San Francisco is one of the most influential, exciting, and diverse cities in the world. It offers beautiful views and landscapes, vibrant and unique cultural areas, a bustling tourist industry, world famous landmarks, serene and picturesque neighborhoods, and even a national park nestled in the middle of the city. This research paper reviews the past, present, and future of this remarkable city.

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SECTION 1

In the opening section of the paper, I provide a brief overview of the key aspects of San Francisco and what makes it great. I start by providing an overview of the city’s population, density, size, and location, as well as the number of commuters and tourists that move in and out of the city on a typical day. I then move on to covering the city’s demographic and cultural diversity, focusing on the large ethnic groups which reside in the city as well as San Francisco’s famous and active LGBT community. Next, I focus on the city’s distinguishing geographic qualities, the rolling fog clouds and the giant hills which populate the landscape. I describe San Francisco’s role as the political, economic and social epicenter of the bustling Bay Area, which has led to enormous rises in housing prices, leading to increased development throughout the city, especially in underdeveloped areas, but also gentrification, which has proved to be the city’s biggest issue.

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SECTION 2

In the second section of the paper, I cover the historic California Gold Rush’s effect on the growth of San Francisco from a scarcely habited town of sand dunes into a lively international port town. Specifically, I use American historian Alfred Thayer Mahan’s six key geopolitical principles to explain San Francisco’s expansion: geographical position, physical conformation, territorial extent, population, and national and governmental character. I focus individually on each aspect of Mahan’s theory, explaining how the Gold Rush helped to develop San Francisco’s identity and establish its presence as an economic, political, and social destination along the West Coast.

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SECTION 3

In the third and final section of my paper, I discuss the Angel Island Immigration Station and its effect on immigration and the attitude towards immigrants, especially those coming from China and Japan, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. An especially important topic considering the events going on in the world today, the stories of immigrants who went through the immigration station at Angel Island give us a glimpse into the experience of an immigrant entering a nation that isn’t accepting of them. Angel Island served as an important border point in U.S. immigration history, serving as the Ellis Island of the West Coast. The Angel Island Immigration Station is an excellent example of a border being a point or place, not a line on a map, and the importance of this small island regarding immigration into the United States was paramount.

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1. The City

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INTRODUCTION

My hometown is San Francisco, California, the heart of Northern California and one of the most unique cities in the world. I’ve been lucky enough to have been born and raised in the heart of this city, and with the many years of residence comes a knowledge and experience that one can only attain from living there. From the pristine Presidio to the lively Mission district, down to the bustling and skyscraper-draped Financial district and the freezing cold waters of Ocean Beach, I’ve been affected by every corner of the city, and I’m excited to share my experiences and observations with you, the reader, over the course of this paper.

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With a population of 864,816 San Francisco represents the fourth largest city in California, but that so many people are able to live in the city is surprising considering it only occupies about 47 square miles (United States Census Bureau, 2016). With an absolute location of latitude 37.7749° North and longitude 122.4194° W, San Francisco sits on the Northern edge of the San Francisco Peninsula. With the Marin headlands to the north across the Golden Gate Bridge, Berkeley and Oakland to the East across the Bay Bridge, Palo Alto and the Peninsula to the south and the Pacific Ocean to the West, the city serves as the centerpiece of the Bay Area (Wikipedia, 2017).  Compared to the Southern Californian metropolis of Los Angeles, which stretches 503 square miles with a population of approximately 3.8 million people (Wikipedia, 2017), the state-high population density of San Francisco is remarkable. That figure doesn’t even take into account the absurd amount of people who commute into the city every day from more than five counties surrounding the city. Due to its accessibility to surrounding areas, each weekday San Francisco gains a total of 265,000 workers, although it also loses 103,000 who travel to the Peninsula, the East Bay, or Marin each day to work (Barmann, 2016). If you assume that means that the city is just a mess of skyscrapers and busy bee workers, you’d be wrong. Not only does San Francisco serve as the financial hub of the thriving Bay Area, but it also represents the cultural, artistic, and social epicenter of Northern California.

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DISTRICT DIVERSITY

The city’s population reflects its place as one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world. Caucasians account for 41% of the city’s population, with neighborhoods like North Beach, a former hub for Irish immigrants, still displaying strong European heritage (Wikipedia, 2017). A large Asian community that counts for 35.3% of the city’s population occupies large residential neighborhoods and created Chinatown, a lively marketplace and tourist destination wedged in the middle of the city (Ibid.). A vibrant Hispanic population accounts for 15.3% of the population and mostly resides one of San Francisco’s most artistically inspired and hip neighborhoods, the Mission (Ibid.). African-Americans account for just 5.7%, but their effect is heavily felt in neighborhoods like the Fillmore, which is known for its colorful musical history (Ibid.). Figure 1 represents these numbers graphically in a pie chart, demonstrating San Francisco’s vast demographic diversity.

