San Francisco Prohibition Director Photo Vintage Original Colonel Johnson Scarce

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Seller: memorabilia111 ✉️ (808) 100%, Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan, US, Ships to: US & many other countries, Item: 176299959380 SAN FRANCISCO PROHIBITION DIRECTOR PHOTO VINTAGE ORIGINAL COLONEL JOHNSON SCARCE. A VINTAGE ORIGINAL PHOTO MEASURING APPROXIMATELY 6 1/2 INCH X 10 1/4 INCH  OF SAN FRANCISCO PROHIBITION DIRECTOR COLONEL SAMUEL JOHNSON In the United States from 1920 to 1933, a nationwide constitutional law prohibited the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages.[1] The alcohol industry was curtailed by a succession of state legislatures, and finally ended nationwide under the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified on January 16, 1919. Prohibition ended with the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment, which repealed the Eighteenth Amendment on December 5, 1933. Led by pietistic Protestants, prohibitionists first attempted to end the trade in alcoholic drinks during the 19th century. They aimed to heal what they saw as an ill society beset by alcohol-related problems such as alcoholism, family violence, and saloon-based political corruption. Many communities introduced alcohol bans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and enforcement of these new prohibition laws became a topic of debate. Prohibition supporters, called "drys", presented it as a battle for public morals and health. The movement was taken up by progressives in the Prohibition, Democratic and Republican parties, and gained a national grassroots base through the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. After 1900, it was coordinated by the Anti-Saloon League. Opposition from the beer industry mobilized "wet" supporters from the wealthy Roman Catholic and German Lutheran communities, but the influence of these groups receded from 1917 following the entry of the U.S. into the First World War against Germany. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ San Francisco (/ˌsæn frənˈsɪskoʊ/ SAN frən-SISS-koh; Spanish for 'Saint Francis'), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous city in California, with 808,437 residents, and the 17th most populous city in the United States as of 2022.[16] The city covers a land area of 46.9 square miles (121 square kilometers)[24] at the end of the San Francisco Peninsula, making it the second most densely populated large U.S. city after New York City and the fifth-most densely populated U.S. county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs. Among the 91 U.S. cities proper with over 250,000 residents, San Francisco was ranked first by per capita income[25] and sixth by aggregate income as of 2021.[26] Colloquial nicknames for San Francisco include Frisco, San Fran, The City, and SF.[27][28] San Francisco was founded on June 29, 1776, when settlers from New Spain established the Presidio of San Francisco at the Golden Gate, and the Mission San Francisco de Asís a few miles away, both named for Francis of Assisi.[4] The California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, transforming an unimportant hamlet into a busy port, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time; between 1870 and 1900, approximately one quarter of California's population resided in the city proper.[26] In 1856, San Francisco became a consolidated city-county.[29] After three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire,[30] it was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, it was a major port of embarkation for naval service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater.[31] In 1945, the United Nations Charter was signed in San Francisco, establishing the United Nations before permanently relocating to Manhattan, and in 1951, the Treaty of San Francisco re-established peaceful relations between Japan and the Allied Powers.[32][33][34] After the war, the confluence of returning servicemen, significant immigration, liberalizing attitudes, the rise of the beatnik and hippie countercultures, the sexual revolution, the peace movement growing from opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, and other factors led to the Summer of Love and the gay rights movement, cementing San Francisco as a center of liberal activism in the United States. San Francisco and the surrounding San Francisco Bay Area are a global center of economic activity and the arts and sciences,[35][36] spurred by leading universities,[37] high-tech, healthcare, finance, insurance, real estate, and professional services sectors.[38] As of 2020, the metropolitan area, with 6.7 million residents, ranked 5th by GDP ($874 billion) and 2nd by GDP per capita ($131,082) across the OECD countries, ahead of global cities like Paris, London, and Singapore.[39][40][41] San Francisco anchors the 13th most populous metropolitan statistical area in the United States with 4.6 million residents, and the fourth-largest by aggregate income and economic output, with a GDP of $669 billion in 2021.[42] The wider San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland Combined Statistical Area is the fifth most populous, with 9.5 million residents, and the third-largest by economic output, with a GDP of $1.25 trillion in 2021. In the same year, San Francisco proper had a GDP of $236.4 billion, and a GDP per capita of $289,990.[42] San Francisco was ranked fifth in the world and second in the United States on the Global Financial Centres Index as of March 2023.[43] The city centers of both San Francisco and nearby Oakland have suffered a severe and continuing exodus of businesses, significantly accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.[44] Despite this commercial and corporate exodus, the Bay Area is still the home to four of the world's ten largest companies by market capitalization, and the city proper still houses the headquarters of numerous companies inside and outside of technology, including Wells Fargo, Salesforce, Uber, Airbnb, Twitter, Levi's, Gap, Dropbox, and Lyft.[45][46][47] However, the conservative Hoover Institution in California, in addition to various media organizations, have warned of a uniquely severe long-term doom spiral impending for San Francisco.[48] Theories advanced range from narcotics and other illicit substances, crime, and homelessness,[49] to the West Coast's and particularly San Francisco's challenge to remain a relevant center for flagship commerce and industry given its relative geographic isolation from other North American commercial centers in an era of increasingly ubiquitous e-commerce.[50][51] With over 3.3 million visitors as of 2019, San Francisco is the fifth-most visited city in the United States after New York City, Miami, Los Angeles, and Orlando.[52] The city is known for its steep rolling hills and eclectic mix of architecture across varied neighborhoods, as well as its cool summers, fog, and landmarks, including the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, Alcatraz, along with the Chinatown and Mission districts.[53] The city is home to a number of educational and cultural institutions, such as the University of California, San Francisco, the University of San Francisco, San Francisco State University, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the de Young Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Ballet, the San Francisco Opera, the SFJAZZ Center, and the California Academy of Sciences. Two major league sports teams, the San Francisco Giants and the Golden State Warriors, play their home games within San Francisco proper. San Francisco's main international airport offers flights to over 125 destinations while a light rail and bus network, in tandem with the BART and Caltrain systems, connects nearly every part of San Francisco with the wider region.[54][55] Etymology See also: List of San Francisco placename etymologies The city takes its name from Mission San Francisco de Asís, founded in 1776 in honor of Saint Francis. San Francisco, which is Spanish for "Saint Francis", takes its name from Mission San Francisco de Asís, which was named after Saint Francis of Assisi. The mission received its name in 1776, when it was founded by the Spanish under the leadership of Padre Francisco Palóu. The city has officially been known as San Francisco since 1847, when Washington Allon Bartlett, then serving as the city's alcalde, renamed it from Yerba Buena (Spanish for "Good Herb"), which had been name used throughout the Spanish and Mexican eras since approximately 1776. The name Yerba Buena continues to be used in locations in the city, such as Yerba Buena Island, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and Yerba Buena Gardens. Bay Area residents often refer to San Francisco as "the City".[1] For residents of San Francisco living in the more suburban parts of the city, "the City" generally refers to the densely populated areas around Market Street. Its use, or lack thereof, is a common way for locals to distinguish long time residents from tourists and recent arrivals (as a shibboleth). San Francisco has several nicknames, including "The City by the Bay", "Golden Gate City",[56] "Frisco", "SF", "San Fran", and "Fog City"; as well as older ones like "The City that Knows How", "Baghdad by the Bay", or "The Paris of the West".[1] "San Fran" and "Frisco" are controversial as nicknames among San Francisco residents.[57][58][59] History See also: History of San Francisco For a chronological guide, see Timeline of San Francisco. Indigenous history The earliest archeological evidence of human habitation of the territory of the city of San Francisco dates to 3000 BC.[60] The Yelamu group of the Ohlone people resided in a few small villages when an overland Spanish exploration party arrived on November 2, 1769, the first documented European visit to San Francisco Bay.[61] Spanish era Juan Bautista de Anza established the Presidio of San Francisco for the Spanish Empire in 1776. Mission San Francisco de Asís was founded by Padre Francisco Palóu on October 9, 1776. The Spanish Empire claimed San Francisco as part of Las Californias, a province of the Viceroyalty of New Spain. The Spanish first arrived in what is now San Francisco on November 2, 1769, when the Portolá expedition led by Don Gaspar de Portolá and Juan Crespí arrived at San Francisco Bay. Having noted the strategic benefits of the area due to its large natural harbor, the Spanish dispatched Pedro Fages in 1770 to find a more direct route to the San Francisco Peninsula from Monterey, which would become part of the El Camino Real route. By 1774, Juan Bautista de Anza had arrived to the area to select the sites for a mission and presidio. The first European maritime presence in San Francisco Bay occurred on August 5, 1775, when the Spanish ship San Carlos, commanded by Juan Manuel de Ayala, became the first ship to anchor in the bay.[62] Soon after, on March 28, 1776, Anza established the Presidio of San Francisco. On October 9, Mission San Francisco de Asís, also known as Mission Dolores, was founded by Padre Francisco Palóu.[4] In 1794, the Presidio established the Castillo de San Joaquín, a fortification on the southern side of the Golden Gate, which later came to be known as Fort Point. In 1804, the province of Alta California was created, which included San Francisco. At its peak in 1810–1820, the average population at the Mission Dolores settlement was about 1,100 people.[63] Mexican era Juana Briones de Miranda, known as the "Founding Mother of San Francisco"[64] In 1821, the Californias were ceded to Mexico by Spain. The extensive California mission system gradually lost its influence during the period of Mexican rule. Agricultural land became largely privatized as ranchos, as was occurring in other parts of California. Coastal trade increased, including a half-dozen barques from various Atlantic ports which regularly sailed in California waters.[65][66] Yerba Buena (after a native herb), a trading post with settlements between the Presidio and Mission grew up around the Plaza de Yerba Buena. The plaza was later renamed Portsmouth Square (now located in the city's Chinatown and Financial District). The Presidio was commanded in 1833 by Captain Mariano G. Vallejo.[65] In 1833, Juana Briones de Miranda built her rancho near El Polín Spring, founding the first civilian household in San Francisco, which had previously only been comprised by the military settlement at the Presidio and the religious settlement at Mission Dolores.[64] In 1834, Francisco de Haro became the first Alcalde of Yerba Buena. De Haro was a native of Mexico, from that nation's west coast city of Compostela, Nayarit. A land survey of Yerba Buena was made by the Swiss immigrant Jean Jacques Vioget as prelude to the city plan. The second Alcalde José Joaquín Estudillo was a Californio from a prominent Monterey family. In 1835, while in office, he approved the first land grant in Yerba Buena: to William Richardson, a naturalized Mexican citizen of English birth. Richardson had arrived in San Francisco aboard a whaling ship in 1822. In 1825, he married Maria Antonia Martinez, eldest daughter of the Californio Ygnacio Martínez.[67][a] The 1846 Battle of Yerba Buena was an early U.S. victory in the American conquest of California. Yerba Buena began to attract American and European settlers; an 1842 census listed 21 residents (11%) born in the United States or Europe, as well as one Filipino merchant.[68] Following the Bear Flag Revolt in Sonoma and the beginning of the U.S. Conquest of California, American forces under the command of John B. Montgomery captured Yerba Buena on July 9, 1846, with little resistance from the local Californio population. Following the capture, U.S. forces appointed both José de Jesús Noé and Washington Allon Bartlett to serve as co-alcaldes (mayors), while the conquest continued on in the rest of California. Following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, Alta California was ceded from Mexico to the United States. Post-Conquest era San Francisco in 1849, during the beginning of the California Gold Rush Port of San Francisco in 1851 Despite its attractive location as a port and naval base, post-Conquest San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography.[69] Its 1847 population was said to be 459.[65] The California Gold Rush brought a flood of treasure seekers (known as "forty-niners", as in "1849"). With their sourdough bread in tow,[70] prospectors accumulated in San Francisco over rival Benicia,[71] raising the population from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849.[72] The promise of wealth was so strong that crews on arriving vessels deserted and rushed off to the gold fields, leaving behind a forest of masts in San Francisco harbor.[73] Some of these approximately 500 abandoned ships were used at times as storeships, saloons, and hotels; many were left to rot, and some were sunk to establish title to the underwater lot. By 1851, the harbor was extended out into the bay by wharves while buildings were erected on piles among the ships. By 1870, Yerba Buena Cove had been filled to create new land. Buried ships are occasionally exposed when foundations are dug for new buildings.[74] California was quickly granted statehood in 1850, and the U.S. military built Fort Point at the Golden Gate and a fort on Alcatraz Island to secure the San Francisco Bay. San Francisco County was one of the state's 18 original counties established at California statehood in 1850.[75] Until 1856, San Francisco's city limits extended west to Divisadero Street and Castro Street, and south to 20th Street. In 1856, the California state government divided the county. A straight line was then drawn across the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula just north of San Bruno Mountain. Everything south of the line became the new San Mateo County while everything north of the line became the new consolidated City and County of San Francisco.[76] The Bank of California, established in 1863, was the first commercial bank in Western United States.[77] Entrepreneurs sought to capitalize on the wealth generated by the Gold Rush. Silver discoveries, including the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1859, further drove rapid population growth.[78] With hordes of fortune seekers streaming through the city, lawlessness was common, and the Barbary Coast section of town gained notoriety as a haven for criminals, prostitution, bootlegging, and gambling.[79] Early winners were the banking industry, with the founding of Wells Fargo in 1852 and the Bank of California in 1864. Development of the Port of San Francisco and the establishment in 1869 of overland access to the eastern U.S. rail system via the newly completed Pacific Railroad (the construction of which the city only reluctantly helped support[80]) helped make the Bay Area a center for trade. Catering to the needs and tastes of the growing population, Levi Strauss opened a dry goods business and Domingo Ghirardelli began manufacturing chocolate. Chinese immigrants made the city a polyglot culture, drawn to "Old Gold Mountain", creating the city's Chinatown quarter. By 1880, Chinese made up 9.3% of the population.[81] View of the city in 1878 The first cable cars carried San Franciscans up Clay Street in 1873. The city's sea of Victorian houses began to take shape, and civic leaders campaigned for a spacious public park, resulting in plans for Golden Gate Park. San Franciscans built schools, churches, theaters, and all the hallmarks of civic life. The Presidio developed into the most important American military installation on the Pacific coast.[82] By 1890, San Francisco's population approached 300,000, making it the eighth-largest city in the United States at the time. Around 1901, San Francisco was a major city known for its flamboyant style, stately hotels, ostentatious mansions on Nob Hill, and a thriving arts scene.[83] The first North American plague epidemic was the San Francisco plague of 1900–1904.[84] 1906 earthquake and interwar era The 1906 San Francisco earthquake was the deadliest earthquake in U.S. history. At 5:12 am on April 18, 1906, a major earthquake struck San Francisco and northern California. As buildings collapsed from the shaking, ruptured gas lines ignited fires that spread across the city and burned out of control for several days. With water mains out of service, the Presidio Artillery Corps attempted to contain the inferno by dynamiting blocks of buildings to create firebreaks.[85] More than three-quarters of the city lay in ruins, including almost all of the downtown core.[30] Contemporary accounts reported that 498 people died, though modern estimates put the number in the several thousands.[86] More than half of the city's population of 400,000 was left homeless.[87] Refugees settled temporarily in makeshift tent villages in Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, on the beaches, and elsewhere. Many fled permanently to the East Bay. Jack London is remembered for having famously eulogized the earthquake: "Not in history has a modern imperial city been so completely destroyed. San Francisco is gone."[88] The reconstruction of San Francisco City Hall on Civic Center Plaza, c. 1913–16 Rebuilding was rapid and performed on a grand scale. Rejecting calls to completely remake the street grid, San Franciscans opted for speed.[89] Amadeo Giannini's Bank of Italy, later to become Bank of America, provided loans for many of those whose livelihoods had been devastated. The influential San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association or SPUR was founded in 1910 to address the quality of housing after the earthquake.[90] The earthquake hastened development of western neighborhoods that survived the fire, including Pacific Heights, where many of the city's wealthy rebuilt their homes.[91] In turn, the destroyed mansions of Nob Hill became grand hotels. City Hall rose again in the Beaux Arts style, and the city celebrated its rebirth at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in 1915.[92] The Panama–Pacific Exposition, a major world's fair held in 1915, was seen as a chance to showcase the city's recovery from the earthquake. During this period, San Francisco built some of its most important infrastructure. Civil Engineer Michael O'Shaughnessy was hired by San Francisco Mayor James Rolph as chief engineer for the city in September 1912 to supervise the construction of the Twin Peaks Reservoir, the Stockton Street Tunnel, the Twin Peaks Tunnel, the San Francisco Municipal Railway, the Auxiliary Water Supply System, and new sewers. San Francisco's streetcar system, of which the J, K, L, M, and N lines survive today, was pushed to completion by O'Shaughnessy between 1915 and 1927. It was the O'Shaughnessy Dam, Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, and Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct that would have the largest effect on San Francisco.[93] An abundant water supply enabled San Francisco to develop into the city it has become today. The Bay Bridge under construction on Yerba Buena Island in 1935 In ensuing years, the city solidified its standing as a financial capital; in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash, not a single San Francisco-based bank failed.[94] Indeed, it was at the height of the Great Depression that San Francisco undertook two great civil engineering projects, simultaneously constructing the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate Bridge, completing them in 1936 and 1937, respectively. It was in this period that the island of Alcatraz, a former military stockade, began its service as a federal maximum security prison, housing notorious inmates such as Al Capone, and Robert Franklin Stroud, the Birdman of Alcatraz. San Francisco later celebrated its regained grandeur with a World's fair, the Golden Gate International Exposition in 1939–40, creating Treasure Island in the middle of the bay to house it.[95] Contemporary era See also: San Francisco in the 1970s The United Nations was created in San Francisco in 1945, when the United Nations Charter was signed at the San Francisco Conference. During World War II, the city-owned Sharp Park in Pacifica was used as an internment camp to detain Japanese Americans.[96] Hunters Point Naval Shipyard became a hub of activity, and Fort Mason became the primary port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater of Operations.[31] The explosion of jobs drew many people, especially African Americans from the South, to the area. After the end of the war, many military personnel returning from service abroad and civilians who had originally come to work decided to stay. The United Nations Charter creating the United Nations was drafted and signed in San Francisco in 1945 and, in 1951, the Treaty of San Francisco re-established peaceful relations between Japan and the Allied Powers.[97] Urban planning projects in the 1950s and 1960s involved widespread destruction and redevelopment of west-side neighborhoods and the construction of new freeways, of which only a series of short segments were built before being halted by citizen-led opposition.[98] The onset of containerization made San Francisco's small piers obsolete, and cargo activity moved to the larger Port of Oakland.[99] The city began to lose industrial jobs and turned to tourism as the most important segment of its economy.[100] The suburbs experienced rapid growth, and San Francisco underwent significant demographic change, as large segments of the white population left the city, supplanted by an increasing wave of immigration from Asia and Latin America.[101][102] From 1950 to 1980, the city lost over 10 percent of its population. The Summer of Love in 1967 was an influential counterculture phenomenon with as many as 100,000 people converging in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. Over this period, San Francisco became a magnet for America's counterculture movement. Beat Generation writers fueled the San Francisco Renaissance and centered on the North Beach neighborhood in the 1950s.[103] Hippies flocked to Haight-Ashbury in the 1960s, reaching a peak with the 1967 Summer of Love.[104] In 1974, the Zebra murders left at least 16 people dead.[105] In the 1970s, the city became a center of the gay rights movement, with the emergence of The Castro as an urban gay village, the election of Harvey Milk to the Board of Supervisors, and his assassination, along with that of Mayor George Moscone, in 1978.[106] Bank of America, now based in Charlotte, North Carolina, was founded in San Francisco; the bank completed 555 California Street in 1969. The Transamerica Pyramid was completed in 1972,[107] igniting a wave of "Manhattanization" that lasted until the late 1980s, a period of extensive high-rise development downtown.[108] The 1980s also saw a dramatic increase in the number of homeless people in the city, an issue that remains today, despite many attempts to address it.[109] Transamerica Pyramid, built in 1972, characterized the Manhattanization of the city's skyline in the 1970–80's. The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake caused destruction and loss of life throughout the Bay Area. In San Francisco, the quake severely damaged structures in the Marina and South of Market districts and precipitated the demolition of the damaged Embarcadero Freeway and much of the damaged Central Freeway, allowing the city to reclaim The Embarcadero as its historic downtown waterfront and revitalizing the Hayes Valley neighborhood.[110] The two recent decades have seen booms driven by the internet industry. During the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, startup companies invigorated the San Francisco economy. Large numbers of entrepreneurs and computer application developers moved into the city, followed by marketing, design, and sales professionals, changing the social landscape as once poorer neighborhoods became increasingly gentrified.[111] Demand for new housing and office space ignited a second wave of high-rise development, this time in the South of Market district.[112] By 2000, the city's population reached new highs, surpassing the previous record set in 1950. When the bubble burst in 2001 and again in 2023, many of these companies folded and their employees were laid off. Yet high technology and entrepreneurship remain mainstays of the San Francisco economy. By the mid-2000s (decade), the social media boom had begun, with San Francisco becoming a popular location for tech offices and a common place to live for people employed in Silicon Valley companies such as Apple and Google.[113] The Ferry Station Post Office Building, Armour & Co. Building, Atherton House, and YMCA Hotel are historic buildings among dozens of historical landmarks in the city according to the National Register of Historic Places listings in San Francisco.[114] Geography Satellite view of San Francisco San Francisco is located on the West Coast of the United States, at the north end of the San Francisco Peninsula and includes significant stretches of the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay within its boundaries. Several picturesque islands—Alcatraz, Treasure Island and the adjacent Yerba Buena Island, and small portions of Alameda Island, Red Rock Island, and Angel Island—are part of the city. Also included are the uninhabited Farallon Islands, 27 miles (43 km) offshore in the Pacific Ocean. The mainland within the city limits roughly forms a "seven-by-seven-mile square", a common local colloquialism referring to the city's shape, though its total area, including water, is nearly 232 square miles (600 km2). There are more than 50 hills within the city limits.[115] Some neighborhoods are named after the hill on which they are situated, including Nob Hill, Potrero Hill, and Russian Hill. Near the geographic center of the city, southwest of the downtown area, are a series of less densely populated hills. Twin Peaks, a pair of hills forming one of the city's highest points, forms an overlook spot. San Francisco's tallest hill, Mount Davidson, is 928 feet (283 m) high and is capped with a 103-foot (31 m) tall cross built in 1934.[116] Dominating this area is Sutro Tower, a large red and white radio and television transmission tower reaching 1,811 ft (552 m) above sea level. Lake Merced, located in southwestern San Francisco The nearby San Andreas and Hayward Faults are responsible for much earthquake activity, although neither physically passes through the city itself. The San Andreas Fault 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. The city constructed an auxiliary water supply system and has repeatedly upgraded its building codes, requiring retrofits for older buildings and higher engineering standards for new construction.[117] However, there are still thousands of smaller buildings that remain vulnerable to quake damage.[118] USGS has released the California earthquake forecast which models earthquake occurrence in California.[119] San Francisco's shoreline has grown beyond its natural limits. Entire neighborhoods such as the Marina, Mission Bay, and Hunters Point, as well as large sections of the Embarcadero, sit on areas of landfill. Treasure Island was constructed from material dredged from the bay as well as material resulting from the excavation of the Yerba Buena Tunnel through Yerba Buena Island during the construction of the Bay Bridge. Such land tends to be unstable during earthquakes. The resulting soil liquefaction causes extensive damage to property built upon it, as was evidenced in the Marina district during the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.[120] A few natural lakes and creeks (Lake Merced, Mountain Lake, Pine Lake, Lobos Creek, El Polin Spring) are within parks and remain protected in what is essentially their original form, but most of the city's natural watercourses, such as Islais Creek and Mission Creek, have been partially or completely culverted and built over. Since the 1990s, however, the Public Utilities Commission has been studying proposals to daylight or restore some creeks.[121] Neighborhoods Main articles: Neighborhoods in San Francisco and List of Landmarks and Historic Places in San Francisco See also: List of tallest buildings in San Francisco View of the city's central districts along its northwestern coastline The historic center of San Francisco is the northeast quadrant of the city anchored by Market Street and the waterfront. Here the Financial District is centered, with Union Square, the principal shopping and hotel district, and the Tenderloin nearby. Cable cars carry riders up steep inclines to the summit of Nob Hill, once the home of the city's business tycoons, and down to the waterfront tourist attractions of Fisherman's Wharf, and Pier 39, where many restaurants feature Dungeness crab from a still-active fishing industry. Also in this quadrant are Russian Hill, a residential neighborhood with the famously crooked Lombard Street; North Beach, the city's Little Italy and the former center of the Beat Generation; and Telegraph Hill, which features Coit Tower. Abutting Russian Hill and North Beach is San Francisco's Chinatown, the oldest Chinatown in North America.