1.
Neoplan
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Neoplan Bus GmbH is a German automotive company that manufactures buses, trolleybuses and coaches. It is a subsidiary of MAN SE, the company was founded by Gottlob Auwärter in Stuttgart in 1935, and manufactured bodywork for bus and truck chassis. From the very beginning, the designs of the buses produced were considered stylish, after World War II, an all-steel body design was developed, a rarity at that time. The engine was moved to the rear, and the running gear, in 1957, air suspension was made available, improving the ride of the bus for passengers. In 1961, a new bus design, the Hamburg, was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show, at a time when most coaches were rounded, bulbous or streamlined, the new design had clear-cut lines with edges and large windows. Developed by the founders eldest son, Albrecht Auwärter, and another student, Swiss national Bob Lee, the design also allowed every passenger to regulate their fresh air supply through a nozzle from two air ducts, commonly seen today. Both Albrecht and Lee joined Neoplan after graduating from the university, Albrecht took over management of the company in 1965, and Bob Lee later became head of Engineering and Design. In 1964, the second son, Konrad Auwärter, developed a double-deck bus design for a service bus as part of his dissertation. The Do-Bus design had low weight, and could carry over 100 passengers and it also featured a low-frame front axle with forward-mounted steering gear that permitted a low flat floor. The double-deck principle was applied to the design, creating a high-capacity comfortable touring vehicle. This vehicle was known as the Skyliner, in 1971, the Cityliner was introduced to the public. This design had a platform above the drivers cab. The vehicle also made use, of reinforced plastic for certain areas of the body. In 1973, the Jetliner was introduced, featuring a large one-piece windshield, with the driver, a second manufacturing facility opened in Pilsting in 1973, and a third opened in Kumasi, Ghana in December 1974 to support increasing orders. In 1975, the Jumbocruiser was launched, a double-deck articulated coach 18 metres long and 4 metres high, the Spaceliner, introduced in 1979 took the Cityliner concept of passenger floor level above the driver, and extended the actual floor above the cab. This kept the height of the lower than a double-decker, at 3.65 metres. A new fourth plant was added in 1981 in Berlin, and Bob Lee led the establishment of a plant in Lamar. In 1984, a plant was added in Honey Brook
2.
San Francisco Municipal Railway
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The San Francisco Municipal Railway is the public transit system for the city and county of San Francisco, California. In 2006, it served 46.7 square miles with an budget of about $700 million. In ridership Muni is the seventh largest transit system in the United States, with 210,848,310 rides in 2006 and the second largest in California behind Metro in Los Angeles. With a fleet average speed of 8.1 mph, it is the slowest major urban transit system in America and one of the most expensive to operate, costing $19.21 per mile per bus and $24.37 per mile per train. However, it has more boardings per mile and more vehicles in operation than similar transit agencies, many weekday riders are commuters, as the daytime weekday population in San Francisco exceeds its normal residential population. Muni shares four metro stations with BART, on weekends, most Muni bus lines are scheduled to run every ten to twenty minutes. However, complaints of unreliability, especially on less-often-served lines and older lines, are a system-wide problem. Muni has had difficulty meeting a stated goal of 85% voter-demanded on-time service. Most intercity connections are provided by BART and Caltrain heavy rail, AC Transit buses at the Transbay Terminal, 70% of stops are spaced closer than recommended range of 800–1,000 feet apart. Muni is short for the Municipal in San Francisco Municipal Railway and is not an acronym, thus, the Muni metro is often called the train or the streetcar. Most San Francisco natives use Muni when speaking about the system in general, the E Embarcadero and F Market & Wharves lines are referred to by Muni as a historic streetcar line rather than as a heritage railway. Munis logo is a stylized, trademarked worm version of the word muni and this logo was designed by San Francisco-based graphic designer Walter Landor in the mid-1970s. Bus and trolleybus lines have number designations, rail lines have letters, except for cable cars, cash fares are $2.50 for adults, $1. Clipper card fares are $2.25 for adults and $1 for seniors, youth, proof-of-payment, which fare inspectors may demand at any time, is either a Clipper card, Muni Passport, or paper transfer. One fare entitles a rider to unlimited vehicle transfers for the next 90 to 120 minutes, cable cars are $7 one way, with no transfers unless the rider has a Muni Passport or Fast Pass. As of September 2014 monthly passes cost $70 for adults, $35 for low-income residents, or $24 for youth, seniors, passes are valid on all Muni lines—including cable cars—and the $83 adult Fast Pass allows BART transit entirely within San Francisco. Other passes and stickers are valid on all Muni lines, including cable cars, cable car fare is $7 per trip, with no transfers issued or accepted. Muni has implemented a smart card payment system known as Clipper
3.
