The Bay Area is comprised of the major cities of San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland and its many suburbs. The Bay Area (more specifically, the San Francisco Bay Area), which surrounds San Francisco Bay in Northern California, is a large and geographically diverse metropolitan region that is home to more than 7 million people in cities such as San Francisco, Oakland and San José. Formerly it was the center of Spanish missions and gold rush prospectors, but now it is better known for its lifestyle, liberal politics and high-tech industry (Silicon Valley). The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) is the Bay Area's leading metropolitan planning organization.
Make substantial investments in education outside the Bay Area The issue of educational attainment is key to economic prosperity in the Northern California megaregion, and is an issue where mutual promotion at the state level can lead to better funding outcomes. Bald eagles were once common in the Bay Area, but habitat destruction and the thinning of eggs due to DDT poisoning reduced the population of the state of California to 35 breeding pairs. The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly referred to as the Bay Area, is a region of California that surrounds and includes San Francisco Bay, and is anchored by the cities of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose. At the time of colonization, the Ohlone people of the Bay Area lived mainly on the San Francisco Peninsula, in the South Bay and in the East Bay, and the Miwok lived mainly in the North Bay, the north of the East Bay and the Central Valley.
From Emeryville, passengers can take an Amtrak California Thruway bus over the Bay Bridge to the San Francisco Amtrak stop at 101 The Embarcadero (near the Ferry Building) and usually several other downtown destinations (note that Amtrak passengers are not subject to any additional bus charges). San Mateo and the northern part of Santa Clara counties form the peninsula, while Contra Costa and Alameda counties comprise the eastern part of Bay of the Bay. The Bay Area is home to a complex network of watersheds, swamps, rivers, streams, reservoirs and bays that flow predominantly into San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. Other regional government agencies include the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, the Bay Area Toll Authority, the Bay Restoration Authority, and the Conservation and Development Commission of the Bahia.
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is an extensive regional subway system that connects San Francisco to the East Bay, as well as to parts of the peninsula, the eastern half of Silicon Valley, and the airports of San Francisco and Oakland. The Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, regional transportation planning agencies in the northern San Joaquin Valley, and railroad agencies in the Northern California Megaregion have begun working together to promote mega-regional planning. While BART offers frequent and well-connected train service in the Bay Area, it's the only operator that allows you to cross the bay, which often means there's only room to stand (before the COVID pandemic). Two long-distance trains, the California Zephyr to Chicago and the Coast Starlight between Seattle and Los Angeles, run through the Bay Area with stations in Martinez and Emeryville, and the Coast Starlight also stops at Jack London Square Station in Oakland and San Jose.
News & World Report, the highest-ranked high school in California is the Pacific Collegiate School, located in Santa Cruz and part of the Bay Metropolitan Area. The Bay Area's subregions are described in several ways, which can give a first-time visitor the impression that the Bay Area is larger than it actually is. Interstate 280 and South Bay highways tend to be less congested than Peninsula highways and East Bay.
