Alameda is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is located on Alameda Island and Bay Farm Island. It is adjacent to and south of Oakland and east of San Francisco across the San Francisco Bay. Bay Farm Island, a portion of which is also known as "Harbor Bay Isle", is part of the mainland adjacent to the Oakland International Airport. The city's estimated 2018 population was 78,338. Alameda is a charter city, rather than a general law city, which allows it to provide for any form of government. Alameda became a charter city and adopted a council–manager government in 1916.

Berkeley is a city on the east shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California. It is named after the 18th-century Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland and Emeryville to the south and the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington to the north. Its eastern border with Contra Costa County generally follows the ridge of the Berkeley Hills. The 2010 census recorded a population of 112,580. Berkeley is home to the oldest campus in the University of California system, the University of California, Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which is managed and operated by the University. It also has the Graduate Theological Union, one of the largest religious studies institutions in the world. Berkeley is considered one of the most socially liberal cities in the United States.

Burlingame is a city in San Mateo County, California. It is located on the San Francisco Peninsula and has a significant shoreline on San Francisco Bay. The city is named after diplomat Anson Burlingame and is known for its numerous eucalyptus groves, high quality of life, walkable downtown area, and excellent public school system. In September 2018, the median home value in Burlingame was $2.3M. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Burlingame had a population of 28,806.

Castro Valley is a census-designated place (CDP) in Alameda County, California, United States. As of the 2010 census, it is the fifth most populous unincorporated area in California and the twenty-third most populous in the United States.[citation needed] The population was 61,388 at the 2010 census. Castro Valley is named after Don Guillermo Castro, who was a soldier in the Mexican army and a rancher. First known for chicken ranches, Castro Valley eventually became a bedroom community.

Concord is the largest city in Contra Costa County, California. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 122,067 making it the 8th largest city in the San Francisco Bay Area. Founded in 1869 as the community of Todos Santos by Salvio Pacheco, the name was changed to Concord within months. The city is a major regional suburban East Bay center within the San Francisco Bay Area, and is 29 miles (47 kilometres) east of San Francisco.

The Town of Danville is located in the San Ramon Valley in Contra Costa County, California. It is one of the incorporated municipalities in California that uses "town" in its name instead of "city". The population was 42,039 at the 2010 census. In 2020, Danville was named "the safest town in California". It’s known for its excellent public schools, the surrounding nature, which includes Mount Diablo State Park and Las Trampas Regional Wilderness, and a farmers' market hosted next to the Museum of the San Ramon Valley, located in historic Southern Pacific Railroad Train Depot. The Iron Horse Regional Trail runs through Danville. It was first a railroad that has been converted to an 80-foot (24 m) wide[citation needed] corridor of bike and hike trails as well as controlled intersections. Extending from Livermore to Concord, the trail passes through Danville. Danville is also home to the Village Theatre and Art Gallery, hosting children's theatre, shows and art discussions.

Dublin (formerly, Amador and Dougherty's Station) is a suburban city of the East (San Francisco) Bay and Tri-Valley regions of Alameda County, California, United States. It is located along the north side of Interstate 580 at the intersection with Interstate 680, roughly 35 miles (56 km) east of downtown San Francisco, 23 miles (37 km) east of downtown Oakland, and 31 miles (50 km) north of downtown San Jose. It was referred to as "Dublin" in reference to the city of Dublin in Ireland because of the large number of Irish who lived there.[9] The post office formally adopted the name in the 1890s. The population was 46,063 (2010 census), and the 2018 estimate at 63,445. In 2013, Dublin was the second fastest-growing city in the state of California, behind only Santa Clarita. In 2019, census data showed Dublin as one of the fastest growing cities in the country. Dublin was formerly home to the headquarters of Sybase, Inc (now part of SAP SE) and is currently home to the headquarters for CallidusCloud, Patelco Credit Union, Ross Stores, TriNet, Medley Health, Challenge Dairy and Arlen Ness. In 2018, Dublin was ranked #7 in Money's list of "The Best Places to Live".

El Cerrito is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, and forms part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It has a population of 23,549 according to the 2010 census. El Cerrito was founded by refugees from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. It was incorporated in 1917 as a village with 1,500 residents. As of the census in 2000, there were 23,171 people, 10,208 households and 5,971 families in the city. The top 20 employers in the city, according to the 2013 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, include such entities as the West Contra Costa Unified School District, the City of El Cerrito, Lucky Stores, Pastime ACE Hardware, and Honda of El Cerrito.

