San Francisco Values Endure the Test of Time

"San Francisco values." Something new? There's some strong evidence to the contrary dating as far ba

. October 14, 2008

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, April 6, 2007. Lured by the promise of gold in the Sierra foothills and a new El Dorado, the largely masculine population that remained in San Francisco once the gold dust had settled transformed a sleepy village into a precocious maverick. Why this laissez-faire inclination? Historians speculate that the "culture of anonymity," as historian J.S.Holliday described it, had a lot to do with it. The social scene in those days was not unlike online dating today.

Doctors sat next to farmers, clergymen next to chandlers. Who had they been back in Topeka or Philadelphia? There was no knowing of past connections and old alliances. California, and therefore San Francisco, was largely unencumbered by the codes and covenants of the other 30 states.

With every shipload of adventurers who sailed around Cape Horn or across the Pacific, San Francisco became more and more a "cityworld" populated by the French - the first bakery was opened by Frenchman Isidore Boudin in 1849 - Germans, Italians, English, Poles, Irish, Welsh, Portuguese, Russians, Scandinavians, Chinese, Mexican, Chileans, Peruvians and Australians (the notorious "Sydney Ducks"). It was on their hardworking, muscular backs that this uncommonplace place destined to be labeled cocky, capricious, permissive, narcissistic, immodest (and some would add immoral) took shape.

The land of promise, the proverbial "Gold Mountain" as Chinese immigrants were to call it, was equal parts "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" as it was licentiousness, greed and bigotry. In the words of one North Carolina writer after three years here:

"I have seen purer liquors, better segars, finer tobacco, truer guns and pistols, larger dirk and Bowie knives, and prettier courtesans here in San Francisco than in any other place I have ever visited, and it is my unbiased opinion that California can and does furnish the best bad things that are obtainable in America."

Hinton R. Helper, 1855

Land of Gold: Reality vs. Fiction

And, it seemed then as it does now, that San Francisco could survive, well, anything. Major fires nearly destroyed San Francisco six times in December 1849, May 1850, June 1850, September 1850, May 1851 and June 1851, according to former city archivist, Gladys Hansen. The biggest conflagration of all, the 1906 earthquake and fire, claimed 3,000 lives, destroyed 28,000 buildings and caused property damage in excess of $400 million (or more than $8 billion in today's dollars).

From the ashes of these disasters, San Francisco rose again and again like a phoenix, the mythical bird that appears on the official seal of the city. This resiliency, this "better luck tomorrow" optimism is the ideal climate for innovation and invention. From incredible feats of engineering to the expansion of equality under the law, from the quirky to the quixotic, San Francisco has a long list of "firsts." Or, as they like to say out there, it could happen "only in San Francisco."

Engineering and Innovation

Consider the cable car, for example. The sad plight of some overworked horses is said to have inspired the invention of the cable car. The inventor was Andrew S. Hallidie, a London-born engineer and metal rope manufacturer. In 1869 Hallidie reportedly came upon a team of four struggling to haul a heavily loaded horsecar up a steep San Francisco street. One horse slipped on the rain-slicked cobbles, and the car rolled back, dragging the four beasts behind it. Hallidie vowed to put a stop to this kind of cruelty. "Hallidie's Folly" made its maiden run four years later at 4 am on August 2, 1873 from the top of Clay Street down Nob Hill's precipitous east side. That same year a $68 patent fee gave birth to Levi Strauss's famous blue jeans, originally marketed as "waist overalls."

In 1927 Philo T. Farnsworth succeeded in transmitting an electronic projection of a picture. Today it's called television. An engineer named Joseph B. Strauss also succeeded in making an "impossible dream" a reality by igniting the public's imagination. In recalling his struggle to build the Golden Gate Bridge, Strauss remarked later, "It took two decades and 200 million words to convince the people that the bridge was feasible; then only four years and $35 million to put the concrete and steel together."

The new California Institute for Regenerative Medicine is just a few blocks from the University of California San Francisco-Mission Bay, a new life sciences campus for teaching and research, which houses the California Institute for Quantitative Biomedical Research (known as QB3). Called "the most ambitious such undertaking in the nation," by University of California President Robert Dynes when the facility opened in November, 2005, it combines the skills of top scientists and business leaders to produce new treatments and technologies.