 

UNITED STATES CENSUS BUREAU, 2016

Along with this ethnic diversity, San Francisco is home to one of the largest and most outspoken LGBT communities in the world, with 6.2% of San Franciscans identifying as LGBT, 2.6 percentage points higher than the national average (Bajekal 2015). The Castro neighborhood, which is home to the largest concentration of LGBT San Franciscans, with its rainbow painted crosswalks and collection of unique shops and boutiques, is a popular spot to hang out, shop, and immerse oneself in a special community in a city unlike any other.

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While San Francisco may be diverse in most defining aspects, it is quite politically homogenous. Serving as the center for liberal activism on the West Coast, it features a heavily-liberal leaning population with Democrats, Greens and progressives dominating the political sphere. A Republican hasn’t won San Francisco since Dwight Eisenhower in 1956, and in 2016 84.5% of San Francisco residents voted in favor of Democrats, compared to only 9.2% for Republicans and 6.2% for others (U.S. Election Atlas 2016). The city is governed by Mayor Ed Lee and an 11-member board of supervisors and is represented in the United States House of Representatives by Democrats Jackie Speier and Nancy Pelosi, the former House Speaker and House Minority Leader (Wikipedia). Because it serves as a progressive hub of activity, the city often serves as a base for political and social movements, including the annual Gay Pride Parade and frequent protests, most recently against President-elect Donald Trump.

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THE FOGGY CITY

Perhaps more than anything, San Francisco is known for its rolling hills and fog banks that frequently blanket the city. These natural identifiers have become so ingrained in the daily routine of the city that they have affected social and political actions and movements. Residents have taken such an affinity to the fog that they’ve even given it a name: Karl the Fog. There are more than 50 hills through the city, many of which contain entire neighborhoods, such as Nob Hill, Potrero Hill and Russian Hill, which holds the famously crooked Lombard street. Sutro Tower, which has become an iconic symbol among the younger generation of San Franciscans, sits atop Twin Peaks, a popular viewing destination that provides a 360-degree view of the Bay Area. The tallest hill in the city is Mount Davidson at 928 feet, adorned with a 103-foot tall cross built in 1934 that made an appearance in the Clint Eastwood-starring Dirty Harry.

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The city’s uneven landscape is explained by the nearby presence of the San Andreas and Hayward Faults, and although neither passes directly through the city their presence is still felt physically and politically. The San Andreas Fault caused the massive 1906 San Francisco earthquake that destroyed most of the city, and while there haven’t been any earthquakes near the same magnitude since, there are still minor ones that occur regularly. This is relevant to daily life not because San Franciscans have a constant fear of natural disasters, but that the threat to the infrastructure that the faults pose has heavily influenced the building laws and codes of the city. In a direct example of geography affecting politics, San Francisco is continually upgrading its building codes, requiring higher engineering standards for new buildings and upgrades to older ones. There are still thousands of smaller structures around the city at risk of destruction in the case of an earthquake, but the city’s vigilance of building codes and requirements is sure to be beneficial in the long run or in the case of emergency.

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The cool climate of the city is influenced by both the Pacific Ocean to the west and the San Francisco Bay to the north and east. Fog is particularly common during the summer, as rising hot air in California’s valleys draws wind through the Golden Gate and into the city (Wikipedia 2017). The two geographical traits, while maybe not perceived as the most desirable for a city, have become beloved elements of life in San Francisco and have contributed to the sense of place. While the fog holds a special place in the hearts of many San Franciscans, the opposite meteorological phenomenon has caused many to adjust their daily routines. With California going through a historically bad drought, San Francisco, although not as affected as Central and Southern California, still faced the economic, political and environmental consequences. In a direct example of geography affecting politics, and more specifically policy, in the midst of the drought the State Water Resource Control Board approved emergency regulations that would fine individuals who overwatered or wasted water, as well as urban water agencies that fail to implement water conservation measures (Gutierrez 2014). Change is increasingly evident within the city and can be seen in the developing landscape of San Francisco.

