"I'm proud to have been a Yankee. But I have found more happiness and contentment since I came back home to San Francisco than any man has a right to deserve. This is the friendliest city in the world." - "Joltin'" Joe DiMaggio

Welcome to SFist. We're here to sing the praises of one of the fairest ladies in the world, beautiful San Francisco. Ours is a city of sun and fog, food and drink, poverty and riches, urbanity and parochialism - the blessed terminus of a hilly penninsula which protects the Bay to the east from the Pacific to the west. We are truly the Golden Gate.

While we might not be as big as our friends in New York, Chicago or LA, we don't hesitate to say that pound-for-pound we're one of the best boxers around. More than our fair share of writers, artists, sportsmen, musicians, scientists and philosophers have called the Bay Area home - or wish they did. What we lack in size we make up for in sheer beauty and vitality. People don't come here to become famous, but they do come, because The City offers something more lasting than fame. We offer a friendly face and a warm greeting, a slap on the back and a cold beer with your calamari, an enthusiasm for both genius and the absurd.

The SFist team is so happy to bring you this journal and digest of the Bay Area. We just love this place so much we had to explore it, read about it, photograph it and finally write it all down for those lucky enough to live here and smart enough to come visit. News, food, sports, art, music and literature will all be covered with a local eye and a cosmopolitan wit. We hope to be a valuable member of the community and a place where you can visit for a few minutes every day for news, ideas and interaction. Here's to you, San Francisco - may you always be the most magical of American cities!