San Francisco, California

San Francisco, California

According to iamaccepted.com, San Francisco is a city of the USA (808,976 residents In 2008; 7,300,000 residents Considering the whole urban agglomeration), in western California. It occupies the northern part of the San Mateo peninsula which, with the opposite Marin peninsula, forms the Golden Gate, the natural channel that connects the Pacific with the San Francisco Bay. Large financial and commercial center on the west coast, it forms the main nucleus of the S.-Oakland metropolitan area (which includes, among others, the cities of Berkeley, Palo Alto and San José). The city has a Mediterranean climate, with scarce rainfall (530 mm per year, which almost all fall between November and April), rainy and mild winters and dry and cool but foggy summers.

The first nucleus of San Francisco dates back to 1776 and is shortly before the construction of a Spanish fort on the Golden Gate, flanked by a mission (S. de Asis), which still exists with the name of Mission Dolores. In 1846, the center, called Yerba Buena, came under US control; renamed San Francisco the following year, it counted less than 1000 inhabitants, but the discovery of the Californian gold deposits (1848) immediately brought its population to 25,000 inhabitants. Around the port the city grew rapidly, which began to extend with the filling of the coastal marshy belt. The disastrous earthquake of 1906, followed by an even more disastrous fire, interrupted growth only briefly, so much so that by 1930 the metropolitan area exceeded one million inhabitants.

The variety of its ethnic component (Whites, Blacks, Asians, Amerindians of Hispanic language and related crosses) and the enhancement of the various cultural contributions make San Francisco cosmopolitan city par excellence, second, in this respect, only to New York. The historic center occupies the north-eastern end of the peninsula and overlooks the oldest section of the very long harbor, behind which lie the Costa dei Barbari and Chinatown districts, in turn dominated by Nob Hill, the ‘hill of the nobles’.

At the base of the economic fortunes of the city are the port activities, which make use of a unique natural site, enhanced by great equipment, and an extremely advantageous position (commercial outlet of the rich Californian economic hinterland and terminus of the most important North American routes for the Far East and for Australia). The tertiary sector, traditional and advanced, especially with financial activities (banking and insurance), with business services, research and development centers, prestigious universities (University of California; University of San Francisco; San Francisco Art Institute), it is by far the most dynamic sector of the San Francisco economy. Since the early 1990s, the growth of the high-tech and multimedia sectors, whose industrial activities are concentrated in the Silicon Valley, axis of sophisticated technology developed under the impulse of Stanford University. The metropolitan area of ​​San Francisco also has shipbuilding, metallurgical, engineering, chemical, petrochemical and textile factories. Tourism is of primary importance, linked to the cultural, social and landscape attractions of the city.

The city’s best-known feature are the steep streets that descend in a straight line to the bay. Since the 1960s, the traditional look of the old town has been significantly renewed by the mushroom-like growth of skyscrapers. Among the various architectures, in addition to the remarkable Morris Store (ora Circle Gallery, 1949) di F.L. Wright:, la St. Mary’s Cathedral (1971; P. Belluschi and PL Nervi), the Trans; america Pyramid (1972; W. Pereira & Ass.), the Embarcadero Center (1971-81; J. Portmann & Ass.; sculptures by Schöffer, Nevelson, Dubuffet etc.). The Moscone Convention Center (1981; Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum) is the first building of the Yerba Buena Center, which also includes a large park (1984; R. Giurgola) and the Center for the arts (1993; F. Maki). The rest of the city is largely made up of residential neighborhoods, even degraded ones, which become dormitory suburbs, such as, for example, San Mateo.

The city is home to many museums: MH de Young Memorial Museum, rebuilt by Herzog & De Meuron in 2005; California Palace of the Legion of Honor; Asian art museum; Museum of modern art (since 1995 in the premises designed by M. Botta); California Academy of Science, from R. Piano, 2007; etc.

BAIA DI San Francisco (engl. San Francisco Bay) Inlet formed by the Pacific in the US coast of California (80 km long, 5 to 20 km wide). It is separated from the ocean by two opposite peninsulas (San Mateo-San Francisco in the S; Marin in the N) and communicates with it via the Golden Gate.

CONFERENCES OF San Francisco From April 26 to June 26, 1945, with the participation of 50 nations invited by Great Britain, the USA, the USSR and China, the conference for the international organization of the United Nations was held and for the discussion, approval and modification of the proposals formulated at the conference from Dumbarton Oaks. The Charter of the United Nations, also known as the Charter of St., signed on June 26, entered into force on October 24, 1945.

On 4 September 1951 the conference opened between the 52 States called to sign the peace treaty with the Japan. Japan gave up Korea, the island of Formosa, at isole Pescadores, Spratly, Paracel, the Kurils, the southern part of Sahalin Island, its former mandates and any future claims on the Antarctic area. The possibility was also foreseen for the victors to demand reparations and the eviction of allied troops from Japan within 90 days of the entry into force of the treaty. USSR, Czechoslovakia and Poland did not join it.

San Francisco, California