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THE COSTS AND BENEFITS OF GROWTH

With all of these fantastic amenities and attractions, no wonder people come from all around the world put San Francisco on their travel itineraries; this past year San Francisco welcomed 24.6 million visitors for business and travel, earning the city $9.3 million in tourist revenue (SFist 2016). Huge infrastructure and development projects, commercial shipping, medical science, and new media and advanced technological projects primarily make up most of the city’s economy. Many of these professions require highly-skilled and well-trained workers to fill the positions, and combined with the many benefits of living in a hub of activity such as San Francisco, the cost of living has been increasingly rising for many years. The median home price currently sits at $841,600, a staggering increase from the median price of $299,340 in 1990 (Paragon Real Estate Group 2016). Renting doesn’t really get around the problem, either; average rent on a two-bedroom apartment in San Francisco is $4,650, more than $1,000 more than second-place New York city (Wallace 2015). For those looking to save money on transportation or just to beat rush hour traffic, San Francisco offers a fantastic public transportation system. Incorporating Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), SF Municipal Transportation Agency (MUNI), Caltrain, and even authentic cable cars, there is no shortage of ways to get around the city. Couple that with the extremely bike-friendly streets, and there is a lot of diversity in the modes of transportation used in San Francisco. Compiling these figures with the cost of transportation and food and you have to have or make quite a bit of money to live in San Francisco. To visually display this rise in prices, on the last page of the paper I’ve included a map that shows the rise in median home prices from 2003 to 2013, compiled using data from PropertyShark.com. Use the legend to determine the level that the median home price has risen within the districts of San Francisco. While housing prices have increased across the board, it’s pretty apparent that the central to western side of the city, which includes the Mission district, the Dogpatch district, and Eureka Valley, have seen the largest price increases. Not coincidentally, these are the areas that have seen the most real estate development, and there’s no signs of it stopping: just this week, the Golden State Warriors broke ground on a new stadium set to open in 2019, set in the heart of the Dogpatch district.

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Unfortunately, the rising costs of living in San Francisco have had a negative effect on some of the important cultural facets of the city in the form of gentrification. With many tech workers looking to capitalize on the plentiful job opportunities in San Francisco, more and more are attempting to move into the city. The Mission, with its urban edginess, proximity to public transportation and popular shopping areas, and relative inexpensiveness compared to other San Francisco neighborhoods, has become a prime spot for young tech workers. With so many wealthy young people moving into the area, more apartment complexes are being built and more restaurants and stores are moving in to accommodate the new group of consumers, providing an evident change in the city’s landscape. As the area becomes more affluent, the price of apartments and homes continues to increase, which prices out people who have been living in the Mission for decades, forcing them to leave the neighborhood that they grew up in and made their own. Bodegas, taquerias, and beautiful murals that provide a comforting and local sense of place are being replaced by hipster coffee stores, large modern condominiums and a Silicon Valley vibe. The Mission has helped define the culture of San Francisco, and gentrification is forcibly removing those who helped create it. With the fastest growing income inequality of any city in America (Pogash 2015), lower-income artists and community activists are being left behind as real estate developers and wealthy tech employees clamor to occupy and control the area. This is a direct example of antagonistic politics, with people who have been part of the community for decades facing off against a heavy influx of the newly wealthy tech-oriented populace. While one side argues that gentrification lowers the crime rate and makes the neighborhood more opening to economic opportunities, the other argues that these gains aren’t worth the loss of the art, music, food, and people who originally made the Mission a vibrant and hip locale. It’s a difficult moral question; the area is becoming more affluent and therefore becoming cleaner, safer, and open to more business, but is the development worth the loss of the key ingredients that made the Mission so great?

Conclusion:

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I’ve been extremely lucky to be able to grow up in such a diverse, eccentric and unique city, and while I’ve been overwhelmed by the positive aspects of the city, there are negative trends that have come to dominate the geopolitical conversation. As outlined above, gentrification is at the forefront of those issues, with economic and political developments around the Bay Area pushing wealthier people into the city, but also pushing those who can’t afford the exorbitant price hikes out. While these people certainly have a right to be disappointed and angry at the circumstances, considering they were a major part of the city’s development into a vibrant cultural destination, there is only so much that can be done politically to prevent it from happening. Such is the theme of San Francisco at the moment; as a rush of infrastructure development and technologically-influenced influx of companies and workers has continued the city’s economic and population growth. This growth, however, seems to come at the cost of cultural integrity and spirit which drove people to the City by the Bay in the first place.

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Many of the sources used during my research originate from local newspapers, Census information, and from databases such as Wikipedia, but many of the descriptions of areas, landmarks and other observations are personal observations or thoughts, and therefore are subject to bias. The hand-drawn map uses data from 2003-2013, so the median price increases may not be completely accurate as of today, but they still demonstrate the overall theme of rising price levels.

