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Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a
charter city In the United States, a charter city is a city in which the governing system is defined by the city's own charter document rather than solely by general law. In states where city charters are allowed by law, a city can adopt or modify its orga ...
in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the
San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area G ...
, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was established in 1894 by the American industrialist Leland Stanford when he founded
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...
in memory of his son, Leland Stanford Jr. Palo Alto includes portions of
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...
and borders East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford,
Portola Valley Portola Valley is a town in San Mateo County, California. Located on the San Francisco Peninsula in the Bay Area, Portola Valley is a small, wealthy community nestled on the eastern slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains. History Portola Va ...
, and Menlo Park. At the 2020 census, the population was 68,572. Palo Alto is one of the most expensive cities in the United States in which to live, and its residents are among the most educated in the country. However, it also has a youth suicide rate four times higher than the national average, often attributed to academic pressure. As one of the principal cities of
Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Cou ...
, Palo Alto is headquarters to a number of high-tech companies, including HP,
Space Systems/Loral SSL, formerly Space Systems/Loral, LLC (SS/L), of Palo Alto, California, is a wholly owned manufacturing subsidiary of Maxar Technologies. SSL designs and builds satellites and space systems for a wide variety of government and commercial cust ...
, VMware,
Ford Research and Innovation Center Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobile ...
, PARC, IDEO,
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,
Houzz Houzz is an American website, online community and software for architecture; interior design and decorating; landscape design and home improvement. It was founded in 2009 and is based in Palo Alto, California. History Houzz was founded as an on ...
,
SAP Labs Sap is a fluid transported in xylem cells (vessel elements or tracheids) or phloem sieve tube elements of a plant. These cells transport water and nutrients throughout the plant. Sap is distinct from latex, resin, or cell sap; it is a separat ...
, and Lockheed Martin. Palo Alto has also served as headquarters to several other high-tech companies, including
Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus '' Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancest ...
,
Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
,
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...
,
Logitech Logitech International S.A. ( ; often shortened to Logi) is a Swiss multinational manufacturer of computer peripherals and software, with headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, and Newark, California. The company has offices throughout Europe ...
, Tesla, Intuit, Pinterest, and PayPal.