[122][123][124][125] The South of Market, which was once San Francisco's industrial core, has seen significant redevelopment following the construction of Oracle Park and an infusion of startup companies. New skyscrapers, live-work lofts, and condominiums dot the area. Further development is taking place just to the south in Mission Bay area, a former railroad yard, which now has a second campus of the University of California, San Francisco and Chase Center, which opened in 2019 as the new home of the Golden State Warriors.[126] West of downtown, across Van Ness Avenue, lies the large Western Addition neighborhood, which became established with a large African American population after World War II. The Western Addition is usually divided into smaller neighborhoods including Hayes Valley, the Fillmore, and Japantown, which was once the largest Japantown in North America but suffered when its Japanese American residents were forcibly removed and interned during World War II. The Western Addition survived the 1906 earthquake with its Victorians largely intact, including the famous "Painted Ladies", standing alongside Alamo Square. To the south, near the geographic center of the city is Haight-Ashbury, famously associated with 1960s hippie culture.[127] The Haight is now[timeframe?] home to some expensive boutiques[128][better source needed] and a few controversial chain stores,[129] although it still retains[timeframe?][citation needed] some bohemian character. San Francisco Chinatown, the oldest in North America and one of the world's largest. North of the Western Addition is Pacific Heights, an affluent neighborhood that features the homes built by wealthy San Franciscans in the wake of the 1906 earthquake. Directly north of Pacific Heights facing the waterfront is the Marina, a neighborhood popular with young professionals that was largely built on reclaimed land from the Bay.[130] In the southeast quadrant of the city is the Mission District—populated in the 19th century by Californios and working-class immigrants from Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Scandinavia. In the 1910s, a wave of Central American immigrants settled in the Mission and, in the 1950s, immigrants from Mexico began to predominate.[131] In recent years, gentrification has changed the demographics of parts of the Mission from Latino, to twenty-something professionals. Noe Valley to the southwest and Bernal Heights to the south are both increasingly popular among young families with children. East of the Mission is the Potrero Hill neighborhood, a mostly residential neighborhood that features sweeping views of downtown San Francisco. West of the Mission, the area historically known as Eureka Valley, now popularly called the Castro, was once a working-class Scandinavian and Irish area. It has become North America's first gay village, and is now the center of gay life in the city.[132] Located near the city's southern border, the Excelsior District is one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in San Francisco. The Bayview-Hunters Point in the far southeast corner of the city is one of the poorest neighborhoods, though the area has been the focus of several revitalizing and urban renewal projects. The Ferry Building, located in the Embarcadero, the city's eastern waterfront along San Francisco Bay The construction of the Twin Peaks Tunnel in 1918 connected southwest neighborhoods to downtown via streetcar, hastening the development of West Portal, and nearby affluent Forest Hill and St. Francis Wood. Further west, stretching all the way to the Pacific Ocean and north to Golden Gate Park lies the vast Sunset District, a large middle-class area with a predominantly Asian population.[133] The northwestern quadrant of the city contains the Richmond, a mostly middle-class neighborhood north of Golden Gate Park, home to immigrants from other parts of Asia as well as many Russian and Ukrainian immigrants. Together, these areas are known as The Avenues. These two districts are each sometimes further divided into two regions: the Outer Richmond and Outer Sunset can refer to the more western portions of their respective district and the Inner Richmond and Inner Sunset can refer to the more eastern portions. Many piers remained derelict for years until the demolition of the Embarcadero Freeway reopened the downtown waterfront, allowing for redevelopment. The centerpiece of the port, the Ferry Building, while still receiving commuter ferry traffic, has been restored and redeveloped as a gourmet marketplace. Climate San Francisco fog is a regular phenomenon in the summer. San Francisco has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csb), characteristic of California's coast, with moist, mild winters and dry summers.[134] San Francisco's weather is strongly influenced by the cool currents of the Pacific Ocean on the west side of the city, and the water of San Francisco Bay to the north and east. This moderates temperature swings and produces a remarkably mild year-round climate with little seasonal temperature variation.[135] Among major U.S. cities, San Francisco has the coolest daily mean, maximum, and minimum temperatures for June, July, and August.[136] During the summer, rising hot air in California's interior valleys creates a low-pressure area that draws winds from the North Pacific High through the Golden Gate, which creates the city's characteristic cool winds and fog.[137] The fog is less pronounced in eastern neighborhoods and during the late summer and early fall. As a result, the year's warmest month, on average, is September, and on average, October is warmer than July, especially in daytime. Temperatures reach or exceed 80 °F (27 °C) on an average of only 21 and 23 days a year at downtown and San Francisco International Airport (SFO), respectively.[138] The dry period of May to October is mild to warm, with the normal monthly mean temperature peaking in September at 62.7 °F (17.1 °C).[138] The rainy period of November to April is slightly cooler, with the normal monthly mean temperature reaching its lowest in January at 51.3 °F (10.7 °C).[138] On average, there are 73 rainy days a year, and annual precipitation averages 23.65 inches (601 mm).[138] Variation in precipitation from year to year is high. Above-average rain years are often associated with warm El Niño conditions in the Pacific while dry years often occur in cold water La Niña periods. In 2013 (a "La Niña" year), a record low 5.59 in (142 mm) of rainfall was recorded at downtown San Francisco, where records have been kept since 1849.[138] Snowfall in the city is very rare, with only 10 measurable accumulations recorded since 1852, most recently in 1976 when up to 5 inches (13 cm) fell on Twin Peaks.[139][140] The Farallon Islands are located in the Gulf of the Farallones, off the Pacific coast of San Francisco. The highest recorded temperature at the official National Weather Service downtown observation station[b] was 106 °F (41 °C) on September 1, 2017.[142] During that hot spell, the warmest ever night of 71 °F (22 °C) was also recorded.[143] The lowest recorded temperature was 27 °F (−3 °C) on December 11, 1932.[144] The National Weather Service provides a helpful visual aid[145] graphing the information in the table below to display visually by month the annual typical temperatures, the past year's temperatures, and record temperatures.[importance?] During an average year between 1991 and 2020, San Francisco recorded a warmest night at 64 °F (18 °C) and a coldest day at 49 °F (9 °C).[138] The coldest daytime high since the station's opening in 1945 was recorded in December 1972 at 37 °F (3 °C).[138] As a coastal city, San Francisco will be heavily affected by climate change. As of 2021, sea levels are projected to rise by as much as 5 feet (1.5 m), resulting in periodic flooding, rising groundwater levels, and lowland floods from more severe storms.[146] San Francisco falls under the USDA 10b Plant hardiness zone, though some areas, particularly downtown, border zone 11a.[147][148] vte Climate data for San Francisco (downtown),[c] 1991–2020 normals,[d] extremes 1849–present Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year Record high °F (°C) 79 (26) 81 (27) 87 (31) 94 (34) 97 (36) 103 (39) 99 (37) 98 (37) 106 (41) 102 (39) 86 (30) 76 (24) 106 (41) Mean maximum °F (°C) 67.1 (19.5) 71.8 (22.1) 76.4 (24.7) 80.7 (27.1) 81.4 (27.4) 84.6 (29.2) 80.5 (26.9) 83.4 (28.6) 90.8 (32.7) 87.9 (31.1) 75.8 (24.3) 66.4 (19.1) 94.0 (34.4) Average high °F (°C) 57.8 (14.3) 60.4 (15.8) 62.1 (16.7) 63.0 (17.2) 64.1 (17.8) 66.5 (19.2) 66.3 (19.1) 67.9 (19.9) 70.2 (21.2) 69.8 (21.0) 63.7 (17.6) 57.9 (14.4) 64.1 (17.8) Daily mean °F (°C) 52.2 (11.2) 54.2 (12.3) 55.5 (13.1) 56.4 (13.6) 57.8 (14.3) 59.7 (15.4) 60.3 (15.7) 61.7 (16.5) 62.9 (17.2) 62.1 (16.7) 57.2 (14.0) 52.5 (11.4) 57.7 (14.3) Average low °F (°C) 46.6 (8.1) 47.9 (8.8) 48.9 (9.4) 49.7 (9.8) 51.4 (10.8) 53.0 (11.7) 54.4 (12.4) 55.5 (13.1) 55.6 (13.1) 54.4 (12.4) 50.7 (10.4) 47.0 (8.3) 51.3 (10.7) Mean minimum °F (°C) 40.5 (4.7) 42.0 (5.6) 43.7 (6.5) 45.0 (7.2) 48.0 (8.9) 50.1 (10.1) 51.6 (10.9) 52.9 (11.6) 52.0 (11.1) 49.9 (9.9) 44.9 (7.2) 40.7 (4.8) 38.8 (3.8) Record low °F (°C) 29 (−2) 31 (−1) 33 (1) 40 (4) 42 (6) 46 (8) 47 (8) 46 (8) 47 (8) 43 (6) 38 (3) 27 (−3) 27 (−3) Average precipitation inches (mm) 4.40 (112) 4.37 (111) 3.15 (80) 1.60 (41) 0.70 (18) 0.20 (5.1) 0.01 (0.25) 0.06 (1.5) 0.10 (2.5) 0.94 (24) 2.60 (66) 4.76 (121) 22.89 (581) Average precipitation days (≥ 0.01 in) 11.2 10.8 10.8 6.8 4.0 1.6 0.7 1.1 1.2 3.5 7.9 11.6 71.2 Average relative humidity (%) 80 77 75 72 72 71 75 75 73 71 75 78 75 Mean monthly sunshine hours 185.9 207.7 269.1 309.3 325.1 311.4 313.3 287.4 271.4 247.1 173.4 160.6 3,061.7 Percent possible sunshine 61 69 73 78 74 70 70 68 73 71 57 54 69 Average ultraviolet index 2 3 5 7 9 10 10 9 7 5 3 2 6 Source 1: NOAA (sun 1961–1974)[138][149][150][151] Source 2: Met Office (humidity)[152], Weather Atlas (UV)[153] Time Series Graphs are temporarily unavailable due to technical issues. See or edit raw graph data. Ecology Aerial view of the Presidio of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Historically, tule elk were present in San Francisco County, based on archeological evidence of elk remains in at least five different Native American shellmounds: at Hunter's Point, Fort Mason, Stevenson Street, Market Street, and Yerba Buena.[154][155] Perhaps the first historical observer record was from the De Anza Expedition on March 23, 1776. Herbert Eugene Bolton wrote about the expedition camp at Mountain Lake, near the southern end of today's Presidio: "Round about were grazing deer, and scattered here and there were the antlers of large elk."[156] Also, when Richard Henry Dana Jr. visited San Francisco Bay in 1835, he wrote about vast elk herds near the Golden Gate: on December 27 "...we came to anchor near the mouth of the bay, under a high and beautifully sloping hill, upon which herds of hundreds and hundreds of red deer [note: "red deer" is the European term for "elk"], and the stag, with his high branching antlers, were bounding about...", although it is not clear whether this was the Marin side or the San Francisco side.[157] Demographics Main article: Demographics of San Francisco Historical population Year Pop. ±% 1848 1,000 —     1849 25,000 +2400.0% 1852 34,776 +39.1% 1860 56,802 +63.3% 1870 149,473 +163.1% 1880 233,959 +56.5% 1890 298,997 +27.8% 1900 342,782 +14.6% 1910 416,912 +21.6% 1920 506,676 +21.5% 1930 634,394 +25.2% 1940 634,536 +0.0% 1950 775,357 +22.2% 1960 740,316 −4.5% 1970 715,674 −3.3% 1980 678,974 −5.1% 1990 723,959 +6.6% 2000 776,733 +7.3% 2010 805,235 +3.7% 2020 873,965 +8.5% 2022 808,437 −7.5% U.S. Decennial Census[158] 2020–2022[16] The 2020 United States census showed San Francisco's population to be 873,965, an increase of 8.5% from the 2010 census.[159] With roughly one-quarter the population density of Manhattan, San Francisco is the second-most densely populated large American city, behind only New York City among cities greater than 200,000 population, and the fifth-most densely populated U.S. county, following only four of the five New York City boroughs. San Francisco is part of the five-county San Francisco–Oakland–Hayward, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region of 4.7 million people (13th most populous in the U.S.), and has served as its traditional demographic focal point. It is also part of the greater 14-county San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area, whose population is over 9.6 million, making it the fifth-largest in the United States as of 2018.[160] Race, ethnicity, religion, and languages Ethnic origins in San Francisco San Francisco has a majority minority population, as non-Hispanic whites comprise less than half of the population, 41.9%, down from 92.5% in 1940.[161] As of the 2020 census, the racial makeup and population of San Francisco included: 361,382 Whites (41.3%), 296,505 Asians (33.9%), 46,725 African Americans (5.3%), 86,233 Multiracial Americans (9.9%), 6,475 Native Americans and Alaska Natives (0.7%), 3,476 Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders (0.4%) and 73,169 persons of other races (8.4%). There were 136,761 Hispanics or Latinos of any race (15.6%). In 2010, residents of Chinese ethnicity constituted the largest single ethnic minority group in San Francisco at 21% of the population; other large Asian groups include Filipinos (5%) and Vietnamese (2%), with Japanese, Koreans and many other Asian and Pacific Islander groups represented in the city.[162] The population of Chinese ancestry is most heavily concentrated in Chinatown and the Sunset and Richmond Districts. Filipinos are most concentrated in SoMa and the Crocker-Amazon; the latter neighborhood shares a border with Daly City, which has one of the highest concentrations of Filipinos in North America.[162][163] The Tenderloin District is home to a large portion of the city's Vietnamese population as well as businesses and restaurants, which is known as the city's Little Saigon.[162] The principal Hispanic groups in the city were those of Mexican (7%) and Salvadoran (2%) ancestry. The Hispanic population is most heavily concentrated in the Mission District, Tenderloin District, and Excelsior District.[164] The city's percentage of Hispanic residents is less than half of that of the state. African Americans constitute 6% of San Francisco's population,[161] a percentage similar to that for California as a whole.[165] The majority of the city's black population reside within the neighborhoods of Bayview-Hunters Point, Visitacion Valley, and the Fillmore District.[164] There are smaller, yet sizeable Black communities in Diamond Heights, Glen Park, and Mission District. The city has long been home to a significant Jewish community, today Jewish Americans make up 10% (80,000) of the city's population as of 2018. The Jewish population of San Francisco is relatively young compared to many other major cities, and at 10% of the population, San Francisco has the third-largest Jewish community in terms of percentages after New York City, and Los Angeles, respectively.[166] The Jewish community is one of the largest minority groups in the city and is scattered throughout the city, but the Richmond District is home to an ethnic enclave of mostly Russian Jews.[167] The Fillmore District was formerly a mostly Jewish neighborhood from the 1920s until the 1970s, when many of its Jewish residents moved to other neighborhoods of the city as well as the suburbs of nearby Marin County.[168] Demographic profile[169] 1860 1880 1920 1960 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020[170] Non-Hispanic White alone 90.2% 87.7% 93.5% 72.7% 52.8% 46.9% 43.5% 41.7% 39.1% Non-Hispanic Asian alone 4.6% 9.3% 2.7% 7.9% 21.3% 28.0% 30.7% 33.1% 33.7% — Chinese American 4.6% 9.3% 1.5% 5.1% 12.1% 17.6% 20.0% 19.8% 21.0% — Filipino American — — 0.2% 1.5% 5.2% 5.4% 5.0% 4.9% 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, any race(s) 3.0% 2.4% 3.4% 9.4% 12.6% 13.3% 14.2% 15.2% 15.6% — Mexican American 1.8% 1.4% 1.5% 5.1% 5.0% 5.2% 6.0% 7.5% 7.9% Non-Hispanic Black alone 2.1% 0.6% 0.4% 9.7% 12.3% 10.7% 7.6% 6.0% 5.1% Non-Hispanic Pacific Islander alone — — <0.1% — 0.2% 0.4% 0.4% 0.5% 0.3% Non-Hispanic Native American alone <0.1% <0.1% <0.1% 0.1% 0.4% 0.4% 0.3% 0.3% 0.2% Non-Hispanic other — — — 0.2% 0.4% 0.2% 0.3% 0.3% 0.8% Non-Hispanic two or more races — — — — — — 3.0% 2.9% 5.2% Foreign-born[e] 50.2% 44.5% 30.1% 20.2% 29.5% 35.4% 38.4% 38.2% 34.2% See also: Demographics of San Francisco § Historical estimates Source: US Census and IPUMS USA[169] Map of racial distribution in San Francisco, 2010 U.S. Census. Each dot is 25 people: ⬤ White ⬤ Black ⬤ Asian ⬤ Hispanic ⬤ Other According to a 2018 study by the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, Jews make up 10% (80,000) of the city's population, making Judaism the second-largest religion in San Francisco after Christianity.[166] A prior 2014 study by the Pew Research Center, the largest religious groupings in San Francisco's metropolitan area are Christians (48%), followed by those of no religion (35%), Hindus (5%), Jews (3%), Buddhists (2%), Muslims (1%) and a variety of other religions have smaller followings. According to the same study by the Pew Research Center, about 20% of residents in the area are Protestant, and 25% professing Roman Catholic beliefs. Meanwhile, 10% of the residents in metropolitan San Francisco identify as agnostics, while 5% identify as atheists.[171][172] As of 2010, 55% (411,728) of San Francisco residents spoke only English at home, while 19% (140,302) spoke a variety of Chinese (mostly Taishanese and Cantonese[173][174]), 12% (88,147) Spanish, 3% (25,767) Tagalog, and 2% (14,017) Russian. In total, 45% (342,693) of San Francisco's population spoke a language at home other than English.[175] Ethnic clustering San Francisco has several prominent Chinese, Mexican, and Filipino neighborhoods including Chinatown and the Mission District. Research collected on the immigrant clusters in the city show that more than half of the Asian population in San Francisco is either Chinese-born (40.3%) or Philippine-born (13.1%), and of the Mexican population 21% were Mexican-born, meaning these are people who recently immigrated to the United States.[176] Between the years of 1990 and 2000, the number of foreign-born residents increased from 33% to nearly 40%.[176] During this same time period, the San Francisco metropolitan area received 850,000 immigrants, ranking third in the United States after Los Angeles and New York.[176] Education, households, and income Sea Cliff is one of the city's most expensive neighborhoods.[177] Of all major cities in the United States, San Francisco has the second-highest percentage of residents with a college degree, second only to Seattle. Over 44% of adults have a bachelor's or higher degree.[178] San Francisco had the highest rate at 7,031 per square mile, or over 344,000 total graduates in the city's 46.7 square miles (121 km2).[179] San Francisco has the highest estimated percentage of gay and lesbian individuals of any of the 50 largest U.S. cities, at 15%.[180] San Francisco also has the highest percentage of same-sex households of any American county, with the Bay Area having a higher concentration than any other metropolitan area.[181] San Francisco ranks third of American cities in median household income[182] with a 2007 value of $65,519.[165] Median family income is $81,136.[165] An emigration of middle-class families has left the city with a lower proportion of children than any other large American city,[183] with the dog population cited as exceeding the child population of 115,000, in 2018.[184] The city's poverty rate is 12%, lower than the national average.[185] Homelessness has been a chronic problem for San Francisco since the early 1970s.[186] The city is believed to have the highest number of homeless inhabitants per capita of any major U.S. city.[187][188] There are 345,811 households in the city, out of which: 133,366 households (39%) were individuals, 109,437 (32%) were opposite-sex married couples, 63,577 (18%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 21,677 (6%) were unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 10,384 (3%) were same-sex married couples or partnerships. The average household size was 2.26; the average family size was 3.11. 452,986 people (56%) lived in rental housing units, and 327,985 people (41%) lived in owner-occupied housing units. The median age of the city population is 38 years. San Francisco declared itself a sanctuary city in 1989, and city officials strengthened the stance in 2013 with its 'Due Process for All' ordinance. The law declared local authorities could not hold immigrants for immigration offenses if they had no violent felonies on their records and did not currently face charges."[189] The city issues a Resident ID Card regardless of the applicant's immigration status.[190] Homelessness See also: Homelessness in the San Francisco Bay Area Homeless encampment under a freeway in San Francisco Homelessness in San Francisco emerged as a major issue in the late 20th century and remains a growing problem in modern times.[191] 8,035 homeless people were counted in San Francisco's 2019 point-in-time street and shelter count. This was an increase of more than 17% over the 2017 count of 6,858 people. 5,180 of the people were living unsheltered on the streets and in parks.[192] 26% of respondents in the 2019 count identified job loss as the primary cause of their homelessness, 18% cited alcohol or drug use, and 13% cited being evicted from their residence.[192] The city of San Francisco has been dramatically increasing its spending to service the growing population homelessness crisis: spending jumped by $241 million in 2016–17 to total $275 million, compared to a budget of just $34 million the previous year. In 2017–18 the budget for combatting homelessness stood at $305 million.[193] In the 2019–2020 budget year, the city budgeted $368 million for homelessness services. In the proposed 2020–2021 budget the city budgeted $850 million for homelessness services.[194] In January 2018 a United Nations special rapporteur on homelessness, Leilani Farha, stated that she was "completely shocked" by San Francisco's homelessness crisis during a visit to the city. She compared the "deplorable conditions" of the homeless camps she witnessed on San Francisco's streets to those she had seen in Mumbai.[193] In May 2020, San Francisco officially sanctioned homeless encampments.[195] Crime Main article: Crime in San Francisco SFPD mounted police officers In 2011, 50 murders were reported, which is 6.1 per 100,000 people.[196] There were about 134 rapes, 3,142 robberies, and about 2,139 assaults. There were about 4,469 burglaries, 25,100 thefts, and 4,210 motor vehicle thefts.[197] The Tenderloin area has the highest crime rate in San Francisco: 70% of the city's violent crimes, and around one-fourth of the city's murders, occur in this neighborhood. The Tenderloin also sees high rates of drug abuse, gang violence, and prostitution.[198] Another area with high crime rates is the Bayview-Hunters Point area. In the first six months of 2015 there were 25 murders compared to 14 in the first six months of 2014. However, the murder rate is still much lower than in past decades.[199] That rate, though, did rise again by the close of 2016. According to the San Francisco Police Department, there were 59 murders in the city in 2016, an annual total that marked a 13.5% increase in the number of homicides (52) from 2015.[200] The city has also gained a reputation for car break-ins, with over 19,000 car break-ins occurring in 2021.[201] During the first half of 2018, human feces on San Francisco sidewalks were the second-most-frequent complaint of city residents, with about 65 calls per day. The city has formed a "poop patrol" to attempt to combat the problem.[202] SFPD parking enforcement officers San Francisco is a center of sexual slavery.[203] In January 2022, CBS News reported that a single suspect was "responsible for more than half of all reported hate crimes against the API community in San Francisco last year," and that he "was allowed to be out of custody despite the number of charges against him."[204] Several street gangs have operated in the city over the decades, including MS-13,[205] the Sureños and Norteños in the Mission District.[206] In 2008, a MS-13 member killed three family members as they were arriving home in the city's Excelsior District. His victims had no relationship with him, nor did they have any known gang or street crime involvement.[207][citation needed] African-American street gangs familiar in other cities, including the Bloods, Crips and their sets, have struggled to establish footholds in San Francisco,[208] while police and prosecutors have been accused of liberally labeling young African-American males as gang members.[209] However, gangs founded in San Francisco with majority Black memberships have made their presence in the city. Criminal gangs with shotcallers in China, including Triad groups such as the Wo Hop To, have been reported active in San Francisco.[210] Economy See also: List of companies based in San Francisco San Francisco's Financial District, despite its declining importance,[211] is still considered the Wall Street of the West. According to academic Rob Wilson, San Francisco is a global city, a status that pre-dated the city's popularity during the California Gold Rush.[212] However, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the exodus of business from the downtown core of San Francisco.[45][213] In 2023, the conservative think tank Hoover Institution warned of a uniquely severe long-term economic collapse impending for San Francisco.[48] Attributed causes range from crime, drugs, and homelessness,[49] to the West Coast's and particularly San Francisco's challenge to remain relevant as a commercial center given its relative geographic isolation from other North American commercial centers in an era of increasingly ubiquitous e-commerce.[50][51] San Francisco has a diversified service economy, with employment spread across a wide range of professional services, including tourism, financial services, and (increasingly) high technology.[214] In 2016, approximately 27% of workers were employed in professional business services; 14% in leisure and hospitality; 13% in government services; 12% in education and health care; 11% in trade, transportation, and utilities; and 8% in financial activities.[214] In 2019, GDP in the five-county San Francisco metropolitan area grew 3.8% in real terms to $592 billion.[215][216] Additionally, in 2019 the 14-county San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland combined statistical area had a GDP of $1.086 trillion,[216] ranking 3rd among CSAs, and ahead of all but 16 countries. As of 2019, San Francisco County was the 7th highest-income county in the United States (among 3,142), with a per capita personal income of $139,405.[217] Marin County, directly to the north over the Golden Gate Bridge, and San Mateo County, directly to the south on the Peninsula, were the 6th and 9th highest-income counties respectively. Skyline of South of Market (SoMa), including Salesforce Tower, the tallest building in San Francisco The legacy of the California Gold Rush turned San Francisco into the principal banking and finance center of the West Coast in the early twentieth century.[218] Montgomery Street in the Financial District became known as the "Wall Street of the West", home to the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the Wells Fargo corporate headquarters, and the site of the now-defunct Pacific Coast Stock Exchange.[218] Bank of America, a pioneer in making banking services accessible to the middle class, was founded in San Francisco and in the 1960s, built the landmark modern skyscraper at 555 California Street for its corporate headquarters. eventually moving to Charlotte, North Carolina. Many large financial institutions, multinational banks, and venture capital firms are based in or have regional headquarters in the city. With over 30 international financial institutions,[219] six Fortune 500 companies,[220] and a large supporting infrastructure of professional services—including law, public relations, architecture and design—San Francisco is designated as an Alpha(-) World City.[221] The 2017 Global Financial Centres Index ranked San Francisco as the sixth-most competitive financial center in the world.[222] Beginning in the 1990s, San Francisco's economy diversified away from finance and tourism towards the growing fields of high tech, biotechnology, and medical research.[223] Technology jobs accounted for just 1 percent of San Francisco's economy in 1990, growing to 4 percent in 2010 and an estimated 8 percent by the end of 2013.[224] San Francisco became a center of Internet start-up companies during the dot-com bubble of the 1990s and the subsequent social media boom of the late 2000s (decade).[225] Since 2010, San Francisco proper has attracted an increasing share of venture capital investments as compared to nearby Silicon Valley, attracting 423 financings worth US$4.58 billion in 2013.[226][227][228] In 2004, the city approved a payroll tax exemption for biotechnology companies[229] to foster growth in the Mission Bay neighborhood, site of a second campus and hospital of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Mission Bay hosts the UCSF Medical Center, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences, and Gladstone Institutes,[230] as well as more than 40 private-sector life sciences companies.[231] Union Square is a major retail hub for the city and for the Bay Area. However, the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States has accelerated the continuing exodus of business from Union Square and the adjacent downtown core of San Francisco.[232][44][233][51] The top employer in the city is the city government itself, employing 5.6% (31,000+ people) of the city's workforce, followed by UCSF with over 25,000 employees.[234] The largest private-sector employer is Salesforce, with 8,500 employees, as of 2018.[235] Small businesses with fewer than 10 employees and self-employed firms make up 85% of city establishments,[236] and the number of San Franciscans employed by firms of more than 1,000 employees has fallen by half since 1977.[237] The growth of national big box and formula retail chains into the city has been made intentionally difficult by political and civic consensus. In an effort to buoy small privately owned businesses in San Francisco and preserve the unique retail personality of the city, the Small Business Commission started a publicity campaign in 2004 to keep a larger share of retail dollars in the local economy,[238] and the Board of Supervisors has used the planning code to limit the neighborhoods where formula retail establishments can set up shop,[239] an effort affirmed by San Francisco voters.[240] However, by 2016, San Francisco was rated low by small businesses in a Business Friendliness Survey.[241] Ferry Building in the Embarcadero. Like many U.S. cities, San Francisco once had a significant manufacturing sector employing nearly 60,000 workers in 1969, but nearly all production left for cheaper locations by the 1980s.[242] As of 2014, San Francisco has seen a small resurgence in manufacturing, with more than 4,000 manufacturing jobs across 500 companies, doubling since 2011. The city's largest manufacturing employer is Anchor Brewing Company, and the largest by revenue is Timbuk2.