3a World Cities

San Francisco and San Jose



-Contains a web link to your locations.

For the next part of our virtual field trip, to compare two world cities, I chose San Francisco and San Jose.

-Contains an explanation regarding how this component (any aspect of it; eg content of videos, content of websites) connects to your study of humanities.

Studying and comparing two cities connects to the study of the humanities because understanding a location leads to a better understanding of that place's culture, literature, music and other elements that we study in the humanities. By learning how the history, climate, geographical location and other aspects affect the current location, we can interpret more about what has made up the culture.

What are some assumptions/stereotypes you think people have of each location:

I think people tend to assume San Francisco is the city that is most representative of California - liberal, eccentric, more accepting of alternative lifestyles and different cultures, and containing a unique culture. People tend to stereotype San Jose as a boring, average city, filled with computer people (as the center of Silicon Valley) and not much else.

List 3 things that make each location similar:

- Both cities are extremely populous, with San Francisco and San Jose being the 4th and 3rd largest cities in California, respectively.
- Both cities began as Spanish settlements and military bases, in the late 1700s.
- Both cities are part of Northern California, contain a variety of schools and in general, share many common cultural aspects.

List 3 things that make each location so different:

- San Francisco is on the bay, while San Jose is inland, leading to very different climate and weather patterns, despite their proximity.
- San Francisco is known for its tourism and culture, while San Jose is most known for its industry - in particular, Silicon Valley.
- San Jose has limits on building height, which often leads to criticism that its landscape is ugly, while San Francisco has some of the largest skyscrapers in the state, and is known for its eclectic cityscape.


Questioning: What else would you like to know about these places?

I was surprised to learn that San Jose is actually a larger city than San Francisco. I would like to know more about why San Francisco has become such a cultural center and tourist destination, while San Jose is less well known.

-Using your classmates work from last week, tell us one thing you learned from 1 student. Is this one thing some common experience you share or some experience that is completely different than what you experienced? Is this one thing related to our class theoretical foundation and if so, how? Is that one thing related to historical or cultural context of this country or a different one?

Looking at other students' posts from last week, I learned Ronni Bowers is also a Sebastopol native, like myself. I agree with her assessment that Sebastopol is a wonderful culturally unique place, and I'm also sad I'll probably never be able to afford to live here in the future.

Ronni's Blog

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_francisco

http://www.sfgov.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Jose%2C_California

http://www.sanjoseca.gov/