Portal:San Francisco Bay Area

The Vaillancourt Fountain, sometimes called Quebec libre!, is a large fountain located in Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco, designed by the Québécois artist Armand Vaillancourt in 1971. It is about 40 feet (12 m) high and is constructed out of precast concrete square tubes. Long considered controversial because of its stark, modernist appearance, there have been several unsuccessful proposals to demolish the fountain over the years. It was the site of a free concert by U2 in 1987, when lead singer Bono spray painted graffiti on the fountain and was both praised and criticized for the action.

The fountain is located in a highly visible spot on the downtown San Francisco waterfront, in Justin Herman Plaza, where Market Street meets The Embarcadero. The Hyatt Regency Hotel is at the edge of the plaza, adjacent to the other four highrise towers of the Embarcadero Center. Across The Embarcadero is the Ferry Building, and the eastern end of the California Street cable car line is on the other side of the Hyatt Regency Hotel. When the fountain was constructed, the two-level Embarcadero Freeway separated Justin Herman Plaza from the waterfront, creating a massive backdrop for the fountain. (more...)

Barry Lamar Bonds (born July 24, 1964) is a former American baseball left fielder who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). In a career spanning 1986 to 2007, Bonds played his first seven seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates before spending 15 years with the San Francisco Giants. He is the son of former major league All-Star outfielder Bobby Bonds.

A 14-time All-Star and 8-time Gold Glove Award-winner, Bonds is considered to be one of the greatest baseball players of all-time. He won the National League (NL) Most Valuable Player Award seven times, including four consecutively, both of which are records. Bonds holds many other MLB records, including most career home runs (762), most home runs in a single season (73, set in 2001), most career walks (2,558), and most career intentional walks (688).

Bonds led a controversial career, notably as a central figure in baseball's steroids scandal. In 2007, he was indicted on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying to the grand jury during the government's investigation of BALCO, by testifying that he never knowingly took any illegal steroids. The trial began March 21, 2011; he was convicted on April 13, 2011 on the obstruction of justice charge. His conviction was upheld on September 13, 2013 on the grounds that a factually true statement can be obstructive if it is misleading or evasive. Despite his baseball accomplishments, Bonds was not elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first or second year of eligibility on the ballot. (more...)

Sonoma is a historically significant city in Sonoma Valley, Sonoma County, California, United States, surrounding its historic town plaza, a remnant of the town's Mexican colonial past. Today, Sonoma is a center of the state's wine industry for the Sonoma Valley AVA Appellation. Sonoma's population was 10,648 as of the 2010 census, while the Sonoma urban area had a population of 32,678. (more...)

 • On April 17, Daniel Burnham delivers plans (pictured, left) for the redesign of San Francisco
 • The next day, a massive earthquake hits San Francisco, starting fires which burn much of the city to the ground. 3,000 people die during the disaster.

• ... that the vivid colors of the San Francisco Bay Salt Ponds (pictured), ranging from magenta to blue-green, come from the brine shrimp and microorganisms that thrive in the water?
• ... that the Laguna Creek watershed debouches into the San Francisco Bay near the site of the ghost town of Drawbridge?
• ... that the chase scene from the 1968 Steve McQueen film Bullitt starts on Cesar Chavez Street (then Army Street) before continuing through San Francisco?
• ... that the title of There There, a 2018 novel about urban Indians in Oakland, California, mirrors Gertrude Stein's quip about the city that "There is no there there"?

 • ... that critics complained that a bronze statue (pictured, left) of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal standing in San Francisco's Civic Center more closely resembled the Sumerian king Gilgamesh?
 • ... that the twenty-dollar Liberty Head double eagle (pictured, right) was minted after the California gold rush as the "most efficient way to coin a given quantity of gold bullion"?
 • ... that the Blue Wing Inn (pictured, right), started as a one-room hotel in Sonoma, California, in 1836, was also a saloon, a gambling hall, a stagecoach depot, a grocery store, a winery, a museum, and a retail center?
 • ... that Mike McCormick was the first San Francisco Giants pitcher to win the Cy Young Award?
 • ... that former First Lady of California, Anne Gust has served as both an Executive Vice-President for Gap Inc. and on the board of directors for Jack in the Box?
 • ... that Bay Area Bike Share, the first large-scale bike sharing service deployed on the West Coast of the United States, opened to the public in five cities on August 29, 2013?

August - October 2013

SF Sketchfest, or The San Francisco Comedy Festival, is a comedy festival founded in 2002 by San Francisco Bay Area actor-comedians David Owen, Janet Varney and Cole Stratton (pictured). It takes place every January and February and features sketches, improv, stand-up and other events.

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