steadily increased, as 2005 had the highest homicide rates for both Richmond and Oakland in many years.
• The outer East Bay consists of the eastern portions of Alameda and Contra Costa counties and is divided into 5 distinct areas: Lamorinda, Central Contra Costa County, East Contra Costa County, the San Ramon Valley, and the Livermore-Amador Valley. The word Lamorinda was coined by combining the names of the cities it includes: Lafayette, Moraga, and Orinda. Walnut Creek is situated east of Lamorinda and north of the San Ramon Valley and, together with Concord, Martinez, and Pleasant Hill comprises Central Contra Costa County. The cities of Pittsburg, Antioch, Brentwood, Oakley and the unincorporated areas surrounding them comprise East Contra Costa County. The cities of Dublin, Pleasanton, Livermore, comprise the Livermore-Amador Valley (sometimes joined with the San Ramon Valley and called the Tri-Valley). The San Ramon Valley consists of Alamo, Danville, Diablo and its namesake, San Ramon to the south. The outer East Bay is connected to the inner East Bay by BART, Interstates 80, 580, and 680, and State Route 24 via the Caldecott Tunnel. The outer East Bay is part suburban, part rural and its infrastructure was mostly built up after World War II. This area remains largely white demographically, although the Hispanic and Filipino populations have grown significantly over the past 2-3 decades, particularly in the Concord area.

South Bay

Looking west over northern San Jose (downtown is at far left) and other parts of Silicon Valley

Befitting of the title Silicon Valley, this region is home to a vast number of technology sector giants. Some notable tech companies headquartered in the South Bay are AMD, Intel, Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Apple, Google, eBay, and Yahoo!. As a consequence of the rapid growth of these and other companies, the South Bay has gained increasing political and economic influence both within California and throughout the world.

Santa Cruz and San Benito

The regional governments in the San Francisco Bay Area, including the Association of Bay Area Governments, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board include only the nine counties above in their boundaries or membership. (The BAAQMD includes all of the nine counties except the northern portions of Sonoma and Solano; the RWQCB includes all of San Francisco and the portions of the other eight counties that drain to San Francisco Bay or to the Pacific Ocean.)^[7] However, the United States Census Bureau defines the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland Consolidated Statistical Area as an eleven-county region, including the nine counties above plus Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties. Meanwhile, the California State Parks Department defines the Bay Area as including ten counties,^[8] including Santa Cruz but excluding San Benito. On the other hand, Santa Cruz and San Benito along with Monterey County are part of a different regional government organization called the Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments.

Some residents of the Santa Cruz Mountains (Boulder Creek, Brookdale, Ben Lomond, Felton, Scotts Valley) do not usually consider themselves to be residents of the Bay Area, rather just of the Santa Cruz Mountains themselves. The Santa Cruz Mountains run along the spine of the San Francisco Peninsula, beginning in San Francisco and continuing down to their terminus near the City of Gilroy, effectively creating the Santa Clara Valley.

The city of Santa Cruz is geographically isolated from the rest of the San Francisco Bay Area, and is usually considered a part of the Monterey Bay area since the city lies on the north end of the Monterey Bay. The city is also sometimes regarded as the northernmost point of the California Central Coast, which extends along the state's coastline to Santa Barbara.

This partial inclusion of these two counties in the Bay Area is one manifestation of a "spillover" where, because of high housing prices in the Bay Area proper, people with Bay Area jobs purchase homes in outlying areas and endure long commutes. This blurs the outer borders of the Bay Area, which now can be said to spillover not only to the south (Santa Cruz, San Benito, and Monterey counties) but to the Central Valley counties of Sacramento, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Yolo.

Affluence

The San Francisco Bay Area is one of the wealthiest regions in the United States. According to the United States Census Bureau, of the 280 defined metropolitan areas, the San Francisco Bay Area has the highest median household income in the nation with $62,024 in the year 2000. The Census Bureau also released data in August 2006 citing San Jose as having the second highest median household income among large cities. Among medium-sized cities, Pleasanton has the highest household income in the country, and Livermore the third highest. Nevertheless, disposable income is very comparable with the rest of the country, largely because the increased cost of living offsets increased income.^[9]

