Portal:San Francisco Bay Area

The University of California, Berkeley (also referred to as UC Berkeley; Berkeley; California; or simply Cal), is a public research university located in Berkeley, California. The university occupies 1,232 acres (499 ha) on the eastern side of the San Francisco Bay with the central campus resting on 178 acres (72 ha). Berkeley is the flagship institution of the 10 campus University of California system and one of only two UC campuses operating on a semester calendar, the other being UC Merced.

Established in 1868 as the result of the merger of the private College of California and the public Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College in Oakland, Berkeley is the oldest institution in the UC system and offers approximately 350 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines. Berkeley has been charged with providing both "classical" and "practical" education for the state's people. Berkeley co-manages three United States Department of Energy National Laboratories, including the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy. (more...)

Edmund "Ed" Jew (simplified Chinese: 赵悦明; traditional Chinese: 趙悦明; pinyin: Zhào Yuèmíng; Jyutping: ziu6 jyut6 ming4, born 1960 in San Francisco, California) is an incarcerated former Chinese American politician based in San Francisco. He graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in economics and later earned a masters degree in business administration at Golden Gate University. After spending several years as a businessman managing his family enterprises, he entered politics in 1980s and went on to serve in various community organizations. In 1996, he was the volunteer liaison for then District 4 supervisor Leland Yee. In 2002, Yee successfully ran for a seat in the California Assembly, and Jew ran for Yee's seat on the Board of Supervisors in the 2002 election, but was defeated. When Yee's successor Fiona Ma in 2006 ran for state assembly, Jew again ran for supervisor in District 4, which comprises most of the Sunset District. After winning a highly competitive election decided by instant-runoff voting, he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

Six months after he took office, the FBI raided his office and homes for allegedly extorting money from small business owners in his district. Shortly after the raid, the city attorney began investigating Jew for violating residency requirements necessary to hold his supervisor position. In September 2007, he was suspended by Mayor Gavin Newsom and later resigned in the face of extortion and perjury charges. In late 2008, he pled guilty to both charges. He was sentenced to 64 months in federal prison for extortion, and a year in county jail for perjury. (more...)

Walnut Creek is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, about 16 miles (26 kilometres) east of the city of Oakland. With a total estimated population of 67,673, Walnut Creek serves as a hub for its neighboring cities because of its location at the junction of the highways from Sacramento and San Jose (I-680) and San Francisco/Oakland (SR-24) and its accessibility by BART. Its active downtown neighborhood features hundred-year-old buildings and extensive high-end retail establishments, restaurants and entertainment venues.

Walnut Creek owns more open space per capita than any other community in the state of California. In 1974, Walnut Creek voters approved a $6.7 million bond measure that allowed the city to purchase 1,800 acres (730 ha) of undeveloped hillsides, ridge lines, and park sites. Walnut Creek owns parts of Lime Ridge Open Space, Shell Ridge Open Space, Acalanes Ridge Open Space, and Sugarloaf Open Space. (more...)

• The San Jose School District declares bankruptcy
• Dianne Feinstein (pictured) is re-elected mayor of San Francisco
• Tax preparation software company Intuit is founded in Mountain View
• San Francisco General Hospital establishes the first inpatient ward and outpatient clinic in the United States to treat Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
• Charles McCabe, writer of the "Fearless Spectator" and "Himself" columns for the San Francisco Chronicle, dies at his home in North Beach

• ... that the vivid colors of the San Francisco Bay Salt Ponds (pictured), ranging from magenta to blue-green, come from the brine shrimp and microorganisms that thrive in the water?
• ... that the Laguna Creek watershed debouches into the San Francisco Bay near the site of the ghost town of Drawbridge?
• ... that the chase scene from the 1968 Steve McQueen film Bullitt starts on Cesar Chavez Street (then Army Street) before continuing through San Francisco?
• ... that the title of There There, a 2018 novel about urban Indians in Oakland, California, mirrors Gertrude Stein's quip about the city that "There is no there there"?

• ... that after a painted garage door was destroyed, the Precita Eyes muralists salvaged it and merged it into a new one, said to be one of their most beautiful in San Francisco?
• ... that the San Francisco Bay Area will have a new direct rail to ferry connection when the Hercules intermodal rail station and WETA ferry terminal is constructed?
• ... that San Francisco indie rock band LoveLikeFire formed as a result of a Craigslist classified advertisement?
• ... that Thomas Kimmwood Peters was the only newsreel photographer to film the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906?
• ... that San Francisco's 1873 Pigtail Ordinance was deemed unconstitutional because it discriminated against Chinese immigrants?
• ... that Temple Sinai, a Reform synagogue in Oakland, California, grew out of Oakland's Hebrew Benevolent Society in 1875?
• ... that 29 percent of the population of Birds Landing, California can speak Spanish?

July 2008

The Solano Avenue Stroll is an annual street fair held every September, a week after Labor Day, on the Solano Avenue shopping district in Albany and Berkeley, California. Stretching close to 2 miles long and bringing between 250,000 and 300,000 attendees in a single day, it has been called the oldest and largest street festival in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2001, The Library of Congress's American Folklife Center in Washington, D.C. designated the festival as a "National Local Legacy". (video of 2009 Solano Stroll, with musicians and passing BART train, displayed)

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