 

2. The Gold Rush and the Territorial, Social and Political Expansion of San Francisco

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INTRODUCTION

Perhaps the most influential event in San Francisco’s development into the political, economic and social hub of activity that it is today is the 1948 discovery of gold by James W. Marshall at Sutter’s Mill in Coloma, California. From 1848 until 1855, the California Gold Rush brought more than 300,000 people to California, many of whom resided in San Francisco, transforming the area from a small settlement of less than a thousand people to a bustling port city of more than 100,000 residents in less than half a decade (History Channel 2010). With this huge influx of aptly named 49ers, businessmen, and laborers came a period of large scale development of infrastructure, ports, business, and homes which allowed San Francisco’s economy to not only exist, but thrive. The Gold Rush also expedited California’s admission to the Union as the 31st state, when it entered as a free state. San Francisco’s rapid development into a legitimate city connects to American historian Alfred Thayer Mahan’s six key geopolitical principles: geographical position, physical conformation, territorial extent, population, and national and governmental character. Throughout the next five sections, I will analyze Mahan’s theories in relation to the growth of San Francisco during the California Gold Rush.

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 GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION

Mahan argued that it is better to have coastal states over landlocked ones, and San Francisco certainly represents the ideal coastal position for a city. Surrounded on all sides but one by water, it offers excellent geographic protection from land invasion, easy access for seafaring traders and workers, and a perfect location for an active port city. This helps explain how San Francisco became such a prosperous point despite most of the physical gold being located further east in central California. The site and situation of San Francisco as the gateway to Gold from the sea allowed it to become a bustling center of economic activity. The first migrants to arrive to mine for gold were those who could access California by sea, and included miners from Oregon, the Sandwich Islands, which would eventually become known as Hawaii, Peru, Chile, Mexico and even China (History Channel 2010).

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PHYSICAL CONFORMATION

Mahan believed that the key to supremacy of the sea was a strong port element that could hold large numbers of ships and function as an efficient trading post. During the Gold Rush, San Francisco’s ports prospered in a wide variety of ways. Not only did ships carry motivated workers from around the country and the world, but they also served as a busy trading location. Ships would drop anchor in the Bay and become floating warehouses, hoping to sell their products at inflated prices to a population rich in gold. San Francisco ports became a world marketplace, selling sugar, mining tools, liquor, guns and an assortment of other things that a San Franciscan pioneer might find useful. These floating warehouses also served as an ideal marketplace for those looking to speculate; at any point, the price of an item could drastically fall or increase based on the products sold by new ships coming in (Smith 2009). With the hectic port activity and number of ships present in the bay as prime indicators, San Francisco exemplifies Mahan’s geopolitical theory of physical conformation.

While Mahan specifically chose to focus on the importance of ports as a key geopolitical factor, I would argue that railroads were just as important. The Gold Rush was the primary cause for the large scale railroad development, which culminated in the 1869 construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad (Smith 2009). The map below depicts the paths of the many overland and sea voyages made by gold-seekers attempting to land in California. The blue lines represent international travel routes to California, while the green lines represent overland travel routes and red lines represent domestic sea travel. Voyagers on the east coast preferred to sail around the Cape Horn or through the Panama Canal, while those in the Midwest or near the west coast tended to opt for the overland paths.

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TERRITORIAL EXTENT

While the Gold Rush was a boon for the economic and territorial expansion of San Francisco, it had a drastic effect on the previously close-to-untouched environment of Northern California. Mahan addressed territorial extent in respect to scale and growth, but having addressed the territorial and population growth of San Francisco, this section will briefly discuss the environmental scale and consequences of the Gold Rush on San Francisco’s landscape.

While the first gold miners who came to California used their hands and small tools to pan for gold in waterways, later miners would build giant dredgers to put in rivers, water cannons to destroy hillsides to expose the fold beneath the surface, and underground mining which revealed gold through the use of explosives (Anthony 2008). These methods left behind dangerous toxins, the most concerning of which being mercury, which still affects streams and fish today and pose a danger to human consumption (Anthony 2008). The danger is relatively minor, however, and the biggest environmental legacy of the Gold Rush today remains the large influx of people that landed in San Francisco, destroying the natural landscape to develop infrastructure and build the fantastic city that exists today.

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POPULATION

Mahan placed geopolitical significance upon the population of a nation or area, and while San Francisco had an extremely small pre-Gold Rush population, the lust for gold swelled the population of California by a ridiculous amount. San Francisco, being at the geographical center of activity with ships coming in nonstop, saw the largest increase in population as the small settlement became a bustling city.