History

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Ohlone lived on the San Francisco peninsula; in particular, the Puichon Ohlone lived in the Palo Alto area. The area of modern Palo Alto was first recorded by the 1769 party of
Gaspar de Portolá Gaspar de Portolá y Rovira (January 1, 1716 – October 10, 1786) was a Spanish military officer, best known for leading the Portolá expedition into California and for serving as the first Governor of the Californias. His expedition laid t ...
, a 64-man, 200-horse expedition setting out from
San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...
to find Monterey Bay. The group trekked past the bay without recognizing it and continued north. When they reached modern-day Pacifica, they ascended
Sweeney Ridge Sweeney Ridge, is a hilly hiking area of ridges and ravines between San Bruno and Pacifica, California, about a 25-minute drive south from San Francisco. The ridge's 1,200-foot-high summit, covered with coastal scrub and grassland, slopes down to ...
and saw the San Francisco Bay on November 2. Portolá descended from Sweeney Ridge southeast down
San Andreas Creek San Andrés Creek (''Spanish for'': St. Andrew's Creek), now called San Andreas Creek, is a perennial stream that flows southeasterly along the San Andreas Fault from Sweeney Ridge in San Mateo County, California, providing the inflow to and out ...
to Laguna Creek (now
Crystal Springs Reservoir Crystal Springs Reservoir is a pair of artificial lakes located in the northern Santa Cruz Mountains of San Mateo County, California situated in the rift valley created by the San Andreas Fault just to the west of the cities of San Mateo and Hi ...
), thence to the San Francisquito Creek watershed, ultimately camping from November 6–11, 1769, by a tall redwood later to be known as El Palo Alto. In 1777, Father Junipero Serra established the Mission Santa Clara de Asis, whose northern boundary was San Francisquito Creek and whose lands included modern Palo Alto. The area was under the control of the viceroy of Mexico and ultimately under the control of Spain. On November 29, 1777, Pueblo de San Jose de Guadalupe (now the city of San Jose a few miles to the south of what was to be Palo Alto) was established by order of the viceroy despite the displeasure of the local mission. The
Mexican War of Independence The Mexican War of Independence ( es, Guerra de Independencia de México, links=no, 16 September 1810 – 27 September 1821) was an armed conflict and political process resulting in Mexico's independence from Spain. It was not a single, co ...
ending in 1821 led to Mexico becoming an independent country, though San Jose did not recognize rule by the new Mexico until May 10, 1825. Mexico proceeded to sell off or grant much of the mission land. During the
Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the ...
, the United States seized Alta California in 1846; however, this was not legalized until the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed on July 4, 1848. Mexican citizens in the area could choose to become United States citizens and their land grants were to be recognized if they chose to do so (though many legal disputes arose over this). The land grant, Rancho Rinconada del Arroyo de San Francisquito, of about on the lower reaches of San Francisquito Creek (i.e., parts of modern Menlo Park and northern Palo Alto) was given to Maria Antonia Mesa in 1841. She and her husband Rafael Soto (who had died in 1839) had settled in 1835 near present-day Newell and Middlefield roads and sold supplies. In 1839, their daughter María Luisa Soto (1817–1883) married John Coppinger, who was to be, in 1841, the grantee of
Rancho Cañada de Raymundo Rancho Cañada de Raymundo was a Mexican land grant in present-day San Mateo County, California given August 4, 1840 to Raimundo (also known as Raymundo), a native of Baja California, who was sent out by the padres of Mission Santa Clara to captu ...
(in modern San Mateo county). Upon Coppinger's death in 1847, Maria inherited it and later married a visiting boat captain, John Greer. Greer owned a home on the site that is now Town & Country Village on Embarcadero and El Camino Real. Greer Avenue and Court are named for him. To the south of the Sotos, the brothers Secundino and Teodoro Robles in 1849 bought
Rancho Rincon de San Francisquito Rancho Rincon de San Francisquito was a Mexican land grant in present-day Santa Clara County, California given in 1841 by Governor Juan Alvarado to José Peña. The name means "corner or bend of the San Francisquito" referring to San Francisquit ...
from José Peña, the 1841 grantee. The grant covered the area south of Rancho Rinconada del Arroyo de San Francisquito to more or less present-day Mountain View. The grant was bounded on the south by Mariano Castro's
Rancho Pastoria de las Borregas Rancho Pastoría de las Borregas was a Mexican land grant in present day Santa Clara County, California, United States, given in 1842 by Governor Juan Alvarado to Francisco Estrada. The name means "Ranch of the Ewe/Lamb Pasture" in Spanish. The ...
grant across San Antonio Road. This later became the Robles Rancho, which constitutes about 80% of Palo Alto and Stanford University today. In 1863, it was whittled down in the courts to . Stories say the grand hacienda was built on the former meager adobe of José Peña near Ferne off San Antonio Road, midway between Middlefield and Alma Street. Their hacienda hosted fiestas and bull fights. It was ruined in the 1906 earthquake and its lumber was used to build a large barn nearby, which was said to have lingered until the early 1950s. On April 10, 1853, , comprising the present-day Barron Park,
Matadero Creek Matadero Creek is a stream originating in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The creek flows in a northeasterly direction for until it enters the Palo Alto Flood Basin, where it joins Ado ...
and Stanford Business Park, was sold for $2,000 to
Elisha Oscar Crosby Elisha Oscar Crosby (July 18, 1818 - June 25, 1895) was an American lawyer, politician and diplomat. He served as a member of the California State Senate from 1849 to 1852. As a state senator, he served as chair of the Judiciary Committee, and in ...
, who called his new property Mayfield Farm. The name of Mayfield was later attached to the community that started nearby. On September 23, 1856, the Crosby land was transferred to
Sarah Wallis Sarah Wallis, also known as Sarah Armstrong Montgomery Green Wallis (1825–1905) was an early Anglophone settler in California and first President of the California Woman Suffrage Educational Association. Early life She was born Sarah Armstro ...
to satisfy a debt he owed her. In 1880, Secundino Robles, father to twenty-nine children, still lived just south of Palo Alto, near the location of the present-day San Antonio Shopping Center in Mountain View. Many of the Spanish names in the Palo Alto area represent the local heritage, descriptive terms, and former residents. Pena Court, Miranda Avenue, which was essentially Foothill Expressway, was the married name of Juana Briones and the name occurs in Courts and Avenues and other street names in Palo Alto and Mountain View in the quadrant where she owned vast areas between Stanford University, Grant Road in Mountain View and west of El Camino Real. Yerba Buena was to her credit. Rinconada was the major Mexican land grant name. The township of Mayfield was formed in 1855, around the site of a
stagecoach A stagecoach is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by four horses although some versions are dra ...
stop and saloon known as "Uncle Jim's Cabin" near the intersection of El Camino Real and today's California Avenue in what is now southern Palo Alto. In October 1863 the San Francisco to San Jose railroad had been built as far as Mayfield and service started between San Francisco and Mayfield (the station is now California Avenue); train service all the way to San Jose started in January 1864. El Camino became Main Street; the northeast-southwest cross streets were named for
Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government polici ...
heroes, with California Avenue originally being Lincoln Street. The town had its own newspaper by 1869 (the ''Mayfield Enterprise'', in English and Spanish), incorporated in 1903, and had breweries and a cannery. In 1875, French financier Jean Baptiste Paulin Caperon, better known as Peter Coutts, purchased land in Mayfield and four other parcels around three sides of today's College Terrace – more than a thousand acres extending from today's Page Mill Road to Serra Street and from El Camino Real to the foothills. Coutts named his property Ayrshire Farm. His fanciful 50-foot-tall brick tower near Matadero Creek likely marked the south corner of his property. Leland Stanford started buying land in the area in 1876 for a horse farm, called the Palo Alto Stock Farm. Stanford bought Ayrshire Farm in 1882.