San Francisco
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San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California. It is the birthplace of the United Nations, the California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time. San Francisco became a consolidated city-county in 1856, after three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, San Francisco was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, San Francisco was a port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. Politically, the city votes strongly along liberal Democratic Party lines, San Francisco is also the headquarters of five major banking institutions and various other companies such as Levi Strauss & Co. Dolby, Airbnb, Weebly, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Yelp, Pinterest, Twitter, Uber, Lyft, Mozilla, Wikimedia Foundation, as of 2016, San Francisco is ranked high on world liveability rankings. The earliest archaeological evidence of habitation of the territory of the city of San Francisco dates to 3000 BC. Upon independence from Spain in 1821, the became part of Mexico. Under Mexican rule, the system gradually ended, and its lands became privatized. In 1835, Englishman William Richardson erected the first independent homestead, together with Alcalde Francisco de Haro, he laid out a street plan for the expanded settlement, and the town, named Yerba Buena, began to attract American settlers. Commodore John D. Sloat claimed California for the United States on July 7,1846, during the Mexican–American War, montgomery arrived to claim Yerba Buena two days later. Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco on January 30 of the next year, despite its attractive location as a port and naval base, San Francisco was still a small settlement with inhospitable geography. The California Gold Rush brought a flood of treasure seekers, with their sourdough bread in tow, prospectors accumulated in San Francisco over rival Benicia, raising the population from 1,000 in 1848 to 25,000 by December 1849. The promise of fabulous riches was so strong that crews on arriving vessels deserted and rushed off to the gold fields, leaving behind a forest of masts in San Francisco harbor. Some of these approximately 500 abandoned ships were used at times as storeships, saloons and hotels, many were left to rot, by 1851 the harbor was extended out into the bay by wharves while buildings were erected on piles among the ships. By 1870 Yerba Buena Cove had been filled to create new land, buried ships are occasionally exposed when foundations are dug for new buildings. California was quickly granted statehood in 1850 and the U. S. military built Fort Point at the Golden Gate, silver discoveries, including the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1859, further drove rapid population growth. With hordes of fortune seekers streaming through the city, lawlessness was common, and the Barbary Coast section of town gained notoriety as a haven for criminals, prostitution, entrepreneurs sought to capitalize on the wealth generated by the Gold Rush
4.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
5.
Market Street (San Francisco)
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Market Street is a major thoroughfare in San Francisco, California. Beyond this point, the roadway continues as Portola Drive into the southwestern quadrant of San Francisco, Portola Drive extends south to the intersection of St. Francis Boulevard and Sloat Boulevard, where it continues as Junipero Serra Boulevard. Market Street is the boundary of two street grids, Streets on its southeast side are parallel or perpendicular to Market Street, while those on the northwest are nine degrees off from the cardinal directions. Market Street is a major artery for the city of San Francisco, and has carried in turn horse-drawn streetcars, cable cars, electric streetcars, electric trolleybuses. Today Munis buses, trolleybuses, and heritage streetcars share the street, while below the street the two-level Market Street Subway carries Muni Metro and Bay Area Rapid Transit. While cable cars no longer operate on Market Street, the cable car lines terminate to the side of the street at its intersections with California Street. Market Street cuts across the city for three miles from the waterfront to the hills of Twin Peaks and it was laid out originally by Jasper OFarrell, a 26-year-old trained civil engineer who emigrated to Yerba Buena. The town was renamed San Francisco in 1847 after it was captured by United States troops during the Mexican-American War, OFarrell first repaired the original layout of the settlement around Portsmouth Square and then established Market Street as the widest street in town,120 feet between property lines. It was described at the time as an arrow aimed straight at Los Pechos de la Chola, a friend warned OFarrell, before the crowd had dispersed. He rode with all haste to North Beach, took a boat for Sausalito and he found