The discovery of gold was still relatively unknown even months after the original discovery at Sutter’s Mill, but that changed with the December 1948 announcement by President James K. Polk of the massive presence of gold in California. From 1949 onward, thousands of gold miners, nicknamed the ‘49ers, traveled westward across the continental United States or sailing to Panama or even around Cape Horn in their quest for gold. By the end of 1949, the non-native population of California was estimated to number around 100,000 people, compared to 20,000 at the end of 1948 and around 800 before the discovery of gold (History Channel 2010). California wasn’t completely desolate, though, as it was the home to approximately 150,000 Native-Americans and 6,500 people of Spanish or Mexican descent (History Channel 2010). By 1860, the state’s non-native population had reached 380,000 and San Francisco was by then a legitimate and defining element of the United States, the largest city west of the Mississippi River (History Channel 2010).

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This massive population increase had positive and negative effects on the area. While businesses such as shops, saloons and brothels were able to take economic advantage of the influx of new customers, the chaos of the Gold Rush and the lack of proper city structure and planning for such a huge number of visitors led to lawlessness, banditry, gambling, prostitution and violence. Much of the violence was directed towards Chinese immigrants, most of whom had come to work in the mines. At this time, China was closer by sea to San Francisco than the east coast of the United States was, and therefore already held a large Chinese population, and many Chinese were looking to escape poverty in their homeland and capitalize on the fresh discovery across the Atlantic Ocean (Norton 1924). While first welcomed as cheap laborers, carpenters, and cooks, as soon as Americans from around the country began to flock to the mines they were targeted for seemingly taking wealth and opportunity away from Americans who had missed the peak of the Gold Rush. Many late-arriving gold seekers were bitter and disappointed with the lack of gold left, and blamed their failure on the presence of the Chinese. Standing out among a sea of white laborers, the Chinese were persecuted, and in 1850 a law was passed that imposed a tax of twenty dollars a month on all foreign miners (Norton 1924). Instead of the desired effect of bringing money to the state, this just created a large community of poor and unhealthy workers, and upon realizing their mistake the state repealed the law a year later. As the mines became less and less fruitful, disgruntled miners began trickling back into San Francisco, but found few jobs available to them. Again, white Americans blamed the Chinese, who took low wages to do hard labor and were favored by railroad developers. With many Chinese looking for security and protection within the city, Chinatown was created as an exclusively Chinese neighborhood of San Francisco, one which still remains to this day.

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NATIONAL AND GOVERNMENTAL CHARACTER

There’s no doubt that the California Gold Rush and San Francisco’s subsequent economic prosperity sped up California’s admission to the Union as its 31st state in September of 1850, with San Francisco representing its largest city. In response to the rambunctiousness of the quickly growing city, in 1956 the State of California decided to divide the County, drawing a straight line across the peninsula just north of San Bruno (SF-Info 2016). These county boundaries remain today, and San Francisco still represents the only consolidated city-county in California. Mahan believed that national and governmental character were key to a thriving nation, and with California gaining statehood, San Francisco was able to grow under state and national authority, allowing it to develop state and national pride.

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Political activity within San Francisco during and immediately following the Gold Rush had both progressive and exclusive qualities. As the city’s population grew faster than the improvement and construction of infrastructure and sanitation, the city was highly susceptible to outbreaks of disease. After a cholera epidemic swept the city in 1855, the state legislature developed a system of county hospitals for the poor which is still in effect today. Along with attacks against foreign laborers, specifically the Chinese, there were also many laws implemented to exclude and punish these laborers (SF-Info 2016). Along with the laws discussed in the previous section, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 served as a definitive stance against immigrants. The Act aimed to restrict the number of Chinese males which could enter the city, causing many immigrants to remain stuck in the horrible conditions of the Angel Island immigration station. It was the first law implemented to prevent specific ethnic groups from immigrating to the U.S., and despite its awful ramifications, it wasn’t repealed until 1943 (Wikipedia 2017). Looking back at history can help us predict the immediate causes and effects of our actions today, and this exclusion act closely resembles the Muslim ban recently put in place by President Donald Trump, albeit on a much larger scale. In an attempt to pursue American Nationalism, Trump and the California lawmakers of the late 19th century instead strayed from the morals and beliefs that this nation was founded upon and which made this country great. The primary sources used for this section of the assignment included the History Channel website, the SF Gate for overviews of the Gold Rush and the broader effects of policies and actions of the time. These sources are verified news sources and reflect accurate statements about the Gold Rush era. I used Wikipedia for specifics about laws such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