Creation of the town

In 1884, Leland Stanford and his wife,
Jane Jane may refer to: * Jane (given name), a feminine given name * Jane (surname), related to the given name Film and television * Jane (1915 film), ''Jane'' (1915 film), a silent comedy film directed by Frank Lloyd * Jane (2016 film), ''Jane'' (20 ...
lost their only child Leland Stanford Jr. when he died of
typhoid fever Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over severa ...
at age 15 and decided to create a university in his memory. In 1886, they proposed having the university's gateway be Mayfield. However, they had one condition: alcohol had to be banned from the town. Known for its 13 rowdy saloons, Mayfield rejected his request. This led them to drive the formation of a new temperance town with the help of their friend Timothy Hopkins of the Southern Pacific Railroad, who in 1887 bought of private land for the new townsite. This Hopkins Tract, bounded by El Camino Real, San Francisquito Creek, Boyce, Channing, Melville, and Hopkins Avenues, and Embarcadero Road, was proclaimed a local Heritage District during Palo Alto's centennial in 1994. The Stanfords set up their university,
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...
, and a train stop (on University Avenue) by the new town. This new community was initially called University Park (the name "Palo Alto" at that time was attached to what is now College Terrace), but was incorporated in 1894 with the name Palo Alto. With the Stanfords' support, Palo Alto grew to the size of Mayfield. Mayfield eventually passed an ordinance banning saloons that took effect in January 1905. On July 2, 1925, Palo Alto voters approved the annexation of Mayfield and the two communities were officially consolidated on July 6, 1925. As a result Palo Alto has two downtown areas: one along University Avenue and one along California Avenue (renamed after the annexation since Palo Alto already had a Lincoln Avenue). The ''Mayfield News'' wrote its own obituary four days later: Palo Alto continued to annex more land, including the Stanford Shopping Center area in 1953. Stanford Research Park, Embarcadero Road northeast of Bayshore, and the West Bayshore/San Antonio Road area were also annexed during the 1950s. Large amounts of land west of Foothill Expressway were annexed between 1959 and 1968; this is mostly undeveloped and includes Foothills Park and Arastradero Preserve. The last major annexations were of Barron Park in 1975 and, in 1979, a large area of marshlands bordering the bay. Many of Stanford University's first faculty members settled in the Professorville neighborhood of Palo Alto. Professorville, now a registered national historic district, is bounded by Kingsley, Lincoln, and Addison Avenues and the cross streets of Ramona, Bryant, and Waverley. The district includes a large number of well-preserved residences dating from the 1890s, including 833 Kingsley, 345 Lincoln, and 450 Kingsley. 1044 Bryant was the home of Russell Varian, co-inventor of the Klystron tube. The Federal Telegraph laboratory site, situated at 218 Channing, is a
California Historical Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meeting at least one of ...
recognizing Lee de Forest's 1911 invention of the
vacuum tube A vacuum tube, electron tube, valve (British usage), or tube (North America), is a device that controls electric current flow in a high vacuum between electrodes to which an electric potential difference has been applied. The type known as ...
and electronic oscillator at that location. While not open to the public, the garage that housed the launch of Hewlett Packard is located at 367 Addison Avenue. Hewlett Packard recently restored the house and garage. A second historic district on Ramona Street can be found downtown between University and Hamilton Avenues. The
Palo Alto Chinese School Founded in 1963, Palo Alto Chinese School (PACS) is located in Palo Alto, California and is the oldest Chinese school in the San Francisco Bay Area. The school was formed with a merger between a Cantonese school and a Mandarin Mandarin or The M ...
is the oldest in the entire Bay Area. It is also home to the second oldest opera company in California, the West Bay Opera. Palo Alto is also home to a long-standing baseball tradition. The Palo Alto Oaks are a collegiate summer baseball club that has been in the Bay Area since 1950, eight years longer than the San Francisco Giants. The Oaks were originally managed by Tony Makjavich for 49 years. The Oaks were going to fold before the summer 2016 season but were taken on by Daniel Palladino and Whaylan Price, Bay Area baseball coaches who didn't want to see the team die. The Oaks have a rich history within the Palo Alto community.


