Administration And Social Conditions of San

fransisco

Government

Unlike any other California city, San Francisco (incorporated 1850) has a consolidated
city-county government. The 1932 freeholders’ charter, under which the city-county still
operates, provides the mayor with strong executive powers but delegates substantial
authority to a chief administrative officer (appointed by the mayor) and a controller.
The legislative authority is lodged with an elected board of supervisors. The other key
officials, who are both appointed, are the superintendent of schools and the manager of
utilities.

City Hall, San FranciscoCity Hall, San Francisco, California.AdstockRF

Public utilities

Since 1934 San Francisco’s principal source of water has been the Hetch Hetchy
Reservoir, 167 miles (269 km) away, in the Sierra Nevada. Other sources are the
Calaveras and San Antonio reservoirs in Alameda and Santa Clara counties and

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 reservoirs in San Mateo county to the south. The Hetch Hetchy project required the
damming of a scenic valley in Yosemite National Park and the construction of tunnels,
one 25 miles (40 km) long, through the Coast Range. In 1902 the first high-voltage line
transmitting hydroelectric power was completed between a powerhouse on the
Mokelumne River and San Francisco, some 180 miles (290 km) in length. Since then,
the Bay Area has developed a network of hydroelectric plants on the rivers of the
interior, as well as a steam-powered plant on Monterey Bay.

Education

The Bay Area is one of the country’s centres of higher learning.

Although strictly speaking they cannot be counted as San Francisco
institutions, two of the region’s universities—the University of
California, located across the bay in Berkeley (campus opened 1873),
and Stanford University (opened 1891), neighbour to Palo Alto down
the peninsula—are among the nation’s most prestigious schools.
Within San Francisco itself are the University of San Francisco,
originally a Jesuit academy established in 1855, and San Francisco
State University, which was founded as a normal school in 1899,
became a four-year college in 1935, and achieved university status in
1972. Other institutions include Golden Gate University (1853), the
City College of San Francisco (1935; a two-year public college), and the
San Francisco Art Institute (1871).

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San Francisco: California, University ofThe Mission Bay campus of the University of California, San
Francisco.Masur
San Francisco: Golden Gate UniversityGolden Gate University in San Francisco.Burntorange72

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