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San Francisco, California is one of the top tourist destinations in the world and is home to a wide variety of cultures and unique people.  It is a highly developed area with many skyscrapers and an overall urban setting, yet there are pocket parks and community gardens sprinkled throughout the city.  Within the city is also a great cultural center, known as Chinatown, that represents Chinese foods, decorations, clothing and music all in one area of the city.  The Chinatown in San Francisco is the oldest Chinatown in North America (San Francisco Chinatown 1).  Growing up in such a liberal area influenced my ideas and the way that I was raised as a small girl.  San Francisco had a major impact on my family because of the environmentally conscious attitudes, deep cultural variety and liberal ideas.       

San Francisco is a unique urban city because it combines a highly developed area with gardens and open markets and an overall great consciousness for the environment.  Community gardens are in high demand and many people want to grow their own organic vegetables and work on a green project with their community.  The variety of food in the city is also very vast and a lot of the culture surrounds eating and gathering together.  I still vividly remember gardening for hours with my mother and little sister and even being able to name all of the plants at such an early age.  This love for the environment and gardening has followed my family and me into the future.  My dad started his own community garden in Atlanta, my mom got certified in the rigorous master gardening program, and I planted a sustainable garden for the homeless in Atlanta.  

The variety of people from different cultural backgrounds and social classes make the city of San Francisco a very diverse area.  One of the most culturally strong areas is Chinatown.  The Chinatown in San Francisco is the largest Chinese community outside of Asia.  The area has typical Chinese foods and every item that relates to the culture.  As a young child this variety of cultures allowed me to develop a world view.  I can still remember walking through Chinatown and getting fresh fortune cookies that were being hand folded by elderly women sitting in a circle.  If the hot fortune cookies were not molded in time they would stay in circles and would be bagged up and sold as “rejects”, but I always thought those warm fortune cookies were the best.

Statistically San Francisco is a very liberal and open minded area.  In 2010 San Francisco was named the most liberal county in the United States (Kulczuga 1).  San Francisco is a city where many types of diversity are included in all areas of life, such as Nancy Pelosi who is a Speaker of the House and a very powerful and influential woman.  Growing up in this city I was taught from an early age to be accepting of all kinds of people, and that if I set mind to pursuing something I could achieve whatever I wanted.  This accepting attitude has followed me through my life and I now consider myself an ally to many different types of people.  Without these beginnings my family may not have been able to understand and relate to more liberal ideals.  When we moved to Atlanta from San Francisco there were many people who were more closed-minded and conservative, but our beginnings in San Francisco kept us grounded to more accepting ideas.  

The city of San Francisco had a huge impact on my families environmentally conscious attitude and acceptance of a variety of people.  San Francisco is a city full of community gardens and pocket parks that allow people to grow fresh vegetables and help reduce their carbon footprint.  The city has a vast number of cultural centers including Chinatown, which has a wide variety of authentic foods and clothing.  San Francisco also houses many types of people with contrasting political views and a large homosexual population.  All of these factors shaped me and my family and will continue to create open-mindedness and consciousness for the world for generations to come.

"San Francisco Chinatown." Chinatownology. Web. 15 Nov. 2011. <http://www.chinatownology.com/usa.html>.

Kulczuga, Aleksandra. "San Francisco: America’s Most Liberal County." The Daily Caller. The Daily Caller, 14 Apr. 2010. Web. 10 Nov. 2011. <http://dailycaller.com/2010/04/09/san-francisco-americas-most-liberal-county/>.