it discreet to remain some time in the country before venturing to return to the city. The city soon filled in the ground between Portsmouth Square and Happy Valley at First and Mission Street, the dunes were leveled and the sand used for fill. The first horsecar-powered railway line to open in San Francisco commenced running down the thoroughfare on July 4,1860, the two Union Railroad tracks were on the inside and the two San Francisco Municipal Railway tracks were on the outside. In 1892 The Owl Drug Company was established at 1128 Market Street, Market Street underwent major changes in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Muni Metro service was moved underground in concert with the development of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system. Construction of the Market Street Subway commenced in July 1967, prolonged disruption to what had traditionally been the social and economic center of the city contributed to the decline of the mid-Market shopping district in later years. In 1980, Munis surface operations were partially routed underground with full service changes occurring in 1982, in the days of the first United Nations conferences, Anthony Eden, Molotov, Stettinius, and Bidault rode up Market Street, waving to the crowds of hopefuls. On Christmas Eve 1910, opera singer Luisa Tetrazzini sang a free concert to a crowd some estimated at 250,000. Another historic Market Street event was the New Years Eve celebration at the Ferry Building on December 31,1999, over 1.2 million people jammed Market Street and nearby streets for the raucous and peaceful turn-of-the-century celebration. The San Francisco Gay Pride parade runs down Market Street, attracting many people every year, victory parades celebrating the San Francisco Giants World Series titles were held on Market Street in 2010,2012, and 2014
6.
Nob Hill, San Francisco
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Nob Hill is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, centered on the intersection of California Street and Powell Street. It is one of San Franciscos 44 hills, and one of its original Seven Hills, prior to the 1850s, Nob Hill was called California Hill. It was renamed after the Central Pacific Railroads Big Four – called the Nobs – built mansions there, the actual peak of Nob Hill lies slightly to the northwest, approximately at the intersection of Jones and Sacramento Streets. South of Nob Hill is Lower Nob Hill neighborhood, the district of Union Square, the Tenderloin neighborhood. To the east is San Franciscos Chinatown and a little farther, northeast of Nob Hill is North Beach and Telegraph Hill. North of Nob Hill is Russian Hill, and eventually, the areas of the waterfront such as Pier 39. The area was settled in the rapid urbanization happening in the city in the late 19th century, because of the views and its central position, it became an exclusive enclave of the rich and famous on the west coast who built large mansions in the neighborhood. This included prominent tycoons such as Leland Stanford, founder of Stanford University, for this reason, its early citizens were known as nabobs, which was shortened to nob, giving the area its eventual name. The neighborhood was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire, except for the walls surrounding the Stanford, Crocker, Huntington. Those walls remain and black caused by smoke from the intense fires that burned after the quake can still be seen. Also gutted by the fires was the newly completed Fairmont Hotel at Mason and California Streets, both structures had stone exteriors that survived the fires, and both buildings were subsequently cleaned and refurbished. The Fairmont Hotel remains in operation to day and the Flood Mansion is the headquarters of the exclusive Pacific-Union Club. While the neighborhood was able to maintain its affluence following the quake, some rebuilt mansions further west in San Francisco, for example, in Pacific Heights and Cow Hollow. In place of where the mansions had been located, swank hotels were erected, hotels built over the ruins of the former mansions include the Mark Hopkins, Huntington and Stanford Court. Nob is disparaging British slang abbreviation of noble/nobility referring to the monied, the location is also derisively referred to as Snob Hill. The intersection of California and Powell streets is the location of two of its four well-known and most expensive hotels, the Fairmont Hotel, the Mark Hopkins Hotel, the Mark Hopkins Hotel and the Huntington Hotel are located one block away at Mason & California. The hotels were named for three of The Big Four, four entrepreneurs of the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad, Leland Stanford, the fourth, Charles Crocker has a garage named after him in the neighborhood. The Fairmont is also named for a San Francisco tycoon, James G. Fair, opposite the Fairmont Hotel and Pacific Union Club is Grace Cathedral, one of the citys largest houses of worship
7.
