They may not have been born here, but many colorful and creative characters have called San Francisco home. The city has been inhabited by Ohlone natives, Spanish mission builders, gold-hungry “forty-niners,” railroad builders from China, literary icons from Mark Twain to Jack London, World War II arms factory workers, Cold War nuclear scientists, beat poets, hippies, foodies, sports fanatics, health nuts, and tech entrepreneurs. How do you pick the “best?”
Since that would be nearly impossible, we’ll supply the facts about SF locals and you can decide for yourself!
Facts
Median Age
39 (national is 36)
Relationship Status
Single – 44.8%
Married – 40.5%
Divorced – 8.6%
Widowed – 6.1%
Median Household Income
$55,221 (national is $44,512)
Average Commute Time
32 minutes (national is 26)
A Historical Sampling
Leland Stanford (1824–1893)
Stanford was a lawyer, merchant, wholesaler, president of Southern Pacific railway, governor and senator of California, and founder of Stanford University.
Mark Twain (1835–1910)
Samuel Langhorne Clemens was a journalist when he moved to San Francisco in 1864. In 1865, he published The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, which was his first great success.
Janis Joplin (1943-1970)
Joplin was the queen of the rock scene in the San Francisco’s heyday. Her carefree and self-destructive attitude personified the views shared by hippies, poets and musicians during the Summer of Love. Though these times – and Joplin – are long gone, elements of the enlightenment they left behind still linger and can be felt in the streets of SF today.
Sister Boom Boom
The drag nun persona of astrologer Jack Fertig (1955 – 2012), a retired member of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence—a charity, protest, and street performance organization that used drag and religious imagery to call attention to sexual intolerance, and satirize issues of gender and morality.
Steve Jobs (1955–2011)
American entrepreneur, marketer, inventor, design-driven pioneer of the personal computer revolution, and transformer of one industry after another – from computers and smartphones to music and movies. Jobs was born in San Francisco.
And the famous, who you may bump into while strolling down the street:
Senator Diane Feinstein, musician Michael Franti, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo, American beat-generation poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, actor Danny Glover, San Francisco Giants great and Hall of Famer Willie Mays, recording artist Chris Isaak, Olympic figure-skating champion Brian Boitano, nine-time Grammy winner Bonnie Raitt, filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, musician Tracy Chapman, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, 11-time Grammy winner Linda Ronstadt and former 49er quarterback Joe Montana.
Who’s your pick?