Geography

Palo Alto is in the southeastern section of the San Francisco Peninsula. It consists of two large parcels of land connected by a narrow corridor. The southern inland section, located south of Interstate 280, is hilly, rural, and lightly populated and is the site of Pearson-Arastradero Preserve and Foothills Park both part of the Palo Alto park system and also large parts of the Los Trancos and Monte Bello Open Space Preserves part of the
Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District Formed in 1972 by voter initiative, the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) is a non-enterprise special district in the San Francisco Bay Area. It has acquired and preserved a regional green belt of open space land and provides o ...
. The city extends as far as Skyline Boulevard along the ridge of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The northern more densely populated parcel is bordered by San Francisquito Creek (with Menlo Park and East Palo Alto in adjacent San Mateo County beyond) to the north, San Francisco Bay to the north-east, Mountain View, Los Altos, and Los Altos Hills to the east and south-east and Stanford University to the south-west and west. Several major transit routes cross this parcel from the north-west to the south-east. The biggest and closest to the bay is the Bayshore Freeway and going inland are Alma Street/Central Expressway, El Camino Real, and Foothill Expressway. Interstate 280 is parallel and crosses the narrow corridor of land that connects the two parcels that makeup Palo Alto. Somewhat perpendicular to these roads are
Sand Hill Road Sand Hill Road, often shortened to just "Sand Hill" or "SHR", is an arterial road in western Silicon Valley, California, running through Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and Woodside, notable for its concentration of venture capital companies. The road ...
from El Camino until it crosses San Francisquito Creek into Menlo Park, Embarcadero Road, Oregon Expressway/Page Mill Road, Arastradero Road/East Charleston Road, and San Antonio Road (the last forms part of the boundary with Mountain View). According to the
United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of th ...
, the city has a total area of , of which is land and , comprising 7.38%, is water. The official elevation is above sea level, but the city boundaries reach well into the northern section of the Santa Cruz Mountains.


Water

Palo Alto is crossed by several creeks that flow north in the direction of the San Francisco Bay, Adobe Creek near its eastern boundary, San Francisquito Creek on its western boundary, and
Matadero Creek Matadero Creek is a stream originating in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The creek flows in a northeasterly direction for until it enters the Palo Alto Flood Basin, where it joins Ado ...
in between the other two. Arastradero Creek is a tributary to Matadero Creek, and
Barron Creek Barron Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data. , accessed November 13, 2011 northward-flowing stream originating in the lower foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains in Los Altos Hills in Santa ...
is now diverted to Adobe Creek just south of Highway 101 by a diversion channel. The San Francisquito Creek mainstem is formed by the confluence of Corte Madera Creek and Bear Creek not far below
Searsville Dam Searsville Dam is a masonry dam in San Mateo County, California that was completed in 1892, one year after the founding of Stanford University, and impounds Corte Madera Creek (in the San Francisquito Creek watershed) to form a reservoir known as ...
. Further downstream,
Los Trancos Creek Los Trancos Creek (meaning "barriers" or "cattle guards" from the Spanish "Las Trancas") is a creek that flows northerly from Monte Bello Ridge on the northeast slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains to its confluence with San Francisquito Creek at St ...
is a tributary to San Francisquito Creek below Interstate 280.


Environmental features

Palo Alto has a number of significant natural habitats, including estuarine, riparian, and oak forest. Many of these habitats are visible in Foothills Park, which is owned by the city. The
Charleston Slough Charleston Slough is a former Leslie salt pond that is now reverting to marsh on the western shore of San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the S ...
contains a rich marsh and littoral zone, providing feeding areas for a variety of
shorebird 245px, A flock of Dunlins and Red knots">Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflat ...
s and other estuarine wildlife.


