South San Francisco, California
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| City of South San Francisco | |
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| Nickname: South City; The Industrial City | |
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| Coordinates: | |
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| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| County | San Mateo |
| Incorporated | September 3, 1908 |
| Government | |
| - Mayor | Pedro Gonzalez[1] |
| - Mayor Pro Tem | Karyl Matsumoto[1] |
| - City Manager | Barry Nagel[2] |
| - Councilmembers[1] | Mark Addiego Rich Garbarino Kevin Mullen |
| Area | |
| - Total | 29.7 sq mi (77.0 km²) |
| - Land | 9.0 sq mi (23.4 km²) |
| - Water | 20.7 sq mi (53.7 km²) 69.7% |
| Elevation | 13 ft (4 m) |
| Population (2000) | |
| - Total | 60,552 |
| - Density | 6,712.8/sq mi (2,591.9/km²) |
| United States Census Bureau | |
| Time zone | PST (UTC-8) |
| - Summer (DST) | PDT (UTC-7) |
| ZIP codes | 94080, 94083, 94099 |
| Area code(s) | 650 |
| FIPS code | 06-73262 |
| GNIS feature ID | 0277618 |
| Website: http://www.ssf.net | |
South San Francisco is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, located on the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 60,552 at the 2000 census.
The city lies north of San Francisco International Airport in a small valley between San Bruno Mountain and the Coast Range. The city is served by two major highways, U.S. Route 101 (the Bayshore Freeway) and Interstate 280. A BART station, located directly adjacent to El Camino High School and Solaire Transit Village, opened in 2003, supplementing Caltrain service to San Francisco and San Jose. The city's small downtown and several aging residential subdivisions, such as Mayfair Village, Sunshine Gardens, Avalon Park, Winston Manor, and Rancho Buri Buri, are located west of Highway 101, while the area east of Highway 101 is dominated by bland industrial complexes interspersed with futuristic office parks, particularly the Oyster Point Marina. The extreme western portions of the city near Interstate 280 sit along a hillside and offer views of San Francisco Bay. This area is known to local residents as Westborough. The southern part of the city, closest to the airport, is home to a large number of car repair shops, airport parking lots, and airport hotels.
Locals refer to the town as "South City," in much the same way that San Francisco is called "The City." People unfamiliar with the area often mistake South San Francisco as the southern part of the city of San Francisco.
South San Francisco is part of the South San Francisco Unified School District, which also serves portions of the neighboring cities of Daly City and San Bruno. The city is home to two public high schools: El Camino High School and South San Francisco High School, which share a cross-town rivalry. The city also has three public middle schools: Parkway Heights, Westborough, and Alta Loma. These public high and middle schools, as well as a number of public elementary schools, and an adult school, South San Francisco Adult Education, are part of the South San Francisco Unified School District. Several parochial schools are also established in the city: All Souls School, Mater Dolorosa School (recently closed), and St. Veronica's School.
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[edit] Attractions
South San Francisco is not known as a tourist destination, but a key landmark of the city is visible to anyone who travels along the San Francisco Peninsula or travels through the nearby San Francisco International Airport. Sign Hill, near San Bruno Mountain State Park has huge letters on its mountainside [1] which read: "SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO THE INDUSTRIAL CITY". The letters are made of concrete and sit flush with the hillside (in contrast to the raised steel letters of the Hollywood Sign in Los Angeles). A discontinued tradition involved painting the "c"s on the sign blue and the "s"s red in significance of the annual "Big Game" played by Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley. However, a new tradition has replaced it. Every year South San Francisco High School plays their rival El Camino High School (South San Francisco) (both schools are located in South San Francisco) in the Bell game, the last game of the season for both teams. It is said that students from South City paint the "SC" in blue before the start of the Bell Game. South City now holds a 40-6-1 record on El Camino after their 24-8 win this year. (40 wins, 6 losses, and 1 tie). On the top of Sign Hill, a tall pole with electric lights serves as an electric Christmas tree, which is typically lit from the day after Thanksgiving until January 6. The "tree" is visible for many miles at night. In 2008, that same electric pole was modified to hold a vertical number 100 to celebrate South San Francisco's 100th year as an established city.
South San Francisco has a number of parks, the largest of which is Orange Memorial Park. This park has softball fields, soccer fields, picnic grounds, play areas, tennis courts, basketball courts, bocce ball and an indoor swimming pool. It also hosts a farmers market during the summer months and the annual South San Francisco "Day in the Park" in September. The South San Francisco Public Library has served the city since 1917. The city also has a marina along the shore of San Francisco Bay, named Oyster Point.
Grand avenue, from Spruce going South, is considered downtown South San Francisco, with various small shops and restaurants. City Hall is located on Grand Avenue, and to the residents of SSF, it is known simply as "Grand". Grand also runs perpendicular with one of the cities other well known streets, Linden, which connects San Bruno to highway 101. Chesnut Avenue connects Hillside, the northern bordering street at the foot of San Bruno Mountain, to Westborough Blvd, and subsequently to one of the neighboorhoods known as Westborough. Grand avenue is host to a plethora of stores, one of which is Bronstein Music, a well known local music store that has been around for decades.
Every Holiday season, the Parkway Estates, a group of high-income houses built decades ago, decorate their houses with Christmas lights and Yard decorations. This display is always open to the public and sees hundreds of visitors every holiday season. It is one of the well known holiday attractions during the season. A smaller, littler known area that does this to is Lilac Lane, which does not draw as much attention.
Bertolucci's is the name of a local Italian Restaurant that has also been around almost since the birth of the city. It is a widely, internationally known restaurant that thrived during the 60s/70s. It is located in close proximity to downtown South San Francisco and is easily seen from highway 101.