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3. Angel Island Immigration Station as the Border Point Between Asia and the United States

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INTRODUCTION

Borders are often thought of as lines or physical boundaries prohibiting entry from one side to the other, but borders can manifest themselves in a variety of ways. Borders aren’t just lines that separate two jurisdictions, but can themselves become important points in a political and geographic landscape. A point on a border line can become a location of extreme importance, as it funnels all those attempting to cross through this point into another state or nation. This means that these border points separating two states attract large numbers of people attempting to travel between states for a variety political, economic, and social reasons, and this one point along the border decide who gets the right of accessibility between these states.

One such example of a border point with political ramifications for San Francisco, the State of California, and the United States of America is the Angel Island Immigration Station. Located just north of San Francisco, squished between the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges, Angel Island represents a California Historic Landmark with a very colorful historic background. The island, which is only accessible by boat, has served as a military base, a US Public Health Service Quarantine Area, and most importantly to this assignment, an immigration inspection and detention facility (Wikipedia 2017).  As seen on the map of Angel Island in relation to the rest of the Bay Area on the following page, it is a rather random location for an immigration station that processed about a million immigrants in 30 years, but this small island served as an important border point in U.S. immigration history.

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CHINESE IMMIGRATION

The large influx of Chinese workers and laborers that entered California during the Gold Rush, discussed in the previous section, had by the late 19th century established themselves as a large community within California numbering almost 100,000 (Immigrant Journeys 2004). While at first they were welcomed as a welcome source of cheap labor, as the economic glow of the Gold Rush dissipated, jobs became more scarce, leading to more competition between American and Chinese workers for work. Racism and violence towards immigrants soared, and after the institution of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, Japanese immigrants took the place of the Chinese, with 180,000 Japanese immigrants entering the United States between 1885 and 1924 (Immigrant Journeys 2004). Considering China’s role as a U.S. ally during the Pacific War, the Exclusion Act was repealed in 1943, and the doors to America became open to mass Chinese immigration yet again.

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I use the term “mass immigration” because, while the 1882 Exclusion Act prohibited the entry of Chinese laborers into America, certain categories of professions were exempt, like teachers, students, merchants, and children of American-born Chinese (Immigrant Journeys 2004). As a way to deal with this continued flow of Chinese immigration, along with the new influx of Japanese immigrants, the Angel Island Immigration Station was opened in 1910. Its location was perfect for American immigration officials, as its distance from the mainland Bay Area made it escape-proof and it was ideal for quarantining immigrants with diseases and preventing newcomers from communicating with family and friends already on the mainland (Yung and Lee 2015).

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THE PATH TO IMMIGRATION

From 1910 until 1940, the Angel Island Immigration Station processed about one million Asian immigrants on their path towards entrance to the United States. It is estimated that 175,000 Chinese and 60,000 Japanese immigrants were processed through Angel Island during this time (Immigrant Journeys 2004). Due to the strict rules of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, many Chinese immigrants spent years on the island waiting for entry. The Chinese were subjected to a much more intense immigration process than the Japanese, who did not need to have hearings and were free to go ashore within 24 hours. The Chinese also weren’t allowed to bring over any family members, as the Japanese were, and only American-born Chinese were allowed to send for their children. This is an example of opposing levels of border permeability, determined by the country of origin of the immigrant. While the Angel Island border point had low permeability for Chinese immigrants, Japanese immigrants faced a much different level of permeability upon reaching the island.

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The Chinese immigrants going through Angel Island were measured by a much stricter standard than others, undergoing a process that included a medical examination and a grueling interrogation by immigration officials. In an attempt to circumvent this trying process, many Chinese would falsely claim that their parent was an American citizen. Soon, a thriving trade system developed that involved American-born Chinese selling immigration slots to potential Chinese immigrants who were not really their children. These illegitimate “paper sons/daughters” were difficult to spot, especially after the 1906 Earthquake and fire destroyed much of San Francisco’s municipal records (Immigrant Journeys 2004). Immigration officials devised extremely specific questions to be asked of the potential immigrant and the sponsoring relative to detect these “paper sons/daughters.” Questions such as “how many windows does your house in China have” and “what are the names of the neighbors who live in your village land and what are their occupations?” Presumably, only genuine families would be able to match their answers correctly, but the applicants and their so-called relatives had usually prepared “coaching books” to be reviewed and memorized to ensure entry (Immigrant Journeys 2004).