Russian Hill, San Francisco
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Russian Hill is a neighborhood of San Francisco, California, in the United States. It is named one of San Franciscos 44 hills. Russian Hill is directly to the north from Nob Hill, to the south from Fishermans Wharf, the Hill is bordered on its west side by parts of the neighborhoods of Cow Hollow and the Marina District. At the northern foot of the hill is Ghirardelli Square, which sits on the waterfront of the San Francisco Bay, Aquatic Park, and Fishermans Wharf, an extremely popular tourist area. A trip down the winding turns of Lombard Street and across Columbus Avenue to the east leads to the neighborhood of North Beach, down the hill to the west, past Van Ness Avenue, are Cow Hollow and the Marina districts. The neighborhoods name goes back to the Gold Rush era, when settlers discovered a small Russian cemetery at the top of the hill, the cemetery was eventually removed, but the name remains to this day. As it is one of the most famous tourist attractions in the city, tourists also frequent the famous cable car line along Hyde Street, which is lined with many restaurants and shops. Another park is named after Ina Coolbrith, views from the top of the hill extend in several directions around the Bay Area, including the Bay Bridge, Marin County, the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. Russian Hill is home to the San Francisco Art Institute, located on Chestnut Street between Jones and Leavenworth Streets, academy of Art University also maintains a presence in this neighborhood with their Chestnut St. building hosting their fine art MFA studios, photo classrooms, and photo studios. Because of the steepness of the hill, many streets, portions of Vallejo and Green streets, another famous feature of Russian Hill are the many pedestrian-only lanes such as Macondray Lane and Fallon Place, both with beautiful landscaping and arresting views. Alice Marble Tennis Courts are four tennis courts located at Lombard. The courts offer a view of the bay and North Beach, a basketball court is located adjacent to the tennis courts. The San Francisco Cable Cars serving the Powell-Hyde line stops nearby, San Francisco Police Department Central Station, Metro Division serves Russian Hill. Stewart Alsop II, IT investor and journalist, fanny Stevenson, wife of Robert Louis Stevenson. Rose Wilder Lane, writer and daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, life in the neighborhood during the 1970s was used as the basis for the fictionalized series Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin. Much of the car chase sequence in the 1968 thriller Bullitt, starring Steve McQueen, were filmed on Russian Hill. The neighborhood was featured in the early scenes of the 1982 action-comedy feature film,48 Hrs. The cast of The Real World, San Francisco, which aired in 1994, in Anne Rices book The Wolf Gift, the main character, Reuben Golding, grew up in Russian Hill
8.
James K. Polk
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James Knox Polk was the 11th President of the United States. Polk was born in Pineville, North Carolina, and moved to Tennessee to study law, after building a successful law practice, he was elected to the Tennessee legislature and then to the United States House of Representatives in 1825. He left Congress to serve as Governor of Tennessee from 1839 to 1841, after losing re-election as governor in 1840, and losing in another gubernatorial election in 1842, Polk was a dark horse candidate for president in 1844. Though he entered the convention hoping to be nominated for vice president, in the general election, he defeated Henry Clay of the rival Whig Party in large part due to his promise to annex the Republic of Texas. True to his pledge to serve only one term as President, Polk left office in March 1849. He died of cholera three months later, scholars have ranked him favorably on lists of greatest presidents for his ability to promote, obtain support for, and achieve all of the major items on his presidential agenda. However, he has also criticized for leading the country into war against Mexico. Polk has been called the least known consequential president, James Knox Polk, the first of ten children, was born on November 2,1795 in a log house in what is now Pineville, North Carolina in Mecklenburg County, just outside Charlotte. His father, Samuel Polk, was a slaveholder, successful farmer and his mother, Jane Polk, was a descendant of a brother of the Scottish religious reformer John Knox. She named her firstborn after her father James Knox, like many early Scots-Irish settlers in the North Carolina mountains, the Knox and Polk families were Presbyterian. While Polks mother Jane remained a devout Presbyterian her entire life, when the parents took the young James to a Presbyterian church to be baptized, the father Samuel refused to declare his belief in Christianity, and the minister refused to baptize the child. In 1803, most of Polks relatives moved to the Duck River area in what is now Maury County, Middle Tennessee, the family grew prosperous, with Samuel Polk turning to land speculation and becoming a county judge. His health was problematic and in 1812 his pain became so unbearable that he was taken to Dr. Ephraim McDowell of Danville, Kentucky, Polk was awake during the operation with nothing but brandy available for anesthetic, but it was successful. The surgery may have left Polk sterile, as he did not sire any children, when Polk recovered, his father offered to bring him into the mercantile business, but Polk refused. In July 1813, Polk enrolled at the Zion Church near his home, a year later he attended an academy in Murfreesboro, where he may have met his future wife, Sarah Childress. At Murfreesboro, Polk proved a promising student, in January 1816, Polk was admitted into the University of North Carolina as a second-semester sophomore. The Polk family had connections with the university, then a school of about 80 students, Sam Polk was their land agent for Tennessee. While there, Polk joined the Dialectic Society where he took part in debates
9.