Climate

Typical of the South Peninsula region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Palo Alto has a
Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate (also called a dry summer temperate climate ''Cs'') is a temperate climate sub-type, generally characterized by warm, dry summers and mild, fairly wet winters; these weather conditions are typically experienced in the ...
with mild, moderately wet winters and warm, dry summers. Typically, in the warmer months, as the sun goes down, the fog bank flows over the foothills to the west and covers the night sky, thus creating a blanket that helps trap the summer warmth absorbed during the day. Even so, it is rare for the overnight low temperature to exceed . In January, average daily temperatures range from a low of to a high of . In July, average temperatures range from to . The record high temperature was on September 6,2022 and the record low temperature was on December 24, 1990. Temperatures reach or higher on an average of 9.9 days. Temperatures drop to or lower on an average of 16.1 days. Due to the Santa Cruz Mountains to the west, there is a " rain shadow" in Palo Alto, resulting in an average annual rainfall of only . Measurable rainfall occurs on an average of 57 days annually. The wettest year on record was 1983 with and the driest year was 1976 with . The most rainfall in one month was in February 1998 and the most rainfall in one day was on February 3, 1998. Measurable snowfall is very rare in the populated areas of Palo Alto, but fell on January 21, 1962. A dusting of snow occasionally occurs in the highest (unpopulated) section of Palo Alto near Skyline Ridge, where the elevation reaches up to . According to the
Köppen Climate Classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...
system, Palo Alto has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Csb).


Local government

Palo Alto was incorporated in 1894. In 1909 a
municipal charter A city charter or town charter (generically, municipal charter) is a legal document ('' charter'') establishing a municipality such as a city or town. The concept developed in Europe during the Middle Ages. Traditionally the granting of a charte ...
created a local government consisting of a fifteen-member City Council, with responsibilities for various governmental functions delegated to appointed committees. In 1950, the City adopted a Council–manager government. Several appointed committees continue to advise the City Council on specialized issues, such as land-use planning, utilities, and libraries, but these committees no longer have direct authority over City staff. Currently, the City Council has seven members. The mayor and vice-mayor serve one year at a time, with terms ending in January. General municipal elections are held in November of even-numbered years. Council terms are four years long. According to one study in 2015, the city's effective property tax rate of 0.42% was the lowest of the California cities included in the study.


Politics

In the California State Legislature, Palo Alto is in , and in . In the
United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
, Palo Alto is in . According to the California Secretary of State, as of February 10, 2019, Palo Alto has 40,040 registered voters. Of those, 20,857 (52.1%) are registered Democrats, 4,689 (11.7%) are registered Republicans, and 13,520 (33.8%) have declined to state a political party.


Demographics


2020 census

''Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos can be of any race''.


2010

The
2010 United States Census The United States census of 2010 was the twenty-third United States national census. National Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2010. The census was taken via mail-in citizen self-reporting, with enumerators serving ...
reported that Palo Alto had a population of 64,403. The population density was . The racial makeup of Palo Alto was 41,359 (64.2%)
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White ...
, 17,461 (27.1%) Asian, 1,197 (1.9%)
African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
, 121 (0.2%) Native American, 142 (0.2%)
Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/ racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...
, 1,426 (2.2%) from other races, and 2,697 (4.2%) from two or more races.
Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties for ...
or Latino of any race were 3,974 persons (6.2%). The Census reported that 63,820 people (99.1% of the population) lived in households, 205 (0.3%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 378 (0.6%) were institutionalized. There were 26,493 households, out of which 8,624 (32.6%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 13,975 (52.7%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 1,843 (7.0%) had a female householder with no husband present, 659 (2.5%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 979 (3.7%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 188 (0.7%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 7,982 households (30.1%) were made up of individuals, and 3,285 (12.4%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.41. There were 16,477 families (62.2% of all households); the average family size was 3.04. The population was spread out, with 15,079 people (23.4%) under the age of 18, 3,141 people (4.9%) aged 18 to 24, 17,159 people (26.6%) aged 25 to 44, 18,018 people (28.0%) aged 45 to 64, and 11,006 people (17.1%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41.9 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.0 males. There were 28,216 housing units at an average density of , of which 14,766 (55.7%) were owner-occupied, and 11,727 (44.3%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.5%; the rental vacancy rate was 5.6%. 39,176 people (60.8% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 24,644 people (38.3%) lived in rental housing units.


2000

As of the
census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses inc ...
of 2000, there were 58,598 people, 25,216 households, and 14,600 families residing in the city. The
population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopu ...
was 955.8/km2 (2,475.3/mi2). There were 26,048 housing units at an average density of 424.9/km2 (1,100.3/mi2). The racial makeup of the city was 75.76%
White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White ...
, 2.02%
Black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ha ...
, 0.21% Native American, 17.22% Asian, 0.14%
Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/ racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of O ...
, 1.41% from other races, and 3.24% from two or more races.
Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties for ...
or Latino of any race were 4.65% of the population. There were 25,216 households, of which 27.2% had resident children under the age of 18, 48.5% were married couples living together, 7.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 42.1% were non-families. 32.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.30 and the average family size was 2.95. In the city, the population was spread out, with 21.2% under the age of 18, 4.9% from 18 to 24, 32.4% from 25 to 44, 25.9% from 45 to 64, and 15.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 95.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.6 males. According to a 2007 estimate, the median income for a household in the city was $119,046, and the median income for a family was $153,197. Males had a median income of $91,051 versus $60,202 for females. The
per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...
for the city was $56,257. About 3.2% of families and 4.8% of the population were below the
poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 4.0% of those under age 18 and 5.0% of those age 65 or over.