 

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES

Most Chinese were able to pass the interrogations, and 90% of incoming Chinese landed in the United States successfully, but the long waiting times experienced by some at the station were trying times. The island was practically a prison, with high barbed wire fences, a guard tower, and locked gates. Many immigrants looking for a way to express their trials and tribulations while trapped on the island took to writing on the walls. Although immigration officials at the time attempted to putty over the writing, the putty flaked off and writing would still be visible, and in 1964 the immigration station was designated as a National Historic Landmark (Immigrant Journeys 2004). I was able to tour the immigration station during my senior year of high school as part of an immigration course I was taking, and the writing on the wall, much of which has been restored but also much of which has been destroyed, was breathtaking. The poems, which had been translated, described the thoughts and emotions of the detainees, with one poem succinctly portraying the experience:

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There are tens of thousands of poems composed on these walls.

They are all cries of complaint and sadness.

The day I am rid of this prison and attain success, I must remember that this chapter once existed.

In my daily needs, I must be frugal.

Needless extravagance leads youth to ruin.

All my compatriots should please be mindful. Once you have some real gains, return home early.

- By one from Xiangshan (Yung 1991)

 

The end of the immigration station came on August 12, 1940 when the Administration building burned to the ground, and it was left primarily untouched until Angel Island was established as a state park in 1963. The entire complex was set to be destroyed before a State Park Ranger discovered the writing on the walls in 1970, and by 1983, after years of restoration and a $250,000 grant from the state, the barracks were opened to the public (Yung and Lee 2015).

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LEGACY

The legacy of the Angel Immigration Station stands as an example of the racism and xenophobia that was prevalent in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It also serves as an example and lesson for immigration policies and the real emotional effects that they have on people. Many comparisons can be drawn to the immigration policies of U.S. President Donald Trump today, such as his travel ban on seven Muslim majority nations. The exclusion and dehumanization of immigrants throughout the United States’ history, as well as world history, is not pretty, and has extreme consequences for individuals, families, and companies who employ immigrants. Although the Angel Island Immigration Station is just a small island of the coast of San Francisco, its power as a border point over immigration into the United States had huge political, economic and cultural implications. Immigration is a hot topic issue not only in America, but also in the world, especially regarding the immigration rights of refugees fleeing conflict and oppression. George Santayana once said “those who do no remember the past are condemned to repeat it” (Wikiquote 2017). Now, more than ever, it is important to reflect on our nation’s and our world’s history before we repeat our mistakes.

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For this section of the paper, two of the sources were written or edited by Judy Yung, an expert on Chinese immigration and the Angel Island Immigration Station. The source I used most for this section came directly from the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, and gave a detailed account of practically every aspect of the island and its history. My fourth and final source for this section was a quote from philosopher George Santayana, which I used to prove a point on the importance of history in our lives today.

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CONCLUSION

There are some important takeaways that I hope I’ve imparted on you, the reader, throughout this paper. For one, I hope you understand the important historical events that helped mold San Francisco into the city it is today. The Gold Rush opened up the previously practically-untouched Bay Area to the rest of the United States as well as the world, with 49ers from all over the globe traveling to central California in the search of gold. While many of these miners were unsuccessful in their ventures, they helped turn San Francisco into a busy port, trading, and service city, laying the groundwork for its future as the most prominent city in Northern California. The miners, laborers, and traders from around the world who descended upon San Francisco during the Gold Rush established the diversity that exists in the city to do this day and which is a major part of the city’s identity.

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I also hope you’ve learned that not every part of San Francisco’s history is about positive development, and that there are negative aspects to growth that the city has encountered throughout its expansion. The racism towards foreign laborers during the Gold Rush, which led to the infamous 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, serves as a blemish on San Francisco’s history. The Angel Island Immigration Station, an important border point for California and the United States, exposed incoming immigrants to horrible conditions, unfair questioning, and unnecessary discrimination.

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San Francisco has moved past these historical mistakes, and while it still faces issues surrounding the gentrification of vital cultural neighborhoods like The Mission, for the most part it serves as one of the most accepting cities in the world. With a thriving LGBT community, a diverse set of residents and tourists from around the world, and a set of ethnic neighborhoods unlike anywhere else, San Francisco truly is a special and welcoming place.

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There is nowhere else I’d rather have grown up, and I think living in San Francisco for my whole life has instilled important values upon me which have helped determine my worldview and attitude towards others and current events. I believe that San Francisco has made me a truly accepting, open-minded, curious, kind, and well-rounded individual, character attributes that will stay with me for the rest of my life. Despite going to school two states away in Seattle, as Tony Bennett once sang, “I left my heart in San Francisco,” and I hope that one day, you will too.