Seat of local government
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In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre, a guildhall, a Rathaus, or a municipal building, is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city or town council, its associated departments and it also usually functions as the base of the mayor of a city, town, borough, or county / shire. By convention, until the mid 19th-century, a large open chamber formed an integral part of the building housing the council. The hall may be used for meetings and other significant events. This large chamber, the hall, has become synonymous with the whole building. The terms council chambers, municipal building or variants may be used locally in preference to town hall if no such large hall is present within the building, the local government may endeavor to use the town hall building to promote and enhance the quality of life of the community. In many cases, town halls serve not only as buildings for government functions and these may include art shows, stage performances, exhibits and festivals. Modern town halls or civic centres are designed with a great variety and flexibility of purpose in mind. As symbols of government, city and town halls have distinctive architecture. City hall buildings may also serve as icons that symbolize their cities. The term town hall may be a one, often applied without regard to whether the building serves or served a town or a city. This is generally the case in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, english-speakers in some regions use the term city hall to designate the council offices of a municipality of city status. This is the case in North America, where a distinction is made between city halls and town halls, and is also the case with Brisbane City Hall in Australia. The great hall of the town-house or municipal building, now commonly applied to the whole building city hall. Conversely, cities that have subdivisions with their own councils may have borough halls, in Scotland, local government in larger cities operates from the City Chambers, otherwise the Town House. Elsewhere in English-speaking countries, other names are occasionally used, in London, the official headquarters of administration of the City of London retains its Anglo-Saxon name, the Guildhall, signifying a place where taxes were paid. In a small number of English cities the preferred term is Council House, this was also the case in Bristol until 2012, when the building was renamed City Hall. In Birmingham, there is a distinction between the Council House, the seat of government, and the Town Hall, a concert
10.
Neighbourhood
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A neighbourhood, or neighborhood, is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area. Neighbourhoods are often social communities with considerable face-to-face interaction among members, the Old English word for neighbourhood was neahdæl. ”Most of the earliest cities around the world as excavated by archaeologists have evidence for the presence of social neighbourhoods. Historical documents shed light on life in numerous historical preindustrial or nonwestern cities. Neighbourhoods are typically generated by social interaction among people living near one another, in this sense they are local social units larger than households not directly under the control of city or state officials. In addition to social neighbourhoods, most ancient and historical cities also had administrative districts used by officials for taxation, record-keeping, administrative districts are typically larger than neighbourhoods and their boundaries may cut across neighbourhood divisions. In some cases, however, administrative districts coincided with neighbourhoods, for example, in the T’ang period Chinese capital city Chang’an, neighbourhoods were districts and there were state officials who carefully controlled life and activity at the neighbourhood level. Neighbourhoods in preindustrial cities often had some degree of social specialisation or differentiation, ethnic neighbourhoods were important in many past cities and remain common in cities today. One factor contributing to neighbourhood distinctiveness and social cohesion in past cities was the role of rural to urban migration and this was a continual process in preindustrial cities, and migrants tended to move in with relatives and acquaintances from their rural past. Neighbourhoods have been the site of delivery or service interventions in part as efforts to provide local, quality services. Alfred Kahn, as early as the mid-1970s, described the experience, theory and fads of neighbourhood service delivery over the decade, including discussion of income transfers. Neighbourhoods, as an aspect of community, also are the site of services for youth, including children with disabilities. While the term neighbourhood organisation is not as common in 2015, community and economic development activists have pressured for reinvestment in local communities and neighbourhoods. Community and Economic Development may be understood in different ways, and may involve faith-based groups, urban sociology even has a subset termed neighbourhood sociology which supports the study of local communities and the diversity of urban neighbourhoods. Neighbourhoods are also used in studies from postal codes and health disparities. Neighbourhoods are convenient, and always accessible, since you are already in your neighbourhood when you walk out your door, successful neighbourhood action frequently requires little specialised technical skill, and often little or no money. Action may call for an investment of time, but material costs are often low, with neighbourhood action, compared to activity on larger scales, results are more likely to be visible and quickly forthcoming. The streets are cleaner, the crosswalk is painted, the trees are planted, visible and swift results are indicators of success, and since success is reinforcing, the probability of subsequent neighbourhood action is increased. The social support that a neighbourhood may provide can serve as a buffer against various forms of adversity
11.
