The Ever Emerging City

By Jacqueline Bowler

San Francisco moves at two speeds.

It is an international center for business, trade and travel, but it is one that has maintained a delicate beauty at the human scale. This fact is easily felt through its architecture; Victorian houses, clad in creamy colors of light pink, teal, yellow and white line the city amid skyscrapers that are the trademark of the global economy. The city?EUR??,,????'???s landmarks and public spaces such as the Golden Gate Bridge, Union Square, Yerba Buena Gardens, cable cars and Coit tower are more than just attractions, but an active part of the people?EUR??,,????'???s daily experience.

Perhaps this preservation of the human scale also has to do with the city?EUR??,,????'???s unique topography. It rests on a penninsula bordered by the Pacific Coast on the west, the bay on the north and east and rolling hills to the south. Over 40 hills divide the city into pockets of neighborhoods. On clear days, views of the surrounding nature are inescapable. Most significantly, the fast moving fog, which rolls into the hills and lifts just as unexpectedly, emblematizes the spirit of nature with its precariousness, its beauty, and its force. It is said that the city has a special relationship with the different hours of the day. When the fog lifts, it reveals stunning views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Twin Peaks, Coit Tower and all of the lines and angles that make up the city?EUR??,,????'???s amalgam of eclectic architecture.

?EUR??,,????'??I don?EUR??,,????'???t know of any other city where you can walk through so many culturally diverse neighborhoods, and you?EUR??,,????'???re never out of sight of the wild hills. Nature is very close here.?EUR??,,????'???EUR??,,????'??+Gary Snyder, Pulitzer prize-winning poet and essayist

Those visions never get old, no matter how long you live there.

Many would be surprised to learn that San Francisco is only the fourth largest city in California and the fourteenth-most populous in the country. The feeling of its greatness is due to its being a vertical city, less than 50 miles long, and the second most densely populated city in the country next to New York. In this sense, San Francisco seems to be inversely proportional to its So-Cal sister, Los Angeles. It is the second largest city in the country but has kept the buildings low and developed horizontally, spawning expansive freeways and now negotiating the effects of urban sprawl.

A History

San Francisco?EUR??,,????'???s history is as dense as its buildings, developed in a very short amount of time. The city had to literally build itself up from scratch after the earthquake and fires of 1906. It has experienced several economic and cultural ?EUR??,,????'??golden ages,?EUR??,,????'?? including the growth following the Gold Rush, the galvanizing forces of the 1960s, and the emergence of Silicon Valley and the Dot-Com era in the 1990s. In short, San Francisco has led several lives.

Throughout its history, San Francisco has drawn people in search of their ideals and dreams, whether it be gold or art, free expression or commercial success. A city as far west in the United States as possible, it has often represented the promised land in the great American tradition of manifest destiny, a tradition that has existed since the birth of the country. Since the 1950s it has been the epicenter of several sub-culturist movements: from the 1950s poetic rennaisance established by Kenneth Rexroth to the literary and cultural movement of the Beats. It was the backdrop to the 1960s hippy movement culminating in the summer of love and the Monterey Pop Festival; an arena for the politics of the black panther movement, and a home to a thriving LGBT community. Today the spirit of all those movements can still be felt?EUR??,,????'??? especially through the optimism, passion, and open-mindedness of its people.

First formed in 1776 with the foundation of Spanish missions and military bases, it was the promise of gold in 1848 that truly propelled the city?EUR??,,????'???s development- expanding the population from a tiny town of 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849. It quickly became the largest city on the Pacific Coast. 25 years later, William Chapman Ralston, founder of the Bank of California, quoted that ?EUR??,,????'??their city had become world class in only twenty-five years.?EUR??,,????'??

The Financial District emerged by the mid-1860?EUR??,,????'???s. The first cable cars travelled along the hills in 1873. Several opulent and eccentric hotels were completed, spurning the city?EUR??,,????'???s reputation as a world travel destination. The wealth generated by the Gold Rush was soon developed into several industries including banking (Wells Fargo opened in 1852) and the railroad industry. Chinese immigrants became the chief railroad workers, leading to the development of the Chinatown quarter. The Port of San Francisco established the city as a center of trade.

Most of the architecture was Victorian, which encompasses a variety of forms but is best known for the Queen Anne style. Ornate and flamboyant, often called ?EUR??,,????'??gingerbread?EUR??,,????'?? houses, the designs are full of intricate adornments such as turned porch posts, ornamental spindles, and decorative edges. The Victorians were originally cast in earth tones, but were later painted in the brightly colored way that we now know them today, such as the famous Painted Ladies.

 

Civic leaders also realized the significance of an urban park in the likes of Olmsted?EUR??,,????'???s Central Park in New York, which culminated in plans for the Golden Gate Park. Other civic structures were developed, including many parks and public spaces, such as Union Square. The Presidio became the most important American military base on the Pacific.

