"South San Francisco is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States, located on the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 60,552 at the 2000 census.
The city lies north of San Francisco International Airport in a small valley between San Bruno Mountain and the Coast Range. The city is served by two major highways, U.S. Route 101 (the Bayshore Freeway) and Interstate 280. A BART station, located directly adjacent to El Camino High School and Solaire Transit Village, opened in 2003, supplementing Caltrain service to San Francisco and San Jose. The city's small downtown and several aging residential subdivisions, such as Mayfair Village, Sunshine Gardens, Avalon Park, Winston Manor, and Rancho Buri Buri, are located west of Highway 101, while the area east of Highway 101 is dominated by bland industrial complexes interspersed with futuristic office parks, particularly the Oyster Point Marina. The extreme western portions of the city near Interstate 280 sit along a hillside and offer views of San Francisco Bay. This area is known to local residents as Westborough. The southern part of the city, closest to the airport, is home to a large number of car repair shops, airport parking lots, and airport hotels.
Locals refer to the town as "South City," in much the same way that San Francisco is called "The City." People unfamiliar with the area often mistake South San Francisco as the southern part of the city of San Francisco.
South San Francisco is part of the South San Francisco Unified School District, which also serves portions of the neighboring cities of Daly City and San Bruno. The city is home to two public high schools: El Camino High School and South San Francisco High School, which share a cross-town rivalry. The city also has three public middle schools: Parkway Heights, Westborough, and Alta Loma. These public high and middle schools, as well as a number of public elementary schools, and an adult school, South San Francisco Adult Education, are part of the South San Francisco Unified School District. Several parochial schools are also established in the city: All Souls School, Mater Dolorosa School (recently closed), and St. Veronica's School." (
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