Housing

Palo Alto, north of
Oregon Expressway There are 21 routes assigned to the "G" zone of the California Route Marker Program, which designates county routes in California. The "G" zone includes county highways in Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz cou ...
, is filled with older homes, including Craftsman and California Colonials, some of which date back to the 1890s but most of which were built in the first four decades of the 20th century. South of Oregon Expressway, the homes, including many Joseph Eichler-designed or Eichler-style houses, were primarily built in the first 20 years after World War II. While the city contains homes that now cost anywhere from $800,000 to well over $40 million, much of Palo Alto's housing stock is in the style of California mid-century middle-class suburbia. The median home sale price for all of Palo Alto was $1.2 million in 2007 and $1.4 million in July 2009. Palo Alto ranked in as the 5th most expensive city in the United States , with an average home sales price of $1,677,000. In 2010, Palo Alto ranked as the 2nd most expensive city in the United States, with a four-bedroom, two-bathroom home listing for $1.48 million on average. Palo Alto is by some measures the most expensive college town in the United States. By 2020, residents' opposition to new housing has resulted in Palo Alto only allowing construction of enough low-income housing to meet 13% of its state-mandated share, and 6% of its share for very-low-income housing.


History of housing

In the 1920s, racial covenants were used that banned "persons of African, Japanese, Chinese, or Mongolian descent" from purchasing or renting homes in many neighborhoods throughout Palo Alto. In the 1950s, some movements opposed these policies, including the Palo Alto Fair Play Association, as well as architect and developer Joseph Eichler, who built almost 3,000 homes in Palo Alto. Blockbusting strategies were also employed to instill fear in white neighborhoods and cause
White flight White flight or white exodus is the sudden or gradual large-scale migration of white people from areas becoming more racially or ethnoculturally diverse. Starting in the 1950s and 1960s, the terms became popular in the United States. They refer ...
out of areas on the outskirts of the city. Blockbusting refers to a practice realtors adopted in which they would advertise the incoming presence of a black family to a neighborhood, causing panic among the white residents who would consequently sell their houses at deflated prices very quickly. One famous blockbusting event is responsible for the prevailing demographic divides between Palo Alto and East Palo Alto. One of the most destructive policies at the time was redlining. Redlining was a policy put in place by the Federal Housing Association starting in 1937. Through the program, the association could rank neighborhoods from Type A, which was desirable, to Type D (outlined in red) which was deemed hazardous. Residents in Type D neighborhoods were ineligible for loans to buy or fix houses. The program was implemented in a way so that neighborhoods with any kind of African American population were ranked type C or D. This was also the case in Palo Alto and the surrounding areas. Palo Alto’s White neighborhoods were ranked mostly Type A and B, allowing for wealth accumulation and eventually resulting in the high housing prices we see today. On the other hand, the surrounding areas were all marked Type C and D, and African Americans found themselves being driven to the outskirts of Palo Alto, what is now mostly East Palo Alto, where there was no money from loans in the economy, leading to a state of decay. However, for the most part, Palo Alto’s housing was built on policies that are still reflected in the current demographics.


Economy

Palo Alto serves as a central economic focal point of the
Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Cou ...
and is home to more than 7,000 businesses employing more than 98,000 people. Many prominent technology firms reside in the Stanford Research Park on Page Mill Road, while nearby Sand Hill Road in the adjacent city of Menlo Park is a notable hub of venture capitalists. The city's economy generally follows the economic trends of the rest of the Silicon Valley. Many nearby Silicon Valley companies, no longer primarily in Palo Alto, were once headquartered and experienced major growth in Palo Alto, including
Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
(now in Mountain View),
Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...
(now in Menlo Park), and PayPal (now in San Jose). In 2021, Tesla, Inc. moved its headquarters from Palo Alto to Austin, Texas. Palo Alto's retail and restaurant trade includes Stanford Shopping Center, an upscale open air shopping center established in 1955, and downtown Palo Alto, centered on University Avenue.Slice of cheese pizza at Tresidder Union: $2.75 Econ 1 textbook: $123.56 Undergraduate tuition: $29,847 Bloomingdale's across the street . . . Priceless
By Jesse Oxfeld, (July/August 2004) Feature Story – STANFORD Magazine – accessed August 18, 2006
Palo Alto is the location of the first street-level Apple Store,Apple Stores – 2001–2003
– accessed November 30, 2010
the first Apple mini store, the first West Coast Whole Foods Market store, and the first Victoria's Secret.