San Francisco?EUR??,,????'???s irregular topography, almost entirely surrounded by water, kept developers from expanding outward. As steel-frame technology had emerged, and skyscrapers in Chicago were already being built, San Francisco responded by building vertically. The first of these developments came in 1889 with the Chronicle Building, followed by the Mills Building in 1891, designed in a Richardsonian Romanesque style by a leading Chicago firm. A series of Victorian high-rises followed.

Earthquake of 1906

Then the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 shook. Over 80 percent of the city was leveled, after the fires that resulted from ruptured gas lines quickly spread across the city and burned for an entire week. The 1906 quake and its aftermath became the nation?EUR??,,????'???s worst natural disaster, comparable only to the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina. Today?EUR??,,????'???s estimates place the number who died in the several thousands. Recent insurance statistics estimate that the GDP capital lost was $400 million, equaling $6.5 billion in 2006 dollars. More than half the city?EUR??,,????'???s population of 400,000 were left homeless, and many were temporarily housed in tents and villages constructed by the army in Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, on the beaches and many other places.

Reconstruction was developed immediately. Urban planner Daniel Burnham proposed an ambitious plan that called for a redesigned street grid, Haussmann-style avenues, boulevards, thoroughfares, a more developed Fisherman?EUR??,,????'???s Wharf, a massive civic center complex with classical structures, and what would have been the largest urban park in the world. But his plan was dismissed at the time as impractical, and the competing interests of the private real estate investors were against the city buying so much land. The speed of a quick restoration was the city?EUR??,,????'???s top priority, although critics argue that many of the new buildings did not meet earthquake safety codes.

?EUR??,,????'?? When you get tired of walking around in San Francisco, you can always lean against it.?EUR??,,????'???EUR??,,????'??+Unknown

Some apects of Burnham?EUR??,,????'???s proposals did get developed, however, most notably the neoclassical Civic Center with several Beaux arts buildings surrounding it. Other proposals included wider streets, thoroughfares, a subway under Market Street, a more people-friendly Fisherman?EUR??,,????'???s Wharf, and a monument to the city on Telegraph Hill, Coit Tower. Against some pressures, Chinatown was rebuilt in its newer, modern, form, to become the country?EUR??,,????'???s second largest Chinatown.

Countercultures

Quickly returning as a financial capital, all of San Francisco?EUR??,,????'???s banks survived the 1929 stock market crash. In the 1930s several high rise buildings were constructed. Two civil engineering projects took place during the great depression: the construction of the San Francisco ?EUR??,,????'??? Oakland Bay Bridge, and the Golden Gate Bridge, completed in 1936 and 1937. The two bridges ushered in many more automobiles and parking garages.

The city did feel, however, the economic impact of World War II. Homes were left vacant as families moved to surrounding suburbs. Many victorians were converted into apartments to house war laborers, and the blue collar industrial sector of the city boomed. Perhaps this may be a prime reason that a long artistic movement then burgeoned: the artists could afford to live there.

San Francisco Renaissance and the Beats

Although the counterculture spirit extends far beyond the 1950s (Oscar Wilde on the Bohemian club commented, ?EUR??,,????'??I never saw so many well-dressed, well-fed, business-looking Bohemians in my life.?EUR??,,????'?? in 1882) poets and other artists migrated to San Francisco after World War II because of its reputation as an important new center of creativity. This was helped by the influence of a modernist poet Kenneth Rexroth. Beat writers Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and Gary Snyder pursued their own literary ambitions there and spent time at Rexroth?EUR??,,????'???s salon. Kerouac became enamoured by the West Coast Cool jazz scene, drank cheap port in the alleyways, wrote zen poetry and hiked in the surrounding mountains. ?EUR??,,????'??It?EUR??,,????'???s all coming together!?EUR??,,????'?? he cried, in the novel Dharma Bums, when he and his friends met at a jazz club in San Francisco. Rexroth organized a famous poetry reading at the Six Gallery in October of 1955, which brought the movement into a larger public consciousness. Kerouac powerfully describes this in the novel Dharma Bums as well as Ginsberg?EUR??,,????'???s famous reading of ?EUR??,,????'??Howl?EUR??,,????'?? in front of the City Lights Bookstore in North Beach in 1956.

The 1960s

As the city?EUR??,,????'???s reputation as an artistic center intensified, so did the presence of counterculturalists, any counterculturalists, all counterculturalists. The San Francisco Chronicle called it the center of the universe for young people. In the 1960s the affordable and widely available Victorians in the Haight and Ashbury district became home to hippies, flower children, and street people (there apparently is a very large difference). They were influenced by the spirit of the beats, but espoused their own ideals such as freedom of speech, anti-war protests, drug experimentation, and world peace. The public spaces of San Francisco became the backdrop to large displays, such as the Be-In in the Golden Gate Park and the Summer of Love. Baron Wolman, Rolling Stone?EUR??,,????'???s first chief photographer, lived in the Haight-Ashbury during the summer of love. ?EUR??,,????'??We moved into the Haight-Ashbury in 1964. We simply wanted an apartment with a view in an ?EUR??,,????'??interesting?EUR??,,????'??? neigborhood, convenient to downtown.