While only 26% of households nationwide boast incomes of over $75,000 a year, 48% of households in the San Francisco Bay Area enjoy such incomes.^[10] The percentage of households with incomes exceeding the $100,000 mark in the Bay Area was double the nationwide percentage. Roughly one third (31%) of households in the San Francisco Bay Area had a six figure income, versus less than 16% at the nationwide level.^[11] In June 2003, a study by Stanford University reviewing US Census Bureau statistics determined the median household income in the San Francisco Bay Area to be roughly 60% above national average.^[10] Overall the largest income bracket in the Bay Area were households making between $100,000 and $150,000 annually, who constituted roughly 18% of households.^[10] On a national level the largest income bracket were households with incomes between $30,000 and $40,000 who constituted 13% of all households nationwide.^[11]

Six of the top ten California places with the highest per capita income are in the San Francisco Bay Area (Belvedere, Atherton, Woodside, Portola Valley, Diablo). Of the 100 highest income counties by per capita income in the United States, six are in the San Francisco Bay Area (Marin, San Mateo, San Francisco, Santa Clara, Contra Costa, Alameda). According to Forbes Magazine, published in 2005, 12 of the top 50 most expensive Zip Codes are in the Bay Area (Atherton, Ross, Diablo, Belvedere-Tiburon, Nicasio, Portola Valley, Los Altos-Los Altos Hills, Los Gatos-Monte Sereno, the Cow Hollow-Marina District of San Francisco, Alamo, and Burlingame-Hillsborough). http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/2005/04/22/cx_sc_0426homep.html

This graph compares the income distribution among Bay Area households to the national level.^[10][11]

A study by Claritas indicates that in 2004, 5% of all households within the San Francisco and San Jose metropolitan areas held $1 million in investable assets http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/06/10/BUG2VD678F1.DTL&type=printable, and Wells Fargo estimates that there are 180,000 millionaire households in the Bay Area, 10% of which have $5 million or more in assets http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2005/08/22/focus1.html?page=2.

As of 2007 there were approximately 80 public companies with annual revenues of over $1 billion a year, and 5-10 more private companies. Nearly 2/3 of these are in the Silicon Valley section of the Bay Area.

Living expenses

The popularity of the region, owing both to its mild weather and its cultural and economic diversity, combined with strong anti-growth sentiment (both local and statewide), has led to high housing costs, especially for ownership and for commercial property leases. Owing to the relatively lower costs of outlying housing and limited public transportation, long, expensive, and often unpleasant automobile commutes are common in the region, and these costs tend to trickle down throughout various activities, making many other activities such as dining out, theater tickets, etc., more expensive than in other areas of the country. Wages of only a limited portion of the population have kept pace with the increased expenses, and many minimum wage earners, even those holding multiple jobs, (and many families with multiple members employed) are classified as "working poor," while the higher incomes necessary for a satisfactory lifestyle in the region lead to higher taxes, especially at the federal level for persons not qualifying for high mortgage or self-employment related deductions.

Although most working-class households in the United States earn between $20,000–$30,000 a year, working-class households in the Bay Area earn over $50,000 a year performing the same jobs (such as in the service industry), which would be considered middle-class in other parts of the country. Nevertheless, because of extremely expensive housing costs, disposable income of working-class Bay Area households is only equivalent to the amount of disposable income in other parts of the country because the rest of the income increase goes to pay for an increased cost of living. Therefore, although the great majority of the population is much more affluent (without taking into account the increased costs of living) compared to the rest of the country, the disposable income is nearly identical. This enables low cost goods shops, such as variety stores, to maintain a presence in the Bay Area.

Political views

The Bay Area is renowned as being among the most liberal areas in the country. According to the Cook Partisan Voting Index (CPVI), congressional districts the Bay Area tend to favor Democratic candidates by roughly 40 percentage points, considerably above the mean for Coastal California or California overall. All but one congressional district in the region voted for John Kerry in the 2004 Presidential Election with only 25% of votes being cast in support of George W. Bush. CPVI ratings ranged from D +14 in San Jose to D +21 in Marin County and D +38 in Barbara Lee's district encompassing Berkeley and Oakland. Nancy Pelosi's district, California's 8^th which includes most of the city of San Francisco, had a CPVI rating of D +36 with G. W. Bush having received only 14% of votes in the city.