[242] As of the first quarter of 2022, the median value of homes in San Francisco County was $1,297,030. It ranked third in the US for counties with highest median home value, behind Nantucket, Massachusetts and San Mateo County, California.[243] Technology Twitter headquarters on Market St. San Francisco became a hub for technological driven economic growth during the internet boom of the 1990s, and still holds an important position in the world city network today.[176][244] Intense redevelopment towards the "new economy" makes business more technologically minded. Between the years of 1999 and 2000, the job growth rate was 4.9%, creating over 50,000 jobs in technology firms and internet content production.[176] In the second technological boom driven by social media in the mid-2000s, San Francisco became a location for companies such as Apple, Google, Ubisoft, Facebook, and Twitter to base their tech offices and for their employees to live.[245] Tourism and conventions See also: Port of San Francisco The Fisherman's Wharf is a popular tourist attraction. Tourism is one of the city's largest private-sector industries, accounting for more than one out of seven jobs in the city.[223][246] The city's frequent portrayal in music, film, and popular culture has made the city and its landmarks recognizable worldwide. In 2016, it attracted the fifth-highest number of foreign tourists of any city in the United States.[247] More than 25 million visitors arrived in San Francisco in 2016, adding US$9.96 billion to the economy.[248] With a large hotel infrastructure and a world-class convention facility in the Moscone Center, San Francisco is a popular destination for annual conventions and conferences.[249] Some of the most popular tourist attractions in San Francisco, as noted by the Travel Channel, include the Golden Gate Bridge and Alamo Square Park, home to the famous "Painted Ladies". Both of these locations were often used as landscape shots for the hit American television sitcom Full House. There is also Lombard Street, known for its "crookedness" and extensive views. Tourists also visit Pier 39, which offers dining, shopping, entertainment, and views of the bay, sunbathing California sea lions, the Aquarium of the Bay, and the famous Alcatraz Island.[250] Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill San Francisco also offers tourists cultural and unique nightlife in its neighborhoods.[251][252] The new Terminal Project at Pier 27 opened September 25, 2014, as a replacement for the old Pier 35.[253] Itineraries from San Francisco usually include round-trip cruises to Alaska and Mexico. A heightened interest in conventioneering in San Francisco, marked by the establishment of convention centers such as Yerba Buena, acted as a feeder into the local tourist economy and resulted in an increase in the hotel industry: "In 1959, the city had fewer than thirty-three hundred first-class hotel rooms; by 1970, the number was nine thousand; and by 1999, there were more than thirty thousand."[254] The commodification of the Castro District has contributed to San Francisco's tourist economy.[255] Arts and culture Main article: Culture of San Francisco See also: San Francisco in popular culture The Palace of Fine Arts, originally built for the 1915 Panama–Pacific International Exposition Although the Financial District, Union Square, and Fisherman's Wharf are well known around the world, San Francisco is also characterized by its numerous culturally rich streetscapes featuring mixed-use neighborhoods anchored around central commercial corridors to which residents and visitors alike can walk.[citation needed] Because of these characteristics,[original research?] San Francisco is ranked the "most walkable" city in the United States by Walkscore.com.[256] Many neighborhoods feature a mix of businesses, restaurants and venues that cater to the daily needs of local residents while also serving many visitors and tourists. Some neighborhoods are dotted with boutiques, cafés and nightlife such as Union Street in Cow Hollow, 24th Street in Noe Valley, Valencia Street in the Mission, Grant Avenue in North Beach, and Irving Street in the Inner Sunset. This approach especially has influenced the continuing South of Market neighborhood redevelopment with businesses and neighborhood services rising alongside high-rise residences.[257][failed verification] The Castro is famous as one of the first gay villages in the country.[258] Since the 1990s, the demand for skilled information technology workers from local startups and nearby Silicon Valley has attracted white-collar workers from all over the world and created a high standard of living in San Francisco.[259] Many neighborhoods that were once blue-collar, middle, and lower class have been gentrifying, as many of the city's traditional business and industrial districts have experienced a renaissance driven by the redevelopment of the Embarcadero, including the neighborhoods South Beach and Mission Bay. The city's property values and household income have risen to among the highest in the nation,[260][261][262] creating a large and upscale restaurant, retail, and entertainment scene. According to a 2014 quality of life survey of global cities, San Francisco has the highest quality of living of any U.S. city.[263] However, due to the exceptionally high cost of living, many of the city's middle and lower-class families have been leaving the city for the outer suburbs of the Bay Area, or for California's Central Valley.[264] By June 2, 2015, the median rent was reported to be as high as $4,225.[265] The high cost of living is due in part to restrictive planning laws which limit new residential construction.[266] The Mission District is the historic center of the city's Chicano/Mexican-American population and greater Hispanic and Latino community. The international character that San Francisco has enjoyed since its founding is continued today by large numbers of immigrants from Asia and Latin America. With 39% of its residents born overseas,[237] San Francisco has numerous neighborhoods filled with businesses and civic institutions catering to new arrivals. In particular, the arrival of many ethnic Chinese, which began to accelerate in the 1970s, has complemented the long-established community historically based in Chinatown throughout the city and has transformed the annual Chinese New Year Parade into the largest event of its kind on the West Coast. With the arrival of the "beat" writers and artists of the 1950s and societal changes culminating in the Summer of Love in the Haight-Ashbury district during the 1960s, San Francisco became a center of liberal activism and of the counterculture that arose at that time. The Democrats and to a lesser extent the Green Party have dominated city politics since the late 1970s, after the last serious Republican challenger for city office lost the 1975 mayoral election by a narrow margin. San Francisco has not voted more than 20% for a Republican presidential or senatorial candidate since 1988.[267] In 2007, the city expanded its Medicaid and other indigent medical programs into the Healthy San Francisco program,[268] which subsidizes certain medical services for eligible residents.[269][270][271] The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, also known as SF MOMA Since 1993, the San Francisco Department of Public Health has distributed 400,000 free syringes every month aimed at reducing HIV and other health risks for drug users, as well as providing disposal sites and services.[272][273][274] San Francisco also has had a very active environmental community. Starting with the founding of the Sierra Club in 1892 to the establishment of the non-profit Friends of the Urban Forest in 1981, San Francisco has been at the forefront of many global discussions regarding the environment.[275][276] The 1980 San Francisco Recycling Program was one of the earliest curbside recycling programs.[277] The city's GoSolarSF incentive promotes solar installations and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is rolling out the CleanPowerSF program to sell electricity from local renewable sources.[278][279] SF Greasecycle is a program to recycle used cooking oil for conversion to biodiesel.[280] The Sunset Reservoir Solar Project, completed in 2010, installed 24,000 solar panels on the roof of the reservoir. The 5-megawatt plant more than tripled the city's 2-megawatt solar generation capacity when it opened in December 2010.[281][282] LGBT Main article: LGBT culture in San Francisco San Francisco Pride is one of the oldest and largest LGBT pride events in the world. San Francisco has long had an LGBT-friendly history. It was home to the first lesbian-rights organization in the United States, Daughters of Bilitis; the first openly gay person to run for public office in the United States, José Sarria; the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, Harvey Milk; the first openly lesbian judge appointed in the U.S., Mary C. Morgan; and the first transgender police commissioner, Theresa Sparks. The city's large gay population has created and sustained a politically and culturally active community over many decades, developing a powerful presence in San Francisco's civic life.[citation needed] Survey data released in 2015 by Gallup places the proportion of LGBT adults in the San Francisco metro area at 6.2%, which is the highest proportion of the 50 most populous metropolitan areas as measured by the polling organization.[283] The gay pride flag was originally developed in San Francisco. One of the most popular destinations for gay tourists internationally, the city hosts San Francisco Pride, one of the largest and oldest pride parades. San Francisco Pride events have been held continuously since 1972. The events are themed and a new theme is created each year.[284] In 2013, over 1.5 million people attended, around 500,000 more than the previous year.[285] Pink Saturday is an annual street party held the Saturday before the pride parade, which coincides with the Dyke march. The Folsom Street Fair (FSF) is an annual BDSM and leather subculture street fair that is held in September, endcapping San Francisco's "Leather Pride Week".[286] It started in 1984 and is California's third-largest single-day, outdoor spectator event and the world's largest leather event and showcase for BDSM products and culture.[287] Performing arts See also: List of theatres in San Francisco War Memorial Opera House, part of the S.F. War Memorial & Performing Arts Center, one of the largest performing arts centers in the U.S. Golden Gate Theatre is located in the historic Theatre District San Francisco's War Memorial and Performing Arts Center hosts some of the most enduring performing-arts companies in the country. The War Memorial Opera House houses the San Francisco Opera, the second-largest opera company in North America[288] as well as the San Francisco Ballet, while the San Francisco Symphony plays in Davies Symphony Hall. Opened in 2013, the SFJAZZ Center hosts jazz performances year round.[289] The Fillmore is a music venue located in the Western Addition. It is the second incarnation of the historic venue that gained fame in the 1960s, housing the stage where now-famous musicians such as the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin, and Jefferson Airplane first performed, fostering the San Francisco Sound.[290] It closed its doors in 1971 with a final performance by Santana and reopened in 1994 with a show by The Smashing Pumpkins.[291] San Francisco has a large number of theaters and live performance venues. Local theater companies have been noted for risk taking and innovation.[292] The Tony Award-winning non-profit American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) is a member of the national League of Resident Theatres. Other local winners of the Regional Theatre Tony Award include the San Francisco Mime Troupe.[293] San Francisco theaters frequently host pre-Broadway engagements and tryout runs,[294] and some original San Francisco productions have later moved to Broadway.[295] Museums Further information: List of museums in San Francisco Bay Area, California § San Francisco The California Palace of the Legion of Honor, part of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) houses 20th century and contemporary works of art. It moved to its current building in the South of Market neighborhood in 1995 and attracted more than 600,000 visitors annually.[296] SFMOMA closed for renovation and expansion in 2013. The museum reopened on May 14, 2016, with an addition, designed by Snøhetta, that has doubled the museum's size.[297] The Palace of the Legion of Honor holds primarily European antiquities and works of art at its Lincoln Park building modeled after its Parisian namesake. The de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park features American decorative pieces and anthropological holdings from Africa, Oceania and the Americas, while Asian art is housed in the Asian Art Museum. Opposite the de Young stands the California Academy of Sciences, a natural history museum that also hosts the Morrison Planetarium and Steinhart Aquarium. Located on Pier 15 on the Embarcadero, the Exploratorium is an interactive science museum. The Contemporary Jewish Museum is a non-collecting institution that hosts a broad array of temporary exhibitions. On Nob Hill, the Cable Car Museum is a working museum featuring the cable car powerhouse, which drives the cables.[298] Sports Further information: Sports in the San Francisco Bay Area Oracle Park, home of the SF Giants Major League Baseball's San Francisco Giants have played in San Francisco since moving from New York in 1958. The Giants play at Oracle Park, which opened in 2000.[299] The Giants won World Series titles in 2010, 2012, and in 2014. The Giants have boasted stars such as Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, and Barry Bonds (MLB's career home run leader). In 2012, San Francisco was ranked No. 1 in a study that examined which U.S. metro areas have produced the most Major Leaguers since 1920.[300] The San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL) began play in 1946 as an All-America Football Conference (AAFC) league charter member, moved to the NFL in 1950 and into Candlestick Park in 1971. The team left the San Francisco area in 2014, moving approximately 50 miles south to Santa Clara, and began playing its home games at Levi's Stadium,[301][302] but despite the relocation did not change its name from the "San Francisco" 49ers. The 49ers won five Super Bowl titles between 1982 and 1995. The Chase Center, home of the Golden State Warriors NBA’s Golden State Warriors have played in the San Francisco Bay Area since moving from Philadelphia in 1962. The Warriors played as the San Francisco Warriors, from 1962 to 1971, before being renamed the Golden State Warriors prior to the 1971–1972 season in an attempt to present the team as a representation of the whole state of California, which had already adopted "The Golden State" nickname.[303] The Warriors' arena, Chase Center, is located in San Francisco.[304] After winning two championships in Philadelphia, they have won five championships since moving to the San Francisco Bay Area,[305] and made five consecutive NBA Finals from 2015 to 2019, winning three of them. They won again in 2022, the franchise's first championship while residing in San Francisco proper. At the collegiate level, the San Francisco Dons compete in NCAA Division I. Bill Russell led the Dons basketball team to NCAA championships in 1955 and 1956. There is also the San Francisco State Gators, who compete in NCAA Division II.[306] Oracle Park hosted the annual Fight Hunger Bowl college football game from 2002 through 2013 before it moved to Santa Clara. There are a handful of lower-league soccer clubs in San Francisco playing mostly from April – June. Club Founded Venue League Tier level El Farolito 1985 Boxer Stadium NPSL 4 San Francisco City FC 2001 Kezar Stadium USL League Two 4 San Francisco Glens SC 1961 Skyline College USL League Two 4 SF Elite Metro 2017 Negoesco Stadium NISA Nation 5 Bay to Breakers is an annual foot race known for colorful costumes. The Bay to Breakers footrace, held annually since 1912, is best known for colorful costumes and a celebratory community spirit.[307] The San Francisco Marathon attracts more than 21,000 participants.[308] The Escape from Alcatraz triathlon has, since 1980, attracted 2,000 top professional and amateur triathletes for its annual race.[309] The Olympic Club, founded in 1860, is the oldest athletic club in the United States. Its private golf course has hosted the U.S. Open on five occasions. San Francisco hosted the 2013 America's Cup yacht racing competition.[310] With an ideal climate for outdoor activities, San Francisco has ample resources and opportunities for amateur and participatory sports and recreation. There are more than 200 miles (320 km) of bicycle paths, lanes and bike routes in the city.[311] San Francisco residents have often ranked among the fittest in the country.[312] Golden Gate Park has miles of paved and unpaved running trails as well as a golf course and disc golf course. Boating, sailing, windsurfing and kitesurfing are among the popular activities on San Francisco Bay, and the city maintains a yacht harbor in the Marina District. San Francisco also has had Esports teams, such as the Overwatch League's San Francisco Shock. Established in 2017,[313] they won two back-to-back championship titles in 2019 and 2020.[314][315] Parks and recreation See also: List of parks in San Francisco Golden Gate Park is the 3rd most-visited city park in the U.S., after Central Park and the National Mall.[316] Several of San Francisco's parks and nearly all of its beaches form part of the regional Golden Gate National Recreation Area, one of the most visited units of the National Park system in the United States with over 13 million visitors a year. Among the GGNRA's attractions within the city are Ocean Beach, which runs along the Pacific Ocean shoreline and is frequented by a vibrant surfing community, and Baker Beach, which is located in a cove west of the Golden Gate. The Presidio of San Francisco is the former 18th century Spanish military base, which today is one of the city's largest parks and home to numerous museums and institutions. Also within the Presidio is Crissy Field, a former airfield that was restored to its natural salt marsh ecosystem. The GGNRA also administers Fort Funston, Lands End, Fort Mason, and Alcatraz. The National Park Service separately administers the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park – a fleet of historic ships and waterfront property around Aquatic Park.[citation needed] Painted Ladies on Alamo Square. The Cliff House over Ocean Beach There are more than 220 parks maintained by the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department.[317] The largest and best-known city park is Golden Gate Park,[318] which stretches from the center of the city west to the Pacific Ocean. Once covered in native grasses and sand dunes, the park was conceived in the 1860s and was created by the extensive planting of thousands of non-native trees and plants. The large park is rich with cultural and natural attractions such as the Conservatory of Flowers, Japanese Tea Garden and San Francisco Botanical Garden.[citation needed] Lake Merced is a fresh-water lake surrounded by parkland[citation needed] and near the San Francisco Zoo, a city-owned park that houses more than 250 animal species, many of which are endangered.[319] The only park managed by the California State Park system located principally in San Francisco, Candlestick Point was the state's first urban recreation area.[320] Most of San Francisco's islands are protected as parkland or nature reserves. Alcatraz Island, operated by the National Park Service, is open to the public. The Farallon Islands are protected wildlife refuges. The Seal Rocks are protected as part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Red Rock Island is the only privately-owned island in San Francisco Bay, but is uninhabited. Yerba Buena Island is largely utilized by the military. San Francisco is the first city in the U.S. to have a park within a 10-Minute Walk of every resident.[321][322] It also ranks fifth in the U.S. for park access and quality in the 2018 ParkScore ranking of the top 100 park systems across the United States, according to the nonprofit Trust for Public Land.[323] Government Main articles: Government of San Francisco, Politics of San Francisco, and Mayors of San Francisco See also: San Francisco City Hall San Francisco City Hall, built 1913–16 and designed by Arthur Brown Jr. The mayor is also the county executive, and the county Board of Supervisors acts as the city council. The government of San Francisco is a charter city and is constituted of two co-equal branches: the executive branch is headed by the mayor and includes other citywide elected and appointed officials as well as the civil service; the 11-member Board of Supervisors, the legislative branch, is headed by a president and is responsible for passing laws and budgets, though San Franciscans also make use of direct ballot initiatives to pass legislation.[324] Because of its unique city-county status, the local government is able to exercise jurisdiction over certain property outside city limits. San Francisco International Airport, though located in San Mateo County, is owned and operated by the City and County of San Francisco. San Francisco's largest jail complex (County Jail No. 5) is located in San Mateo County, in an unincorporated area adjacent to San Bruno. San Francisco was also granted a perpetual leasehold over the Hetch Hetchy Valley and watershed in Yosemite National Park by the Raker Act in 1913.[325] The Supreme Court of California is based in the Earl Warren Building. The members of the Board of Supervisors are elected as representatives of specific districts within the city.[326] Upon the death or resignation of the mayor, the President of the Board of Supervisors becomes acting mayor until the full Board elects an interim replacement for the remainder of the term. In 1978, Dianne Feinstein assumed the office following the assassination of George Moscone and was later selected by the board to finish the term.[citation needed] In 2011, Ed Lee was selected by the board to finish the term of Gavin Newsom, who resigned to take office as Lieutenant Governor of California.[327] Lee (who won two elections to remain mayor) was temporarily replaced by San Francisco Board of Supervisors President London Breed after he died on December 12, 2017. Supervisor Mark Farrell was appointed by the Board of Supervisors to finish Lee's term on January 23, 2018. San Francisco Federal Building San Francisco serves as the regional hub for many arms of the federal bureaucracy, including the U.S. Court of Appeals, the Federal Reserve Bank, and the U.S. Mint. Until decommissioning in the early 1990s, the city had major military installations at the Presidio, Treasure Island, and Hunters Point—a legacy still reflected in the annual celebration of Fleet Week. The State of California uses San Francisco as the home of the state supreme court and other state agencies. Foreign governments maintain more than seventy consulates in San Francisco.[328] The municipal budget for fiscal year 2015–16 was $8.99 billion,[329] and is one of the largest city budgets in the United States.[330] The City of San Francisco spends more per resident than any city other than Washington, D.C., over $10,000 in FY 2015–2016.[330] The city employs around 27,000 workers.[331] The historic Browning Courthouse In the California State Senate, San Francisco is in the 11th Senate District, represented by Democrat Scott Wiener. In the California State Assembly, it is split between the 17th Assembly District, represented by Democrat Matt Haney, and the 19th Assembly District, represented by Democrat Phil Ting.[332] In the United States House of Representatives, San Francisco is split between two congressional districts. Most of the city is in the 11th District, represented by Nancy Pelosi (D–San Francisco). A sliver in the southwest is part of the 15th District represented by Kevin Mullin (D–South San Francisco).[333] Pelosi served as the House Speaker from January 3, 2019 to January 3, 2023, a post she also held from 2007 through 2011. She has also held the post of House Minority Leader, from 2003 to 2007 and 2011 to 2019. Education University of San Francisco Colleges and universities See also: List of colleges and universities in San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco is the sole campus of the University of California system entirely dedicated to graduate education in health and biomedical sciences. It is ranked among the top five medical schools in the United States[334] and operates the UCSF Medical Center, which ranks as the number one hospital in California and the number 5 in the country.[335] UCSF is a major local employer, second in size only to the city and county government.[336][337][338] A 43-acre (17 ha) Mission Bay campus was opened in 2003, complementing its original facility in Parnassus Heights. It contains research space and facilities to foster biotechnology and life sciences entrepreneurship and will double the size of UCSF's research enterprise.[339] All in all, UCSF operates more than 20 facilities across San Francisco.[340] The University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, founded in Civic Center in 1878, is the oldest law school in California and claims more judges on the state bench than any other institution.[341] San Francisco's two University of California institutions have recently formed an official affiliation in the UCSF/UC Law SF Consortium on Law, Science & Health Policy.[342] San Francisco Art Institute is the oldest art school in the Western U.S. San Francisco State University is part of the California State University system and is located near Lake Merced.[343] The school has approximately 30,000 students and awards undergraduate, master's and doctoral degrees in more than 100 disciplines.[343] 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 100,000 students and offers an extensive continuing education program.[344] University of California College of the Law Founded in 1855, the University of San Francisco, a private Jesuit university located on Lone Mountain, is the oldest institution of higher education in San Francisco and one of the oldest universities established west of the Mississippi River.[345] Golden Gate University is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational university formed in 1901 and located in the Financial District. With an enrollment of 13,000 students, the Academy of Art University is the largest institute of art and design in the nation.[346] Founded in 1871, the San Francisco Art Institute is the oldest art school west of the Mississippi.[347] The California College of the Arts, located north of Potrero Hill, has programs in architecture, fine arts, design, and writing.[348] The San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the only independent music school on the West Coast, grants degrees in orchestral instruments, chamber music, composition, and conducting. The California Culinary Academy, associated with the Le Cordon Bleu program, offers programs in the culinary arts, baking and pastry arts, and hospitality and restaurant management. California Institute of Integral Studies, founded in 1968, offers a variety of graduate programs in its Schools of Professional Psychology & Health, and Consciousness and Transformation. Primary and secondary schools See also: San Francisco public grammar schools and List of high schools in California § San Francisco County The San Francisco Unified School District operates 114 schools and is the oldest school district in California. Public schools are run by the San Francisco Unified School District, which covers the entire city and county,[349] as well as the California State Board of Education for some charter schools. Lowell High School, the oldest public high school in the U.S. west of the Mississippi,[350] and the smaller School of the Arts High School are two of San Francisco's magnet schools at the secondary level. Public school students attend schools based on an assignment system rather than neighborhood proximity.[351] Just under 30% of the city's school-age population attends one of San Francisco's more than 100 private or parochial schools, compared to a 10% rate nationwide.[352] Nearly 40 of those schools are Catholic schools managed by the Archdiocese of San Francisco.[353] San Francisco has nearly 300 preschool programs primarily operated by Head Start, San Francisco Unified School District, private for-profit, private non-profit and family child care providers.[354] All 4-year-old children living in San Francisco are offered universal access to preschool through the Preschool for All program.[355] Media Further information: Media in the San Francisco Bay Area This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) San Francisco Chronicle building The major daily newspaper in San Francisco is the San Francisco Chronicle, which is currently Northern California's most widely circulated newspaper.[356] The Chronicle is most famous for a former columnist, the late Herb Caen, whose daily musings attracted critical acclaim and represented the "voice of San Francisco". The San Francisco Examiner, once the cornerstone of William Randolph Hearst's media empire and the home of Ambrose Bierce, declined in circulation over the years and now takes the form of a free daily tabloid, under new ownership.[357][358] Sing Tao Daily claims to be the largest of several Chinese language dailies that serve the Bay Area.[359] SF Weekly is the city's alternative weekly newspaper. San Francisco and 7x7 are major glossy magazines about San Francisco. The national newsmagazine Mother Jones is also based in San Francisco. San Francisco is home to online-only media publications such as SFist, and AsianWeek. The Julia Morgan-designed Hearst Building, the western headquarters of the Hearst Corporation The San Francisco Bay Area is the sixth-largest television market.[360] It is the fourth-largest radio market after that of New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago.[361] in the U.S. All major U.S. television networks have affiliates serving the region, with most of them based in the city. CNN, MSNBC, BBC, Russia Today, and CCTV America also have regional news bureaus in San Francisco. Bloomberg West was launched in 2011 from a studio on the Embarcadero and CNBC broadcasts from One Market Plaza since 2015. ESPN uses the local ABC studio for their broadcasting. The regional sports network, Comcast SportsNet Bay Area and its sister station Comcast SportsNet California, are both located in San Francisco. The Pac-12 Network is also based in San Francisco. Sutro Tower is a broadcast tower and local landmark. Public broadcasting outlets include both a television station and a radio station, both broadcasting under the call letters KQED from a facility near the Potrero Hill neighborhood. KQED-FM is the most-listened-to National Public Radio affiliate in the country.[362] KUSF is a student-run radio station by college students from the University of San Francisco.[363] Another local broadcaster, KPOO, is an independent, African-American owned and operated noncommercial radio station established in 1971.