Talk:San Francisco Peninsula

Untitled
Great map! However, since it looks to be computer generated, we need to know if it is in the Public Domain. maveric149


 * "SLAC-authored documents are sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract DE-AC03-76-SF00515. Accordingly, the U.S. Government retains a nonexclusive, royalty-free license to publish or reproduce these documents, or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes. All documents available from this server may be protected under the U.S. and Foreign Copyright Laws. Permission to reproduce may be required."

Whether or not these copyrights are valid is a touchy issue right now. Most federal courts have upheld them, but some haven't, and the issue hasn't reached the USSC so far as I know. At any rate, Stanford University seems to be claiming a copyright here, and even though they produced the materials with our tax money, that claim is valid in the California courts until the USSC overturns them (as they probably will eventually). But for now, we can't use it. --LDC

Let's remember the URL, though, in case that changes: http://www.slac.stanford.edu/slac/map/sfarea.gif

One of the worst wikipedia pages on any of the Bay Area regions
This page needs serious work done to it. It does not at all capture the essences of the SF peninsula region. In its notable structure section it does not even mention a single structure in the City of SF but in the first few sentences in clearly says that the City is included in the region. There is no history section, no variety of pictures, no nothing really. This page needs major work. I will do it and list my sources but I do not want anyone changing this. For in the past I have tried to change this page and add a great deal of detail and pictures only to have it turned back to this sorry excuse of a wikipedia article in what I feel is the most important economic, historical and cultural region in the SF Bay Area. And of course the coastside is in the SF Peninsula. Thats like saying Walnut Creek isnt in the East Bay because it is more inland then the Bay side cities of Oakland and Richmond and so forth. People need a geography lesson in Bay Area Regions. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.181.56.224 (talk) 22:29, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

Coastside
I'm curious whether anyone has any opinion on whether the San Mateo County coast, i.e. the "Coastside", should be included in the "Peninsula". Geographically, it is certainly on the Peninsula, but in the same way that San Francisco isn't included in the term "Peninsula" as people use it, I don't think the Coastside is either. --Ortcutt

i think that we have two uses of the term here and the article is starting to make that clear. one is the physical geography, and the other is the social geography. in the first usage the coast would be included, as would san francisco itself, although the southern boundary is perhaps less clear. in the social sense "the peninsula" is considerably smaller, and does not include san francisco or the coastal areas. i have no sources for this info, however, so i leave it to others to source it out. Slamorte 11:03, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

As a native of the Peninsula, I certainly consider "Coastside" to be a part of the Peninsula. I have asked others and they agreed. The name, itself, gives it away: what else would it be a side of? The Peninsula Library System includes all of San Mateo County. Does anybody not consider Pacifica part of "the Peninsula"? As for sources, try Googling the terms to see how they are actually used. --Nike 06:58, 17 December 2005 (UTC)


 * As a former inhabitant of the Peninsula, I agree with your assessment; I'd further say (my own seat-of-the-pants guess) that while Pacifica is certainly part of it, Half Moon Bay isn't, so "Peninsula-ness" disappears somewhere between the two places: perhaps somewhere around Montara? (I'd say the reason is the widening of the peninsula going south; at some point it feels more like part of the "mainland".) --ILike2BeAnonymous 08:49, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

I have checked around some more, and found that some consider Pacifica and HMB part of the Peninsula, and some do not. Perhaps it depends on which side of the hill one lives on. I was conceived in HMB but was born in SM, and have rarely gone "over the hill".

If there was any logic to it, there should be a Bayside as well as a Coastside and they would both be part of the Peninsula. On the other hand, San Mateo County is often used synonymously with the Peninsula, and Coastside is definitely part of the county.