Top employers

According to the City's 2021 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:


Utilities

Palo Alto has a city-run and owned utility, City of Palo Alto Utilities (CPAU), which provides water, electric, gas service, and waste water disposal within city limits, with the minor exception of a rural portion of the city in the hills west of Interstate 280, past the Country Club, which does not receive gas from the City. Almost all other communities in northern California depend on Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) for gas and electricity. Water and Gas Services (WGS) operates gas and water distribution networks within the city limits. The city operates both gas meters and the distribution pipelines. Water comes from city-operated watershed and wells and the City and County of San Francisco Hetch Hetchy system. The city is located in Santa Clara Valley Water District, North Zone. Hetch Hetchy pipeline #3 and #4 pass through the city. The city operates its own electric power distribution network and telemetry cable network. Interconnection points tie the city into PG&E's electric transmission system, which brings power from several sources to the city. Palo Alto is a member of a joint powers authority (the
Northern California Power Agency The Northern California Power Agency, located in Roseville, California, is a joint powers agency formed in 1968 to provide its members with electrical energy purchasing, aggregation, scheduling and management.
), which cooperatively generates electricity for government power providers such as the City of Santa Clara, the City of Redding, and the Port of Oakland. Roughly the same group of entities operate the Transmission Agency of Northern California (TANC). TANC transports power over its own lines from as far as British Columbia through an interconnection with the federal Bonneville Power Administration. A local oddity is a series of joint poles; those primary conductor cross arms are marked PGE and CPA (City of Palo Alto) to identify each utility's side of the shared cross arms. Palo Alto has an ongoing community debate about the city providing fiber optic connectivity to all residences. A series of pilot programs have been proposed. One proposal called for the city to install dark fiber, which would be made live by a contractor. Services traditionally attributed to a cable television provider were sold to a regulated commercial concern. Previously the cable system was operated by a cooperative called Palo Alto Cable Coop. The former Regional Bell Operating Company in Palo Alto was Pacific Telephone, now called AT&T Inc., and previously called SBC and Pacific Bell. One of the earliest central office facilities switching Palo Alto calls is the historic Davenport central office (CO) at 529 Bryant Street. The building was sold and is now the home of the
Palo Alto Internet Exchange ''Paix'' is the fourth studio album by French singer Catherine Ribeiro and her third with the band Alpes. It was originally released in 1972 by Philips Records. The album integrates the group's original folk-oriented sound within the prog ...
. The former CO building is marked by a bronze plaque and is located on the north side of Bryant Street between University Avenue and Hamilton Avenue. It was called Davenport after the exchange name at the introduction of dial telephone service in Palo Alto. For example, modern numbers starting with 325- were Davenport 5 in the 1950s and '60s. The Step-by-Step office was scrapped and replaced by stored-program-controlled equipment at a different location about 1980. Stanford calls ran on a Step-by-Step Western Electric 701 PBX until the university purchased its own switch about 1980. It had the older, traditional Bell System 600 Hz+120 Hz dial tone. The old 497-number PBX, MDF, and battery string were housed in a steel building at 333 Bonair Siding. From the 1950s to 1980s, the bulk of Palo Alto calls were switched on Number 5 Crossbar systems. By the mid-1980s, these electromechanical systems had been junked. Under the Bell System's regulated monopoly, local coin telephone calls were ten cents until the early 1980s. During the drought of the early 1990s, Palo Alto employed water waste patrol officers to enforce water saving regulations. The team, called "Gush Busters", patrolled city streets looking for broken water pipes and poorly managed irrigation systems. Regulations were set to stop restaurants from habitually serving water, runoff from irrigation, and irrigation during the day. The main goal of the team was to educate the public in ways to save water. Citations consisted of Friendly Reminder postcards and more formal notices. To help promote the conservation message, the team only used bicycles and mopeds.


