Portal:San Francisco Bay Area/Intro

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The San Francisco Bay Area, also known as the Bay Area, is a geographically diverse metropolitan region traditionally defined as the nine counties which surround the San Francisco Bay in Northern California. The region extends northward to Healdsburg, about 145 miles (233 km) from Gilroy near the Bay Area's southern extreme. Antioch lies to the east, about 50 miles (80 km) from the Pacific Ocean. Unlike a typical metropolitan area, the Bay Area contains several distinct urban and suburban centers. San Francisco is the traditional financial and cultural center of the Bay Area, though San Jose has since 1990 been the region's most populous city. Oakland is the region's third-largest population center.

The nine counties are frequently subdivided into several distinct groupings. The North Bay includes the counties of Marin, Sonoma, Napa, and Solano; the East Bay encompasses Alameda and Contra Costa counties; the Peninsula refers to much of San Mateo County; and Silicon Valley, somewhat coterminous with the South Bay, occupies Santa Clara County. The City and County of San Francisco, referred to simply as The City, is considered another region in its own right. The San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland combined statistical area also includes Santa Cruz and San Benito County, with parts of Mendocino, Lake, Yolo, San Joaquin and Monterey Counties sometimes also considered part of a greater San Francisco Bay Area.

The Bay Area is home to more than seven million people, features an economy with a thriving high technology sector, world-class universities, and one of the bigger ports on the West Coast. Military bases, airports, cultural institutions and various local and national parks are sprawled over the area and connected by a network of highways, and mass transit systems. (more...)