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WORKS CITED

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Assignment 1:

Bajekal, N. (2015, March 20). The 10 Cities With the Highest LGBT Percentage in the U.S. Time Magazine. Retrieved January 18, 2017, from http://time.com/3752220/lgbt-san-francisco/

 

Barmann, J. (2016, June 20). This Map Shows You Where All SF Commuters Call Home. Retrieved January 18, 2017, from http://sfist.com/2016/06/20/this_map_shows_you_where_all_sf_com.php

 

Gutierrez, M. (2014, July 16). California drought: $500-a-day water fines passed. SF Gate. Hearst Communications. Retrieved January 18, 2017, from http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/State-water-board-expected-to-OK-500-a-day-fines-5623907.php

 

Lehe, L., & Green, M. (2016, January 27). Visualization: How San Francisco’s Population Changes Throughout the Day. Retrieved January 18, 2017, from http://ww2.kqed.org/lowdown/2014/01/10/how-city-populations-change/

 

LGBT culture in San Francisco. Retrieved January 19, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_culture_in_San_Francisco

 

Mihaila, G. (2014, March 21). San Francisco Gentrification all Mapped Out: See Where Prices Went Up 51%. Retrieved January 18, 2017, from http://www.propertyshark.com/Real-Estate-Reports/2014/03/21/san-francisco-gentrification-all-mapped-out-see-where-prices-went-up-51/

 

Pogash, C. (2015, May 22). Gentrification Spreads an Upheaval in San Francisco’s Mission District. The New York Times. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/23/us/high-rents-elbow-latinos-from-san-franciscos-mission-district.html

 

Politics of San Francisco. Retrieved January 18, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_San_Francisco

QuickFacts: San Francisco County, California. (2016). Retrieved January 18, 2017, from http://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/AGE115210/06075

 

San Francisco. Retrieved January 18, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco

San Francisco and Bay Area Home Values. (2016, September 15). Retrieved from http://www.paragon-re.com/Neighborhood_Values/

 

San Francisco Travel Reports Record-Breaking Year for Tourism. (2016, March 29). Retrieved January 18, 2017, from http://www.sftravel.com/article/san-francisco-travel-reports-record-breaking-year-tourism

 

San Francisco: Economy. Retrieved January 18, 2017, from http://www.city-data.com/us-cities/The-West/San-Francisco-Economy.html

 

United States Election Results. (2016). Retrieved January 18, 2017, from http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/

 

Wallace, N. (2015, August 15). What is the True Cost of Living in San Francisco? Retrieved January 19, 2017, from https://smartasset.com/mortgage/what-is-the-cost-of-living-in-san-francisco

 

Assignment 2:

Anthony, L. (2008). Environmental Results of the Gold Rush. Retrieved January 31, 2017, from http://abc7news.com/archive/6140594/

 

California Gold Rush. Retrieved January 31, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Gold_Rush#Longer-term_effects

 

Chinese Exclusion Act. Retrieved January 31, 2017, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Exclusion_Act

 

Norton, H. K. The Chinese. Retrieved January 31, 2017, from http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist6/chinhate.html

 

San Francisco Gold Rush. (2016). Retrieved January 31, 2017, from http://www.sf-info.org/history/d4/gold-rush

 

Smith, H. (2009, March 24). 'Gold Rush Port,' by James P. Delgado. SF Gate. Hearst Communications. Retrieved from http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Gold-Rush-Port-by-James-P-Delgado-3247128.php

 

The Gold Rush of 1949. (2010). Retrieved January 31, 2017, from http://www.history.com/topics/gold-rush-of-1849

 

Assignment 3:

"Angel Island Immigrant Journeys." Angel Island Immigration Station. 2004. Accessed March 1, 2017. https://www.aiisf.org/pdf/Curriculum_Guide_Historical_Background.pdf.

 

"George Santayana." Wikiquotes. January 27, 2017. Accessed March 1, 2017. https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Santayana.

 

Yung, Judy. Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, 1910-1940. Edited by Him Lai and Genny Lim. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1991.

 

Yung, Judy, and Erika Lee. "Angel Island Immigration Station." American History. September 2015. Accessed March 1, 2017. http://americanhistory.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-36.

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GEOG 276: INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY

Examines both the geography of politics and the politics of geography at a variety of spatial scales and in different global locations. Typical topics include: geographies of the state and state power; geopolitics and globalization; national and local politics, and other politics of culture, health, nature, and the body.

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