?EUR??,,????'?? Los Angeles? That?EUR??,,????'???s just a big parking lot where you buy a hamburger for the trip to San Francisco.?EUR??,,????'???EUR??,,????'??+John Lennon

Who knew that within a few months our ?EUR??,,????'??hood?EUR??,,????'??? would become a national symbol for the Sixties, that we would be privileged to be in the front row of a stage on which were played the many dramas of change taking place in our society.?EUR??,,????'?? The youth that converged there demonstrated new types of art, politics, and a communal style of living.

From the 1960s peaking in the early 80s the neighborhood called SoMA attracted a gay community, and a growing number of gay-oriented establishments. Today it has joined the city?EUR??,,????'???s traditional attractions.

At the same time in the 1960s, new financial, corporate, and service-related activities arose. Many high rises and large international-style buildings were developed, amidst public opposition, such as the Crown Zellerbach in 1959 and the Palace of the Legion of Honor. These symbolized the city?EUR??,,????'???s growing international presence.

A New Urban Direction

Some argue that the beat and other countercultural communities unintentionally encouraged gentrification in the city.

William Burroughs said that ?EUR??,,????'??Jack Kerouac opened a million coffee bars and sold a million Levis to both sexes.?EUR??,,????'?? Amidst radical politics and cycles of bohemian influx, real estate prices have steadily increased since the 1960?EUR??,,????'???s.

For the majority of its history, San Francisco has been a working-class city. After the earth quake, and during World War II, it especially attracted industry workers. Since the 1960s, however, other industries such as banking, real estate, multinational corporations, and technology-oriented industries have continued to expand, and once bohemian neighborhoods have gentrified. In the 1980s and 1990s many neighborhoods like SoMA continued to appreciate into ?EUR??,,????'??multimedia gulches.?EUR??,,????'?? Silicon Valley made the area a technological capital, although research shows that the city itself continued to decline as a regional economic center.

Beginning in the 1970s the city went through a period of expanding outward, aided by the development of public transportation and freeways. The city became less of the economic center as surrounding counties such as San Mateo and Santa Clara surged. With the trend of corporate restructuring, many middle-class jobs were relocated to outlying suburban areas. One result of this has been reverse commuting, which has increased 121.7 percent between 1970 and 1990, almost double the increase of commuting to the city. (The Chronicle sites that Google shuttles 1,200 people a day, many from the Mission and ?EUR??,,????'??hip?EUR??,,????'?? parts of the city to the headquarters in suburban Mountain View.)

The late 1990s Dot-Com era also boosted the economy, and the property values of many neighborhoods rose drastically. When the bubble burst, a significant amount of jobs were lost. The workforce today is still 12 percent lower than they were in the Dot-Com era, and not just pertaining to the technology sector. Significantly, many young people have left the city. The Association of Bay Area Governments estimates that the population of twenty-somethings in San Francisco fell by 38 percent between 2000 and 2005, and today, Oakland brings in over three times as many recent college graduates.

Today, San Francisco?EUR??,,????'???s economy is mainly built on leisure, attracting many international tourists. The city is undergoing several urban renewal projects, including changes in SoMA, China Basin, the waterfront, Mission Bay, Treasure Island, Candlestick Point, and the Presidio. Analysts say that it is experiencing a mini economic boom, however, gentrification still poses a threat to many diverse areas, as many low to middle class residents become priced out of their neighborhoods. One writer in the San Francisco Chronicle described that ?EUR??,,????'??neighborhoods, once populated with minorities, are, once again, becoming ?EUR??,,????'??filled with juice bars and bike shops.’?EUR??,,????'??

Two other threats loom in the city?EUR??,,????'???s not so distant future. The first is the high chance of another severe earth quake. The 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake killed 60 people, caused $60 billion in property damage, and shook up the city?EUR??,,????'???s confidence. Today, scientists predict that there is over a 70 percent chance of a sizable earth quake occurring in the area within the next 30 years. The city?EUR??,,????'???s disaster preparation as well as the state of its infrastructure is a great concern.

Another important issue facing the city is the changing environment. Being almost entirely surrounded by water, the effects of unmitigated climate change could be detrimental. However, San Francisco?EUR??,,????'???s progressive attitude towards achieving global sustainability has led to the 2004 Climate Action Plan which commits it ?EUR??,,????'??to dramatically reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions to 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.?EUR??,,????'??

San Francisco has long been criticized for its opposition to growth and its inward facing mentality, and there is some truth to this. Yet in the midst of a rapidly changing global environment, the love the people have for their city is vital to their willingness to adapt. In which case, San Francisco, which has been rebuilt several times both physically and culturally, will be ready for change.