WELCOME TOTHE SAN

FRANCISCO BAY AREA

Dennis Tvrtkovic & Shazeen Tejani

WHERE IS IT?___________________________________________

HISTORY_____________________________________

- 1848 : The California Gold Rush- Saw an increase in population from 500 to

30,000 in 3 years

- 1870s : The Cable Car became the prominent mode of public transportation- Allowed for residents to move faster and

further away from CBD - Remains San Francisco’s ‘venerable symbol’

- 1906 : Major Earthquake – 7.6 on the Richter Scale- Caused a widespread fire that burned for 3

days- 80% of the city was burned down- Reconstruction by David Burnham – an

attempt to make it the “Paris of the Pacific”

- 1940s : The ‘Beats’ Generation- A literary movement that represented a

‘counterculture’

- 1960s : The Hippie Movement - Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n’ Roll- 1967 : ‘Summer of Love’

- 1970s : Progression towards the ‘Gay Mecca’- Became ‘gay-friendly’ capital of the USA

- 1995 – 2000 : Dot-Com Boom – Silicon Valley- The birth place of various famous software

companies like Adobe and Google

HISTORY cont..______________________________________________

SF HARBOUR CIRCA 1851

SF GOLD RUSH 1848 SF FIRE of 1906

BACKGROUND INFO__________________________________________________________________

- San Francisco Bay is a dense area that includes:- San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland

- The ‘Bay Area’ is comprised of 9 counties:- Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San

Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma

- San Francisco Bay Area contains a population of 7,150,739

- The city of San Francisco itself has a population of 805,235

- Has notably the highest amount of cultural activity in the region

- Mayor Gaven Newson has put emphasis on programs & initiatives related to arts and culture- Wants San Francisco to be a place of innovation- San Francisco as an arts and cultural

destination- A city with a diverse selection of festivals,

events and expositions

“Florida demonstrated empirically that the U.S. Creative Class has a more unique trait: it prefers to locate in cities with particularly high levels of cultural services, ethnic diversity, and tolerance toward nonmainstream lifestyles”

- Lorenzen & Anderson, 2009

“The Creative Class within the labor force has particular preferences for work and private life, such as high-quality housing, work empowerment, and specialized consumption”

- Lorenzen & Anderson, 2009

THE CREATIVE CLASS

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“The Creative Class consists of people who add economic value through their creativity. Their property – which stems from their creative capacity – is an intangible because it is literally in their heads”

- Richard Florida, 2002

THE CREATIVE ECONOMY

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THE 3 T’S FOR A CREATIVE ECONOMY

TALENT

TOLERANCE

TECHNOLOGY

TALENT

“ The ‘talent index’ is a measure of highly educated people defined as those with a bachelor’s degree and above.”

- Richard Florida, 2002

According to the U.S Census Bureau, about 51% of San Francisco population possess a Bachelor’s degree of higher in 2005-2009.

San Francisco Bay Area contains a large number of higher educational facilities. Some which include The Art Institute of San Francisco and Academy of Art University.

Other internationally recognized schools are Stanford University and University of California, Berkeley residing in the Santa Clara Valley and Berkeley, California

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CLARK CENTER, STANFORD

UC BERKELEY CAMPUS

TOLERANCE___________________________________________

According to Richard Florida (2002), San Francisco was ranked number one on the ‘Gay-index’ in 1990 and 2000

Recent studies highlighted by the Daily Beast (2011) indicate that San Francisco is now ranked third in the United States for being the most tolerant.

Factors taken into consideration were hate crimes, diversity and attitudes towards same-sex marriage.

San Francisco contained a high portion of same-sex couples and diversity. However, it lost top ranking due to its high number of hate crimes (Daily Beast, 2011).

“Gays can be said to be the ‘canaries of the Creative Age”Gary Gates, 2002

Florida and Mellander (2007) argue that “bohemian, artistic and gay populations reflect a…tolerance or open culture premium”.

In other words, the arts and culture which is present throughout San Francisco “increases [the cities] vibrancy and diversity” (Florida and Mellander, 2007).

The Southern part of San Francisco Bay Area contains some of the world’s largest technology corporations.

Silicon Valley experienced a rise in the knowledge economy beyond many other American cities.

Business such as Electronic Arts Inc (EA Sports), Adobe systems, Google Inc., Twitter and Apple are some of the largest software companies to come out of the San Francisco Bay Area (Xavier, 2012).

TECHNOLOGY

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CULTURE___________________________________

“Artists and bohemians are direct producers of amenities; their location will thus directly reflect higher levels of amenity”

- Florida and Mellander, 2007

There is a large Bohemian population in the San Francisco Bay Area. According to the U.S Census Bureau, San Francisco’s Bohemian index was ranked ninth in North America.

“Artists and Bohemians are direct producers of amenities; their location will thus directly reflect higher levels of amenity” (Florida and Mellander, 2007).

San Francisco’s diversity and openness to different cultures, ethnicities, genders and races have made it into a melting pot society. Reported in 2005 to 2009 by the U.S Census Bureau, approximately 34% of the population was foreign born.

JAPANTOWN_____________________________________________

FILLMORE DISTRICT

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CASTRO DISTRICT

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THE ARTS___________________________________

Annual San Francisco International Arts Festival

One of the first cities in the US to initiate a public art program

2% of the construction cost of civic buildings, transportation improvement projects and many more had to be allocated for public art

Third Street Light Rail Public Art Program

1% Art Enrichment for Private Buildings Program for the city’s “C-3 zones”: downtown commercial zones

According to the 2000 US Census, there were over 11,000 individuals employed in both the non- and for-profit sectors as visual artists in the occupations of art directors, craft artists and fine artists

In performing arts, the San Francisco CMSA boasted over 7,000 actors, close to 5,000 musicians and singers, and over 600 dancers and choreographers

There are Currently over 400 theatre companies across the Bay Area

TOURISM__________________________________

Tourism is a big part of San Francisco’s economy, bringing in approximately 15.7 million visitors in 2005 (Gertler, Tesolin and Weinstock, 2006)

The city has a budget of just over $13 million in annual funding; $700,000 of which goes towards cultural tourism

Every year, tourists flock to see Alcatraz, a once solitary prison on an island in the San Francisco Bay. It was once home to some of the most notorious criminals in North America

Another major tourist attraction is the cable car system, one of the only remaining systems in the world.

The Golden Gate Bridge itself acts as a tourist attraction because of its incredible length; measuring at 2.7 km long.

BUT DON’T TAKE OUR WORD FOR IT…

SEE FOR YOURSELF!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k6GLikwJR0

CULTURAL INITIATIVES SILICON VALLEY

___________________________________________________Effort to develop a strategic Cultural Plan for the City of

San Jose and Santa Clara CountyIn 1997 – created a plan called: 20/21: A Regional

Cultural Plan for the NewMillennium

One of the main strategic directions of the 20/21 plan centered on increasing arts and cultural education

Surveys indicated the poor state of arts-based education as an issue of great concern.

3/4s of the population (a population that works predominantly in the high-tech sector) wanted their children to engage in creative learning activities, much like they do

As a result, the non-profit organization Cultural Initiatives Silicon Valley (CISV) was formed in 1998 to implement the 20/21 plan

DISCUSSION__________________________________________

Markusen (2006) discusses whether cities should continue to develop cultural districts or encourage “decentralized” district where cultural activities merge into the neighbourhoods. What do you think?

In 2000, San Francisco and New York experienced a domestic out-migration of approximately 200,000 and 545,000 respectively. Malanga (2004) critiques Richard Florida’s creative cities stating “many of his ‘talent magnets’ are among the worst at attracting and hanging on to residents”. Why do you think San Francisco and other major cities such as New York experienced high levels of out-migration despite having been rated at the top of the Creative Cities index?

Taking into consideration the various ‘Creative Plans’ or ‘Culture Plans’ you found for your various focus cities, do you believe any of them have the potential for being successful? Why or why not? How so?