[364] CNET, founded 1994, and Salon.com, 1995, are based in San Francisco. Sutro Tower is an important broadcast tower located between Mount Sutro and the Twin Peaks, built in 1973 for KTVU, KRON, and KPIX. Infrastructure Transportation See also: Transportation in the San Francisco Bay Area Public transportation See also: San Francisco Municipal Railway A San Francisco cable car with Alcatraz seen behind Transit is the most used form of transportation every day in San Francisco. Every weekday, more than 560,000 people travel on Muni's 69 bus routes and more than 140,000 customers ride the Muni Metro light rail system.[365] 32% of San Francisco residents use public transportation for their daily commute to work, ranking it fourth in the United States and first on the West Coast.[366] The San Francisco Municipal Railway, primarily known as Muni, is the primary public transit system of San Francisco. Muni is the seventh-largest transit system in the United States, with 210,848,310 rides in 2006.[367] The system operates a combined light rail and subway system, the Muni Metro, as well as large bus and trolley coach networks.[368] Additionally, it runs a historic streetcar line, which runs on Market Street from Castro Street to Fisherman's Wharf.[368] It also operates the famous cable cars,[368] which have been designated as a National Historic Landmark and are a major tourist attraction.[369] Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), a regional Rapid Transit system, connects San Francisco with the East Bay and San Jose through the underwater Transbay Tube. The line runs under Market Street to Civic Center where it turns south to the Mission District, the southern part of the city, and through northern San Mateo County, to the San Francisco International Airport, and Millbrae.[368] Muni Metro, run by SF Muni Another commuter rail system, Caltrain, runs from San Francisco along the San Francisco Peninsula to San Jose.[368] Historically, trains operated by Southern Pacific Lines ran from San Francisco to Los Angeles, via Palo Alto and San Jose. Amtrak California Thruway Motorcoach runs a shuttle bus from three locations in San Francisco to its station across the bay in Emeryville.[370] Additionally, BART offers connections to San Francisco from Amtrak's stations in Emeryville, Oakland and Richmond, and Caltrain offers connections in San Jose and Santa Clara. Thruway service also runs south to San Luis Obispo with connection to the Pacific Surfliner. San Francisco was an early adopter of carsharing in America. The non-profit City CarShare opened in 2001[371] and Zipcar closely followed.[372] Golden Gate Ferries connect the city to North Bay communities, while San Francisco Bay Ferry connects the city to both the North and East Bay. San Francisco Bay Ferry operates from the Ferry Building and Pier 39 to points in Oakland, Alameda, Bay Farm Island, South San Francisco, Richmond, and north to Vallejo in Solano County.[373] The Golden Gate Ferry is the other ferry operator with service between San Francisco and Marin County.[374] SolTrans runs supplemental bus service between the Ferry Building and Vallejo. To accommodate the large amount of San Francisco citizens who commute to the Silicon Valley daily, employers like Genentech, Google, and Apple have begun to provide private bus transportation for their employees, from San Francisco locations. These buses have quickly become a heated topic of debate within the city, as protesters claim they block bus lanes and delay public buses.[375] Freeways and roads Further information: List of streets in San Francisco The Bay Bridge connects the city to Oakland and the East Bay. In 2014, only 41.3% of residents commuted by driving alone or carpooling in private vehicles in San Francisco, a decline from 48.6% in 2000.[376] There are 1,088 miles of streets in San Francisco with 946 miles of these streets being surface streets, and 59 miles of freeways.[376] Due to its unique geography, and the freeway revolts of the late 1950s,[377] Interstate 80 begins at the approach to the Bay Bridge and is the only direct automobile link to the East Bay. U.S. Route 101 connects to the western terminus of Interstate 80 and provides access to the south of the city along San Francisco Bay toward Silicon Valley. Northward, the routing for U.S. 101 uses arterial streets to connect to the Golden Gate Bridge, the only direct automobile link to Marin County and the North Bay. As part of the retrofitting of the Golden Gate Bridge and installation of a suicide barrier, starting in 2019 the railings on the west side of the pedestrian walkway were replaced with thinner, more flexible slats in order to improve the bridge's aerodynamic tolerance of high wind to 100 mph (161 km/h). Starting in June 2020, reports were received of a loud hum produced by the new railing slats, heard across the city when a strong west wind was blowing.[378] Lombard Street in Russian Hill is famed as "the most crooked street in the world". State Route 1 also enters San Francisco from the north via the Golden Gate Bridge and bisects the city as the 19th Avenue arterial thoroughfare, joining with Interstate 280 at the city's southern border. Interstate 280 continues south from San Francisco, and also turns to the east along the southern edge of the city, terminating just south of the Bay Bridge in the South of Market neighborhood. After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, city leaders demolished the Embarcadero Freeway and a portion of the Central Freeway, converting them into street-level boulevards.[377] State Route 35 enters the city from the south as Skyline Boulevard and terminates at its intersection with Highway 1. State Route 82 enters San Francisco from the south as Mission Street, and terminates shortly thereafter at its junction with 280. The western terminus of the historic transcontinental Lincoln Highway, the first road across America, is in San Francisco's Lincoln Park. Vision Zero In 2014, San Francisco committed to Vision Zero, with the goal of ending all traffic fatalities caused by motor vehicles within the city by 2024.[379] San Francisco's Vision Zero plan calls for investing in engineering, enforcement, and education, and focusing on dangerous intersections. In 2013, 25 people were killed by car and truck drivers while walking and biking in the city and 9 car drivers and passengers were killed in collisions. In 2019, 42 people were killed in traffic collisions in San Francisco.[380] Airports Main article: San Francisco International Airport San Francisco International Airport, one of the busiest airports in the world Though located 13 miles (21 km) south of downtown in unincorporated San Mateo County, San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is under the jurisdiction of the City and County of San Francisco. SFO is a hub for United Airlines[381] and Alaska Airlines.[382] SFO is a major international gateway to Asia and Europe, with the largest international terminal in North America.[383] In 2011, SFO was the eighth-busiest airport in the U.S. and the 22nd-busiest in the world, handling over 40.9 million passengers.[384] Located in the South Bay, the San Jose International Airport (SJC) is the second-busiest airport in the Bay Area, followed by Oakland International Airport, which is a popular, low-cost alternative to SFO. Geographically, Oakland Airport is approximately the same distance from downtown San Francisco as SFO, but due to its location across San Francisco Bay, it is greater driving distance from San Francisco.[citation needed] Cycling and walking Main article: Cycling in San Francisco Bay Wheels station on Market St. Cycling is a popular mode of transportation in San Francisco, with 75,000 residents commuting by bicycle each day.[385] In recent years, the city has installed better cycling infrastructure such as protected bike lanes and parking racks.[386] Bay Wheels, previously named Bay Area Bike Share at inception, launched in August 2013 with 700 bikes in downtown San Francisco, selected cities in the East Bay, and San Jose. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and Bay Area Air Quality Management District are responsible for the operation with management provided by Motivate.[387] A major expansion started in 2017, along with a rebranding as Ford GoBike; the company received its current name in 2019.[388] Pedestrian traffic is also widespread. In 2015, Walk Score ranked San Francisco the second-most walkable city in the United States.[389][390][391] San Francisco has significantly higher rates of pedestrian and bicyclist traffic deaths than the United States on average. In 2013, 21 pedestrians were killed in vehicle collisions, the highest since 2001,[392] which is 2.5 deaths per 100,000 population – 70% higher than the national average of 1.5.[393] San Francisco cycling event Cycling is becoming increasingly popular in the city. The 2010 Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA) annual bicycle count showed the number of cyclists at 33 locations had increased 58% from the 2006 baseline counts.[394] In 2008, the MTA estimated that about 128,000 trips were made by bicycle each day in the city, or 6% of total trips.[395] As of 2019, 2.6% of the city's streets have protected bike lanes, with 28 miles of protected bike lanes in the city.[365] Since 2006, San Francisco has received a Bicycle Friendly Community status of "Gold" from the League of American Bicyclists.[396] In 2022 a measure on the ballot passed to protect JFK drive in Golden Gate Park as a pedestrian and biking space with 59% of voters in favor.[397] Public safety See also: History of the San Francisco Police Department The San Francisco Police Department was founded in 1849.[398] The portions of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area located within the city, including the Presidio and Ocean Beach, are patrolled by the United States Park Police. The San Francisco Fire Department provides both fire suppression and emergency medical services to the city.[399] Sister cities Main articles: Sister cities of San Francisco, California and List of diplomatic missions in San Francisco San Francisco participates in the Sister Cities program.[400] A total of 41 consulates general and 23 honorary consulates have offices in the San Francisco Bay Area.[401] Notable residents Main article: List of people from San Francisco California is a state in the Western United States. With over 38.9 million residents[6] across a total area of approximately 163,696 square miles (423,970 km2),[11] it is the most populous U.S. state, the third-largest U.S. state by area, and the most populated subnational entity in North America. California borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and the Mexican state of Baja California to the south; it has a coastline along the Pacific Ocean to the west. The Greater Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay areas in California are the nation's second and fifth-most populous urban regions, respectively. Greater Los Angeles has over 18.7 million residents and the San Francisco Bay Area has over 9.6 million residents.[12] Los Angeles is state's most populous city and the nation's second-most populous city. San Francisco is the second-most densely populated major city in the country. Los Angeles County is the country's most populous county, and San Bernardino County is the nation's largest county by area. Sacramento is the state's capital. California's economy is the largest of any state within the United States, with a $3.37 trillion gross state product (GSP) as of 2022.[13] It is the largest sub-national economy in the world. If California were a sovereign nation, it would rank as the world's fifth-largest economy as of 2022,[14][15] behind India and ahead of the United Kingdom, as well as the 37th most populous.[16] The Greater Los Angeles area and the San Francisco area are the nation's second- and fourth-largest urban economies ($1.0 trillion and $0.6 trillion respectively as of 2020).[17] The San Francisco Bay Area Combined Statistical Area had the nation's highest gross domestic product per capita ($106,757) among large primary statistical areas in 2018,[18] and is home to five of the world's ten largest companies by market capitalization[19] and four of the world's ten richest people.[20] Slightly over 84 percent of the state's residents 25 or older hold a high school degree[clarification needed], the lowest high school education rate of all 50 states.[21] Prior to European colonization, California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America, and the indigenous peoples of California constituted the highest Native American population density north of what is now Mexico. European exploration in the 16th and 17th centuries led to the colonization of California by the Spanish Empire. In 1804, it was included in Alta California province within the Viceroyalty of New Spain. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821, following its successful war for independence, but was ceded to the United States in 1848 after the Mexican–American War. The California Gold Rush started in 1848 and led to dramatic social and demographic changes, including the depopulation of indigenous peoples in the California genocide. The western portion of Alta California was then organized and admitted as the 31st state on September 9, 1850, as a free state, following the Compromise of 1850. Notable contributions to popular culture, ranging from entertainment, sports, music, and fashion, have their origins in California. The state also has made substantial contributions in the fields of communication, information, innovation, education, environmentalism, entertainment, economics, politics, technology, and religion.[22][23][24] California is the home of Hollywood, the oldest and one of the largest film industries in the world, profoundly influencing global entertainment. It is considered the origin of the American film industry, hippie counterculture, beach and car culture, the personal computer, the internet, fast food, diners, burger joints, skateboarding, and the fortune cookie, among other inventions.[25][26][27][28] The San Francisco Bay Area and the Greater Los Angeles Area are widely seen as the centers of the global technology and U.S. film industries, respectively. California's economy is very diverse.[29] California's agricultural industry has the highest output of any U.S. state,[30][31][32] and is led by its dairy, almonds, and grapes.[33] With the busiest ports in the country (Los Angeles and Long Beach), California plays a pivotal role in the global supply chain, hauling in about 40% of all goods imported to the United States.[34] The state's extremely diverse geography ranges from the Pacific Coast and metropolitan areas in the west to the Sierra Nevada mountains in the east, and from the redwood and Douglas fir forests in the northwest to the Mojave Desert in the southeast. Two-thirds of the nation's earthquake risk lies in California.[35] The Central Valley, a fertile agricultural area, dominates the state's center. California is well known for its warm Mediterranean climate along the coast and monsoon seasonal weather inland. The large size of the state results in climates that vary from moist temperate rainforest in the north to arid desert in the interior, as well as snowy alpine in the mountains. Droughts and wildfires are an ongoing issue for the state.[36] Etymology Main articles: Etymology of California and Island of California California and its namesake ruler, Queen Calafia, originate in the 1510 epic Las Sergas de Esplandián, written by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The Spaniards gave the name Las Californias to the peninsula of Baja California and to Alta California, the latter region becoming the present-day state of California. The name derived from the mythical island of California in the fictional story of Queen Calafia, as recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián by Castilian author Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo.[37] This work was the fifth in a popular Spanish chivalric romance series that began with Amadís de Gaula.[38][39][40] Queen Calafia's kingdom was said to be a remote land rich in gold and pearls, inhabited by beautiful Black women who wore gold armor and lived like Amazons, as well as griffins and other strange beasts.[37][41][42] In the fictional paradise, the ruler Queen Calafia fought alongside Muslims and her name may have been chosen to echo the Muslim title caliph, used for Muslim leaders.[37][43] Know ye that at the right hand of the Indies there is an island called California, very close to that part of the Terrestrial Paradise, which was inhabited by black women without a single man among them, and they lived in the manner of Amazons. They were robust of body with strong passionate hearts and great virtue. The island itself is one of the wildest in the world on account of the bold and craggy rocks. — Chapter CLVII of The Adventures of Esplandián[44] Official abbreviations of the state's name include CA, Cal., Calif., and US-CA. History Main article: History of California Further information: History of California before 1900 A map of indigenous Californian tribes and languages at the time of European contact Indigenous Main article: Indigenous peoples of California California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America.[45] Historians generally agree that there were at least 300,000 people living in California prior to European colonization.[46] The indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct ethnic groups, inhabiting environments ranging from mountains and deserts to islands and redwood forests.[47] Living in these diverse geographic areas, the indigenous peoples developed complex forms of ecosystem management, including forest gardening to ensure the regular availability of food and medicinal plants.[48][49] This was a form of sustainable agriculture.[50] To mitigate destructive large wildfires from ravaging the natural environment, indigenous peoples developed a practice of controlled burning.[51] This practice was recognized for its benefits by the California government in 2022.[36] These groups were also diverse in their political organization, with bands, tribes, villages, and, on the resource-rich coasts, large chiefdoms, such as the Chumash, Pomo and Salinan. Trade, intermarriage, craft specialists, and military alliances fostered social and economic relationships between many groups. Although nations would sometimes war, most armed conflicts were between groups of men for vengeance. Acquiring territory was not usually the purpose of these small-scale battles.[52] Men and women generally had different roles in society. Women were often responsible for weaving, harvesting, processing, and preparing food, while men for hunting and other forms of physical labor. Most societies also had roles for people whom the Spanish referred to as joyas,[53] who they saw as "men who dressed as women".[54] Joyas were responsible for death, burial, and mourning rituals, and they performed women's social roles.[54] Indigenous societies had terms such as two-spirit to refer to them. The Chumash referred to them as 'aqi.[54] The early Spanish settlers detested and sought to eliminate them.[55] Spanish period Main articles: Province of Las Californias and Spanish missions in California Portuguese explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo claiming California for the Spanish Empire in 1542 The first Europeans to explore the coast of California were the members of a Spanish maritime expedition led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in 1542. Cabrillo was commissioned by Antonio de Mendoza, the Viceroy of New Spain, to lead an expedition up the Pacific coast in search of trade opportunities; they entered San Diego Bay on September 28, 1542, and reached at least as far north as San Miguel Island.[56] Privateer and explorer Francis Drake explored and claimed an undefined portion of the California coast in 1579, landing north of the future city of San Francisco.[57] Sebastián Vizcaíno explored and mapped the coast of California in 1602 for New Spain, putting ashore in Monterey.[58] Despite the on-the-ground explorations of California in the 16th century, Rodríguez's idea of California as an island persisted. Such depictions appeared on many European maps well into the 18th century.[59] The Portolá expedition of 1769–70 was a pivotal event in the Spanish colonization of California, resulting in the establishment of numerous missions, presidios, and pueblos. The military and civil contingent of the expedition was led by Gaspar de Portolá, who traveled over land from Sonora into California, while the religious component was headed by Junípero Serra, who came by sea from Baja California. In 1769, Portolá and Serra established Mission San Diego de Alcalá and the Presidio of San Diego, the first religious and military settlements founded by the Spanish in California. By the end of the expedition in 1770, they would establish the Presidio of Monterey and Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo on Monterey Bay. Junípero Serra conducting the first Mass in Monterey Bay in 1770 After the Portolà expedition, Spanish missionaries led by Father-President Serra set out to establish 21 Spanish missions of California along El Camino Real ("The Royal Road") and along the California coast, 16 sites of which having been chosen during the Portolá expedition. Numerous major cities in California grew out of missions, including San Francisco (Mission San Francisco de Asís), San Diego (Mission San Diego de Alcalá), Ventura (Mission San Buenaventura), or Santa Barbara (Mission Santa Barbara), among others. Juan Bautista de Anza led a similarly important expedition throughout California in 1775–76, which would extend deeper into the interior and north of California. The Anza expedition selected numerous sites for missions, presidios, and pueblos, which subsequently would be established by settlers. Gabriel Moraga, a member of the expedition, would also christen many of California's prominent rivers with their names in 1775–1776, such as the Sacramento River and the San Joaquin River. After the expedition, Gabriel's son, José Joaquín Moraga, would found the pueblo of San Jose in 1777, making it the first civilian-established city in California. The Spanish founded Mission San Juan Capistrano in 1776, the third to be established of California's missions. During this same period, sailors from the Russian Empire explored along the northern coast of California. In 1812, the Russian-American Company established a trading post and small fortification at Fort Ross on the North Coast.[60][61] Fort Ross was primarily used to supply Russia's Alaskan colonies with food supplies. The settlement did not meet much success, failing to attract settlers or establish long term trade viability, and was abandoned by 1841. During the War of Mexican Independence, Alta California was largely unaffected and uninvolved in the revolution,[62] though many Californios supported independence from Spain, which many believed had neglected California and limited its development.[63] Spain's trade monopoly on California had limited local trade prospects. Following Mexican independence, California ports were freely able to trade with foreign merchants. Governor Pablo Vicente de Solá presided over the transition from Spanish colonial rule to independent Mexican rule. Mexican period Main articles: Alta California and Ranchos of California The flag used by Californio leader Juan Bautista Alvarado's 1836 California independence movement In 1821, the Mexican War of Independence gave the Mexican Empire (which included California) independence from Spain. For the next 25 years, Alta California remained a remote, sparsely populated, northwestern administrative district of the newly independent country of Mexico, which shortly after independence became a republic. The missions, which controlled most of the best land in the state, were secularized by 1834 and became the property of the Mexican government.[64] The governor granted many square leagues of land to others with political influence. These huge ranchos or cattle ranches emerged as the dominant institutions of Mexican California. The ranchos developed under ownership by Californios (Hispanics native of California) who traded cowhides and tallow with Boston merchants. Beef did not become a commodity until the 1849 California Gold Rush. From the 1820s, trappers and settlers from the United States and Canada began to arrive in Northern California. These new arrivals used the Siskiyou Trail, California Trail, Oregon Trail and Old Spanish Trail to cross the rugged mountains and harsh deserts in and surrounding California. The early government of the newly independent Mexico was highly unstable, and in a reflection of this, from 1831 onwards, California also experienced a series of armed disputes, both internal and with the central Mexican government.[65] During this tumultuous political period Juan Bautista Alvarado was able to secure the governorship during 1836–1842.[66] The military action which first brought Alvarado to power had momentarily declared California to be an independent state, and had been aided by Anglo-American residents of California,[67] including Isaac Graham.[68] In 1840, one hundred of those residents who did not have passports were arrested, leading to the Graham Affair, which was resolved in part with the intercession of Royal Navy officials.[67] General Mariano G. Vallejo reviewing his troops in the Sonoma Plaza, 1846 One of the largest ranchers in California was John Marsh. After failing to obtain justice against squatters on his land from the Mexican courts, he determined that California should become part of the United States. Marsh conducted a letter-writing campaign espousing the California climate, the soil, and other reasons to settle there, as well as the best route to follow, which became known as "Marsh's route". His letters were read, reread, passed around, and printed in newspapers throughout the country, and started the first wagon trains rolling to California.[69] He invited immigrants to stay on his ranch until they could get settled, and assisted in their obtaining passports.[70] After ushering in the period of organized emigration to California, Marsh became involved in a military battle between the much-hated Mexican general, Manuel Micheltorena and the California governor he had replaced, Juan Bautista Alvarado. The armies of each met at the Battle of Providencia near Los Angeles. Marsh had been forced against his will to join Micheltorena's army. Ignoring his superiors, during the battle, he signaled the other side for a parley. There were many settlers from the United States fighting on both sides. He convinced each side that they had no reason to be fighting each other. As a result of Marsh's actions, they abandoned the fight, Micheltorena was defeated, and California-born Pio Pico was returned to the governorship. This paved the way to California's ultimate acquisition by the United States.[71][72][73][74][75] U.S. Conquest and the California Republic Main articles: Conquest of California and Bear Flag Revolt The 1846 Bear Flag Revolt declared the California Republic and prefaced the American conquest of California. In 1846, a group of American settlers in and around Sonoma rebelled against Mexican rule during the Bear Flag Revolt. Afterward, rebels raised the Bear Flag (featuring a bear, a star, a red stripe and the words "California Republic") at Sonoma. The Republic's only president was William B. Ide,[76] who played a pivotal role during the Bear Flag Revolt. This revolt by American settlers served as a prelude to the later American military invasion of California and was closely coordinated with nearby American military commanders. The California Republic was short-lived;[77] the same year marked the outbreak of the Mexican–American War (1846–1848).[78] Commodore John D. Sloat of the United States Navy sailed into Monterey Bay in 1846 and began the U.S. military invasion of California, with Northern California capitulating in less than a month to the United States forces.[79] In Southern California, Californios continued to resist American forces. Notable military engagements of the conquest include the Battle of San Pasqual and the Battle of Dominguez Rancho in Southern California, as well as the Battle of Olómpali and the Battle of Santa Clara in Northern California. After a series of defensive battles in the south, the Treaty of Cahuenga was signed by the Californios on January 13, 1847, securing a censure and establishing de facto American control in California.[80] Early American period See also: California Gold Rush and Interim government of California The Treaty of Cahuenga, signed in 1847 by Californio Andrés Pico and American John C. Frémont, was a ceasefire that ended the U.S. Conquest of California. Following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (February 2, 1848) that ended the war, the westernmost portion of the annexed Mexican territory of Alta California soon became the American state of California, and the remainder of the old territory was then subdivided into the new American Territories of Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Utah. The even more lightly populated and arid lower region of old Baja California remained as a part of Mexico. In 1846, the total settler population of the western part of the old Alta California had been estimated to be no more than 8,000, plus about 100,000 Native Americans, down from about 300,000 before Hispanic settlement in 1769.[81] In 1848, only one week before the official American annexation of the area, gold was discovered in California, this being an event which was to forever alter both the state's demographics and its finances. Soon afterward, a massive influx of immigration into the area resulted, as prospectors and miners arrived by the thousands. The population burgeoned with United States citizens, Europeans, Middle Easterns, Chinese and other immigrants during the great California Gold Rush. By the time of California's application for statehood in 1850, the settler population of California had multiplied to 100,000. By 1854, more than 300,000 settlers had come.[82] Between 1847 and 1870, the population of San Francisco increased from 500 to 150,000.[83] California Gold Rush An ad to sail to California, c. 1850 San Francisco harbor, c. 1850–51 Mining near Sacramento, c. 1852 The seat of government for California under Spanish and later Mexican rule had been located in Monterey from 1777 until 1845.[64] Pio Pico, the last Mexican governor of Alta California, had briefly moved the capital to Los Angeles in 1845. The United States consulate had also been located in Monterey, under consul Thomas O. Larkin. In 1849, a state Constitutional Convention was first held in Monterey. Among the first tasks of the convention was a decision on a location for the new state capital. The first full legislative sessions were held in San Jose (1850–1851). Subsequent locations included Vallejo (1852–1853), and nearby Benicia (1853–1854); these locations eventually proved to be inadequate as well. The capital has been located in Sacramento since 1854[84] with only a short break in 1862 when legislative sessions were held in San Francisco due to flooding in Sacramento. Once the state's Constitutional Convention had finalized its state constitution, it applied to the U.S. Congress for admission to statehood. On September 9, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850, California became a free state and September 9 a state holiday. During the American Civil War (1861–1865), California sent gold shipments eastward to Washington in support of the Union.