Find out more about all the benefits of becoming a RetireNet.com member!
Not a member yet? Sign up today!
Continuing-Care Communities (CCRC)
Northern California
Area Info
Northern California is a land of dramatic contrasts: soaring skyscrapers and towering redwoods, bustling cities and pathless wilderness, pounding surf and glittering snowcapped peaks. Vintners practice their centuries-old craft in some of the greatest wine-producing areas of North America, while nearby entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley reinvent the world of computers on almost a daily basis. Northern California is home to California's capital (Sacramento), its third-largest city (San Jose), the second-highest mountain of the Cascade Range (Mt. Shasta), the third-most visited national park (Yosemite). It is a land of superlatives.
The area has been popular for a long time. The first pre-Columbian settlers arrived here as long ago as 8,000 BC, and quickly made the area one of the most densely populated in North America. Europeans didn't settle here, however, until 1770, when the mission of Monterey was founded. But with the discovery of gold near Sacramento in 1848, northern California became a magnet for settlers. The area experienced a 300% increase in population during the Gold Rush years; and while the pace slowed considerably in later years, by the turn of the century over a million people lived in the region.
Today, more 12 million live in the northern California region. Yet outside of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento areas, northern California has a low population density: of the fifteen counties at the bottom of California's population figures, only one of them is outside this region.
Articles
News from the San Francisco Chronicle
Feb 9, 2012 12:00 pm
Wed., Feb. 8, draw and past sets Super Lotto Jackpot: $10 million 11 24 26 36 38 13 MEGA Sat., Feb. 11, jackpot: $11 million Date Numbers Mega 2/4 8 12 25 33 45 5 2/1 2 13 19 39 46 26 1/28 10 15 33 34...
Legislative analyst cites flaws in education plan
Feb 9, 2012 12:00 pm
Gov. Jerry Brown's rescue plan for higher education - including his idea to let public colleges and universities decide for themselves how many students to enroll - is flawed, the independent legislat...
Bay Area Catholic clerics join contraception fray
Feb 9, 2012 12:00 pm
San Francisco's Catholic archbishop has jumped into the latest national culture war, blasting the Obama administration's controversial requirement that employers - including Catholic hospitals, univer...
Official Bay Bridge opening around Labor Day 2013
Feb 9, 2012 12:00 pm
Nervous drivers who hold their breath as they make their way across the seismically fragile east span of the Bay Bridge will be able to breathe easier on or just after Labor Day 2013. Caltrans officia...
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan sees hope amid chaos
Feb 9, 2012 12:00 pm
After a year of nearly nonstop crises, Mayor Jean Quan Wednesday portrayed Oakland as a resilient city rebounding from economic and political wreckage. In her first State of the City address, Quan hig...
More Bay Area express lanes to offer toll access
Feb 9, 2012 12:00 pm
Bay Area drivers will be able to buy their way into the fast lanes on six more freeway stretches - including the Oakland approach to the Bay Bridge - in 2015, as a region-wide express lane network rol...
Enlarging Shasta Lake feasible, U.S. report says
Feb 9, 2012 12:00 pm
The billion dollars it would cost to raise the dam holding back the largest reservoir in California would, at least on the surface, be money well spent, a federal study concluded this week. A study by...
Featured Communities
Located just minutes from historic downtown Santa Rosa and a variety of golf courses in Northern California's scenic wine country, Emeritus at Santa Rosa is nestled in the sunny foothills of the elegant Fountaingrove section of Santa Rosa.
My Saved Searches
Sign In or Create your free account to see your saved searches.
