Chapter 4, Megalopolis

www.ballslist.com

Known as SanSan, a Megalopolis that stretches the California coast from San Diego to San Francisco is considered to be a western model of the original megalopolis on the east coast.  According to an online dictionary ( http://www.thefreedictionary.com/), the word megalopolis is region made up of several small cities and their surrounding areas in sufficient proximity to be considered a single urban complex.
San Francisco's site characteristics are ideal for a megalopolis.  It has the San Francisco Bay which is easily navigable for ships, Port of San Francisco which has been considered a natural harbor, and the Bay is spanned by six bridges (Golden Gate, Bay Bridge, San Mateo Bridge, Dumbarton, Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, and the Carquinez).   
    www.democraticunderground.com
 
The situation characteristics of the Bay Area is also ideal for it to be a megalopolis.  With the Pacific Ocean as a route to Asia, the Bay Area has been a stop for freight liners to drop off their cargo.  The area is also linked to several major freeways, such as Interstate 5, US Route 101, California Route 99, and Interstate 80. 
www.napanow.com
When considering the urban environment, the bay area has tall buildings, busy streets, crowded housing, and industrial plants in and around buildings that offer events such as the orchestra, museums, and theaters.  It also has its share of traffic congestion and air pollution. 
www.polutionissues.com

According to the USGS, the San Francisco Bay region's population has grown from 6 million inhabitants in 1990 to 6.8 million in the year 2000, a 12% increase.  Because of the growth in population there are always going to be problems in a megalopolis.  And since we are a culture of urban instant gratification, we can easily get the goods that we need by driving a few miles, or with the click of a mouse.  Driving from one place to another helps create traffic jams, so some find it best to work from home, called telecommuting.  Not only does this cut back on traffic time, but it has other advantages - spending more time with the family, able to move out of the congested city and into the suburbs, and you are not polluting the environment.       

Chapter 3, Foundations of Human Activity

The original inhabitants of the San Francisco Bay Area were about 40 cuturally diverse native tribes known as the Ohlone.  They were a society of hunter-gatherers who lived off of the land and its natural resources.


http://www.zpub.com/sf/history/sfh2.html

When the Spanish came and set up the missions, the natives were removed from their land and forced to convert to the mission system, which ended their traditional way of life.  In San Francisco, Mission Dolores was founded in 1776, and it was the 6th of 21 missions established by the Franciscans.
  www.urbantrekusa.com
In the 1820s, ships from the East Coast were coming to visit the missions along the coast of California.  They first came to barter, but more pioneers were trekking into the West.  They were accepted by the Spanish governors who allowed them to marry into some of the wealthiest  Mexican families who had large land grants.
When the Gold Rush hit Cailfornia, San Francisco was a port of entry for people who came to the area to try and find gold.  Boats of people would dock at the bay, and make their way up to Coloma, CA where gold was first discovered.  Others would take the land route from the east, trekking the unforgiving terrain and weather of the Sierras.  One such group of people we have probably learned about is the Donner Party.
In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act which barred Chinese immigration.  The American sentiment was that there were too many Chinese people taking American jobs.  The Chinese that were already in the area had lived in a neighborhood that would become known as Chinatown.  Today, "San Francisco Chinatown is the largest outside of Asia as well as the oldest Chinatown in North America," (http://www.sanfranciscochinatown.com/). 
  http://www.danzfamily.com/
In San Francisco, you can also find that the neighborhoods dictate what ethnicity may be dominant in the are.  There is Japantown, North Beach (Little Italy), The Mission (Latin Americans), and Little Manila (Filipinos in Daly City, CA).  

Chapter 2 - Geographic Patterns of the Physical Environment

San Francisco is the city of hills.  If you have ever driven around the City you may know what I'm talking about.  There are over a hundred hills in San Francisco, and they create many microclimates.  The winds in the area are distributed above the hills and along the valleys.  The terrain creates marked differences in climate conditions from neighborhood to neighborhood.  In the northern part of the city (financial district, Pier 39, AT&T Park) the climate is mostly dry, sunny, and sometimes there may be a breeze from coastal winds.  In the southern part of the city (Mission Terrace, Sunset, Bayview) the climate is slightly different.  Here it is mostly moist and overcast.

Because of the hills and the mountains all around the Bay Area, the climate is also affected in other parts of the region.  Areas along the Pacific Ocean may experience cool and foggy summers, and mild rainy winters.  Inland areas, like that of Contra Costa County and Alameda County, may have a rather different experience because of hill and mountain formation.  They have hotter summers and colder overnight tempratures during the winter.  And at the northern end of the Bay (Marin County), they may get up to 30 inches of rain annually, while at the southern end of the Bay (Santa Clara County) may only reach 15 inches.

http://www.altageo.net/atlas/sftopo.html

Mountain levels in the Bay Area are also high enough to have snowfall.  Although snow levels range every year from 1000 ft. to 2000 ft. there has been significant amount of snow on the peaks of Mt. Hamilton (4360 ft), Mt. Tamalpais (2574 ft), and Mt. Diablo (3864 ft).  But never enough to have a snowday.

Mt. Hamilton, http://www.rntl.net/


view of San Francisco from Mt. Tamalpais, http://www.flickr.com/

The region is composed of at least six terrains pushed together over millions of years by the force of plate tectonics.  Because of this, many types of rock and soils can be found.  There are sedentary rocks of sandstone, limstone, and shale in uplifted seabeds, coal deposits, and igneous forms such as basalt flows, and ash deposits of extinct volcanoes.

The San Francisco Bay Area is active when it comes to earthquakes.  There are a series of subparellel faults that have relative motion between the Pacific and North American plates.  The San Andreas Fault and six other fault zones are present on the Bay Area (Calaveras, Cocord-Green Valley, Greenville, Hayward, Rodgers Creek, and San Gregorio Faults).  In 1989, the Loma Prieta earthquake had struck the Bay Area.  With a magnitude of 6.9, the earthquake occured when the crustal rocks of the Pacific and North American Plates abruptly slipped 7 ft. along their common boundary, the San Andreas Fault.
 
Weak soil during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, http://www.calstatela.edu/