Over the last four and a half decades the 9 county Bay Area has voted for a Republican candidate only twice, in 1972 for Richard Nixon and in 1980 for Ronald Reagan. The last county to have voted Republican was Napa county in 1988 for George H. W. Bush.

Weather

Because the hills, mountains, and large bodies of water produce such vast geographic diversity within this region, the Bay Area offers a significant variety of microclimates. The areas near the Pacific Ocean are generally characterized by relatively small temperature variations during the year, with cool foggy summers and mild rainy winters. Inland areas, especially those separated from the ocean by hills or mountains, have hotter summers and colder overnight temperatures during the winter. Few residential areas ever experience snow, but peaks over are often dusted with snow several times each winter (including Mount St. Helena, Mount Hamilton, Mount Diablo, and Mount Tamalpais). The coast north of San Francisco, where year-round cool, moist conditions enable redwoods to grow, has almost nothing in common with Livermore, just inland across the bay, which has desert-like precipitation and heat. San Jose at the south end of the Bay averages fewer than of rain annually, while Napa at the north end of the Bay averages over 30 and parts of the Santa Cruz Mountains just a few miles west of San Jose get over 55. In the summer, inland regions can be over 40 degrees Fahrenheit (22 degrees Celsius) warmer than the coast. This large temperature contrast induces a strong pressure gradient, which results in brisk coastal winds which help keep the coastal climate cool and typically, foggy during the summer. Additionally, strong winds are produced through gaps in the coastal ranges such as the Golden Gate, the Carquinez Strait, and the Altamont Pass, the latter the site of extensive wind farms. During the fall and winter seasons, when not stormy, a high pressure area is usually present inland, leading to an offshore flow. While negatively impacting air quality this also clears fog away from the Pacific shore, and so the best weather in San Francisco can usually be found from mid September through mid November. Winter storms are typically short, wet, and mild in temperature, being caused by cold fronts sweeping the eastern Pacific and originating from low pressure systems in the Gulf of Alaska. Occasionally during the Summer, spells of warm humid weather will drift over the Bay Area from the Southwest Monsoon, usually bringing high variable clouds as well, and more rarely, high-based thunderstorms.

Skyline Boulevard stretches through the Santa Cruz Mountains, here near Palo Alto, California. During winter and spring, the hills surrounding the Bay Area are lush and green.

Rain is rare in the Bay Area during the summer months. As a result, the surrounding hills quickly become dry and golden-hued in grassy areas.

Geology and landforms

Multiple terranes

The area is well known worldwide for the complexity of its landforms, the region being composed of at least six terranes (continental, seabed, or island arc fragments with distinct characteristics) pushed together over millions of years by the forces of plate tectonics. As a consequence, many types of rock and soil are found in the region. Formations include the sedimentary rocks of sandstone, limestone, and shale in uplifted seabeds, metamorphic serpentine rock, coal deposits, and igneous forms as the basalt flows and ash deposits of extinct volcanos. Pleistocene-era fossils of mammals are abundantly present in some locations.

Vertical relief

The region has considerable vertical relief in its landscapes that are not in the alluvial plains leading to the bay or in inland valleys. In combination with the extensive water regions this has forced the fragmented development of urban and suburban regions and has led to extensive building on poor soils in the limited flatland areas and considerable expense in connecting the various subregions with roads, tunnels, and bridges.

Several mountains are associated with some of the many ridge and hill structures created by compressive forces between the Pacific Plate and the North American plate. These provide spectacular views (in appropriate weather) of large portions of the Bay Area and include Marin County's Mount Tamalpais at 2,571 feet (784 m). Contra Costa County's Mount Diablo at 3,849 feet (1,173 m), Alameda County's Mission Peak at 2,517 feet (767 m), and Santa Clara County's Mount Hamilton at 4,213 ft (1,284 m), the latter with significant astronomical studies performed at its crowning Lick Observatory.

The three major ridge structures (part of the Pacific Coast Range) which are all roughly parallel to the major faultlines:

• The various ranges which form the spine of the San Francisco Peninsula and Marin County (San Andreas Fault)
• The Berkeley Hills, San Leandro Hills and their southern ridgeline extension through Mission Peak (Hayward Fault)
• The Diablo Range, which includes Mount Diablo and Mount Hamilton (Calaveras Fault)

Major waterways

• San Joaquin River
• Sacramento River
• Napa River
• Sonoma Creek
• Guadalupe River
• Coyote Creek
• Petaluma River
• San Pablo Creek
• Wildcat Creek
• Oakland Estuary
• Russian River
• San Lorenzo River
• Gulf of the Farallones

Earthquake faults

Map showing some of the major faults in the Bay Area. Numerous minor faults are also capable of generating locally destructive earthquakes.