[85] However, due to the existence of a large contingent of pro-South sympathizers within the state, the state was not able to muster any full military regiments to send eastwards to officially serve in the Union war effort. Still, several smaller military units within the Union army, such as the "California 100 Company", were unofficially associated with the state of California due to a majority of their members being from California. At the time of California's admission into the Union, travel between California and the rest of the continental United States had been a time-consuming and dangerous feat. Nineteen years later, and seven years after it was greenlighted by President Lincoln, the first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869. California was then reachable from the eastern States in a week's time. Much of the state was extremely well suited to fruit cultivation and agriculture in general. Vast expanses of wheat, other cereal crops, vegetable crops, cotton, and nut and fruit trees were grown (including oranges in Southern California), and the foundation was laid for the state's prodigious agricultural production in the Central Valley and elsewhere. In the nineteenth century, a large number of migrants from China traveled to the state as part of the Gold Rush or to seek work.[86] Even though the Chinese proved indispensable in building the transcontinental railroad from California to Utah, perceived job competition with the Chinese led to anti-Chinese riots in the state, and eventually the US ended migration from China partially as a response to pressure from California with the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.[87] California Genocide Main article: California Genocide Between 1846 and 1873, U.S. government agents and private settlers perpetrated many massacres against indigenous Californians, known as the California genocide. At least 9,456 were killed with estimates as high as 100,000 deaths.[88][89] Under earlier Spanish and Mexican rule, California's original native population had precipitously declined, above all, from Eurasian diseases to which the indigenous people of California had not yet developed a natural immunity.[90] Under its new American administration, California's first governor Peter Hardeman Burnett instituted policies that have been described as a state-sanctioned policy of elimination toward California's indigenous people.[91] Burnett announced in 1851 in his Second Annual Message to the Legislature: "That a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the races until the Indian race becomes extinct must be expected. While we cannot anticipate the result with but painful regret, the inevitable destiny of the race is beyond the power and wisdom of man to avert."[92] As in other American states, indigenous peoples were forcibly removed from their lands by American settlers, like miners, ranchers, and farmers. Although California had entered the American union as a free state, the "loitering or orphaned Indians," were de facto enslaved by their new Anglo-American masters under the 1850 Act for the Government and Protection of Indians.[93] One of these de facto slave auctions was approved by the Los Angeles City Council and occurred for nearly twenty years.[94] There were many massacres in which hundreds of indigenous people were killed by settlers for their land.[95] Between 1850 and 1860, the California state government paid around 1.5 million dollars (some 250,000 of which was reimbursed by the federal government)[96] to hire militias with the stated purpose of protecting settlers, however these militias perpetrated numerous massacres of indigenous people.[89][95] Indigenous people were also forcibly moved to reservations and rancherias, which were often small and isolated and without enough natural resources or funding from the government to adequately sustain the populations living on them.[89] As a result, settler colonialism was a calamity for indigenous people. Several scholars and Native American activists, including Benjamin Madley and Ed Castillo, have described the actions of the California government as a genocide,[89][88] as well as the 40th governor of California Gavin Newsom.[97] Benjamin Madley estimates that from 1846 to 1873, between 9,492 and 16,092 indigenous people were killed, including between 1,680 and 3,741 killed by the U.S. Army.[88] 1900–present Main article: History of California 1900–present View of the destruction from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake In the twentieth century, thousands of Japanese people migrated to the US and California specifically to attempt to purchase and own land in the state. However, the state in 1913 passed the Alien Land Act, excluding Asian immigrants from owning land.[98] During World War II, Japanese Americans in California were interned in concentration camps such as at Tule Lake and Manzanar.[99] In 2020, California officially apologized for this internment.[100] Migration to California accelerated during the early 20th century with the completion of major transcontinental highways like the Lincoln Highway and Route 66. In the period from 1900 to 1965, the population grew from fewer than one million to the greatest in the Union. In 1940, the Census Bureau reported California's population as 6.0% Hispanic, 2.4% Asian, and 89.5% non-Hispanic white.[101] To meet the population's needs, major engineering feats like the California and Los Angeles Aqueducts; the Oroville and Shasta Dams; and the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges were built across the state. The state government also adopted the California Master Plan for Higher Education in 1960 to develop a highly efficient system of public education. In the early 20th century, Hollywood studios, like Paramount Pictures, helped transform Hollywood into the world capital of film and helped solidify Los Angeles as a global economic hub. Meanwhile, attracted to the mild Mediterranean climate, cheap land, and the state's wide variety of geography, filmmakers established the studio system in Hollywood in the 1920s. California manufactured 8.7 percent of total United States military armaments produced during World War II, ranking third (behind New York and Michigan) among the 48 states.[102] California however easily ranked first in production of military ships during the war (transport, cargo, [merchant ships] such as Liberty ships, Victory ships, and warships) at drydock facilities in San Diego, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area.[103][104][105][106] After World War II, California's economy greatly expanded due to strong aerospace and defense industries,[107] whose size decreased following the end of the Cold War.[107][108] Stanford University and its Dean of Engineering Frederick Terman began encouraging faculty and graduates to stay in California instead of leaving the state, and develop a high-tech region in the area now known as Silicon Valley.[109] As a result of these efforts, California is regarded as a world center of the entertainment and music industries, of technology, engineering, and the aerospace industry, and as the United States center of agricultural production.[110] Just before the Dot Com Bust, California had the fifth-largest economy in the world among nations.[111] In the mid and late twentieth century, a number of race-related incidents occurred in the state. Tensions between police and African Americans, combined with unemployment and poverty in inner cities, led to violent riots, such as the 1965 Watts riots and 1992 Rodney King riots.[112][113] California was also the hub of the Black Panther Party, a group known for arming African Americans to defend against racial injustice [114] and for organizing free breakfast programs for schoolchildren.[115] Additionally, Mexican, Filipino, and other migrant farm workers rallied in the state around Cesar Chavez for better pay in the 1960s and 1970s.[116] Civil rights activist Cesar Chavez, flanked by Brown Berets, at a 1971 rally during the Chicano movement During the 20th century, two great disasters happened in California. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and 1928 St. Francis Dam flood remain the deadliest in U.S. history.[117] Although air pollution problems have been reduced, health problems associated with pollution have continued. The brown haze known as "smog" has been substantially abated after the passage of federal and state restrictions on automobile exhaust.[118][119] An energy crisis in 2001 led to rolling blackouts, soaring power rates, and the importation of electricity from neighboring states. Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric Company came under heavy criticism.[120] Housing prices in urban areas continued to increase; a modest home which in the 1960s cost $25,000 would cost half a million dollars or more in urban areas by 2005. More people commuted longer hours to afford a home in more rural areas while earning larger salaries in the urban areas. Speculators bought houses they never intended to live in, expecting to make a huge profit in a matter of months, then rolling it over by buying more properties. Mortgage companies were compliant, as everyone assumed the prices would keep rising. The bubble burst in 2007–8 as housing prices began to crash and the boom years ended. Hundreds of billions in property values vanished and foreclosures soared as many financial institutions and investors were badly hurt.[121][122] The 2007 launch of the iPhone by Apple founder Steve Jobs in Silicon Valley, the largest tech hub in the world In the twenty-first century, droughts and frequent wildfires attributed to climate change have occurred in the state.[123][124] From 2011 to 2017, a persistent drought was the worst in its recorded history.[125] The 2018 wildfire season was the state's deadliest and most destructive, most notably Camp Fire.[126] One of the first confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States that occurred in California was first of which was confirmed on January 26, 2020.[127][128] Meaning, all of the early confirmed cases were persons who had recently travelled to China in Asia, as testing was restricted to this group. On this January 29, 2020, as disease containment protocols were still being developed, the U.S. Department of State evacuated 195 persons from Wuhan, China aboard a chartered flight to March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County, and in this process, it may have granted and conferred to escalated within the land and the US at cosmic.[129][130] On February 5, 2020, the U.S. evacuated 345 more citizens from Hubei Province to two military bases in California, Travis Air Force Base in Solano County and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, San Diego, where they were quarantined for 14 days.[129][131] A state of emergency was largely declared in this state of the nation on March 4, 2020, and as of February 24, 2021, remains in effect. A mandatory statewide stay-at-home order was issued on March 19, 2020, due to increase, which was ended on January 25, 2021, allowing citizens to return to normal life.[132] On April 6, 2021, the state announced plans to fully reopen the economy by June 15, 2021.[133] In 2019, the 40th governor of California, Gavin Newsom formally apologized to the indigenous peoples of California for the California genocide: "Genocide. No other way to describe it, and that's the way it needs to be described in the history books."[134] Newsom further acknowledged that "the actions of the state 150 years ago have ongoing ramifications even today."[134] Cultural and language revitalization efforts among indigenous Californians have progressed among several tribes as of 2022.[135][136] Some land returns to indigenous stewardship have occurred throughout California.[137][138][139] In 2022, the largest dam removal and river restoration project in US history was announced for the Klamath River as a win for California tribes.[140][141] Geography Main article: Geography of California Further information: Northern California and Southern California Topographic map of California Covering an area of 163,696 sq mi (423,970 km2), California is the third-largest state in the United States in area, after Alaska and Texas.[142] California is one of the most geographically diverse states in the union and is often geographically bisected into two regions, Southern California, comprising the ten southernmost counties,[143][144] and Northern California, comprising the 48 northernmost counties.[145][146] It is bordered by Oregon to the north, Nevada to the east and northeast, Arizona to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California to the south (with which it makes up part of The Californias region of North America, alongside Baja California Sur). In the middle of the state lies the California Central Valley, bounded by the Sierra Nevada in the east, the coastal mountain ranges in the west, the Cascade Range to the north and by the Tehachapi Mountains in the south. The Central Valley is California's productive agricultural heartland. Divided in two by the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the northern portion, the Sacramento Valley serves as the watershed of the Sacramento River, while the southern portion, the San Joaquin Valley is the watershed for the San Joaquin River. Both valleys derive their names from the rivers that flow through them. With dredging, the Sacramento and the San Joaquin Rivers have remained deep enough for several inland cities to be seaports. Big Sur, on the Central Coast Yosemite, in the Sierra Nevada The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is a critical water supply hub for the state. Water is diverted from the delta and through an extensive network of pumps and canals that traverse nearly the length of the state, to the Central Valley and the State Water Projects and other needs. Water from the Delta provides drinking water for nearly 23 million people, almost two-thirds of the state's population as well as water for farmers on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. Suisun Bay lies at the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. The water is drained by the Carquinez Strait, which flows into San Pablo Bay, a northern extension of San Francisco Bay, which then connects to the Pacific Ocean via the Golden Gate strait. The Channel Islands are located off the Southern coast, while the Farallon Islands lie west of San Francisco. The Sierra Nevada (Spanish for "snowy range") includes the highest peak in the contiguous 48 states, Mount Whitney, at 14,505 feet (4,421 m).[3][4][note 1] The range embraces Yosemite Valley, famous for its glacially carved domes, and Sequoia National Park, home to the giant sequoia trees, the largest living organisms on Earth, and the deep freshwater lake, Lake Tahoe, the largest lake in the state by volume. To the east of the Sierra Nevada are Owens Valley and Mono Lake, an essential migratory bird habitat. In the western part of the state is Clear Lake, the largest freshwater lake by area entirely in California. Although Lake Tahoe is larger, it is divided by the California/Nevada border. The Sierra Nevada falls to Arctic temperatures in winter and has several dozen small glaciers, including Palisade Glacier, the southernmost glacier in the United States. Death Valley, in the Mojave Desert San Miguel, in the Channel Islands The Tulare Lake was the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River. A remnant of Pleistocene-era Lake Corcoran, Tulare Lake dried up by the early 20th century after its tributary rivers were diverted for agricultural irrigation and municipal water uses.[147] About 45 percent of the state's total surface area is covered by forests,[148] and California's diversity of pine species is unmatched by any other state. California contains more forestland than any other state except Alaska. Many of the trees in the California White Mountains are the oldest in the world; an individual bristlecone pine is over 5,000 years old.[149][150] In the south is a large inland salt lake, the Salton Sea. The south-central desert is called the Mojave; to the northeast of the Mojave lies Death Valley, which contains the lowest and hottest place in North America, the Badwater Basin at −279 feet (−85 m).[5] The horizontal distance from the bottom of Death Valley to the top of Mount Whitney is less than 90 miles (140 km). Indeed, almost all of southeastern California is arid, hot desert, with routine extreme high temperatures during the summer. The southeastern border of California with Arizona is entirely formed by the Colorado River, from which the southern part of the state gets about half of its water. A majority of California's cities are located in either the San Francisco Bay Area or the Sacramento metropolitan area in Northern California; or the Los Angeles area, the Inland Empire, or the San Diego metropolitan area in Southern California. The Los Angeles Area, the Bay Area, and the San Diego metropolitan area are among several major metropolitan areas along the California coast. As part of the Ring of Fire, California is subject to tsunamis, floods, droughts, Santa Ana winds, wildfires, and landslides on steep terrain; California also has several volcanoes. It has many earthquakes due to several faults running through the state, the largest being the San Andreas Fault. About 37,000 earthquakes are recorded each year; most are too small to be felt,[151] but two-thirds of the human risk from earthquakes lies in California.[35] Climate Main article: Climate of California Further information: Climate change in California This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "California" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (September 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Köppen climate types in California Most of the state has a Mediterranean climate. The cool California Current offshore often creates summer fog near the coast. Farther inland, there are colder winters and hotter summers. The maritime moderation results in the shoreline summertime temperatures of Los Angeles and San Francisco being the coolest of all major metropolitan areas of the United States and uniquely cool compared to areas on the same latitude in the interior and on the east coast of the North American continent. Even the San Diego shoreline bordering Mexico is cooler in summer than most areas in the contiguous United States. Just a few miles inland, summer temperature extremes are significantly higher, with downtown Los Angeles being several degrees warmer than at the coast. The same microclimate phenomenon is seen in the climate of the Bay Area, where areas sheltered from the ocean experience significantly hotter summers and colder winters in contrast with nearby areas closer to the ocean.[152][153][154] California wildfires affect the state yearly. In the south, the Santa Ana winds often expand fires and spread smoke over hundreds of miles. Northern parts of the state have more rain than the south. California's mountain ranges also influence the climate: some of the rainiest parts of the state are west-facing mountain slopes. Coastal northwestern California has a temperate climate, and the Central Valley has a Mediterranean climate but with greater temperature extremes than the coast. The high mountains, including the Sierra Nevada, have an alpine climate with snow in winter and mild to moderate heat in summer. California's mountains produce rain shadows on the eastern side, creating extensive deserts. The higher elevation deserts of eastern California have hot summers and cold winters, while the low deserts east of the Southern California mountains have hot summers and nearly frostless mild winters. Death Valley, a desert with large expanses below sea level, is considered the hottest location in the world; the highest temperature in the world,[155][156] 134 °F (56.7 °C), was recorded there on July 10, 1913. The lowest temperature in California was −45 °F (−43 °C) on January 20, 1937, in Boca.[157] The table below lists average temperatures for January and August in a selection of places throughout the state; some highly populated and some not. This includes the relatively cool summers of the Humboldt Bay region around Eureka, the extreme heat of Death Valley, and the mountain climate of Mammoth in the Sierra Nevada. Average temperatures and precipitation for selected communities in California[158] Location August (°F) August (°C) January (°F) January (°C) Annual precipitation (mm/in) Los Angeles 83/64 29/18 66/48 20/8 377/15 LAX/LA Beaches 75/64 23/18 65/49 18/9 326/13 San Diego 76/67 24/19 65/49 18/9 262/10 San Jose 82/58 27/14 58/42 14/5 401/16 San Francisco 67/54 20/12 56/46 14/8 538/21 Fresno 97/66 34/19 55/38 12/3 292/11 Sacramento 91/58 33/14 54/39 12/3 469/18 Oakland 73/58 23/14 58/44 14/7 588/23 Bakersfield 96/69 36/21 56/39 13/3 165/7 Riverside 94/60 35/18 67/39 19/4 260/10 Eureka 62/53 16/11 54/41 12/5 960/38 Death Valley 115/86 46/30 67/40 19/4 60/2 Mammoth Lakes 77/45 25/7 40/15 4/ −9 583/23 The wide range of climates leads to a high demand for water. Over time, droughts have been increasing due to climate change and overextraction,[159] becoming less seasonal and more year-round, further straining California's electricity supply[160] and water security[161][162] and having an impact on California business, industry, and agriculture.[163] In 2022, a new state program was created in collaboration with indigenous peoples of California to revive the practice of controlled burns as a way of clearing excessive forest debris and making landscapes more resilient to wildfires. Native American use of fire in ecosystem management was outlawed in 1911, yet has now been recognized.[36] Ecology Main articles: Ecology of California and Environment of California Mount Whitney, in the Sierra Nevada, is the highest mountain in the contiguous United States. California is one of the ecologically richest and most diverse parts of the world, and includes some of the most endangered ecological communities. California is part of the Nearctic realm and spans a number of terrestrial ecoregions.[164] California's large number of endemic species includes relict species, which have died out elsewhere, such as the Catalina ironwood (Lyonothamnus floribundus). Many other endemics originated through differentiation or adaptive radiation, whereby multiple species develop from a common ancestor to take advantage of diverse ecological conditions such as the California lilac (Ceanothus). Many California endemics have become endangered, as urbanization, logging, overgrazing, and the introduction of exotic species have encroached on their habitat. Flora and fauna Main articles: Fauna of California and California Floristic Province See also: List of California native plants Giant Sequoias, native to California, are the largest trees in the world. Shown is the Grizzly Giant in Yosemite. California boasts several superlatives in its collection of flora: the largest trees, the tallest trees, and the oldest trees. California's native grasses are perennial plants,[165] and there are close to hundred succulent species native to the state.[166] After European contact, these were generally replaced by invasive species of European annual grasses; and, in modern times, California's hills turn a characteristic golden-brown in summer.[167] Because California has the greatest diversity of climate and terrain, the state has six life zones which are the lower Sonoran Desert; upper Sonoran (foothill regions and some coastal lands), transition (coastal areas and moist northeastern counties); and the Canadian, Hudsonian, and Arctic Zones, comprising the state's highest elevations.[168] Plant life in the dry climate of the lower Sonoran zone contains a diversity of native cactus, mesquite, and paloverde. The Joshua tree is found in the Mojave Desert. Flowering plants include the dwarf desert poppy and a variety of asters. Fremont cottonwood and valley oak thrive in the Central Valley. The upper Sonoran zone includes the chaparral belt, characterized by forests of small shrubs, stunted trees, and herbaceous plants. Nemophila, mint, Phacelia, Viola, and the California poppy (Eschscholzia californica, the state flower) also flourish in this zone, along with the lupine, more species of which occur here than anywhere else in the world.[168] A California sea lion in La Jolla The transition zone includes most of California's forests with the redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) and the "big tree" or giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum), among the oldest living things on earth (some are said to have lived at least 4,000 years). Tanbark oak, California laurel, sugar pine, madrona, broad-leaved maple, and Douglas-fir also grow here. Forest floors are covered with swordfern, alumnroot, barrenwort, and trillium, and there are thickets of huckleberry, azalea, elder, and wild currant. Characteristic wild flowers include varieties of mariposa, tulip, and tiger and leopard lilies.[169] The high elevations of the Canadian zone allow the Jeffrey pine, red fir, and lodgepole pine to thrive. Brushy areas are abundant with dwarf manzanita and ceanothus; the unique Sierra puffball is also found here. Right below the timberline, in the Hudsonian zone, the whitebark, foxtail, and silver pines grow. At about 10,500 feet (3,200 m), begins the Arctic zone, a treeless region whose flora include a number of wildflowers, including Sierra primrose, yellow columbine, alpine buttercup, and alpine shooting star.[168][170] Palm trees are a well-known feature of California, particularly in Southern California and Los Angeles; many species have been imported, though the Washington filifera (commonly known as the California fan palm) is native to the state, mainly growing in the Colorado Desert oases.[171] Other common plants that have been introduced to the state include the eucalyptus, acacia, pepper tree, geranium, and Scotch broom. The species that are federally classified as endangered are the Contra Costa wallflower, Antioch Dunes evening primrose, Solano grass, San Clemente Island larkspur, salt marsh bird's beak, McDonald's rock-cress, and Santa Barbara Island liveforever. As of December 1997, 85 plant species were listed as threatened or endangered.[168] A Tule Elk in the San Joaquin Valley In the deserts of the lower Sonoran zone, the mammals include the jackrabbit, kangaroo rat, squirrel, and opossum. Common birds include the owl, roadrunner, cactus wren, and various species of hawk. The area's reptilian life include the sidewinder viper, desert tortoise, and horned toad. The upper Sonoran zone boasts mammals such as the antelope, brown-footed woodrat, and ring-tailed cat. Birds unique to this zone are the California thrasher, bushtit, and California condor.[168][172][173][174] In the transition zone, there are Colombian black-tailed deer, black bears, gray foxes, cougars, bobcats, and Roosevelt elk. Reptiles such as the garter snakes and rattlesnakes inhabit the zone. In addition, amphibians such as the water puppy and redwood salamander are common too. Birds such as the kingfisher, chickadee, towhee, and hummingbird thrive here as well.[168][175] The Canadian zone mammals include the mountain weasel, snowshoe hare, and several species of chipmunks. Conspicuous birds include the blue-fronted jay, mountain chickadee, hermit thrush, American dipper, and Townsend's solitaire. As one ascends into the Hudsonian zone, birds become scarcer. While the gray-crowned rosy finch is the only bird native to the high Arctic region, other bird species such as Anna's hummingbird and Clark's nutcracker.[citation needed] Principal mammals found in this region include the Sierra coney, white-tailed jackrabbit, and the bighorn sheep. As of April 2003, the bighorn sheep was listed as endangered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The fauna found throughout several zones are the mule deer, coyote, mountain lion, northern flicker, and several species of hawk and sparrow.[168] Methuselah is the oldest tree in the world, found in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest of Inyo National Forest. Aquatic life in California thrives, from the state's mountain lakes and streams to the rocky Pacific coastline. Numerous trout species are found, among them rainbow, golden, and cutthroat. Migratory species of salmon are common as well. Deep-sea life forms include sea bass, yellowfin tuna, barracuda, and several types of whale. Native to the cliffs of northern California are seals, sea lions, and many types of shorebirds, including migratory species.[168] As of April 2003, 118 California animals were on the federal endangered list; 181 plants were listed as endangered or threatened. Endangered animals include the San Joaquin kitfox, Point Arena mountain beaver, Pacific pocket mouse, salt marsh harvest mouse, Morro Bay kangaroo rat (and five other species of kangaroo rat), Amargosa vole, California least tern, California condor, loggerhead shrike, San Clemente sage sparrow, San Francisco garter snake, five species of salamander, three species of chub, and two species of pupfish. Eleven butterflies are also endangered[176] and two that are threatened are on the federal list.[177][178] Among threatened animals are the coastal California gnatcatcher, Paiute cutthroat trout, southern sea otter, and northern spotted owl. California has a total of 290,821 acres (1,176.91 km2) of National Wildlife Refuges.[168] As of September 2010, 123 California animals were listed as either endangered or threatened on the federal list.[179] Also, as of the same year, 178 species of California plants were listed either as endangered or threatened on this federal list.