On the other hand, it should be noted that Coastside is on the Pacific Plate, while the eastern peninsula is on the North American Plate. --Nike 09:44, 20 January 2006 (UTC)

To difrintiate the coast side from the bay side is ludacris. That would be like splitting up the East Bay into Bay side and inland valleys and saying the inland vallays are not part of the east bay. Half moon Bay is clearley part of the Peninsula all the way to Pescadero and all the way to SF. The West Bay is also synonymous with the San Francisco Peninsula very much in the same way the silicon valley is synonymous with the south bay and wine country with the north bay. The West Bay = The SF Peninsula (and yes that includes San Francisco) Mountain View to San Francisco including the entire coast side = San Francisco Peninsula witch = West Bay. Take It from Me, San Francisco Peninsula West Bay Native born and raised. The SF Peninsula is The City and The 650 area code. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.188.149.7 (talk) 09:05, 13 August 2010 (UTC)

While i do agree with you that the San Francisco Peninsula goes from Mountain View to SF and is the City plus the 650 area code. While I do agree with your SF Peninsula statement, I must add that the West Bay includes the San Francisco Peninsula and the Marin Peninsula. Marin County is 415 area code as well as the City. So the West Bay covers the entire 415 & 650 Area Codes. The West Bay can also be called the Golden Gate, in the same way that the South Bay can be called the Silicon Valley. San Francisco = the 415/650 = the Golden Gate = the West Bay = Best part of the Bay —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.6.251.241 (talk) 00:27, 27 December 2010 (UTC)

is there really a place name called "san francisco peninsula"?
as a life-long bay area citizen i have often heard "the peninsula" used in the social geographic sense, and i've also understood that this term comes from the geographic feature of the peninsula itself. however i have never actually heard the term "san francisco peninsula". a detailed examination of two USGS maps (1:24k and 1:100k) show no name for the peninsula at all. plenty of names for many small mountain ranges and faults, but no name for the peninsula.

i'm questioning wheather anyone has a documented source saying this is in fact the correct name. for all we know the official names is the "san andreas peninsula" or the "san mateo peninsula".

Slamorte 11:03, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

As someone who was born and lives on the Peninsula, I have often heard of the San Francisco Peninsula; otherwise, how would we differentiate ourselves from Monterey or any of the many other peninsulas in the world? It's just like how we simply say, "the Bay Area", meaning the San Francisco Bay Area, when we don't need to distinguish which bay we are referring to. However, in the Bay Area the place-name "Peninsula" is taken from the point of view of the City (San Francisco, that is) meaning "the rest of the peninsula, outside the City". Information about how this originated can probably be found at the San Mateo County History Museum.

Who makes official names for geographical features? The USGS web site has many references to the San Francisco Peninsula. There are none for San Mateo Peninsula. There are references to "San Andreas Peninsula", but also "San Andreas Santa Cruz Mtns.", "San Andreas North Coast", and "San Andreas Offshore", so this clearly refers to a segment of the fault, rather than being a name for the peninsula, itself. --Nike 07:35, 17 December 2005 (UTC)

San Andreas faultnamed after the reservoir?
Article says:


 * Just north of the Crystal Springs reservoir is the San Andreas reservoir after which the famous fault was named.

So the fault was named after the reservoir? I don't theenk so. How far back does the reservoir go, anyhow? (Presumably to the construction of Crystal Springs dam.) Anyone know for sure here? --ILike2BeAnonymous 20:29, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

Why don't you "theenk" so? It had to be named after something, didn't it? Try Google. The dam was built in 1867. However, this merely enlarged the existing body of water, which was already named San Andreas. According to California Geology, March 1988, Vol. 41, No. 3.:


 * The San Andreas fault was named by geologist A. C. Lawson after the San Andreas reservoir in San Mateo County. He and his partner, Mr. Anderson, and others were privately referring to the fault as the San Andreas as early as 1883, but it was not printed publicly until 1908 --- after the great San Francisco earthquake in 1906.

--Nike 22:43, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

According to this week's issue of Time Magazine:
 * ...geologists, led by Andrew Lawson of the University of California, Berkeley...named the fault the San Andreas, after a jewel-like lake that lay within the rift zone less than 10 miles south of what was then America's largest and richest Western city...In a two-volume report published in 1908...

--Nike 13:54, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

West Bay
I don't know why people edit an article without making the least bit of attempt at researching it. There are plenty of examples of this usage.