Natural hazards

Earthquakes

Map showing earthquake amplification due to soil type.

• Numerous major active faults in the region.
• A combined thirty year probability of a major earthquake in excess of seventy percent.
• Poorly responding native soil conditions in many places near the bay and in inland valleys, soils which amplify shaking as shown in the map to the right.
• Large areas of filled marshlands and bay muds that are significantly urbanized, with most subject to liquefaction, becoming unable to support structures.
• A large inventory of older buildings, many of which are expected to perform poorly in a major earthquake.
• Extensive building in areas subject to landslide, mudslide, and in some locations directly over active fault surface rubble zones.
• Most lowrise construction is not fireproof and water systems are likely to be extensively damaged and so large areas are subject to destruction by fire after a large earthquake.
• The coastal location makes the region vulnerable to Pacific Ocean tsunamis.^[15]

Some of these hazards are being addressed by seismic retrofitting, education in household seismic safety, and even complete replacement of major structures such as the eastern span of the San Francisco ? Oakland Bay Bridge.

For an article concerning a typical fault in the region and its associated hazards see Hayward Fault Zone. For projected ground movement after selecting a locality and a generating fault see this ABAG web page

Flooding

Some flooding occurs on local drainages under sustained wet conditions when the ground becomes saturated, more frequently in the North Bay area, which tends to receive substantially more rainfall than the South Bay. In one case, the Napa River drainage, floodplain developments are being purchased and removed and natural wetlands restored in the innovative Napa River Flood Project as the previous channelization of insufficient capacity around such developments was causing flooding problems upstream. Many of the local creeks have been channelized, although modern practice and some restoration work includes returning the creeks to a natural state with dry stormwater bypasses constructed to handle flooding. While quite expensive, the restoration of a natural environment is of high priority in the intensively urbanized areas of the region.

Windstorms and Wildfires

Typically between late November and early March, a very strong Pacific storm can bring both substantial rainfall (saturating and weakening soil) and strong wind gusts that can cause trees to fall on power lines. Owing to the wide area involved (sometimes hundreds of miles of coast), service can be interrupted for up to several days in some more remote localities, but service is usually restored quickly in urban areas.

In the Spring and Fall, strong offshore winds periodically develop. These winds are an especially dangerous fire hazard in the fall when vegetation is at its driest, as exemplified historically by the 1923 Berkeley Fire and the 1991 Oakland Firestorm.

Mudslides and Landslides

Some geologically unstable areas have been extensively urbanized, and can become mobile due to changes in drainage patterns and grading created for development. These are usually confined to small areas, but there have been larger problems in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Transportation

(1) Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, (2) Golden Gate Bridge, (3) San Francisco ? Oakland Bay Bridge, (4) San Mateo-Hayward Bridge, (5) Dumbarton Bridge, (6) Carquinez Bridge, (7) Benicia-Martinez Bridge

The freeway and highway system is very extensive; however, many freeways are heavily congested during rush hour, especially the trans-bay bridges (Golden Gate and Bay Bridge). Furthermore there are some large gaps in the highways which run onto city streets in San Francisco, partially due to the Freeway Revolt (SF Board of Supervisors decisions made in 1959, 1964 and 1966), which prevented completion of freeways connecting the San Francisco ? Oakland Bay Bridge western terminus (Interstate 80) with the southern terminus of the Golden Gate Bridge, and U.S. 101 through San Francisco, and additionally due to the destruction of several of those very freeway structures that sparked the revolt, which were damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and subsequently removed rather than being reinforced or rebuilt.