[179] Rivers Main article: List of rivers of California San Francisco Bay (center left) and the California Delta (top right) The most prominent river system within California is formed by the Sacramento River and San Joaquin River, which are fed mostly by snowmelt from the west slope of the Sierra Nevada, and respectively drain the north and south halves of the Central Valley. The two rivers join in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, flowing into the Pacific Ocean through San Francisco Bay. Many major tributaries feed into the Sacramento–San Joaquin system, including the Pit River, Feather River and Tuolumne River. The Klamath and Trinity Rivers drain a large area in far northwestern California. The Eel River and Salinas River each drain portions of the California coast, north and south of San Francisco Bay, respectively. The Mojave River is the primary watercourse in the Mojave Desert, and the Santa Ana River drains much of the Transverse Ranges as it bisects Southern California. The Colorado River forms the state's southeast border with Arizona. Most of California's major rivers are dammed as part of two massive water projects: the Central Valley Project, providing water for agriculture in the Central Valley, and the California State Water Project diverting water from Northern to Southern California. The state's coasts, rivers, and other bodies of water are regulated by the California Coastal Commission. Regions Main article: List of regions of California See also: List of places in California Map of California's regions Map showing the division between Northern California (top white) and Southern California (bottom red) California is traditionally separated into Northern California and Southern California, divided by a straight border which runs across the state, separating the northern 48 counties from the southern 10 counties. Despite the persistence of the northern-southern divide, California is more precisely divided into many regions, multiple of which stretch across the northern-southern divide. Major divisions Northern California Southern California Regions Shasta Cascade Klamath Basin Modoc Plateau North Coast Lost Coast Bay Area North Bay San Francisco Peninsula South Bay (Santa Clara Valley) East Bay Central Valley Sacramento Valley Greater Sacramento San Joaquin Valley Metropolitan Fresno California Delta Sierra Nevada Gold Country Eastern Sierra Central Coast Monterey Bay Area Big Sur Gaviota Coast Southern California Greater Los Angeles Los Angeles Basin San Fernando Valley San Gabriel Valley Channel Islands Orange Coast Inland Empire San Diego–Tijuana California Deserts Mojave Desert Great Basin Desert Colorado Desert (Sonoran Desert) Calexico–Mexicali Cities and towns See also: List of cities and towns in California and List of largest California cities by population The state has 482 incorporated cities and towns, of which 460 are cities and 22 are towns. Under California law, the terms "city" and "town" are explicitly interchangeable; the name of an incorporated municipality in the state can either be "City of (Name)" or "Town of (Name)".[180] Sacramento became California's first incorporated city on February 27, 1850.[181] San Jose, San Diego, and Benicia tied for California's second incorporated city, each receiving incorporation on March 27, 1850.[182][183][184] Jurupa Valley became the state's most recent and 482nd incorporated municipality, on July 1, 2011.[185][186] The majority of these cities and towns are within one of five metropolitan areas: the Los Angeles Metropolitan Area, the San Francisco Bay Area, the Riverside-San Bernardino Area, the San Diego metropolitan area, or the Sacramento metropolitan area.    Largest cities or towns in California Source:[187] Rank Name County Pop. Rank Name County Pop. Los Angeles Los Angeles San Diego San Diego 1 Los Angeles Los Angeles 3,898,747 11 Stockton San Joaquin 320,804 San Jose San Jose San Francisco San Francisco 2 San Diego San Diego 1,386,932 12 Riverside Riverside 314,998 3 San Jose Santa Clara 1,013,240 13 Santa Ana Orange 310,227 4 San Francisco San Francisco 873,965 14 Irvine Orange 307,670 5 Fresno Fresno 542,107 15 Chula Vista San Diego 275,487 6 Sacramento Sacramento 524,943 16 Fremont Alameda 230,504 7 Long Beach Los Angeles 466,742 17 Santa Clarita Los Angeles 228,673 8 Oakland Alameda 440,646 18 San Bernardino San Bernardino 222,101 9 Bakersfield Kern 403,455 19 Modesto Stanislaus 218,464 10 Anaheim Orange 346,824 20 Moreno Valley Riverside 208,634 Largest metropolitan statistical areas in California CA rank U.S. rank Metropolitan statistical area[188] 2020 census[187] 2010 census[187] Change Counties[188] 1 2 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA MSA 13,200,998 12,828,837 +2.90% Los Angeles, Orange 2 12 San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA MSA 4,749,008 4,335,391 +9.54% Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo 3 13 Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA MSA 4,599,839 4,224,851 +8.88% Riverside, San Bernardino 4 17 San Diego-Carlsbad, CA MSA 3,298,634 3,095,313 +6.57% San Diego 5 26 Sacramento–Roseville–Arden-Arcade, CA MSA 2,397,382 2,149,127 +11.55% El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Yolo 6 35 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA MSA 2,000,468 1,836,911 +8.90% San Benito, Santa Clara 7 56 Fresno, CA MSA 1,008,654 930,450 +8.40% Fresno 8 62 Bakersfield, CA MSA 909,235 839,631 +8.29% Kern 9 70 Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA MSA 843,843 823,318 +2.49% Ventura 10 75 Stockton-Lodi, CA MSA 779,233 685,306 +13.71% San Joaquin Largest combined statistical areas in California CA rank U.S. rank Combined statistical area[187] 2020 census[187] 2010 census[187] Change Counties[188] 1 2 Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA Combined Statistical Area 18,644,680 17,877,006 +4.29% Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura 2 4 San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area 9,714,023 8,923,942 +8.85% Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Merced, Napa, San Benito, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus 3 23 Sacramento-Roseville, CA Combined Statistical Area 2,680,831 2,414,783 +11.02% El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo, Yuba 4 45 Fresno-Madera, CA Combined Statistical Area 1,317,395 1,234,297 +6.73% Fresno, Kings, Madera 5 125 Redding-Red Bluff, CA Combined Statistical Area 247,984 240,686 +3.03% Shasta, Tehama Demographics Main article: Demographics of California Population Historical population Census Pop. Note %± 1850 92,597 — 1860 379,994 310.4% 1870 560,247 47.4% 1880 864,694 54.3% 1890 1,213,398 40.3% 1900 1,485,053 22.4% 1910 2,377,549 60.1% 1920 3,426,861 44.1% 1930 5,677,251 65.7% 1940 6,907,387 21.7% 1950 10,586,223 53.3% 1960 15,717,204 48.5% 1970 19,953,134 27.0% 1980 23,667,902 18.6% 1990 29,760,021 25.7% 2000 33,871,648 13.8% 2010 37,253,956 10.0% 2020 39,538,223 6.1% 2023 (est.) 38,940,231 −1.5% Sources: 1790–1990, 2000, 2010, 2020, 2023[189][190][191][6] Chart does not include indigenous population figures. Studies indicate that the Native American population in California in 1850 was close to 150,000 before declining to 15,000 by 1900.[192] One out of every eight Americans live in California.[193] The United States Census Bureau reported that the population of California was 39,538,223 on April 1, 2020, a 6.13% increase since the 2010 United States census.[191] The estimated population as of 2022 is 39.22 million.[193] For over a century (1900–2020), California experienced an explosion in population growth, adding an average of more than 300,000 people per year.[194] California's rate of growth began to slow by the 1990s, although it continued to experience population growth in the first two decades of the 21st century.[195][196] The state experienced population declines in 2020 and 2021, attributable to declining birth rates, COVID-19 pandemic deaths, and less internal migration from other states to California.[197] California's population density, 2020 The Greater Los Angeles Area is the 2nd-largest metropolitan area in the United States (U.S.), while Los Angeles is the second-largest city in the U.S. Conversely, San Francisco is the most densely-populated city in California and one of the most densely populated cities in the U.S.. Also, Los Angeles County has held the title of most populous U.S. county for decades, and it alone is more populous than 42 U.S. states.[198][199] Including Los Angeles, four of the top 20 most populous cities in the U.S. are in California: Los Angeles (2nd), San Diego (8th), San Jose (10th), and San Francisco (17th). The center of population of California is located four miles west-southwest of the city of Shafter, Kern County.[note 3] As of 2019, California ranked second among states by life expectancy, with a life expectancy of 80.9 years.[201] Starting in the year 2010, for the first time since the California Gold Rush, California-born residents made up the majority of the state's population.[202] Along with the rest of the United States, California's immigration pattern has also shifted over the course of the late 2000s to early 2010s.[203] Immigration from Latin American countries has dropped significantly with most immigrants now coming from Asia.[204] In total for 2011, there were 277,304 immigrants. Fifty-seven percent came from Asian countries versus 22% from Latin American countries.[204] Net immigration from Mexico, previously the most common country of origin for new immigrants, has dropped to zero / less than zero since more Mexican nationals are departing for their home country than immigrating.[203] The state's population of undocumented immigrants has been shrinking in recent years, due to increased enforcement and decreased job opportunities for lower-skilled workers.[205] The number of migrants arrested attempting to cross the Mexican border in the Southwest decreased from a high of 1.1 million in 2005 to 367,000 in 2011.[206] Despite these recent trends, illegal aliens constituted an estimated 7.3 percent of the state's population, the third highest percentage of any state in the country,[207][note 4] totaling nearly 2.6 million.[208] In particular, illegal immigrants tended to be concentrated in Los Angeles, Monterey, San Benito, Imperial, and Napa Counties—the latter four of which have significant agricultural industries that depend on manual labor.[209] More than half of illegal immigrants originate from Mexico.[208] The state of California and some California cities, including Los Angeles, Oakland and San Francisco,[210] have adopted sanctuary policies.[211] According to HUD's 2022 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, there were an estimated 171,521 homeless people in California.[212][213] Race and ethnicity Hispanic and Latino Californians make up the state's largest ethnic group. The map displays California's counties by percentage of Hispanics and Latinos in the 2020 Census:   50% or more   25–49%   15–24%   5–15% Racial and ethnic composition as of the 2020 census  Race and ethnicity[214] Alone Total Hispanic or Latino[note 5] — 39.4%   White (non-Hispanic) 34.7%   38.3%   Asian (non-Hispanic) 15.1%   17.0%   African American (non-Hispanic) 5.4%   6.4%   Native American (non-Hispanic) 0.4%   1.3%   Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic) 0.3%   0.7%   Other (non-Hispanic) 0.6%   1.3%   Ethnic origins in California According to the United States Census Bureau in 2018 the population self-identified as (alone or in combination):[215] 72.1% White (including Hispanic Whites), 36.8% non-Hispanic whites, 15.3% Asian, 6.5% Black or African American, 1.6% Native American and Alaska Native, 0.5% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, and 3.9% two or more races. By ethnicity, in 2018 the population was 60.7% non-Hispanic (of any race) and 39.3% Hispanic or Latino (of any race). Hispanics are the largest single ethnic group in California.[215] Non-Hispanic whites constituted 36.8% of the state's population.[215] Californios are the Hispanic residents native to California, who make up the Spanish-speaking community that has existed in California since 1542, of varying Mexican American/Chicano, Criollo Spaniard, and Mestizo origin.[216] As of 2011, 75.1% of California's population younger than age 1 were minorities, meaning they had at least one parent who was not non-Hispanic white (white Hispanics are counted as minorities).[217] In terms of total numbers, California has the largest population of White Americans in the United States, an estimated 22,200,000 residents. The state has the 5th largest population of African Americans in the United States, an estimated 2,250,000 residents. California's Asian American population is estimated at 4.4 million, constituting a third of the nation's total. California's Native American population of 285,000 is the most of any state.[218] According to estimates from 2011, California has the largest minority population in the United States by numbers, making up 60% of the state population.[219] Over the past 25 years, the population of non-Hispanic whites has declined, while Hispanic and Asian populations have grown. Between 1970 and 2011, non-Hispanic whites declined from 80% of the state's population to 40%, while Hispanics grew from 32% in 2000 to 38% in 2011.[220] It is currently projected that Hispanics will rise to 49% of the population by 2060, primarily due to domestic births rather than immigration.[221] With the decline of immigration from Latin America, Asian Americans now constitute the fastest growing racial/ethnic group in California; this growth is primarily driven by immigration from China, India and the Philippines, respectively.[222] Most of California's immigrant population are born in Mexico (3.9 million), the Philippines (825,200), China (768,400), India (556,500) and Vietnam (502,600).[223] California has the largest multiracial population in the United States.[224] California has the highest rate of interracial marriage.[225] Languages Main article: Languages of California See also: California English and Spanish language in California Languages spoken in California by more than 100,000 persons  Language Population (as of 2021)[226] % English 20,763,638 56.08% Spanish 10,434,308 28.18% Chinese 1,244,445 3.36% Tagalog 757,488 2.05% Vietnamese 544,046 1.47% Korean 356,901 0.96% Arabic 231,612 0.63% Persian 221,650 0.6% Armenian 211,614 0.57% Hindi 208,148 0.56% Russian 178,176 0.48% Punjabi 156,763 0.42% Japanese 135,992 0.37% French 126,371 0.34% English serves as California's de jure and de facto official language. According to the 2021 American Community Survey conducted by the United States Census Bureau, 56.08% (20,763,638) of California residents age 5 and older spoke only English at home, while 43.92% spoke another language at home. 60.35% of people who speak a language other than English at home are able to speak English "well" or "very well", with this figure varying significantly across the different linguistic groups.[226] Like most U.S. states (32 out of 50), California law enshrines English as its official language, and has done so since the passage of Proposition 63 by California voters in 1986. Various government agencies do, and are often required to, furnish documents in the various languages needed to reach their intended audiences.[227][228][229] The Constitution of California was written in both English (left) and Spanish (right) by both American and Californio delegates. Spanish is the most commonly spoken language in California, behind English, spoken by 28.18% (10,434,308) of the population (in 2021).[226] The Spanish language has been spoken in California since 1542 and is deeply intertwined with California's cultural landscape and history.[230][231][232] Spanish was the official administrative language of California through the Spanish and Mexican eras, until 1848. Following the U.S. Conquest of California and the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, the U.S Government guaranteed the rights of Spanish speaking Californians. The first Constitution of California was written in both languages at the Monterey Constitutional Convention of 1849 and protected the rights of Spanish speakers to use their language in government proceedings and mandating that all government documents be published in both English and Spanish.[233] Despite the initial recognition of Spanish by early American governments in California, the revised 1879 constitution stripped the rights of Spanish speakers and the official status of Spanish.[234] The growth of the English-only movement by the mid-20th century led to the passage of 1986 California Proposition 63, which enshrined English as the only official language in California and ended Spanish language instruction in schools.[235] 2016 California Proposition 58 reversed the prohibition on bilingual education, though there are still many barriers to the proliferation of Spanish bilingual education, including a shortage of teachers and lack of funding.[236][235][237] The government of California has since made efforts to promote Spanish language access and bilingual education, [238][239] as have private educational institutions in California.[240] Many businesses in California promote the usage of Spanish by their employees, to better serve both California's Hispanic population and the larger Spanish-speaking world.[241][242] California has historically been one of the most linguistically diverse areas in the world, with more than 70 indigenous languages derived from 64 root languages in six language families.[243][244] A survey conducted between 2007 and 2009 identified 23 different indigenous languages among California farmworkers.[245] All of California's indigenous languages are endangered, although there are now efforts toward language revitalization.[note 6] California has the highest concentration nationwide of Chinese, Vietnamese and Punjabi speakers. As a result of the state's increasing diversity and migration from other areas across the country and around the globe, linguists began noticing a noteworthy set of emerging characteristics of spoken American English in California since the late 20th century. This variety, known as California English, has a vowel shift and several other phonological processes that are different from varieties of American English used in other regions of the United States.[246] Religion Main article: Religion in California See also: List of cathedrals in California Religious self-identification, per Public Religion Research Institute's 2021 American Values Survey[247]   Catholicism (34%)   Protestantism (27%)   Jehovah's Witness (1%)   Mormonism (1%)   Unaffilated (28%)   Buddhism (2%)   Judaism (1%)   Hinduism (1%)   Other (5%) The largest religious denominations by number of adherents as a percentage of California's population in 2014 were the Catholic Church with 28 percent, Evangelical Protestants with 20 percent, and Mainline Protestants with 10 percent. Together, all kinds of Protestants accounted for 32 percent. Those unaffiliated with any religion represented 27 percent of the population. The breakdown of other religions is 1% Muslim, 2% Hindu and 2% Buddhist.[248] This is a change from 2008, when the population identified their religion with the Catholic Church with 31 percent; Evangelical Protestants with 18 percent; and Mainline Protestants with 14 percent. In 2008, those unaffiliated with any religion represented 21 percent of the population. The breakdown of other religions in 2008 was 0.5% Muslim, 1% Hindu and 2% Buddhist.[249] The American Jewish Year Book placed the total Jewish population of California at about 1,194,190 in 2006.[250] According to the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) the largest denominations by adherents in 2010 were the Catholic Church with 10,233,334; The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with 763,818; and the Southern Baptist Convention with 489,953.[251] The Cathedral of San Carlos Borromeo in Monterey, built 1791–94, is the oldest parish in California.[252] The first priests to come to California were Catholic missionaries from Spain. Catholics founded 21 missions along the California coast, as well as the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco. California continues to have a large Catholic population due to the large numbers of Mexicans and Central Americans living within its borders. California has twelve dioceses and two archdioceses, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Archdiocese of San Francisco, the former being the largest archdiocese in the United States. A Pew Research Center survey revealed that California is somewhat less religious than the rest of the states: 62 percent of Californians say they are "absolutely certain" of their belief in God, while in the nation 71 percent say so. The survey also revealed 48 percent of Californians say religion is "very important", compared to 56 percent nationally.[253] Culture Main article: Culture of California See also: Cuisine of California The Hollywood Sign in Los Angeles The culture of California is a Western culture and most clearly has its modern roots in the culture of the United States, but also, historically, many Hispanic Californio and Mexican influences. As a border and coastal state, California culture has been greatly influenced by several large immigrant populations, especially those from Latin America and Asia.[254][failed verification] California has long been a subject of interest in the public mind and has often been promoted by its boosters as a kind of paradise. In the early 20th century, fueled by the efforts of state and local boosters, many Americans saw the Golden State as an ideal resort destination, sunny and dry all year round with easy access to the ocean and mountains. In the 1960s, popular music groups such as the Beach Boys promoted the image of Californians as laid-back, tanned beach-goers. The California Gold Rush of the 1850s is still seen as a symbol of California's economic style, which tends to generate technology, social, entertainment, and economic fads and booms and related busts. Media and entertainment Further information: Media in Los Angeles, Media in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Music in California See also: List of amusement parks in the Americas § California, List of newspapers in California, and List of radio stations in California Disney, headquartered in Burbank, is one of the world's largest media and entertainment companies. Hollywood and the rest of the Los Angeles area is a major global center for entertainment, with the U.S. film industry's "Big Five" major film studios (Columbia, Disney, Paramount, Universal, and Warner Bros.) as well as many minor film studios being based in or around the area. Many animation studios are also headquartered in the state. The four major American television commercial broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox) as well as other networks all have production facilities and offices in the state. All the four major commercial broadcast networks, plus the two major Spanish-language networks (Telemundo and Univision) each have at least three owned-and-operated TV stations in California, including at least one in Los Angeles and at least one in San Francisco.[note 7] One of the oldest radio stations in the United States still in existence, KCBS (AM) in the San Francisco Bay Area, was founded in 1909. Universal Music Group, one of the "Big Four" record labels, is based in Santa Monica, while Warner Records is based in Los Angeles. Many independent record labels, such as Mind of a Genius Records, are also headquartered in the state. California is also the birthplace of several international music genres, including the Bakersfield sound, Bay Area thrash metal, alternative rock, g-funk, nu metal, glam metal, thrash metal, psychedelic rock, stoner rock, punk rock, hardcore punk, metalcore, pop punk, surf music, third wave ska, west coast hip hop, west coast jazz, jazz rap, and many other genres. Other genres such as pop rock, indie rock, hard rock, hip hop, pop, rock, rockabilly, country, heavy metal, grunge, new wave and disco were popularized in the state. In addition, many British bands, such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, and The Rolling Stones settled in the state after becoming internationally famous. Twitter, headquartered in San Francisco, is one of the largest social media networks in the world. As the home of Silicon Valley, the Bay Area is the headquarters of several prominent internet media, social media, and other technology companies. Three of the "Big Five" technology companies (Apple, Meta, and Google) are based in the area as well as other services such as Netflix, Pandora Radio, Twitter, Yahoo!, and YouTube. Other prominent companies that are headquartered here include HP inc. and Intel. Microsoft and Amazon also have offices in the area. California, particularly Southern California,[255] is considered the birthplace of modern car culture.[256] Several fast food, fast casual, and casual dining chains were also founded California, including some that have since expanded internationally like California Pizza Kitchen, Denny's, IHOP, McDonald's, Panda Express, and Taco Bell. The California State Fair is held annually during the summer at Cal Expo in northeastern Sacramento. Sports Main article: Sports in California See also: List of professional sports teams in California Pebble Beach Golf Links, one of the best ranked golf courses in the world The Grand Prix of Long Beach is the longest running major street race in North America. California has nineteen major professional sports league franchises, far more than any other state. The San Francisco Bay Area has six major league teams spread in its three major cities: San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland, while the Greater Los Angeles Area is home to ten major league franchises. San Diego and Sacramento each have one major league team. The NFL Super Bowl has been hosted in California 12 times at five different stadiums: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the Rose Bowl, Stanford Stadium, Levi's Stadium, and San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium. A thirteenth, Super Bowl LVI, was held at Sofi Stadium in Inglewood on February 13, 2022.[257] California has long had many respected collegiate sports programs. California is home to the oldest college bowl game, the annual Rose Bowl, among others. The NFL has three teams in the state: the Los Angeles Rams, Los Angeles Chargers, and San Francisco 49ers. MLB has five teams in the state: the San Francisco Giants, Oakland Athletics, Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels, and San Diego Padres.[258] The NBA has four teams in the state: the Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, and Sacramento Kings. Additionally, the WNBA also has one team in the state: the Los Angeles Sparks. The NHL has three teams in the state: the Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Kings, and San Jose Sharks. MLS has three teams in the state: the Los Angeles Galaxy, San Jose Earthquakes, and Los Angeles Football Club. MLR has one team in the state: the San Diego Legion. California is the only U.S. state to have hosted both the Summer and Winter Olympics. The 1932 and 1984 summer games were held in Los Angeles. Squaw Valley Ski Resort in the Lake Tahoe region hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics. Los Angeles will host the 2028 Summer Olympics, marking the fourth time that California will have hosted the Olympic Games.[259] Multiple games during the 1994 FIFA World Cup took place in California, with the Rose Bowl hosting eight matches (including the final), while Stanford Stadium hosted six matches. In addition to the Olympic games, California also hosts the California State Games. Many sports, such as surfing, snowboarding, and skateboarding, were invented in California, while others like volleyball, beach soccer, and skiing were popularized in the state. Other sports that are big in the state include golf, rodeo, tennis, mountain climbing, marathon running, horse racing, bowling, mixed martial arts, boxing, and motorsports, especially NASCAR and Formula One. Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum hosted the Summer Olympics in 1932 and 1984, and will also host in 2028. Team Sport League Los Angeles Rams American football National Football League (NFL) Los Angeles Chargers American football National Football League San Francisco 49ers American football National Football League Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) Los Angeles Angels Baseball Major League Baseball Oakland Athletics Baseball Major League Baseball San Diego Padres Baseball Major League Baseball San Francisco Giants Baseball Major League Baseball Golden State Warriors Basketball National Basketball Association (NBA) Los Angeles Clippers Basketball National Basketball Association Los Angeles Lakers Basketball National Basketball Association Sacramento Kings Basketball National Basketball Association Los Angeles Sparks Basketball Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) Anaheim Ducks Ice hockey National Hockey League (NHL) Los Angeles Kings Ice hockey National Hockey League San Jose Sharks Ice hockey National Hockey League Los Angeles Galaxy Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) San Jose Earthquakes Soccer Major League Soccer Los Angeles Football Club Soccer Major League Soccer Angel City FC Soccer National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) San Diego Wave FC Soccer National Women's Soccer League San Diego Legion Rugby union Major League Rugby Education Main article: Education in California See also: Spanish bilingual education in California Santa Barbara High School, one of the oldest high schools in continuous use in Southern California California has the most school students in the country, with over 6.2 million in the 2005–06 school year, giving California more students in school than 36 states have in total population and one of the highest projected enrollments in the country.[260] Public secondary education consists of high schools that teach elective courses in trades, languages, and liberal arts with tracks for gifted, college-bound and industrial arts students. California's public educational system is supported by a unique constitutional amendment that requires a minimum annual funding level for grades K–12 and community colleges that grows with the economy and student enrollment figures.[261] In 2016, California's K–12 public school per-pupil spending was ranked 22nd in the nation ($11,500 per student vs. $11,800 for the U.S. average).[262] For 2012, California's K–12 public schools ranked 48th in the number of employees per student, at 0.102 (the U.S. average was 0.137), while paying the 7th most per employee, $49,000 (the U.S. average was $39,000).[263][264][265] A 2007 study concluded that California's public school system was "broken" in that it suffered from overregulation.[266] Higher education Main article: List of colleges and universities in California UC Berkeley is the oldest campus of the University of California, and the state's flagship public university. Stanford University is a private university that is one of the top-ranked universities in the world.[267] California public postsecondary education is organized into three separate systems: The state's public research university system is the University of California (UC). As of fall 2011, the University of California had a combined student body of 234,464 students.[268] There are ten UC campuses; nine are general campuses offering both undergraduate and graduate programs which culminate in the award of bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, and doctorates; there is one specialized campus, UC San Francisco, which is entirely dedicated to graduate education in health care, and is home to the UCSF Medical Center, the highest-ranked hospital in California.[269] The system was originally intended to accept the top one-eighth of California high school students, but several of the campuses have become even more selective.[270][271][272] The UC system historically held exclusive authority to award the doctorate, but this has since changed and CSU now has limited statutory authorization to award a handful of types of doctoral degrees independently of UC. The California State University (CSU) system has almost 430,000 students. The CSU (which takes the definite article in its abbreviated form, while UC does not) was originally intended to accept the top one-third of California high school students, but several of the campuses have become much more selective.