Economy
Tourism is the backbone of the San Francisco economy. Its frequent portrayal in music, film, and popular culture has made the city and its landmarks recognizable worldwide. It is the city where Tony Bennett left his heart, where the Birdman of Alcatraz spent many of his final years, and where Rice-a-Roni was said to be the favorite treat. San Francisco attracts the fifth highest number of foreign tourists of any city in the United States and claims Pier 39 near Fisherman's Wharf to be the third-most popular tourist attraction in the nation. More than 15 million visitors came to San Francisco in 2005, injecting nearly $7.5 billion into the economy. With a large hotel and restaurant infrastructure and a world-class facility in the Moscone Center, San Francisco also is a top-ten North American destination for conventions and conferences.
The legacy of the California Gold Rush turned San Francisco into the principal banking and finance center of the west coast. Montgomery Street in the Financial District is known as the "Wall Street of the West", home to the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and formerly the site of the Pacific Exchange. Bank of America, a pioneer in making banking services accessible to the middle class, was founded in San Francisco. Many large financial institutions, multinational banks and venture capital firms are based in or have set up regional headquarters in the city. With over thirty international financial institutions, six Fortune 500 companies and a large support infrastructure of professional services, including law, public relations, architecture, and graphic design also populating the downtown, San Francisco is one of ten Beta World Cities.
San Francisco's economy has increasingly become tied to that of Silicon Valley to the south, sharing a need for highly educated workers with specialized skills. It has been positioning itself as a biotechnology and biomedical hub and research center. The Mission Bay neighborhood, site of a second campus of UCSF, fosters a budding industry and serves as headquarters of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the public agency funding stem cell research programs statewide.
Small businesses with fewer than ten employees and self-employed firms make up 85 percent of city establishments. The number of San Franciscans employed by firms of greater than 1000 employees has fallen by half since 1977. The penetration of national big box retail chains into the city has been slow. In an effort to buoy small privately owned businesses in San Francisco, the Small Business Commission supports a publicity campaign to keep a larger share of retail dollars in the local economy, while the Board of Supervisors has used the planning code to limit the neighborhoods in which "formula retail" establishments can set up shop, an effort affirmed by San Francisco voters.
(Source: Wikipedia.org)