 * West Bay Opera Palo Alto
 * West Bay Sanitary District "Serving Areas in Menlo Park, Atherton, Portola Valley, East Palo Alto, Woodside, and Unincorporated San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties."
 * West Bay High School San Carlos
 * West Bay Christian Academy Redwood City
 * West Bay Alano Club Daly City
 * West Bay Community Band "San Francisco peninsula"

See also West Bay. --Nike 05:10, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

I was going to clarify this usage in the article, but I see someone has already done so. Of course, if the Peninsula does not include Coastside, as suggested above, then the Peninsula and West Bay would be synonymous, but I would agree with this east/west division of the Peninsula. --Nike 05:27, 15 August 2006 (UTC)


 * I had to fix that last-referenced article (West Bay); see if you agree with my changes. +ILike2BeAnonymous 05:53, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, I was questioning that part about "denizens" being looked down-upon. However, I just noticed that it talks about the western regions of the Peninsula, when in actuality, the Bay is on the east side; it is only west in relation to the Bay, but the Bay is east in relation to the Peninsula. Remember the old mneumonic: "West to the Ocean, east to the Bay..." --Nike 09:22, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Why is San Francisco not part of "The Peninsula"?
I imagine that if any city were more definitely associated with being on a peninsula, it would be the city on the tip of said peninsula.

To quote the article, "The Peninsula", used as a local geographic term, refers only to the parts south of, and excluding, the city of San Francisco

Why is it excluded? I understand the smug pretentiousness of capital T, capital C "The City," but come on, it's clearly on the freakin' peninsula. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.141.115.210 (talk) 15:31, 27 July 2007


 * I don't know exactly why The City is not considered part of the Peninsula, but it just isn't. As you say, it doesn't really make sense, as San Francisco is clearly physically part of the peninsula, but the two entities are always clearly distinguished. I'd be curious as to why; articles or other references, anyone? +ILike2BeAnonymous 17:15, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Environmental Features
This section begins: "The San Francisco Peninsula contains a gamut of habitats including...". I don't think that "gamut" is the correct word, as that is used to describe something that contains the "full range" of something. Unfortunately, I cannot think of a good replacement at this time, so all I can do is bring it up here. I considered "plethora", but that refers to an "overabundance" or "excessive fullness", and I'm not quite sure that is right for this usage either. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.161.1.201 (talk) 17:09, 25 July 2008 (UTC)

Southern Border
Is there any source for including Mountain View as part of the peninsula? It's almost entirely due south of the bay. I'm a bay area native and have always thought of the border as the county line or, debatably, the Palo Alto-Mountain View border. But Mountain View is definitely part of the South Bay -- part of the northern Santa Clara Valley.  &mdash;Torc.  ( Talk. ) 23:53, 29 December 2014 (UTC)
 * I've always considered anything west of the California State Route 85 between 101 and 280 to be part of the peninsula. --haha169 (talk) 18:34, 22 June 2015 (UTC)
 * My vote is: PA=Peninsula, MV=South Bay (culturally, which is what matters in everyday life). More debatable is the status of Los Altos. And a nitpick, the paragraph reciting the names of Peninsula cities gives the impression that PA and MV are in S.Mateo County. They are actually part of Santa Clara County. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.65.77.184 (talk) 16:47, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

It like the southern border of Northern California - it moves north the further north you travel and moves south as you travel in that direction. Its a cultural term, not a geographic reference. — Preceding unsigned comment added by FAHansson (talk • contribs) 15:11, 5 October 2017 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 1 one external link on San Francisco Peninsula. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20130609213314/http://www.thewavemag.com/pagegen.php?pagename=article&articleid=24784 to http://www.thewavemag.com/pagegen.php?pagename=article&articleid=24784

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

Cheers. —cyberbot II  Talk to my owner :Online 13:50, 27 August 2015 (UTC)

Short description
Please add a short description. Thatsme314 (talk) 09:41, 24 June 2023 (UTC)