[272][273] The CSU was originally authorized to award only bachelor's and master's degrees, and could award the doctorate only as part of joint programs with UC or private universities. Since then, CSU has been granted the authority to independently award several doctoral degrees (in specific academic fields that do not intrude upon UC's traditional jurisdiction). The California Community Colleges system provides lower-division coursework culminating in the associate degree, as well as basic skills and workforce training culminating in various kinds of certificates. (Fifteen California community colleges now award four-year bachelor's degrees in disciplines which are in high demand in their geographical area.[274]) It is the largest network of higher education in the U.S., composed of 112 colleges serving a student population of over 2.6 million. California is also home to notable private universities such as Stanford University, the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the University of Southern California, the Claremont Colleges, Santa Clara University, Loyola Marymount University, the University of San Diego, the University of San Francisco, Chapman University, Pepperdine University, Occidental College, and University of the Pacific, among numerous other private colleges and universities, including many religious and special-purpose institutions. California has a particularly high density of arts colleges, including the California College of the Arts, California Institute of the Arts, San Francisco Art Institute, Art Center College of Design, and Academy of Art University, among others. Economy Main article: Economy of California Silicon Valley is the largest tech hub in the world and home to Big Tech companies like Apple, Alphabet, Meta, Intel, Netflix, Inc., Uber, Nvidia, HP, X Corp and many more. California's economy ranks among the largest in the world. As of 2022, the gross state product (GSP) was $3.6 trillion ($93,130 per capita), the largest in the United States.[275] California is responsible for one seventh of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP).[276] As of 2018, California's nominal GDP is larger than all but four countries (the United States, China, Japan, and Germany).[277] In terms of purchasing power parity (PPP),[278] it is larger than all but eight countries (the United States, China, India, Japan, Germany, Russia, Brazil, and Indonesia).[279] California's economy is larger than Africa and Australia and is almost as large as South America.[280] The state recorded total, non-farm employment of 16,677,800[281] as of September 2021 among 966,224 employer establishments.[282] The combined Port of Los Angeles-Port of Long Beach is the largest port in the U.S. by import volume and one of the busiest ports in the world. As the largest and second-largest U.S. ports respectively, the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach in Southern California collectively play a pivotal role in the global supply chain, together hauling in about 40% of all imports to the United States by TEU volume.[283] The Port of Oakland and Port of Hueneme are the 10th and 26th largest seaports in the U.S., respectively, by number of TEUs handled.[284] The five largest sectors of employment in California are trade, transportation, and utilities; government; professional and business services; education and health services; and leisure and hospitality. In output, the five largest sectors are financial services, followed by trade, transportation, and utilities; education and health services; government; and manufacturing.[285] California has an unemployment rate of 3.9% as of September 2022.[281] California's economy is dependent on trade and international related commerce accounts for about one-quarter of the state's economy. In 2008, California exported $144 billion worth of goods, up from $134 billion in 2007 and $127 billion in 2006.[286] Computers and electronic products are California's top export, accounting for 42 percent of all the state's exports in 2008.[286] Agriculture Main article: Agriculture in California Further information: Strawberry cultivation in California, Production of peaches in California, and Walnuts in California See also: California nut crimes California vineyards in Wine Country. The agricultural industry in California is the largest in the U.S. Agriculture is an important sector in California's economy. According to the USDA in 2011, the three largest California agricultural products by value were milk and cream, shelled almonds, and grapes.[287] Farming-related sales more than quadrupled over the past three decades, from $7.3 billion in 1974 to nearly $31 billion in 2004.[288] This increase has occurred despite a 15 percent decline in acreage devoted to farming during the period, and water supply suffering from chronic instability. Factors contributing to the growth in sales-per-acre include more intensive use of active farmlands and technological improvements in crop production.[288] In 2008, California's 81,500 farms and ranches generated $36.2 billion products revenue.[289] In 2011, that number grew to $43.5 billion products revenue.[290] The agriculture sector accounts for two percent of the state's GDP and employs around three percent of its total workforce.[291] Income See also: California locations by per capita income California is the most visited state in the country.[292] Disneyland in Anaheim is a major tourist destination, with 16.9 million annual visits in 2022.[293] Per capita GDP in 2007 was $38,956, ranking eleventh in the nation.[294] Per capita income varies widely by geographic region and profession. The Central Valley is the most impoverished, with migrant farm workers making less than minimum wage. According to a 2005 report by the Congressional Research Service, the San Joaquin Valley was characterized as one of the most economically depressed regions in the United States, on par with the region of Appalachia.[295] Using the supplemental poverty measure, California has a poverty rate of 23.5%, the highest of any state in the country.[296] However, using the official measure the poverty rate was only 13.3% as of 2017.[297] Many coastal cities include some of the wealthiest per-capita areas in the United States. The high-technology sectors in Northern California, specifically Silicon Valley, in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, have emerged from the economic downturn caused by the dot-com bust. In 2019, there were 1,042,027 millionaire households in the state, more than any other state in the nation.[298] In 2010, California residents were ranked first among the states with the best average credit score of 754.[299] If California was an independent country, its gross domestic product (nominal) would rank fifth in the world (2022).[300] If California was an independent country, its gross domestic product (nominal) would rank fifth in the world (2022).[300]   California counties by GDP (2021)[301] California counties by GDP (2021)[301] State finances Main articles: California state finances and 2008–12 California budget crisis California economic regions State spending increased from $56 billion in 1998 to $127 billion in 2011.[302][303] California has the third highest per capita spending on welfare among the states, as well as the highest spending on welfare at $6.67 billion.[304] In January 2011, California's total debt was at least $265 billion.[305] On June 27, 2013, Governor Jerry Brown signed a balanced budget (no deficit) for the state, its first in decades; however, the state's debt remains at $132 billion.[306][307] With the passage of Proposition 30 in 2012 and Proposition 55 in 2016, California now levies a 13.3% maximum marginal income tax rate with ten tax brackets, ranging from 1% at the bottom tax bracket of $0 annual individual income to 13.3% for annual individual income over $1,000,000 (though the top brackets are only temporary until Proposition 55 expires at the end of 2030). While Proposition 30 also enacted a minimum state sales tax of 7.5%, this sales tax increase was not extended by Proposition 55 and reverted to a previous minimum state sales tax rate of 7.25% in 2017. Local governments can and do levy additional sales taxes in addition to this minimum rate.[308] All real property is taxable annually; the ad valorem tax is based on the property's fair market value at the time of purchase or the value of new construction. Property tax increases are capped at 2% annually or the rate of inflation (whichever is lower), per Proposition 13. Infrastructure Energy Main article: Energy in California Further information: Solar power in California and Wind power in California See also: History of oil in California through 1930 and Plug-in electric vehicles in California Moss Landing Power Plant, located on the coast of Monterey Bay Because it is the most populous state in the United States, California is one of the country's largest users of energy. The state has extensive hydro-electric energy generation facilities, however, moving water is the single largest energy use in the state. Also, due to high energy rates, conservation mandates, mild weather in the largest population centers and strong environmental movement, its per capita energy use is one of the smallest of any state in the United States.[309] Due to the high electricity demand, California imports more electricity than any other state, primarily hydroelectric power from states in the Pacific Northwest (via Path 15 and Path 66) and coal- and natural gas-fired production from the desert Southwest via Path 46.[310] The state's crude oil and natural gas deposits are located in the Central Valley and along the coast, including the large Midway-Sunset Oil Field. Natural gas-fired power plants typically account for more than one-half of state electricity generation. Ivanpah Solar Power Facility, located in the Mojave Desert As a result of the state's strong environmental movement, California has some of the most aggressive renewable energy goals in the United States. Senate Bill SB 1020 (the Clean Energy, Jobs and Affordability Act of 2022) commits the state to running its operations on clean, renewable energy resources by 2035, and SB 1203 also requires the state to achieve net-zero operations for all agencies. Currently, several solar power plants such as the Solar Energy Generating Systems facility are located in the Mojave Desert. California's wind farms include Altamont Pass, San Gorgonio Pass, and Tehachapi Pass. The Tehachapi area is also where the Tehachapi Energy Storage Project is located.[311] Several dams across the state provide hydro-electric power. It would be possible to convert the total supply to 100% renewable energy, including heating, cooling and mobility, by 2050.[312] California has one major nuclear power plant (Diablo Canyon) in operation. The San Onofre nuclear plant was shut down in 2013. More than 1,700 tons of radioactive waste are stored at San Onofre,[313] and sit on the coast where there is a record of past tsunamis.[314] Voters banned the approval of new nuclear power plants since the late 1970s because of concerns over radioactive waste disposal.[315][note 8] In addition, several cities such as Oakland, Berkeley and Davis have declared themselves as nuclear-free zones. Transportation Main article: Transportation in California See also: History of rail transportation in California The Golden Gate Bridge in the San Francisco Bay Area, is one of the most famous bridges in the world. Highways California's vast terrain is connected by an extensive system of controlled-access highways ('freeways'), limited-access roads ('expressways'), and highways. California is known for its car culture, giving California's cities a reputation for severe traffic congestion. Construction and maintenance of state roads and statewide transportation planning are primarily the responsibility of the California Department of Transportation, nicknamed "Caltrans". The rapidly growing population of the state is straining all of its transportation networks, and California has some of the worst roads in the United States.[317][318] The Reason Foundation's 19th Annual Report on the Performance of State Highway Systems ranked California's highways the third-worst of any state, with Alaska second, and Rhode Island first.[319] San Francisco Bay Ferry is a public water taxi system in the Bay Area. The state has been a pioneer in road construction. One of the state's more visible landmarks, the Golden Gate Bridge, was the longest suspension bridge main span in the world at 4,200 feet (1,300 m) between 1937 (when it opened) and 1964. With its orange paint and panoramic views of the bay, this highway bridge is a popular tourist attraction and also accommodates pedestrians and bicyclists. The San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge (often abbreviated the "Bay Bridge"), completed in 1936, transports about 280,000 vehicles per day on two-decks. Its two sections meet at Yerba Buena Island through the world's largest diameter transportation bore tunnel, at 76 feet (23 m) wide by 58 feet (18 m) high.[320] The Arroyo Seco Parkway, connecting Los Angeles and Pasadena, opened in 1940 as the first freeway in the Western United States.[321] It was later extended south to the Four Level Interchange in downtown Los Angeles, regarded as the first stack interchange ever built.[322] The California Highway Patrol is the largest statewide police agency in the United States in employment with more than 10,000 employees. They are responsible for providing any police-sanctioned service to anyone on California's state-maintained highways and on state property. By the end of 2021, 30,610,058 people in California held a California Department of Motor Vehicles-issued driver's licenses or state identification card, and there were 36,229,205 registered vehicles, including 25,643,076 automobiles, 853,368 motorcycles, 8,981,787 trucks and trailers, and 121,716 miscellaneous vehicles (including historical vehicles and farm equipment).[323] Air travel Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), the 4th busiest airport in the world in 2018, and San Francisco International Airport (SFO), the 25th busiest airport in the world in 2018, are major hubs for trans-Pacific and transcontinental traffic. There are about a dozen important commercial airports and many more general aviation airports throughout the state. Los Angeles Intl. Airport (LAX) is the 4th busiest airport in the world. Railroads Amtrak California's Pacific Surfliner in San Clemente, on the Orange Coast Inter-city rail travel is provided by Amtrak California; the three routes, the Capitol Corridor, Pacific Surfliner, and San Joaquin, are funded by Caltrans. These services are the busiest intercity rail lines in the United States outside the Northeast Corridor and ridership is continuing to set records. The routes are becoming increasingly popular over flying, especially on the LAX-SFO route.[324] Integrated subway and light rail networks are found in Los Angeles (Metro Rail) and San Francisco (MUNI Metro). Light rail systems are also found in San Jose (VTA), San Diego (San Diego Trolley), Sacramento (RT Light Rail), and Northern San Diego County (Sprinter). Furthermore, commuter rail networks serve the San Francisco Bay Area (ACE, BART, Caltrain, SMART), Greater Los Angeles (Metrolink), and San Diego County (Coaster). The California High-Speed Rail Authority was authorized in 1996 by the state legislature to plan a California High-Speed Rail system to put before the voters. The plan they devised, 2008 California Proposition 1A, connecting all the major population centers in the state, was approved by the voters at the November 2008 general election.[325] The first phase of construction was begun in 2015, and the first segment 171 miles (275 km) long, is planned to be put into operation by the end of 2030. Planning and work on the rest of the system is continuing, although funding for completing it is an ongoing issue.[326] California is the first state to develop an integrated passenger rail master plan, the California State Rail Modernization Plan (2023 Draft).[327] This shows how the state anticipates the HSR system will integrate with other passenger rail systems in the state. One key element is a pulsed synchronization of scheules to facilitate passenger transfers between systems. There is also a two-page California State Rail Modernization Plan Factsheet available.[328] Busses Nearly all counties operate bus lines, and many cities operate their own city bus lines as well. Intercity bus travel is provided by Greyhound, Megabus, and Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach. Water Main article: Water in California Lake Shasta, in the Shasta Cascade region, is California's largest reservoir. California's interconnected water system is the world's largest, managing over 40,000,000 acre-feet (49 km3) of water per year, centered on six main systems of aqueducts and infrastructure projects.[329] Water use and conservation in California is a politically divisive issue, as the state experiences periodic droughts and has to balance the demands of its large agricultural and urban sectors, especially in the arid southern portion of the state. The state's widespread redistribution of water also invites the frequent scorn of environmentalists. The California Water Wars, a conflict between Los Angeles and the Owens Valley over water rights, is one of the most well-known examples of the struggle to secure adequate water supplies.[330] Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said: "We've been in crisis for quite some time because we're now 38 million people and not anymore 18 million people like we were in the late 60s. So it developed into a battle between environmentalists and farmers and between the south and the north and between rural and urban. And everyone has been fighting for the last four decades about water."[331] Government and politics The California Capitol in Sacramento, seat of the California government, hosts the California Legislature and the Governor of California. State government Main article: Government of California The capital city of California is Sacramento.[332] The state is organized into three branches of government—the executive branch consisting of the governor[333] and the other independently elected constitutional officers; the legislative branch consisting of the Assembly and Senate;[334] and the judicial branch consisting of the Supreme Court of California and lower courts.[335] The state also allows ballot propositions: direct participation of the electorate by initiative, referendum, recall, and ratification.[336] Before the passage of Proposition 14 in 2010, California allowed each political party to choose whether to have a closed primary or a primary where only party members and independents vote. After June 8, 2010, when Proposition 14 was approved, excepting only the United States president and county central committee offices,[337] all candidates in the primary elections are listed on the ballot with their preferred party affiliation, but they are not the official nominee of that party.[338] At the primary election, the two candidates with the top votes will advance to the general election regardless of party affiliation.[338] If at a special primary election, one candidate receives more than 50% of all the votes cast, they are elected to fill the vacancy and no special general election will be held.[338] Executive branch Main articles: California executive branch, Governor of California, and List of California state agencies The Stanford Mansion is the official reception center for the California government and one of the workplaces of the Governor of California. The California executive branch consists of the governor and seven other elected constitutional officers: lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, state controller, state treasurer, insurance commissioner, and state superintendent of public instruction. They serve four-year terms and may be re-elected only once.[339] The many California state agencies that are under the governor's cabinet are grouped together to form cabinet-level entities that are referred to by government officials as "superagencies". Those departments that are directly under the other independently elected officers work separately from these superagencies.[340][341] Legislative branch Main article: California Legislature The California State Legislature consists of a 40-member Senate and 80-member Assembly.[342] Senators serve four-year terms and Assembly members two. Members of the Assembly are subject to term limits of six terms, and members of the Senate are subject to term limits of three terms. Judicial branch Main article: Judiciary of California The Supreme Court of California is headquartered at the Earl Warren Building (shown) in San Francisco, but also meets in Sacramento and Los Angeles. California's legal system is explicitly based upon English common law[343] but carries many features from Spanish civil law, such as community property. California's prison population grew from 25,000 in 1980 to over 170,000 in 2007.[344] Capital punishment is a legal form of punishment and the state has the largest "Death Row" population in the country (though Oklahoma and Texas are far more active in carrying out executions).[345][346] California has performed 13 executions since 1976, with the last being in 2006.[347] California's judiciary system is the largest in the United States with a total of 1,600 judges (the federal system has only about 840). At the apex is the seven-member Supreme Court of California, while the California Courts of Appeal serve as the primary appellate courts and the California Superior Courts serve as the primary trial courts. Justices of the Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal are appointed by the governor, but are subject to retention by the electorate every 12 years. The administration of the state's court system is controlled by the Judicial Council, composed of the chief justice of the California Supreme Court, 14 judicial officers, four representatives from the State Bar of California, and one member from each house of the state legislature. In fiscal year 2020–2021, the state judiciary's 2,000 judicial officers and 18,000 judicial branch employees processed approximately 4.4 million cases.[348] Local government Main article: Local government in California San Francisco City Hall is the seat of government of the consolidated City and County of San Francisco. California has an extensive system of local government that manages public functions throughout the state. Like most states, California is divided into counties, of which there are 58 (including San Francisco) covering the entire state. Most urbanized areas are incorporated as cities. School districts, which are independent of cities and counties, handle public education. Many other functions, such as fire protection and water supply, especially in unincorporated areas, are handled by special districts. Counties See also: List of counties in California California is divided into 58 counties. Per Article 11, Section 1, of the Constitution of California, they are the legal subdivisions of the state. The county government provides countywide services such as law enforcement, jails, elections and voter registration, vital records, property assessment and records, tax collection, public health, health care, social services, libraries, flood control, fire protection, animal control, agricultural regulations, building inspections, ambulance services, and education departments in charge of maintaining statewide standards.[349][350] In addition, the county serves as the local government for all unincorporated areas. Each county is governed by an elected board of supervisors.[351] City and town governments See also: List of municipalities in California Los Angeles City Hall, seat of the Government of Los Angeles Incorporated cities and towns in California are either charter or general-law municipalities.[180] General-law municipalities owe their existence to state law and are consequently governed by it; charter municipalities are governed by their own city or town charters. Municipalities incorporated in the 19th century tend to be charter municipalities. All ten of the state's most populous cities are charter cities. Most small cities have a council–manager form of government, where the elected city council appoints a city manager to supervise the operations of the city. Some larger cities have a directly elected mayor who oversees the city government. In many council-manager cities, the city council selects one of its members as a mayor, sometimes rotating through the council membership—but this type of mayoral position is primarily ceremonial. The Government of San Francisco is the only consolidated city-county in California, where both the city and county governments have been merged into one unified jurisdiction. School districts and special districts See also: List of school districts in California Los Angeles Unified School District is the second largest school district in the United States by enrollment. About 1,102 school districts, independent of cities and counties, handle California's public education.[352] California school districts may be organized as elementary districts, high school districts, unified school districts combining elementary and high school grades, or community college districts.[352] There are about 3,400 special districts in California.[353] A special district, defined by California Government Code § 16271(d) as "any agency of the state for the local performance of governmental or proprietary functions within limited boundaries", provides a limited range of services within a defined geographic area. The geographic area of a special district can spread across multiple cities or counties, or could consist of only a portion of one. Most of California's special districts are single-purpose districts, and provide one service. Federal representation Main article: United States congressional delegations from California See also: California's congressional districts Members of the California Congressional Delegation in 2020 The state of California sends 52 members to the House of Representatives,[354] the nation's largest congressional state delegation. Consequently, California also has the largest number of electoral votes in national presidential elections, with 54. The current speaker of the House of Representatives is the representative of California's 20th district, Kevin McCarthy.[355] California is represented by U.S. senators Dianne Feinstein, a native and former mayor of San Francisco, and Alex Padilla, a native and former secretary of state of California. Former U.S. senator Kamala Harris, a native, former district attorney from San Francisco, former attorney general of California, resigned on January 18, 2021, to assume her role as the current Vice President of the United States. In the 1992 U.S. Senate election, California became the first state to elect a Senate delegation entirely composed of women, due to the victories of Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.[356] Set to follow the Vice President-Elect, Gov. Newsom appointed Secretary of State Alex Padilla to finish the rest of Harris's term which ends in 2022, Padilla has vowed to run for the full term in that election cycle. Padilla was sworn in on January 20, 2021, the same day as the inauguration of Joe Biden as well as Harris.[357][358] Armed forces See also: California during World War II View of NAS North Island at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego In California, as of 2009, the U.S. Department of Defense had a total of 117,806 active duty servicemembers of which 88,370 were Sailors or Marines, 18,339 were Airmen, and 11,097 were Soldiers, with 61,365 Department of Defense civilian employees. Additionally, there were a total of 57,792 Reservists and Guardsman in California.[359] In 2010, Los Angeles County was the largest origin of military recruits in the United States by county, with 1,437 individuals enlisting in the military.[360] However, as of 2002, Californians were relatively under-represented in the military as a proportion to its population.[361] In 2000, California, had 2,569,340 veterans of United States military service: 504,010 served in World War II, 301,034 in the Korean War, 754,682 during the Vietnam War, and 278,003 during 1990–2000 (including the Persian Gulf War).[362] As of 2010, there were 1,942,775 veterans living in California, of which 1,457,875 served during a period of armed conflict, and just over four thousand served before World War II (the largest population of this group of any state).[363] California's military forces consist of the Army and Air National Guard, the naval and state military reserve (militia), and the California Cadet Corps. On August 5, 1950, a nuclear-capable United States Air Force Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber carrying a nuclear bomb crashed shortly after takeoff from Fairfield-Suisun Air Force Base. Brigadier General Robert F. Travis, command pilot of the bomber, was among the dead.[364] Ideology Main articles: Politics of California and Elections in California See also: Politics of California before 1900 and Political party strength in California California registered voters as of October 24, 2022[365] Party Number of voters Percentage Party registration by county (October 2022):   Democrat ≥ 30%   Democrat ≥ 40%   Democrat ≥ 50%   Republican ≥ 30%   Republican ≥ 40%   Republican ≥ 50% Democratic 10,283,258 46.87% Republican 5,232,094 23.85% No Party Preference 4,943,696 22.53% American Independent 777,152 3.54% Libertarian 231,459 1.05% Peace and Freedom 123,037 0.56% Green 96,229 0.44% Other 253,349 1.16% Total 21,940,274 100% California has an idiosyncratic political culture compared to the rest of the country, and is sometimes regarded as a trendsetter.[366] In socio-cultural mores and national politics, Californians are perceived as more liberal than other Americans, especially those who live in the inland states. In the 2016 United States presidential election, California had the third highest percentage of Democratic votes behind the District of Columbia and Hawaii.[367] In the 2020 United States presidential election, it had the 6th highest behind the District of Columbia, Vermont, Massachusetts, Maryland, and Hawaii. According to the Cook Political Report, California contains five of the 15 most Democratic congressional districts in the United States. Among the political idiosyncrasies, California was the second state to recall their state governor (the first state being North Dakota in 1921), the second state to legalize abortion, and the only state to ban marriage for gay couples twice by vote (including Proposition 8 in 2008). Voters also passed Proposition 71 in 2004 to fund stem cell research, making California the second state to legalize stem cell research after New Jersey, and Proposition 14 in 2010 to completely change the state's primary election process. California has also experienced disputes over water rights; and a tax revolt, culminating with the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, limiting state property taxes. California voters have rejected affirmative action on multiple occasions, most recently in November 2020. The state's trend towards the Democratic Party and away from the Republican Party can be seen in state elections. From 1899 to 1939, California had Republican governors. Since 1990, California has generally elected Democratic candidates to federal, state and local offices, including current Governor Gavin Newsom; however, the state has elected Republican Governors, though many of its Republican Governors, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, tend to be considered moderate Republicans and more centrist than the national party. Anti-war protesters and pro-military counterprotesters in Berkeley (2008) Several political movements have advocated for California independence. The California National Party and the California Freedom Coalition both advocate for California independence along the lines of progressivism and civic nationalism.