Higher education

The region is home to many universities and seminaries, most notably the University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University and the University of California, San Francisco. In 2003, there were approximately 545,000 students enrolled in college or graduate school, while approximately 41 percent of residents aged 25 years and over had a bachelors degree or higher.^[16] The San Francisco Bay Area population is near the top in the Nation for overall education level. The San Francisco and San Jose PMSAs rank third and fourth in college graduates, ahead of Boston and behind only Boulder?Longmont, Co PMSA and Stamford?Norwalk, CT PMSA. Santa Cruz PMSA ranks eighth and the Oakland PMSA eleventh.^[17]

Public University of California, Berkeley. Berkeley City College Cabrillo College California Maritime Academy California State University, East Bay (Hayward) Cañada College Chabot College City College of San Francisco College of Alameda College of Marin College of San Mateo Contra Costa College De Anza College Diablo Valley College Evergreen Valley College Foothill College Laney College Las Positas College Los Medanos College Merritt College Mission College Napa Valley College Ohlone College San Jose City College San Francisco State University San José State University Santa Rosa Junior College Sonoma State University Skyline College Solano Community College West Valley College University of California, Berkeley University of California, Hastings College of the Law University of California, San Francisco University of California, Santa Cruz Seminaries American Baptist Seminary of the West The Church Divinity School of the Pacific (Episcopal) Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology Franciscan School of Theology Fuller Northern California Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary Graduate Theological Union Institute of Buddhist Studies Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary (ELCA, Berkeley) Pacific School of Religion (UCC, Disciples & Methodist) Saint Patrick Seminary San Francisco Theological Seminary (Presbyterian) Starr King School for the Ministry (Unitarian Universalist)

Private Stanford University. Academy of Art University American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine The Art Institute of California ? San Francisco The Arts Institute International California College of the Arts California Culinary Academy California Institute of Integral Studies Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley Cogswell Polytechnical College Culinary Institute of America at Greystone DeVry University Dominican University Ex'pression College for Digital Arts Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising Five Branches Institute Golden Gate University Holy Names University Institute of Transpersonal Psychology International Technological University John F. Kennedy University Menlo College Mills College National Hispanic University New College of California Northwestern Polytechnic University Notre Dame de Namur University Pacific Graduate School of Psychology Pacific Union College Patten University Presidio School of Management Saint Mary's College of California San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Conservatory of Music San Francisco Law School Santa Clara University Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center Stanford University Touro University University of San Francisco University of Northern California

Religious life

The San Francisco Bay Area has a very diverse religious life with thousands of churches, pagodas, mosques, temples, synagogues, gurdwaras, and other religious centers. The Bay Area is home to Christians, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, and numerous other religious communities. Historically, San Francisco has been predominantly Roman Catholic, due to the Italian and Irish immigrants of the late 19th and early 20th century.

Sports

NCAA Division I College Sports

• California Golden Bears
• St. Mary's College Gaels
• San Francisco Dons
• San Jose State Spartans
• Santa Clara Broncos
• Stanford Cardinal

Music

The San Francisco Bay Area was home to one of the biggest thrash metal scenes in the United States, along with Tampa Bay, Florida. Containing acts like Exodus, Death Angel, Vio-lence, Testament and Metallica (although Metallica had initially formed in Los Angeles, it wasn't until their relocation to the East Bay area in 1983 that Cliff Burton and Kirk Hammett joined as bassist and lead guitarist, sealing the band's first, formative line-up), the Bay Area Thrash scene was a huge impact on the Thrash metal world, as well as the Death metal scene; as Possessed is considered as one of the first death metal bands.

The Bay Area saw a large punk movement from the 70s to the present. Bands such as the Dead Kennedys, The Avengers, Flipper, D.R.I., M.D.C. and Operation Ivy were popular in the 70s and 80s, with later bands such as Rancid, Green Day and AFI all coming out of Berkeley.

The Bay Area was the home of the hyphy movement, which started almost 10 years ago. The genre which was pioneered by rappers Andre "Mac Dre" Hicks, Too Short, Keak Da Sneak, and E-40, is now becoming more popular throughout the world. Hyphy themes such as ghost riding, thizzin' and going dumb are now common in other parts of the country. The Bay Area is also home to the Hieroglyphics hip hop crew, which is composed of local artists including the Souls of Mischief and Del tha Funkee Homosapien.

Regional counties, cities and suburbs

An early 20th century German map

Counties

Note: San Benito County and Santa Cruz County are sometimes considered not part of the Bay Area.