Emeryville is a small city located in northwest Alameda County, California, in the United States. It lies in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, with a border on the shore of San Francisco Bay. The resident population was 10,080 as of 2010. Its proximity to San Francisco, the Bay Bridge, the University of California, Berkeley, and Silicon Valley has been a catalyst for recent economic growth. It is the home to Pixar Animation Studios, Peet's Coffee & Tea, The Center for Investigative Reporting, and Clif Bar. In addition, several well-known tech and software companies are located in Emeryville: LeapFrog, Sendmail, MobiTV, Novartis (formerly Chiron before April 2006), Wargaming America,[10] and BigFix (now HCL). Emeryville attracts many weekday commuters due to its position as a regional employment center. Emeryville has some features of an edge city; however, it is located within the inner urban core of Oakland/the greater East Bay. It was industrialized before the First World War.

Fremont is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It was incorporated on January 23, 1956, from the annexation of Centerville, Niles, Irvington, Mission San José, and Warm Springs. The city is named after John C. Frémont, an American explorer and former US Senator and Military Governor of California. Located in the south of the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Fremont has a rapidly-growing population of around 230,000. It is one of the largest cities by land area and the fourth most populous city in the San Francisco Bay Area, behind San Jose, San Francisco, and Oakland. It directly borders and is the closest East Bay city to Silicon Valley as formally defined, and is thus often associated with it. The city has an extensive and rapidly expanding base of both tech industry and workers. The area consisting of Fremont and the cities of Newark and Union City is known collectively as the Tri-City Area; different from the adjacent Tri-Valley area encompassing Pleasanton, Dublin, and Livermore.

Hayward is a city located in Alameda County, California in the East Bay subregion of the San Francisco Bay Area. With a 2018 population of 159,620, Hayward is the sixth largest city in the Bay Area and the third largest in Alameda County. Hayward was ranked as the 33rd most populous municipality in California. It is included in the San Francisco–Oakland–Fremont Metropolitan Statistical Area by the US Census. It is located primarily between Castro Valley and Union City, and lies at the eastern terminus of the San Mateo–Hayward Bridge. The city was devastated early in its history by the 1868 Hayward earthquake. From the early 20th century until the beginning of the 1980s, Hayward's economy was dominated by its now defunct food canning and salt production industries.

Lafayette was incorporated for the preservation and enhancement of the semi-rural character of the community. Lafayette shall endeavor to maintain the nature of the community by using a volunteer system of commissions and committees and a small staff whose number is consistent with the services provided. Limited services and a conservative fiscal policy are Lafayette’s practice. Lafayette is located on 15 square miles in Contra Costa County, one of nine counties of the San Francisco Bay Area. The City was incorporated in 1968, although settlement of the area began in 1848. Lafayette is noted for its high quality of life with top rated schools, low crime rate, small town downtown, clean air, mild climate and oak tree-studded hills. Located between Berkeley and Walnut Creek, Lafayette has its own Bay Area Rapid Transit station (BART) and is only a 25 minute BART ride from San Francisco.

Lake Tahoe is a large freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the United States. Lying at 6,225 ft (1,897 m), it straddles the state line between California and Nevada, west of Carson City. Lake Tahoe is the largest alpine lake in North America, and at 122,160,280 acre⋅ft (150.7 km3) trails only the five Great Lakes as the largest by volume in the United States. Its depth is 1,645 ft (501 m), making it the second deepest in the United States after Crater Lake in Oregon (1,949 ft or 594 m). The lake was formed about two million years ago as part of the Lake Tahoe Basin, with the modern extent being shaped during the ice ages. It is known for the clarity of its water and the panorama of surrounding mountains on all sides.[5] The area surrounding the lake is also referred to as Lake Tahoe, or simply Tahoe. More than 75% of the lake's watershed is national forest land, comprising the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit of the United States Forest Service. Lake Tahoe is a major tourist attraction in both Nevada and California. It is home to winter sports, summer outdoor recreation, and scenery enjoyed throughout the year. Snow and ski resorts are a significant part of the area's economy and reputation. The Nevada side also offers several lakeside casino resorts, with highways providing year-round access to the entire area.