Castro District, San Francisco
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The Castro District, commonly referenced as The Castro, is a neighborhood in Eureka Valley in San Francisco. The Castro was one of the first gay neighborhoods in the United States, San Franciscos gay village is mostly concentrated in the business district that is located on Castro Street from Market Street to 19th Street. It extends down Market Street toward Church Street and on sides of the Castro neighborhood from Church Street to Eureka Street. Some consider it to include Duboce Triangle and Dolores Heights, which both have a strong LGBT presence and it reappears in several discontinuous sections before ultimately terminating at Chenery Street, in the heart of Glen Park. Castro Street was named for José Castro, a Californian leader of Mexican opposition to U. S. rule in California in the 19th century, and alcalde of Alta California from 1835 to 1836. The neighborhood now known as the Castro was created in 1887 when the Market Street Railway Company built a line linking Eureka Valley to downtown. In 1891, Alfred E. Clarke built his mansion at the corner of Douglass and it survived the 1906 earthquake and fire which destroyed a large portion of San Francisco. Up to the 19th century, the possession of the Russian Empire in North America included the modern-day U. S. State of Alaska and settlements in the modern-day U. S. states of California. These Russian possessions were collectively and officially referred to by the name Russian America from 1733 to 1867, formal incorporation of the possessions by Russia did not take place until the establishment of the Russian-American Company in 1799. At the time, Russia was a young naval power. From the start, in 1840–1865, three consecutive Finnish pastors served this pastorate, Uno Cygnaeus, Gabriel Plathán and Georg Gustaf Winter, the Finns Aaron Sjöstrom and Otto Reinhold Rehn served as the parish organists/sextons during the same period. In 1841, under the governorship of Russian America by Finnish Arvid Adolf Etholén, during the final three decades of the existence of Russian America, Finnish Chief Managers of Russian America included Arvid Adolf Etholén in 1840–1845 and Johan Hampus Furuhjelm in 1859–1864. A third Finn, Johan Joachim von Bartram, declined the offer for the term between 1850 and 1855. All three were high ranking Imperial naval officers, in reference to San Francisco, researcher Maria J. Enckell states the following about the Finns in the Russian-American Company, Russia relied heavily on Finnish seamen. These seamen manned Russian naval ships as well as its deep-sea-going vessels, Company records show that in the early 1800s these ships were crewed predominantly by merchant seamen from Finland. From 1840 onward the Companys around-the-world ships were manned entirely by Finnish merchant skippers, Most Company ships stationed in Sitka and the Northern Pacific were likewise manned by Finnish skippers and Finnish crews. During the California Gold Rush and in its aftermath, a substantial Finnish population had settled in San Francisco, accordingly, Kalevalas visit in the city received a very warm welcome and created much attention. In addition to the Finnish-built corvette Kalevala now returning to the U. S, Finnish officers serving in the squadron included Theodor Kristian Avellan, who later became the Minister of Naval Affairs of the Russian Empire
Media related to Polk Street (San Francisco) at Wikimedia Commons