• Alameda County (737 sq. mi., excluding water)
• Contra Costa County (720 sq. mi., excluding water)
• Marin County (520 sq. mi., excluding water)
• Napa County (754 sq. mi., excluding water)
• San Benito County (1389 sq. mi., excluding water)
• San Francisco County (47 sq. mi., excluding water)
• San Mateo County (449 sq. mi., excluding water)
• Santa Clara County (1,291 sq. mi., excluding water)
• Santa Cruz County (445 sq. mi., excluding water)
• Solano County (829 sq. mi., excluding water)
• Sonoma County (1,576 sq. mi., excluding water)

Cities and municipalities

• List of cities and municipalities in the San Francisco Bay Area

Notable Bay Area people

This is a list of notable people that were born in, or who have lived in the SF Bay Area

• En Vogue – Grammy Award-nominated female R&B singing group, originated from Oakland, California in 1990
• E-40 – rapper
• Ken Carter – former high school basketball coach, education activist
• Keyshia Cole – Grammy Award-nominated R&B singer-songwriter
• Ron Dellums – politician, former U.S. Congressman and Representative, 3rd African-American mayor of Oakland
• Francis Ford Coppola – Academy Award-winning film director and vintner
• Clint Eastwood – actor, Academy Award-winning film producer and director
• Donald Fisher – co-founder of the Gap clothing company
• GreenDay – rock band
• spice 1 – rapper
• Richard Gere – actor
• Jerry Garcia – guitar player, songwriter, ranked 13th in Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" cover story, was the Lead Guitarist/Vocalist for the Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia Band, New Riders of the Purple Sage, born in raised in the Mission District of San Francisco, lived in Marin County, dying in Forest Knolls, CA
• Whoopi Goldberg – Academy Award-winning actress and comedian
• Jeff Gordon – professional NASCAR driver
• Tom Hanks – Academy Award-winning actor, born in Concord, raised in Oakland
• Master P – rapper and music producer
• MC Hammer – musician, born in Oakland
• Henry J. Kaiser – entrepreneur, businessman, founder of Kaiser Permanente and Kaiser Family Foundation
• Barbara Lee – U.S. Representative
• Brandon Lee – actor, martial artist
• Bruce Lee – actor, martial artist
• Jack London – writer, born in San Francisco, raised in Oakland, namesake of Jack London Square
• Jefferson Starship - rock band during the 1970s and 1980s
• Courtney Love – singer and actress
• Huey P. Newton – activist, co-founder of the Black Panthers
• The Pack – rap group, originated from Berkeley
• The Rock – former professional wrestler, actor
• Too Short – rapper, born in Los Angeles, lived in Oakland from 1980?1994
• Rebecca Romijn – Model, actress
• Bobby Seale – activist, co-founder of the Black Panthers
• Alicia Silverstone – actress
• Calvin E. Simmons – first African-American conductor of a major symphony orchestra
• The Pointer Sisters – Grammy Award-winning R&B singing group
• Tupac Shakur – rapper, songwriter, poet, actor, activist, moved to Marin County in 1988
• Robin Williams – Academy Award-winning actor, comedian
• Natalie Wood – Academy Award-nominated actress
• Yukmouth – rapper
• Grant Imahara – Mythbuster
• Kari Byron – Mythbuster
• Tory Belleci – Mythbuster
• Adam Savage – Mythbuster
• Jamie Hyneman – Mythbuster
• Aggrotech band Psyclon Nine
• Meg Whitman – former CEO of ebay
• Tom Brady NFL Quarterback for New England Patriots. 3x Super Bowl Champion
• Barry Bonds baseball player for Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants, current MLBhome run record holder.
• Eric Dane star of Grey's Anatomy

See also

• Coastal California
• Islands of San Francisco Bay
• List of San Francisco Bay Area festivals and fairs
• List of San Francisco Bay Area wildflowers
• List of San Francisco Bay Area writers
• United States metropolitan area

References

External links

• Bay Area Hiker Bay Area Hiker explores the diverse and wonderful spectrum of hiking in the San Francisco bay area
• limuguide.com/sfbay Live Music in San Francisco Bay Area
• Bay Area Experiences.com Community-built site with non-touristy things to do in San Francisco and surrounding areas.
• Sausalito Art Artists Galleries
• Sausalito Artists Open Studios
• Sausalito Artists Art Community & Events

Travel

• World War II in the San Francisco Bay Area, a National Park Service ''Discover Our Shared Heritage'' Travel Itinerary

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