Portal:San Francisco Bay Area

The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), is a center of health sciences research, patient care, and education; located in San Francisco, California. UCSF is widely regarded as one of the world's leading universities in health sciences. Though one of the 10 campuses of the University of California, it is unique for being the only University of California campus dedicated solely to graduate education, and in health and biomedical sciences. Some of UCSF's treatment centers include kidney transplants and liver transplantation, radiology, neurosurgery, neurology, oncology, ophthalmology, gene therapy, women's health, fetal surgery, pediatrics, and internal medicine.

Founded in 1873, the mission of UCSF is to serve as a "public university dedicated to saving lives and improving health." The UCSF Medical Center is consistently ranked among the top 10 hospitals in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, who also ranked UCSF's medical school as one of the top 10 in a number of specialties, including a specialty program in AIDS medical care ranked first in the country.

UCSF is administered separately from Hastings College of Law, another UC institution located in San Francisco. In recent years, UCSF and UC Hastings have increased their collaboration, including the formation of the UCSF/Hastings Consortium on Law, Science, and Health Policy. (more...)

James Lick (August 25, 1796 – October 1, 1876) was an American carpenter, piano builder, land baron, and patron of the sciences. At the time of his death, he was the wealthiest man in California, and left the majority of his estate to social and scientific causes.

Lick arrived in San Francisco, California, in January 1848, bringing with him his tools, work bench, $30,000 ($784,700 with inflation to 2012) in gold, and 600 pounds (275 kilograms) of chocolate. The chocolate quickly sold, and Lick convinced his neighbor and friend in Peru, the confectioner Domingo Ghirardelli, to move to San Francisco, where he founded the Ghirardelli Chocolate Company.

Upon his arrival, Lick began buying real estate in the small village of San Francisco. The discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento a few days after Lick's arrival in the future state began the California Gold Rush and created a housing boom in San Francisco, which grew from about one thousand residents in 1848 to over twenty thousand by 1850. Lick himself got a touch of "gold fever" and went out to mine the metal, but after a week he decided his fortune was to be made by owning land, not digging in it. Lick continued buying land in San Francisco, and also began buying farmland in and around San Jose, where he planted orchards and built the largest flour mill in the state to feed the growing population in San Francisco. (more...)

Foster City is a planned city located in San Mateo County, California, 94404. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 30,567. Forbes ranked Foster City #10 on their 2009 list of America's Top 25 Towns to Live Well. Money has also recognized Foster City multiple times as one of the Best Places to Live. Foster City is sometimes considered to be part of Silicon Valley for its local industry and its proximity to Silicon Valley cities.

Foster City was founded in the 1960s on engineered landfill in the marshes of the San Francisco Bay, on the east edge of San Mateo. The city was named after T. Jack Foster, a real estate magnate who owned much of the land comprising the city and who was instrumental in its initial design. His successor firm, Foster Enterprises, run by his descendants, is still active in real estate affairs throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. (more...)

• Cutter Laboratories in Berkeley is founded (penicillin chemical structure pictured)
• The Evening Press and Sonoma Democrat are merged to create The Press Democrat in Santa Rosa
• Californio and former Contra Costa County Supervisor Víctor Castro dies

• ... that the vivid colors of the San Francisco Bay Salt Ponds (pictured), ranging from magenta to blue-green, come from the brine shrimp and microorganisms that thrive in the water?
• ... that the Laguna Creek watershed debouches into the San Francisco Bay near the site of the ghost town of Drawbridge?
• ... that the chase scene from the 1968 Steve McQueen film Bullitt starts on Cesar Chavez Street (then Army Street) before continuing through San Francisco?
• ... that the title of There There, a 2018 novel about urban Indians in Oakland, California, mirrors Gertrude Stein's quip about the city that "There is no there there"?

 • ... that San Francisco artists and craftspeople fought the police and city hall for years to bring about a Street Artists Program that lets them legally sell their work on the city's sidewalks?
 • ... that the Mokelumne Aqueduct, originally built in 1929, is the sole water supply system for over one million people in the San Francisco Bay Area?
 • ... that the Asian clam is causing trouble in San Francisco Bay?
 • ... that the Black Sea jellyfish has become established in the estuaries of the Petaluma and Napa Rivers flowing into San Francisco Bay?
 • ... that San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim (pictured, right) plays bass guitar, and her favorite song is by the Wu-Tang Clan?
 • ... that psychedelic rock concert poster artist Gary Grimshaw was sentenced to 15 days in jail and a $150 fine for flying a 15 cent kite with a dirty word written on it?

January - March 2014

The Alternative Press Expo (guest speaker Daniel Clowes pictured) or APE, as it is more commonly known, is a comics convention, founded in 1994 by Dan Vado as an event for self-publishers, independent publishers and alternative cartoonists to showcase their books. APE is currently held in San Francisco.

• more quotes about San Francisco from Wikiquote

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