Livermore (formerly Livermores, Livermore Ranch, and Nottingham) is a city in Alameda County, California, in the United States. With an estimated 2018 population of 90,269, Livermore is the most populous city in the Tri-Valley. Livermore is located on the eastern edge of California's San Francisco Bay Area. The incumbent Mayor of Livermore is John Marchand. Livermore was founded by William Mendenhall and named for Robert Livermore, his friend and a local rancher who settled in the area in the 1840s. Livermore is the home of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, for which the chemical element livermorium is named (and thus, placing the city's name in the periodic table). Livermore is also the California site of Sandia National Laboratories, which is headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Its south side is home to local vineyards. The city has redeveloped its downtown district and is considered part of the Tri-Valley area, comprising Amador, Livermore and San Ramon valleys.

Moraga is a town in Contra Costa County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The town is named in honor of Joaquín Moraga, member of the famed Californio family, son of Gabriel Moraga, and grandson of José Joaquín Moraga, famous 18th century expeditionaries of the Californias. Moraga incorporated in 1974, when the communities of Moraga Town, Rheem, and Rheem Valley, united into one town.

Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port city, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the San Francisco Bay Area, the eighth most populated city in California, and the 45th most populated city in the United States. With a population of 428,827 as of 2018, it serves as a trade center for the San Francisco Bay Area; its Port of Oakland is the busiest port in the San Francisco Bay, the entirety of Northern California, and the fifth busiest in the United States of America. An act to incorporate the city was passed on May 4, 1852, and incorporation was later approved on March 25, 1854, which officially made Oakland a city. Oakland is a charter city. Oakland's territory covers what was once a mosaic of California coastal terrace prairie, oak woodland, and north coastal scrub. Its land served as a rich resource when its hillside oak and redwood timber were logged to build San Francisco. Oakland's fertile flatland soils helped it become a prolific agricultural region. In the late 1860s, Oakland was selected as the western terminal of the Transcontinental Railroad. Following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, many San Francisco citizens moved to Oakland, enlarging the city's population, increasing its housing stock, and improving its infrastructure. It continued to grow in the 20th century with its busy port, shipyards, and a thriving automobile manufacturing industry.

The City of Orinda is located in southwest Contra Costa County, within 20 minutes of downtown San Francisco. Orinda incorporated as a City in 1985, after more than 100 years of gradual development, and the City has a reputation as a well managed and stable municipal government and is a relatively new city, with a population of 19,475 (Department of Finance, 2019). Family Setting Orinda is a family-oriented community with a semi-rural setting. In contrast to the more urban existence of the surrounding area, the tree-studded hillsides of the 12.8 square-mile City contribute to Orinda's aesthetic beauty. Orinda's close proximity to major San Francisco Bay locations and activities make it a delightful place in which to work, live, visit and play along with its: Culture Excellent Schools History Natural Beauty Safety Orinda welcoming sign. City of Orinda foggy hillside. Service to the Community The City of Orinda is committed to providing excellent service to the community with a focus on public safety, sound land use planning, infrastructure improvements, and responsible fiscal management of City funds. The City, incorporated in 1985, offers the following functions to better serve the citizens of Orinda: Administrative Services Parks and Recreation Planning Police Public Works and Engineering

Piedmont is a small semi-suburban city located in Alameda County, California, United States. Piedmont is completely surrounded by the city of Oakland. Its residential population was 10,667 at the 2010 census. The name comes after the region of Piedmont in Italy, and literally means foothill. Piedmont was incorporated in 1907, and was developed significantly in the 1920s and 1930s. Elementary and secondary students (PK-12) residing in Piedmont, children of City of Piedmont employees, and children of Piedmont Unified School District employees are eligible to attend schools within the Piedmont Unified School District. The district, coinciding with the municipal boundaries, includes three elementary schools (Havens, Beach, and Wildwood), one middle school (Piedmont Middle School), and two high schools—one larger (Piedmont High School), and one smaller, alternative high school, Millennium High School. A very high percentage[quantify] of Piedmont High School graduates are accepted to 4-year undergraduate programs. Many graduates continue their post-secondary education at very prestigious and competitive public and private colleges and universities. The Piedmont Unified School District was ranked #10 of 756 districts in the state of California according to one statistical analysis of California public education.

Pleasant Hill is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 33,152 at the 2010 census. It was incorporated in 1961. Pleasant Hill is the home of College Park High School, Diablo Valley College, John F Kennedy University, the Pleasant Hill Library and administration offices for the Contra Costa County Library system, and the Pleasant Hill Recreation & Park District. Martinez is a city in and the county seat of Contra Costa County, California, in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 35,824 at the 2010 census. The downtown is notable for its large number of preserved old buildings and antique shops. Martinez is located on the southern shore of the Carquinez Strait in the San Francisco Bay Area, directly facing the city center of Benicia and the southeastern end of Vallejo, California.

Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was incorporated on August 7, 1905 and has a city council. Located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Richmond borders the cities of San Pablo, Albany, El Cerrito and Pinole in addition to the unincorporated communities of North Richmond, Hasford Heights, Kensington, El Sobrante, Bayview-Montalvin Manor, Tara Hills, and East Richmond Heights, and for a short distance San Francisco on Red Rock Island in the San Francisco Bay. Richmond is one of two cities, the other being San Rafael, California, that sits on the shores of San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay simultaneously. During the mayoralty of Gayle McLaughlin, Richmond was the largest city in the United States served by a Green Party mayor. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the city's population is at 103,710, making it the second largest city in the United States named Richmond. The largest, Richmond, Virginia, is the namesake of the California city. Southern Richmond in 1930, at the time the town of Stege, California

San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco and colloquially known as SF, San Fran, Frisco, or "The City", is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California. San Francisco is the 15th most populous city in the United States, and the fourth most populous in California, with 881,549 residents as of 2019. It covers an area of about 46.89 square miles (121.4 km2), mostly at the north end of the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area, making it the second most densely populated large U.S. city, and the fifth most densely populated U.S. county, behind only four of the five New York City boroughs. San Francisco is the 12th-largest metropolitan statistical area in the United States by population, with 4.7 million people, and the 4th-largest by economic output, with GDP of $549 billion in 2018. With San Jose, it forms the fifth most populous combined statistical area in the United States, the San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area (9.67 million residents in 2018). As of 2018, San Francisco was the seventh-highest-income county in the United States, with a per capita personal income of $130,696. In the same year, San Francisco proper had a GDP of $183.2 billion, and a GDP per capita of $207,371. The CSA San Francisco shares with San Jose and Oakland was the country's third-largest urban economy as of 2018, with a GDP of $1.03 trillion. Of the 500+ primary statistical areas in the U.S., this CSA had among the highest GDP per capita in 2018, at $106,757. San Francisco was ranked 12th in the world and 2nd in the United States on the Global Financial Centres Index as of September 2019. As of 2016, the San Francisco metropolitan area had the highest GDP per capita, labor productivity, and household income levels in the OECD. As of 2019, it is the highest rated American city on world liveability rankings. San Francisco was founded on June 29, 1776, when colonists from Spain established Presidio of San Francisco at the Golden Gate and Mission San Francisco de Asís a few miles away, all named for St. Francis of Assisi. 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. San Francisco's status as the West Coast's largest city peaked between 1870 and 1900, when around 25% of California's population resided in the city proper. 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 major port of embarkation for service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. It then became the birthplace of the United Nations in 1945. After the war, the confluence of returning servicemen, significant immigration, liberalizing attitudes, along with the rise of the "hippie" counterculture, the Sexual Revolution, the Peace Movement growing from opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, and other factors led to the Summer of Love and the gay rights movement, cementing San Francisco as a center of liberal activism in the United States. Politically, the city votes strongly along liberal Democratic Party lines. A popular tourist destination, San Francisco is known for its cool summers, fog, steep rolling hills, eclectic mix of architecture, and landmarks, including the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, the former Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary, Fisherman's Wharf, and its Chinatown district. San Francisco is also the headquarters of five major banking institutions and various other companies such as Levi Strauss & Co., Gap Inc., Fitbit, Salesforce.com, Dropbox, Reddit, Square, Inc., Dolby, Airbnb, Weebly, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Yelp, Pinterest, Twitter, Uber, Lyft, Mozilla, Wikimedia Foundation and Craigslist. The city, and the surrounding Bay Area, is a global center of the sciences and arts and is home to a number of educational and cultural institutions, such as the University of San Francisco (USF), University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), San Francisco State University (SFSU), the De Young Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the SFJAZZ Center, and the California Academy of Sciences.

The City of San Leandro is one of the most diverse cities in the nation located at the center of the dynamic San Francisco Bay Area. With a vibrant community of more than 89,000 residents, San Leandro is proud of its well-maintained neighborhoods, excellent public libraries, twenty-one public parks, quality local schools, and a wide range of shopping, dining, and entertainment options. The City also encompasses a large industrial area that is home to a thriving advanced manufacturing industry. Discovered in 1772 by a Spanish explorer, San Leandro became famous during the late 1800s and early 1900s for its delicious cherries. In 1909, to celebrate the abundant cherry harvest, San Leandro held its first Cherry Festival. The event was so successful it is a continued celebration today, becoming an annual event each year in June. San Leandro is also well-known for its quiet, well-defined neighborhoods full of charming and unique older houses on tree-lined streets where residents are proud of both their neighborhoods and their City. This is reflected by their active involvement in the City's numerous neighborhood and homeowner's associations. The ideal temperate makes San Leandro an excellent place for outdoor recreation. San Leandro boasts of its 450-berth Marina and two golf courses, and with an average temperature of 62 degrees and average rainfall of 19 inches per year, outdoor activity is possible all year.