South San Francisco has one bowling alley known as Brentwood bowl due to its proximity to the Brentwood Neighborhood, on El Camino Real and one golf course, next to its public library.
In its industrial park, South San Francisco has many walkways and bike trails that run adjacent to the San Francisco Bay, where runners are able to view the airport from, and many times can see an airplane landing and taking off. South San Francisco is home to many hotels as well, since it is the closest city to San Francisco that is actually directly next to SFO.
SSF also has a pub located on Old Mission Road, called Molloys which has also been around for years and is well known locally.
[edit] Economy
Much of what is now South San Francisco was initially agricultural land, and was originally known as Baden. Small pockets of farmland still exist near San Bruno Mountain, but these lands are disappearing quickly because of the demand for housing and retail development. Acres of Orchids, founded by the Rod McLellan Company in the late 1920s, was one such victim of housing development. Once one of the largest facilities in the United States producing orchids and gardenias, the nursery closed in 1998.[3] A new housing tract now sits upon the land formerly occupied by Acres of Orchids greenhouses.
South San Francisco is considered to be the birthplace of the biotech industry. The city is home to Genentech, one of the world's largest biotech companies, as well as a satellite office of Amgen, the world's largest biotech firm. Many other biotech companies have also started or moved to South San Francisco to be in proximity to the UCSF, Stanford University, and UC Berkeley; all are within a one hour's drive. Additionally, South San Francisco's office parks and industrial zoning are favorable to meet needs of the biotech industry, and the property taxes levied from the extensive industrial park provide a gold mine of revenue for the city.
See's Candies is also headquartered in South San Francisco.
South San Francisco also has many inns, as it is one of the cities directly adjacent to San Francisco International Airport, and is between SFO and San Francisco.
[edit] Geography
South San Francisco is located at (37.655983, -122.425525)[4].
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 29.7 square miles (77.0 km²), of which, 9.0 square miles (23.4 km²) of it is land and 20.7 square miles (53.7 km²) of it (69.67%) is water.
[edit] Neighborhoods
South San Francisco Consists of the following Neighborhoods:
- Lonely Town
- The East Side
- Cypress
- Susie Way
- C street
- Westborough
- Buri Buri
- Paradise Valley AKA "Terrabay"
- Brentwood
- Winston Manor
- West Winston Manor
- Avalon Park
- Francisco Terrace, AKA "The Terrace"
- Penninsula Pines, AKA "The Pines"
Paradise Valley is so named because it resides in between Sign Hill and San Bruno Mountain.
Students mostly from Westborough and Buri Buri attend El Camino High School. The majority of Brentwood and Paradise Valley inhabitants attend South San Francisco High School, as well as the East Side inhabitants. The same inhabitants are also so-divided among Westborough Middle School, Alta Loma Middle School and Parkway Middle School respectively. The East Side has lately had problems with rising gang activity and has been a priority for the city council.
[edit] Demographics
As of the census[5] of 2000, there were 60,552 people, 19,677 households, and 14,659 families residing in the city. The population density was 6,712.8 people per square mile (2,591.9/km²). There were 20,138 housing units at an average density of 2,232.5/sq mi (862.0/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 44.05% White, 2.82% African American, 0.60% Native American, 28.92% Asian, 1.56% Pacific Islander, 15.01% from other races, and 7.05% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 31.84% of the population.
There were 19,677 households out of which 35.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.8% were married couples living together, 13.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.5% were non-families. 19.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 9.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.05 and the average family size was 3.51.
In the city the population was spread out with 24.2% under the age of 18, 9.2% from 18 to 24, 32.0% from 25 to 44, 22.0% from 45 to 64, and 12.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 98.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.5 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $61,764, and the median income for a family was $66,598. Males had a median income of $41,442 versus $35,452 for females. The per capita income for the city was $23,562. About 3.5% of families and 5.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5.1% of those under age 18 and 3.7% of those age 65 or over.
South San Francisco is a middle class and working class city. However, that image is quickly changing as many luxury homes have been built, particularly at the foot of the mountain that divides Brisbane and South San Francisco, in the area in recent years to take advantage of the city's close proximity to downtown San Francisco, bio-tech industry, and the peninsula.
The most commonly spoken language at home was English 46.13%, followed by Spanish 25.36%, Tagalog 12.48%, Chinese 4.4%, Hindi 1.6%, Arabic 1.56%, Cantonese 1.52%, Italian 1.44%, Vietnamese 0.66%, Russian 0.54%, Korean and Japanese 0.5% respectively, other languages were spoken by less than half of one percent of the population.[6]
[edit] Politics
In the state legislature South San Francisco is located in the 8th Senate District, represented by Democrat Leland Yee, and in the 19th Assembly District, represented by Democrat Gene Mullin. Federally, South San Francisco is located in California's 12th congressional district, which has a Cook PVI of D +22[7] and is currently held by Democrat Jackie Speier.
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c South San Francisco city website, City council homepage, access date May 31, 2008
- ^ South San Francisco City Manager, South San Francisco city website, access date May 31, 2008
- ^ Matters Historical: Dominating county's nursery business
- ^ US Gazetteer files: 2000 and 1990. United States Census Bureau (2005-05-03). Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
- ^ American FactFinder. United States Census Bureau. Retrieved on 2008-01-31.
- ^ MLA, South San Francisco entry, retrieved November, 13, 2007
- ^ Will Gerrymandered Districts Stem the Wave of Voter Unrest?. Campaign Legal Center Blog. Retrieved on 2008-02-10.
[edit] External links
- South San Francisco, California is at coordinates Coordinates:
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