Megalopolis was coined by Gottman as a very large functional urban region that provides the whole of America with so many essential services, of the sort a community used to obtain in its 'downtown' section, that it may well deserve the nickname of 'Main Street of the nation.' According to Gottman, the California coast actually has a megalopolis called SanSan that spans from the San Francisco Bay area to San Diego. It is about 500 miles long. The San Francisco Bay is known as part of the Port of Oakland which serves as a terminal for container ships and international port on the Pacific Coast of the United States. San Francisco also has one of the largest financial districts in the United States (second to New York) where some of the big companies' headquarters are located such as VISA.
San Francisco is one of the few American cities with arterial thoroughfares instead of having numerous highways within the city. It is surrounded by eight bridges including the infamous Golden Gate Bridge. 32% of San Francisco residents use public transportation in daily commuting to work, ranking it first on the West Coast and third overall in the United States. The San Francisco Municipal Railway, known as Muni, is the primary public transit system of San Francisco.Though located 13 miles (21 km) south of downtown in unincorporated San Mateo County, San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is under the jurisdiction of the City and County of San Francisco.
The Port of San Francisco was once the largest and busiest seaport on the West Coast. It featured rows of piers perpendicular to the shore, where cargo from the moored ships was handled by cranes and manual labor and transported to nearby warehouses. The port handled cargo to and from trans-Pacific and Atlantic destinations, and was the West Coast center of the lumber trade. The 1934 West Coast Longshore Strike, an important episode in the history of the American labor movement, brought most ports to a standstill.
San Francisco's population is around 812,000 and counting. It is the fourth most populous city in California and the fourteenth in the United States. The population density was 17,160 per square mile (6,632/km2). The ethnic makeup and population of San Francisco included: 390,387 Non-Hispanic Whites (48.5%), 267,915 Asians (33.3%), 121,744 Hispanics or Latinos of any race (15.1%), 48,870 African Americans (6.1%), 4,024 Native Americans (0.5%), 3,359 Pacific Islanders (0.4%), 53,021 from other races (6.6%), and 37,659 from two or more races (4.7%). The Census reported that 780,971 people (97.0% of the population) lived in households, 18,902 (2.3%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 5,362 (0.7%) were institutionalized. San Francisco has the highest percentage of gay and lesbian individuals of any of the 50 largest U.S. cities, at 15.4%. San Francisco also has the highest percentage of same-sex households of any American county, with the Bay Area having a higher concentration than any other metropolitan area.
San Francisco ranks third of American cities in median household income with a 2007 value of $65,519. Median family income is $81,136, and San Francisco ranks 8th of major cities worldwide in the number of billionaires known to be living within city limits. The city's poverty rate is 11.8% and the number of families in poverty stands at 7.4%, both lower than the national average. The unemployment rate stands at 7.4% as of April 2012. Homelessness has been a chronic and controversial problem for San Francisco since the early 1980s. The homeless population is estimated to be 13,500 with 6,500 living on the streets. The city is believed to have the highest number of homeless inhabitants per capita of any major U.S. city.
Resources:
http://geography.about.com/cs/urbansprawl/a/megalopolis.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/06/06075.html
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