San Ramon is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, located 34 miles east of San Francisco, and within the San Ramon Valley. San Ramon's population was estimated as 75,839 in 2018 by the US Census Bureau, making it the 4th largest city in Contra Costa County, behind Richmond, Concord and Antioch. San Ramon is home to the headquarters of Chevron Corporation, 24 Hour Fitness, the West Coast headquarters of AT&T, the Global Software Center of General Electric, as well as the San Ramon Medical Center. Major annual events include the Art and Wind Festival on Memorial Day weekend and the Run for Education in October. San Ramon is adjacent to Danville, California, to the north and Dublin, California, to the south. Unincorporated county lands border San Ramon to the east and west. It is located around 500 feet (150 m) above sea level. Mount Diablo flanks the city to the northeast and is prominently visible from almost all parts of the city. The Las Trampas Regional Wilderness borders San Ramon's extreme northwest, at the northern end of Bollinger Canyon. The smaller Bishop Ranch Regional Preserve straddles San Ramon's western border, located approximately between Interstate 680 and the Alameda County line. The topography of San Ramon is varied, featuring a mix of the rolling hills of the Diablo Range and the flatter basin of the San Ramon Valley. The city is predominantly urban and residential with many new housing developments, however much of the land around the city's perimeter regions remains undeveloped, and is covered by grasslands and oak tree orchards. During the drier months the grasses are golden, but with the precipitation of winter and spring, the grasses turn green.

Santa Cruz (Spanish for 'Holy Cross') is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, California. As of 2018 the U.S. Census Bureau estimated Santa Cruz's population at 64,725. Situated on the northern edge of Monterey Bay, about 32 mi (51 km) south of San Jose and 75 mi (120 km) south of San Francisco, the city is part of the 12-county San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland Combined Statistical Area. Santa Cruz is known for its moderate climate, natural environment, coastline, redwood forests, alternative community lifestyles, and socially liberal leanings. It is also home to the University of California, Santa Cruz, a premier research institution and educational hub, as well as the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, an oceanfront amusement park operating continuously since 1907. The present-day site of Santa Cruz was the location of Spanish settlement beginning in 1791, including Mission Santa Cruz and the pueblo of Branciforte. The City of Santa Cruz was incorporated in 1866 and chartered in April 1876. Important early industries included lumber, gunpowder, lime and agriculture. Late in the 19th century, Santa Cruz established itself as a beach resort community.

Union City is a city in the San Francisco Bay Area in Alameda County, California, United States located approximately 19 miles south of Oakland, 30 miles southeast of San Francisco, and 20 miles north of San Jose. Incorporated in 1959, combining the communities of Alvarado and Decoto, the city has 74,559 residents and a very diverse population. Alvarado is a California Historical Landmark (#503). The city celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2009.[6] The city, along with the cities of Fremont and Newark, make up the Tri-City Area to the south. The city of Hayward surrounds the city to the north.

Walnut Creek is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, located in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, about 16 miles (26 km) east of the city of Oakland. With a total estimated population of 69,122, Walnut Creek serves as a hub for its neighboring cities because of its location at the junction of the highways from Sacramento and San Jose (I-680) and San Francisco/Oakland (SR-24) and its accessibility by BART. Its active downtown neighborhood features hundred-year-old buildings and extensive high-end retail establishments, restaurants and entertainment venues. Earning a spot on our Best Places to Live list as well as our Top 10 Foodie Cities and Best Places to Retire lists, Walnut Creek is a beautiful city with a thriving economy in areas like advanced manufacturing, biotechnology, education and healthcare. The city is a hub destination for several neighboring communities within central Contra Costa County, and attractions include shopping centers, year-round farmers markets, 100 restaurants and 16 public parks. Residents send their children to excellent public schools, and Walnut Creek scores high in civic engagement with citizens and business owners sharing pride and enthusiasm about their community. Also in the city is Mount Diablo, and those who hike or bike to its 3,849-foot summit are rewarded with stunning views of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge.