Editing San Francisco Peninsula (section)

==History==
In 1795, Governor [[Diego de Borica]] gave [[José Darío Argüello]] a [[Ranchos of California|Spanish land grant]] known as [[Rancho de las Pulgas]].<ref name=ranchoPulgas>{{cite web |url=http://www.ci.menlo-park.ca.us/homepage/history.html |title=Early days in Menlo Park |access-date=2010-05-04 |year=2002 |publisher=[[Menlo Park, California|ci.menlo-park.ca.us]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110504173325/http://www.ci.menlo-park.ca.us/homepage/history.html |archive-date=2011-05-04 }}</ref> This rancho was the largest grant on the peninsula consisting of {{convert|35260|acre|km2}}.<ref name=ranchoPulgas/>

As a local geographic term, the area referred to as "the Peninsula" is distinct from that denoted by "the City", and refers to the portion south of San Francisco. The appellation may date to the period prior to 1856, when the City of San Francisco and the County of San Francisco were separate entities, the latter then coextensive with contemporary San Mateo County and San Francisco City-County.  The City-County owns several disjunct properties along the whole of the Peninsula (mostly water pumping stations connected to the [[Hetch Hetchy Valley]] on which San Francisco has a permanent leasehold) &ndash; thus, most of the larger communities in San Mateo County are ''de facto'' suburbs of San Francisco, with the neighboring communities of Pacifica, Daly City, Broadmoor, Colma, South San Francisco, Half Moon Bay, San Bruno, and Brisbane being immediate suburbs.  The remaining suburban area of the Peninsula is on the east side of the [[Santa Cruz Mountains]], along [[San Francisco Bay]]; the west and south-central portions of the Peninsula are mostly rural, unincorporated, and unorganized areas.

A substantial portion of [[Silicon Valley]] is located on the peninsula. In Silicon Valley are the headquarters of some of the largest tech companies in the world, such as Google, Yahoo, Facebook, and Apple. Since 2010, [[Droughts in California|droughts]] and [[List of California wildfires|wildfires]] have increased in frequency and become less seasonal and more year-round, further straining the region's [[water security]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Drought.gov |url=https://www.drought.gov/ |website=[[National Integrated Drought Information System]] |access-date=10 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230608191948/https://www.drought.gov/ |archive-date=2023-06-08 |language=en |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last1=Boxall |first1=Bettina |last2=St. John |first2=Paige |date=November 10, 2018 |title=California's most destructive wildfire should not have come as a surprise |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |url=https://latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-camp-fire-science-20181110-story.html |access-date=May 8, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Advancing Drought Science and Preparedness across the Nation |url=https://www.drought.gov/drought/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181111042024/https://www.drought.gov/drought/ |archive-date=November 11, 2018 |access-date=May 8, 2022|publisher=National Integrated Drought Information System}}</ref>