Green Initiatives

San Francisco was the first U.S. venue for UN World Environment Day, June 1-5, 2005. During this environmental summit, Mayor Gavin Newsom signed Urban Environmental Accords that launched San Francisco's Livable City initiative to make the city a world leader in city greening by 2010. San Francisco has the largest City-owned solar installation in the country, a 60,000-square-foot solar array atop Moscone Center, the city's principal convention facility. The Moscone Center project consists of two parts: solar power generation and energy efficiency. Over the next 30 years these measures will reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 35,000 tons, or the equivalent of removing 7,000 cars from Bay Area roads.

A deal with Sharp Solar makes them the "official solar energy partner" of the San Francisco Giants, marking the first-of-its-kind partnership between a solar energy company and a professional sports team.

Social Initiatives

San Francisco is the birthplace of the United Nations. It was here that on June 26, 1945 President Harry S. Truman marched down the aisle of Herbst Theatre as the last signatory of the United Nations Charter which committed the delegates of 52 nations "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war" and to reaffirm "the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small."

As San Francisco's official family welcomed the delegates, Mayor Roger Lampham once again referred to that seminal moment in San Francisco history when he recalled that "almost one hundred years ago our port was thronged with vessels and with men of all nations, seeking gold. Today we are still seeking, but we seek a different treasure ... the foundation of a just and lasting peace."

Historians also point to the emergence of a gay population in San Francisco as far back as the Gold Rush and the days of the Barbary Coast. The community became even stronger post WWII when discharged military personnel settled here and, in particular, the Castro district, where Victorian homes were coming on the market at bargain prices.

San Francisco is the home of the first lesbian organization in the U.S., The Daughters of Bilitis founded in 1955; in 1961 the first openly gay political candidate, Jose Sarria; the first Gay Games; the first openly gay men's chorus, mixed gay chorus, marching band and community theater; the first LGBT chamber of commerce, the Golden Gate Business Association, and the first U.S. city to issue same-sex marriage licenses.

June 2007 is the 40th anniversary of the "Human Be-In." Pundits say "If you can remember it, you weren't there." The good vibes and the free concerts of seminal rock bands including the Grateful Dead, the Jefferson Airplane, and Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company, were to set the stage for much more than a new sound. The "summer of love" was to become a symbol around the globe of youth, free speech and San Francisco.

Arts and Attractions

Among San Francisco's museums of distinction are: the Asian Art Museum, the largest museum in the Western world devoted exclusively to Asian art; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), the first museum on the West Coast devoted to modern art; the California Academy of Sciences, the first scientific institution in the West, founded in 1853; the Exploratorium, since 1969 the prototype for hands-on science museums around the world; the Cartoon Art Museum, the only museum west of the Appalachian Mountains dedicated to the preservation, education and exhibition of cartoon art in all forms; the Museum of the African Diaspora, the only museum of its kind to inform and educate about how all people, ultimately, are African.

Performing arts groups with distinguished legacies include Beach Blanket Babylon, the longest running musical revue in theatre history, now in its 33rd year; the San Francisco Ballet, the first professional ballet company in America, founded as the San Francisco Opera Ballet in 1933; the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus, the oldest continuously performing openly gay chorus in the world. The homegrown musical scene is unique and world class from the annual San Francisco Jazz Festival to the free Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in October.

A national model for arts funding, San Francisco's Grants for the Arts/San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund has distributed more than $145 million to hundreds of San Francisco nonprofit cultural organizations since its inception in 1961. The fund is committed to supporting the broadest spectrum of the San Francisco arts community, including for example, the nation's oldest international film festival, one of the premier African American theatre groups on the West Coast, an internationally acclaimed symphony, the foremost North American museum devoted solely to the exhibition of Mexican and Mexican American art, a gay and lesbian theatre with a national presence, the leading presenters and performers in the Bay Area of contemporary performance arts and an array of cultural festivals.

Food

Oft called "the city that knows chow," San Francisco's chefs wielded a mighty fork when it comes to food firsts. Delectable debuts include cioppino, sourdough French bread, crab Louis, the fortune cookie, the mai tai and chicken Tetrazzini. Forty percent of visitors surveyed cite restaurants as a factor affecting their decision to visit San Francisco, which has the highest number of restaurants per capita of any major U.S. city.

In 2006, San Francisco and the Bay Area, became the second U.S. city and only West Coast city to have a Michelin Guide, with more than 300 restaurants receiving the coveted stars or making the cut to be included in the prestigious guide. San Francisco is home to Ron Siegel, the first and only American chef to win, unanimously, the Japanese Iron Chef competition in 1999.