[368] The Yes California movement attempted to organize an independence referendum via ballot initiative for 2019, which was then postponed.[369] The Democrats also now hold a supermajority in both houses of the state legislature. There are 62 Democrats and 18 Republicans in the Assembly; and 32 Democrats and 8 Republicans in the Senate. The trend towards the Democratic Party is most obvious in presidential elections. From 1952 through 1988, California was a Republican leaning state, with the party carrying the state's electoral votes in nine of ten elections, with 1964 as the exception. Southern California Republicans Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan were both elected twice as the 37th and 40th U.S. Presidents, respectively. However, Democrats have won all of California's electoral votes for the last eight elections, starting in 1992. In the United States House, the Democrats held a 34–19 edge in the CA delegation of the 110th United States Congress in 2007. As the result of gerrymandering, the districts in California were usually dominated by one or the other party, and few districts were considered competitive. In 2008, Californians passed Proposition 20 to empower a 14-member independent citizen commission to redraw districts for both local politicians and Congress. After the 2012 elections, when the new system took effect, Democrats gained four seats and held a 38–15 majority in the delegation. Following the 2018 midterm House elections, Democrats won 46 out of 53 congressional house seats in California, leaving Republicans with seven. Occupy Los Angeles movement (2011) In general, Democratic strength is centered in the populous coastal regions of the Los Angeles metropolitan area and the San Francisco Bay Area. Republican strength is still greatest in eastern parts of the state. Orange County had remained largely Republican until the 2016 and 2018 elections, in which a majority of the county's votes were cast for Democratic candidates.[370][371] One study ranked Berkeley, Oakland, Inglewood and San Francisco in the top 20 most liberal American cities; and Bakersfield, Orange, Escondido, Garden Grove, and Simi Valley in the top 20 most conservative cities.[372] In October 2022, out of the 26,876,800 people eligible to vote, 21,940,274 people were registered to vote.[373] Of the people registered, the three largest registered groups were Democrats (10,283,258), Republicans (5,232,094), and No Party Preference (4,943,696).[373] Los Angeles County had the largest number of registered Democrats (2,996,565) and Republicans (958,851) of any county in the state.[373] California retains the death penalty, though it has not been used since 2006.[374] There is currently a gubernatorial hold on executions. Authorized methods of execution include the gas chamber.[375] Twinned regions California has region twinning arrangements with: Catalonia Catalonia, autonomous community of Spain Spain[376] Alberta Alberta, province of Canada Canada[134][377] National prohibition of alcohol (1920-33)--the "noble experiment"--was undertaken to reduce crime and corruption, solve social problems, reduce the tax burden created by prisons and poorhouses, and improve health and hygiene in America. The results of that experiment clearly indicate that it was a miserable failure on all counts. The evidence affirms sound economic theory, which predicts that prohibition of mutually beneficial exchanges is doomed to failure. The lessons of Prohibition remain important today. They apply not only to the debate over the war on drugs but also to the mounting efforts to drastically reduce access to alcohol and tobacco and to such issues as censorship and bans on insider trading, abortion, and gambling.[1] Although consumption of alcohol fell at the beginning of Prohibition, it subsequently increased. Alcohol became more dangerous to consume; crime increased and became "organized"; the court and prison systems were stretched to the breaking point; and corruption of public officials was rampant. No measurable gains were made in productivity or reduced absenteeism. Prohibition removed a significant source of tax revenue and greatly increased government spending. It led many drinkers to switch to opium, marijuana, patent medicines, cocaine, and other dangerous substances that they would have been unlikely to encounter in the absence of Prohibition. Those results are documented from a variety of sources, most of which, ironically, are the work of supporters of Prohibition--most economists and social scientists supported it. Their findings make the case against Prohibition that much stronger.[2] The Iron Law of Prohibition According to its proponents, all the proposed benefits of Prohibition depended on, or were a function of, reducing the quantity of alcohol consumed. At first glance, the evidence seems to suggest that the quantity consumed did indeed decrease. That would be no surprise to an economist: making a product more difficult to supply will increase its price, and the quantity consumed will be less than it would have been otherwise. Evidence of decreased consumption is provided by two important American economists, Irving Fisher and Clark Warburton.[3] It should be noted that annual per capita consumption and the percentage of annual per capita income spent on alcohol had been steadily falling before Prohibition and that annual spending on alcohol during Prohibition was greater than it had been before Prohibition.[4] The decrease in quantity consumed needs at least four qualifications--qualifications that undermine any value that a prohibitionist might claim for reduced consumption. First, the decrease was not very significant. Warburton found that the quantity of alcohol purchased may have fallen 20 percent between the prewar years 1911-14 and 1927-30. Prohibition fell far short of eliminating the consumption of alcohol.[5] Second, consumption of alcohol actually rose steadily after an initial drop. Annual per capita consumption had been declining since 1910, reached an all-time low during the depression of 1921, and then began to increase in 1922. Consumption would probably have surpassed pre-Prohibition levels even if Prohibition had not been repealed in 1933.[6] Illicit production and distribution continued to expand throughout Prohibition despite ever-increasing resources devoted to enforcement.[7] That pattern of consumption, shown in Figure 1, is to be expected after an entire industry is banned: new entrepreneurs in the underground economy improve techniques and expand output, while consumers begin to realize the folly of the ban. Third, the resources devoted to enforcement of Prohibition increased along with consumption. Heightened enforcement did not curtail consumption. The annual budget of the Bureau of Prohibition went from $4.4 million to $13.4 milion during the 1920s, while Coast Guard spending on Prohibition averaged over $13 million per year.[8] To those amounts should be added the expenditures of state and local governments. Figure 1 Per Capita Consumption of Alcoholic Beverages (Gallons of Pure Alcohol) 1910-1929. Source: Clark Warburton, The Economic Results of Prohibition (New York: Columbia University Press, 1932), pp. 23- 26, 72. The fourth qualification may actually be the most important: a decrease in the quantity of alcohol consumed did not make Prohibition a success. Even if we agree that society would be better off if less alcohol were consumed, it does not follow that lessening consumption through Prohibition made society better off. We must consider the overall social consequences of Prohibition, not just reduced alcohol consumption. Prohibition had pervasive (and perverse) ef fects on every aspect of alcohol production, distribution, and consumption. Changing the rules from those of the free market to those of Prohibition broke the link that prohibitionists had assumed between consumption and social evil. The rule changes also caused unintended consequences to enter the equation. The most notable of those consequences has been labeled the "Iron Law of Prohibition" by Richard Cowan.[9] That law states that the more intense the law enforcement, the more potent the prohibited substance becomes. When drugs or alcoholic beverages are prohibited, they will become more potent, will have greater variability in potency, will be adulterated with unknown or dangerous substances, and will not be produced and consumed under normal market constraints. [10] The Iron Law undermines the prohibitionist case and reduces or outweighs the benefits ascribed to a decrease in consumption. Statistics indicate that for a long time Americans spent a falling share of income on alcoholic beverages. They also purchased higher quality brands and weaker types of alcoholic beverages. Before Prohibition, Americans spent roughly equal amounts on beer and spirits.[11] However, during Prohibition virtually all production, and therefore consumption, was of distilled spirits and fortified wines. Beer became relatively more expensive because of its bulk, and it might have disappeared altogether except for homemade beer and near beer, which could be converted into real beer.[12] Figure 2 shows that the underground economy swiftly moved from the production of beer to the production of the more potent form of alcohol, spirits.[13] Prohibition made it more difficult to supply weaker, bulkier products, such as beer, than stronger, compact products, such as whiskey, because the largest cost of selling an illegal product is avoiding detection.[14] Therefore, while all alcohol prices rose, the price of whiskey rose more slowly than that of beer. Fisher used retail alcohol prices to demonstrate that Prohibition was working by raising the price and decreasing the quantity produced. However, his price quotations also revealed that the Iron Law of Prohibition was at work. The price of beer increased by more than 700 percent, and that of brandies increased by 433 percent, but spirit prices in creased by only 270 percent, which led to an absolute in crease in the consumption of spirits over pre-Prohibition levels.[15] A number of observers of Prohibition noted that the potency of alcoholic products rose. Not only did producers and consumers switch to stronger alcoholic beverages (from beer to whiskey), but producers supplied stronger forms of particular beverages, such as fortified wine. The typical beer, wine, or whiskey contained a higher percentage of alcohol by volume during Prohibition than it did before or after. Fisher, for example, referred to "White Mule Whiskey," a name that clearly indicates that the product had quite a kick. Most estimates place the potency of prohibition-era products at 150+ percent of the potency of products produced either before or after Prohibition.[16] Figure 2 Total Expenditure on Distilled Spirts as a Percentage of Total Alcohol Sales (1890-1960) Source: Clark Warburton, The Economic Result of Prohibition (New York: Columbia University Press, 1932), pp. 114- 15; and Licensed Beverage Industry, Facts about the Licensed Beverage Industry (New York: LBI, 1961), pp. 54-55. Even Fisher, the preeminent academic supporter of Prohibition, recognized the danger of such products. I am credibly informed that a very conservative reckoning would set the poisonous effects of bootleg beverages as compared with medicinal liquors at ten to one; that is, it requires only a tenth as much bootleg liquor as of pre-prohibition liquor to produce a given degree of drunkenness. The reason, of course, is that bootleg liquor is so concentrated and almost invariably contains other and more deadly poisons than mere ethyl alcohol.[17] There were few if any production standards during Prohibition, and the potency and quality of products varied greatly, making it difficult to predict their effect. The production of moonshine during Prohibition was undertaken by an army of amateurs and often resulted in products that could harm or kill the consumer. Those products were also likely to contain dangerous adulterants, a government requirement for industrial alcohol. According to Thomas Coffey, "the death rate from poisoned liquor was appallingly high throughout the country. In 1925 the national toll was 4,154 as compared to 1,064 in 1920. And the increasing number of deaths created a public relations problem for . . . the drys because they weren't exactly accidental."[18] Will Rogers remarked that "governments used to murder by the bullet only. Now it's by the quart." Patterns of consumption changed during Prohibition. It could be argued that Prohibition increased the demand for alcohol among three groups. It heightened the attractiveness of alcohol to the young by making it a glamour product associated with excitement and intrigue. The high prices and profits during Prohibition enticed sellers to try to market their products to nondrinkers--undoubtedly, with some success. Finally, many old-stock Americans and recent immigrants were unwilling to be told that they could not drink. According to Lee, "Men were drinking defiantly, with a sense of high purpose, a kind of dedicated drinking that you don't see much of today."[19] Prohibition may actually have increased drinking and intemperance by increasing the availability of alcohol. One New Jersey businessman claimed that there were 10 times more places one could get a drink during Prohibition than there had been before.[20] It is not surprising that, given their hidden locations and small size, speakeasies outnumbered saloons. Lee found that there were twice as many speak easies in Rochester, New York, as saloons closed by Prohibition. That was more or less true throughout the country. Another setback for prohibitionists was their loss of control over the location of drinking establishments. Until Prohibition, prohibitionists had used local ordinances, taxes, licensing laws and regulations, and local-option laws to prevent or discourage the sale of alcohol in the center city, near churches and schools, on Sundays and election days, and in their neighborhoods. Prohibition eliminated those political tools and led to the establishment of speak easies in business districts, middle-class neighborhoods, and other locations that were formerly dry, or gave the ap pearance of being dry. Prohibition also led many people to drink more "legitimate" alcohol, such as patent medicines (which contained high concentrations of alcohol), medicinal alcohol, and sacramental alcohol.[21] The amount of alcoholic liquors sold by physicians and hospitals doubled between 1923 and 1931. The amount of medicinal alcohol (95 percent pure alcohol) sold increased by 400 percent during the same time.[22] Those increases occurred despite rigorous new regulations. Prohibitionists wanted and expected people to switch their spending from alcohol to dairy products, modern appliances, life insurance, savings, and education. That simply did not happen. Not only did spending on alcohol increase, so did spending on substitutes for alcohol. In addition to patent medicines, consumers switched to narcotics, hashish, tobacco, and marijuana. Those products were potentially more dangerous and addictive than alcohol, and procuring them often brought users into contact with a more dangerous, criminal element.[23] The harmful results of the Iron Law of Prohibition more than offset any benefits of decreasing consumption, which had been anticipated but did not occur. Prohibition Was Not a Healthy Move One of the few bright spots for which the prohibitionists can present some supporting evidence is the decline in "alcohol-related deaths" during Prohibition. On closer examination, however, that success is an illusion. Prohibition did not improve health and hygiene in America as anticipated. Cirrhosis of the liver has been found to pose a significant health risk, particularly in women who consume more than four drinks per day.[24] However, deaths due to cirrhois and alcoholism are a small portion of the total number of deaths each year, and alcohol can be considered only a contributing cause of most of those deaths.[25] Many people who do not drink develop cirrhosis, and the vast majority of heavy drinkers never develop it.[26] Dr. Snell of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, reported in 1931 that "we know now that cirrhosis occurs in only 4 per cent of alcoholic individuals."[27] Even in the worst pre-Prohibition year, recorded deaths due to alcoholism and cirrhosis of the liver amounted to less than 1.5 percent of total deaths. An examination of death rates does reveal a dramatic drop in deaths due to alcoholism and cirrhosis, but the drop occurred during World War I, before enforcement of Prohibition.[28] The death rate from alcoholism bottomed out just before the enforcement of Prohibition and then returned to pre-World War I levels.[29] That was probably the result of increased consumption during Prohibition and the consumption of more potent and poisonous alcoholic beverages. The death rate from alcoholism and cirrhosis also declined rather dramatically in Denmark, Ireland, and Great Britain during World War I, but rates in those countries continued to fall during the 1920s (in the absence of prohibition) when rates in the United States were either rising or stable.[30] Prohibitionists such as Irving Fisher lamented that the drunkards must be forgotten in order to concentrate the benefits of Prohibition on the young. Prevent the young from drinking and let the older alcoholic generations die out. However, if that had happened, we could expect the average age of people dying from alcoholism and cirrhosis to have increased. But the average age of people dying from alcoholism fell by six months between 1916 and 1923, a period of otherwise general improvement in the health of young people.[31] There appear to have been no health benefits from Prohibition.[32] On the contrary, the harmlessness and even health benefits of consumption of a moderate amount of alco- hol have been long established. As early as 1927 Clarence Darrow and Victor Yarros could cite several studies showing that moderate drinking does not shorten life or seriously affect health and that in general it may be beneficial.[33] According to the eminent Harvard psychologist Hugo Månster berg, "there exists no scientifically sound fact which demonstrates evil effects from a temperate use of alcohol by normal adult men."[34] Studies continue to find the same results and that problems with alcohol are associated with excess--a problem with most goods.[35] Gene Ford cites 17 recent studies that provide evidence of the benefits to the heart and cardiovas cular system of moderate drinking.[36] The evidence appears so strong that the American Heart Association has conceded that "modest alcohol consumption has been associated with beneficial effects," and that "an increased HDL-cholesterol [the good kind] level appears to be a dividend of moderate consumption of alcohol."[37] Not all prohibitionists were blind to the potential benefits of alcohol. However, many were technocrats or Progressives, and if some benefit of alcohol were admitted they would have been forced to conclude that the government should act to encourage moderate consumption of alcohol. One technocrat-economist, Thomas Carver, was familiar with the "possibility" that moderate drinking could be beneficial,[38] but according to Fisher, he was "a courageous scholar" and discarded that possibility to pursue the undeniable benefits of Prohibition. Prohibition Was Criminal At the beginning of Prohibition, the Reverend Billy Sunday stirred audiences with this optimistic prediction: The reign of tears is over. The slums will soon be a memory. We will turn our prisons into factories and our jails into storehouses and corncribs. Men will walk upright now, women will smile and children will laugh. Hell will be forever for rent.[39] Sunday's expectations of Prohibition were never realized. He and other champions of Prohibition expected it to reduce crime and solve a host of social problems by eliminating the Demon Rum. Early temperance reformers claimed that alcohol was responsible for everything from disease to broken homes. High on their list of evils were the crime and poverty associated with intemperance. They felt that the burden of taxes could be reduced if prisons and poorhouses could be emptied by abstinence. That perspective was largely based on interviews of inmates of prisons and poorhouses who claimed that their crimes and poverty were the result of alcohol.[40] Social "scientists" later used those correlations as propaganda "to persuade many people to turn to saloon suppression and prohibition."[41] America had experienced a gradual decline in the rate of serious crimes over much of the 19th and early 20th centuries. That trend was unintentionally reversed by the efforts of the Prohibition movement. The homicide rate in large cities increased from 5.6 per 100,000 population during the first decade of the century to 8.4 during the second decade when the Harrison Narcotics Act, a wave of state alcohol prohibitions, and World War I alcohol restrictions were enacted. The homicide rate increased to 10 per 100,000 population during the 1920s, a 78 percent increase over the pre-Prohibition period. The Volstead Act, passed to enforce the Eighteenth Amendment, had an immediate impact on crime. According to a study of 30 major U.S. cities, the number of crimes increased 24 percent between 1920 and 1921. The study revealed that during that period more money was spent on po- lice (11.4+ percent) and more people were arrested for violating Prohibition laws (102+ percent). But increased law enforcement efforts did not appear to reduce drinking: arrests for drunkenness and disorderly conduct increased 41 percent, and arrests of drunken drivers increased 81 percent. Among crimes with victims, thefts and burglaries increased 9 percent, while homicides and incidents of assault and battery increased 13 percent.[42] More crimes were committed because prohibition destroys legal jobs, creates black-market violence, diverts resources from enforcement of other laws, and greatly increases the prices people have to pay for the prohibited goods. Instead of emptying the prisons as its supporters had hoped it would, Prohibition quickly filled the prisons to capacity. Those convicted of additional crimes with victims (burglaries, robberies, and murders), which were due to Prohibition and the black market, were incarcerated largely in city and county jails and state prisons. According to Towne, "The Sing Sing prison deported no less than sixty prisoners to Auburn in May 1922 because of overcrowding." Figure 3 shows the tremendous increase in the prison population at Sing Sing in the early years of Prohibition.[43] Figure 3 Inmates at Sing Sing Prison: 1917-22 Source: Charles Hanson Towne, The Rise and Fall of Prohibition (New York: Macmillan, 1923) p. 162. Before Prohibition and the Harrison Narcotics Act (1914), there had been 4,000 federal convicts, fewer than 3,000 of whom were housed in federal prisons. By 1932 the number of federal convicts had increased 561 percent, to 26,589, and the federal prison population had increased 366 percent.[44] Much of the increase was due to violations of the Volstead Act and other Prohibition laws. The number of people convicted of Prohibition violations increased 1,000 percent between 1925 and 1930, and fully half of all prisoners received in 1930 had been convicted of such violations. Two-thirds of all prisoners received in 1930 had been convicted of alcohol and drug offenses, and that figure rises to 75 percent of violators if other commercial prohibitions are included.[45] The explosion in the prison population greatly increased spending on prisons and led to severe overcrowding. Total federal expenditures on penal institutions increased more than 1,000 percent between 1915 and 1932. Despite those expenditures and new prison space, prisons were severely overcrowded. In 1929 the normal capacity of Atlanta Penitentiary and Leavenworth Prison was approximately 1,500 each, but their actual population exceeded 3,700 each.[46] To some the crime wave of the 1920s remained a mere "state of mind" due mostly to media hype. For example, Dr. Fabian Franklin noted that according to one measure, crime had decreased 37.7 percent between 1910 and 1923. However, the apparent contradiction between the media hype and Franklin's declining crime statistic is resolved by the realiza- tion that violent and serious crime had increased (hence the media hype), while less serious crime had decreased. For example, theft of property increased 13.2 percent, homicide increased 16.1 percent, and robbery rose 83.3 percent between 1910 and 1923, while minor crimes (which were large in number) such as vagrancy, malicious mischief, and public swearing decreased over 50 percent.[47] Even Franklin had to admit that the increased homicides may have been related to the "illegal traffic." The number of violations of Prohibition laws and violent crimes against persons and property continued to in- crease throughout Prohibition. Figure 4 shows an undeniable relationship between Prohibition and an increase in the homicide rate. The homicide rate increased from 6 per 100,000 population in the pre-Prohibition period to nearly 10 per 100,000 in 1933. That rising trend was reversed by the repeal of Prohibition in 1933, and the rate continued to decline throughout the 1930s and early 1940s.[48] Figure 4 Homicide Rate: 1910-44 Source: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1975), part 1, p. 414. (Graph Omitted) Not only did the number of serious crimes increase, but crime became organized. Criminal groups organize around the steady source of income provided by laws against victimless crimes such as consuming alcohol or drugs, gambling, and prostitution. In the process of providing goods and services, those criminal organizations resort to real crimes in defense of sales territories, brand names, and labor contracts. That is true of extensive crime syndicates (the Mafia) as well as street gangs, a criminal element that first surfaced during Prohibition.[49] The most telling sign of the relationship between serious crime and Prohibition was the dramatic reversal in the rates for robbery, burglary, murder, and assault when Prohibition was repealed in 1933. That dramatic reversal has Marxist and business-cycle crime theorists puzzled to this day. For example, sociologist John Pandiani noted that "a major wave of crime appears to have begun as early as the mid 1920s [and] increased continually until 1933 . . . when it mysteriously reversed itself."[50] Theodore Ferdinand also found a "mysterious" decline that began in 1933 and lasted throughout the 1930s.[51] How could they miss the significance of the fact that the crime rate dropped in 1933? Prohibition Caused Corruption It was hoped that Prohibition would eliminate corrupting influences in society; instead, Prohibition itself be- came a major source of corruption. Everyone from major politicians to the cop on the beat took bribes from bootleggers, moonshiners, crime bosses, and owners of speakeasies. The Bureau of Prohibition was particularly susceptible and had to be reorganized to reduce corruption. According to Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Lincoln C. Andrews, "conspiracies are nation wide in extent, in great numbers, organized, well-financed, and cleverly conducted."[52] Despite additional resources and reorganization, corruption continued within the bureau. Commissioner of Prohibition Henry Anderson concluded that "the fruitless efforts at enforcement are creating public disregard not only for this law but for all laws. Public corruption through the purchase of official protection for this illegal traffic is widespread and notorious. The courts are cluttered with prohibition cases to an extent which seriously affects the entire administration of justice."[53] Prohibition not only created the Bureau of Prohibition, it gave rise to a dramatic increase in the size and power of other government agencies as well. Between 1920 and 1930 employment at the Customs Service increased 45 percent, and the service's annual budget increased 123 percent. Personnel of the Coast Guard increased 188 percent during the 1920s, and its budget increased more than 500 percent between 1915 and 1932. Those increases were primarily due to the Coast Guard's and the Customs Service's role in enforcing Prohibition.[54] Conclusion: Lessons for Today Prohibition, which failed to improve health and virtue in America, can afford some invaluable lessons. First, it can provide some perspective on the current crisis in drug prohibition--a 75-year effort that is increasingly viewed as a failure. Repeal of Prohibition dramatically reduced crime, including organized crime, and corruption. Jobs were created, and new voluntary efforts, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, which was begun in 1934, succeeded in helping alcoholics. Those lessons can be applied to the current crisis in drug prohibition and the problems of drug abuse. Second, the lessons of Prohibition should be used to curb the urge to prohibit. Neoprohibition of alcohol and prohibition of tobacco would result in more crime, corruption, and dangerous products and increased government control over the average citizen's life. Finally, Prohibition provides a general lesson that society can no more be successfully engineered in the United States than in the Soviet Union. Prohibition was supposed to be an economic and moral bonanza. Prisons and poorhouses were to be emptied, taxes cut, and social problems eliminated. Productivity was to skyrocket and absenteeism disappear. The economy was to enter a never-ending boom. That utopian outlook was shattered by the stock market crash of 1929. Prohibition did not improve productivity or reduce absenteeism.[55] In contrast, private regulation of employees' drinking improved productivity, reduced absenteeism, and reduced industrial accidents wherever it was tried before, during, and after Prohibition.[56] In summary, Prohibition did not achieve its goals. Instead, it added to the problems it was intended to solve and supplanted other ways of addressing problems. The only beneficiaries of Prohibition were bootleggers, crime bosses, and the forces of big government. Carroll Wooddy concluded that the "Eighteenth Amendment . . . contributed substantially to the growth of government and of government costs in this period [1915-32]."[57] In the aftermath of Prohibition, economist Ludwig von Mises wrote, "Once the principle is admitted that it is the duty of government to protect the individual against his own foolishness, no serious objections can be advanced against further encroachments."[58] The repeal of all prohibition of voluntary exchange is as important to the restoration of liberty now as its enactment was to the cause of big government in the Progressive Era
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