San Francisco
San Francisco is a city which everyone loves. Even people who hate the America tend to fall in love with San Francisco as its vast wealth of artists and alternative cultures embody themselves amongst businessmen and corporate executives to offer diversity unprecedented in cities throughout America. The liberal ideologies imprinted all over its history have transformed the city into a sanctuary for artists and out of the-box thinkers alike. It may not be the friendliest city in the world but it certainly is the most accepting. No matter how weird you may be considered wherever you come from, in San Francisco there is surely a place for you. The stunning landscape, affluence of historic sights and attractions as well as round the clock entertainment has also made San Francisco one of the world’s top tourist destinations.

I moved to San Francisco in September 1999, having just turned 21 after having spent several years in San Jose, California posterior to having spent 10 years in Oman. Like many youths who move to a big city; I had this antsy urge that there was more to this world and life than the industrialized suburbs could possibly offer. So, after having served my deuce of years at De Anza Community Collage, I sent in my application to San Francisco State University - got excepted and moved up to the city.

Above: One of San Francisco's "moving landmarks"; the infamous cable cars.
Like all "great" cities; San Francisco is a melting pot of an immense variety of cultures with distinct neighborhoods and monumental landmarks. San Francisco is such a unique case study as that all these variables are sandwiched inside a 7 mile-squared peninsula with legitimate claims to being the most liberal city in the United States. Next to Buffalo, New York - San Francisco is the smallest "major city" in the United States. Many will argue it is, however one of the most culturally diverse and rich cities in the country, or in the world, as the boy I met in Leeds put it. There's no city in the country, not even New York that can match San Francisco's cultural contrast from one street to the next. There's the Italian charm of North Beach, the Asian hubs of Chinatown and Japan town, the posh Nob Hill, the high rise spectacle of the Financial District, the tourist trap of Fisherman's Warf, the shoppers paradise of Union Square, the nightclubs of the South of Market Area (aka SOMA), the Latino node of the Mission, the hippie's Haight & Ashbury, the gay enclave of the Castro. All in all, there's something for everyone is San Francisco..

Above; The Golden Gate Bridge. Aptly named for it's maroon coating, the bridge was built in 1937 and has remained one of San Francisco's most recognizable landmarks		 Nothing comes in a perfect package though. Despite all the obvious positive rationales in coming to San Francisco; living in San Francisco can be difficult at times. It is preposterously expensive to live here. The rents are some of the highest in the country and after the dot com boom that trampled through here at the very beginning of the millennium, rents have sky rocketed beyond logical proportions. I pay a handsome months rent for a room in a house, shared with 3 others. But I'm not complaining, given that this a sizeable bedroom in a 3 story Victorian - located advantageously in Cole Valley, only one block adjacent from the infamous Haight-Ashbury cross road and only minutes walk from Golden Gate Park. It is not uncommon to find a room going for about three times as much money as an identical room just across the street, given that one room was leased out prior to the dot-com boom as opposed to the other post dot-com room. So I can consider myself one of the few to have "affordable" rent here.

A population of 750,000 gets augmented by roughly 16.4 million tourists annually making San Francisco a dolefully crowded place to be at times. Parking is a real bother. One can drive around for almost an hour trying to find parking in front of one’s own home. Then again, San Francisco is one of those few cities in the States where not only does one not really need a car but the possession of a car can even be considered a liability. Still though, just about everything you try and do here is embossed by a crowd; be it catch a bus to work, make reservations for dinner, try and catch a movie, etc.
Before 1846, under Mexican rule, the peninsula was known as Yerba Buena, or the "good herb". After California gained it's independence from Mexico, the relatively obscure city changed its name to San Francisco. In 1848, gold was discovered some 120 miles from San Francisco and the year 1849 will always be known as the year of the "gold rush" as the cities population soared from 800 to nearly 25,000 in less than a two year span. California became the 31st state of the United States in 1850.
The 1849 gold rush may have put San Francisco on the map but it was not what made the city rich. Contrarily, it actually brought a rather rowdy, disreputable bunch and the city soon became known for its lawlessness, brothels and even pyromania. San Francisco was appropriately dubbed "the Barbary Coast". What really brought the noveau riche to San Francisco was the Constock Lode of the 1860's and 70's. A generous portion of silver was found in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and San Francisco, which had established itself as a major industrial trading post after the Civil War, profited greatly from this as millionaires began to pour into the city.

San Francisco also gained a large Chinese contingent during the Civil War of the early 60's. As industries in the war torn east looked to divert their factories westward, a railroad was commissioned to be built through the Sierra Nevada. The Central Pacific Railroad Company hired about 12,000 Chinese workers to help build this. An influx of Chinese settled into the part of San Francisco now known as Chinatown - thus adding a major contribution to the cities growing ethnic diversity.
Above: the long and windy road - Lombard St. Ok, well it's not all that long but it certainly is windy.
It wasn't until the 1940's that San Francisco began to gain international status as a haven for the arts and it's now well known liberal "anything goes" stance. The building of the cities two bridges; the Bay Bridge (1936) and the Golden Gate Bridge (1937) connected the city to Oakland and Marin County respectively. This made commuting in and out of the city much more efficient than the previously used ferry system. Many conservative, middle class families left the city for the humbler, less urbanized suburbs of Marin County and the East Bay. This brought rents down and as the conservatives left, and artists, poets, novelists and musicians began to flood areas such as the Haight and North Beach

Above: a shot of Coit Tower from it's base
Amongst these were novelists Jack Kerouac and Alan Ginsberg. Kerouac's iconoclastic novel On the Road and Ginsberg's subjective poem "Howl", along with the works of along with poets such as Kenneth Rexroth and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, put San Francisco on the literary map. Most of these bohemian writers were openly gay, smoked a lot of marijuana and often experimented with drugs such as mesuline and peyote.

At this time a large gay assemblage began to appear in San Francisco. This was provoked mainly by the armed forces decision to crack down on the presence of homosexuals in the military during World War II. As many Navy fleets were departing from San Francisco, many homosexuals discharged from the military resided in Castro. San Francisco is now well known for it's large gay community and the gay rights parade in June is one of the biggest in the world.

San Francisco enjoyed its musical peek in the 60's with the arrival of the Hippies and Beatniks. Bongo players called "Beatniks" began to congregate regularly in the streets and parks to form massive spontaneous drum circles while artists such as Janis Joplin, Carlos Santana, the Jefferson Airplane, the Charlatans and the Greatful Dead could be found jamming regularly along Haight St and Golden Gate Park. In January, 1967 - some 20,000 hippies assembled in Golden Gate Park for a free concert that kick started the so called "Summer of Love"
The film industry hasn't neglected San Francisco either. Sean Penn, Francis Ford Coppola, Wayne Wang and Philip Kaufman all reside in San Francisco. George Lucas, the mastermind behind the Star Wars Saga, owns an estate in nearby Santa Rosa while Saul Zaentz (producer of One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and the English Patient) also lives in the Bay Area.

San Francisco has also made the movies on many occasions. Dirty Harry, Basic Instinct, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, The Rock and Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo are just a few of the many films to have been shot here.

Right; Coit Tower, from the inside.

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Questions or comments? E-mail me @ glennaldo_sf@hotmail.com!

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