Movements such as sustainable agriculture supported by organic farming; "buying local," as witnessed by the proliferation of farmers markets throughout the city, the slow food movement and, quite naturally given her birthright, fusion cuisine, have been embraced wholeheartedly here. San Francisco's Fior d'Italia also claims to be the oldest Italian restaurant in the U.S. Mangia!

Other claims to fame ...

It took vision and tenacity in 1971 to create the world's largest urban park, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area - and almost one hundred years before, a lot of horse manure and water to transform 1,000 acres of sand dunes into Golden Gate Park. The Conservatory of Flowers in the park is the largest wood-frame greenhouse in the U.S. and the oldest public conservatory in the western hemisphere.

Ten hairpin turns on an 18.2 percent grade slope have earned the 1000 block of Lombard the title of "Crookedest Street in the World." Until 1922 it was a straight shot down the hill until residents along the block petitioned the city to make it more maneuverable.

The dome of City Hall, is 12 feet higher than the U.S. Capitol, and the fifth tallest in the world. St. Peter's in Rome ranks first. The first lighthouse on the Pacific Coast was built on Alcatraz in 1854.

Recent Awards and Honors

February, 2007 - According to a survey conducted by the American Institute of Architects, the Golden Gate Bridge is the fifth favorite structure in the U.S. It was one of 11 Northern California structures to make the list of "150 favorite pieces of American architecture."

December, 2006 - The Urban Institute, in a first-of-its-kind comprehensive statistical portrait of cultural vitality, ranks San Francisco No. 1 in three of seven measures: non-profit organizations, artist jobs and employment in commercial and non-profit arts establishments. In creating this "portrait," researchers scanned data from the nation's 61 largest metropolitan areas to "illuminate the intersection of arts, culture and community well-being."

December, 2006 - A new national survey by Harris Interactive, Travel Industry Association and Witeck-Coombs Communications, names San Francisco the top gay-friendly destination in a group 0f 21 destinations. The national online survey was conducted among 2,020 self-identified U.S. GLBT travelers (ages 21 and older) and 1,010 U.S. adults who self-identified as heterosexual who had taken at least one leisure trip in the last 12 months

October 2006 - The readers of Cond'e Nast Traveler magazine voted San Francisco the #1 travel destination in the United States in the annual Readers' Choice Awards. This is the 18th of 19 years, and the 14th consecutive year that San Francisco has been designated "Best City in the U.S."

October 2006 - Writers at CityBloc.com, one of the largest online sources for demographic and statistical information on U.S. cities, rates San Francisco International Airport the "Best Airport in North America," citing a "combination of great shopping and restaurants with excellent transportation links."

September 2006 - Executive Travel magazine readers name San Francisco winner of the 2006 Executive Travel Leading Edge Award. San Francisco was voted Best Domestic City for a Three Day Weekend over all of her competitors around the world. Readers nominated winners in 65 categories in an open format ballot.

August 2006 - Corporate & Incentive Travel honors San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau with magazine's 2006 Award of Excellence. Bureaus voted to receive this coveted honor were selected by subscribers who voted for those that best served their meetings and/or incentive programs.

August 2006 - The readers of Successful Meetings selected San Francisco to receive the magazine's Pinnacle Award for providing outstanding service in their meeting programs. This is the 15th year that San Francisco has received this award.

July 2006 - Travel +Leisure Magazine - San Francisco was named the #2 city in the United States and Canada and the #10 city in the world in T+L's World's Best Awards readers' survey. San Francisco has been ranked in the #1 or #2 spot on the list of Top Cities in the United States and Canada for the past 11 years since the magazine started the readers' poll in 1996. Three local hotels were also among the top 100.

May 2006 - The special issue of Reader's Digest celebrating America's 100 Best names San Francisco the "best pet-friendly" city based on input from animal lovers at pet travel resource petsonthego.com. San Francisco was praised for "hotels, restaurants and parks (that) welcome pets, while the people embrace them."

April, 2006 - Conde Nast Traveler dubs the new de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park one of the "The new seven wonders" in a cover story noting that "great architecture doesn't just turn heads, it determines where we're heading" adding that the Herzog & de Meuron-designed structure is "full of clever flourishes that work with, rather that against, the landscape."

January, 2006 - The Washington Post names the centennial of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake seventh of the top 10 of the "biggest, busiest, most eventful celebrations going on worldwide in 2006."

January 2006 - The membership of the North American Travel Journalists Association presented a Five-Star Award to San Francisco for "Most Hospitable City."

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