Fire and police departments

The city was among the first in Santa Clara County to offer advanced life support (ALS) paramedic-level (EMT-P) ambulance service. In an arrangement predating countywide paramedic service, Palo Alto Fire operates two paramedic ambulances which are theoretically shared with county EMS assets. The Palo Alto Fire Department is currently the only fire department in Santa Clara County that routinely transports patients. Rural Metro holds the Santa Clara County 911 contract and provides
transportation Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land ( rail and road), water, cable, pipelin ...
in other cities. Enhanced 9-1-1 arrived in about 1980 and included the then-new ability to report emergencies from coin telephones without using a coin. Palo Alto Fire also has a contract with Stanford University to cover most of the campus. In all, the Fire Department has six regular stations plus one opened only during the summer fire season in the
foothills Foothills or piedmont are geographically defined as gradual increases in elevation at the base of a mountain range, higher hill range or an upland area. They are a transition zone between plains and low relief hills and the adjacent topogr ...
. The police station was originally housed in a stone building at 450 Bryant Street. Still engraved with the words ''Police Court'', the building is now a non-profit senior citizen center, Avenidas. The police are now headquartered in the City Hall high rise. The department has just under 100 sworn officers ranking supplemented by approximately ten reserve officers and professional staff who support the police department and the animal services organization.


Education


Public schools

The Palo Alto Unified School District provides public education for most of Palo Alto. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, Palo Alto has a student-teacher ratio of 14.9, much lower than some surrounding communities. Juana Briones Elementary has a student/teacher ratio of 14.4. The school board meets at 7 p.m. on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of the month; the meetings are open to the public and city, cast live on Channel 28. Channel 28 is operated by the Mid-peninsula Community Media Center in Palo Alto, which is affiliated with the Alliance for Community Media. ACM represents over 2,000 PEG channels in the US. Government-access television (GATV) Cable TV. Palo Alto students attend one of two high schools, Gunn High School or Palo Alto High School. There are also three middle schools, JLS, Greene, and Fletcher. The Los Altos School District and
Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher th ...
provide public education for the Monroe neighborhood portion of Palo Alto off El Camino Real south of Adobe Creek.


Private schools

* Athena Academy—a 1st through 8th grade school for dyslexic students founded in 2010. * Bowman School – a Pre- K to 12 Montessori school founded in 1995 *
Castilleja School Castilleja School is an independent school for girls in grades six through twelve, located in Palo Alto, California. Castilleja is the only non-sectarian all-girls middle and high school in the San Francisco Bay Area. The faculty consists of appro ...
– an all-girls' college preparatory school for grades 6–12 founded in 1907 * Challenger School – a K-8 School * Esther B. Clark School – a school for children with mental or behavioral challenges *
Fusion Academy Fusion Academy & Learning Center (often referred to as Fusion Academy or Fusion) is a private, alternative school for grades 6–12. All classes are taught on a one-to-one basis with one student and one teacher per classroom. Students generally ...
Palo Alto – a small 1-1 alternative school for 6–12 * Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School – a K-8 Jewish day school that opened in 1990; school's name changed from Mid-Peninsula Jewish Community Day School (MPJCDS) to its current name in 2003 to honor
Gideon Hausner Gideon Hausner ( he, גדעון האוזנר, 26 September 1915 – 15 November 1990) was an Israeli jurist and politician. Between 1960 and 1963, he served as Attorney General and was later elected to the Knesset and served in the cabinet. Haus ...
. Current enrollment is about 300. * The Girls' Middle School – an independent, all-girls day school founded in 1998 in Mountain View and moved to Palo Alto in 2011. It has about 200 students in grades 6–8. * Silicon Valley International School – a bilingual immersion school with its Palo Alto campus housing the k-5 elementary school. Established in 1979. * Kehillah Jewish High School – a high school with both secular and Jewish studies founded in 2002 in San Jose and moved to Palo Alto in 2005. * Keys School – a co-ed, independent K-8 school * Living Wisdom School – a K-8 school *Meira Academy – an Orthodox Jewish all-girls high school, founded in 2011 * Sand Hill School – a K-7 school * St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic School – a Catholic school for preschool through eighth grade located in Palo Alto * Stratford School – a K-5 school * Tru School – a K-5 school


Weekend schools

* Grossman Academy Japanese Language School (グロスマン・アカデミー ''Gurosuman Akademī'') – a Japanese weekend educational program, holds its classes in Cubberley Community Center in Palo Alto.北米の補習授業校一覧(平成25年4月15日現在)
"

MEXT The , also known as MEXT or Monka-shō, is one of the eleven Ministries of Japan that composes part of the executive branch of the Government of Japan. Its goal is to improve the development of Japan in relation with the international communi ...
. Retrieved on May 5, 2014. "Cubberley Community Center, A2 4000 Middlefield Road, Paro Alto, CA,94303, USA"
*
Palo Alto Chinese School Founded in 1963, Palo Alto Chinese School (PACS) is located in Palo Alto, California and is the oldest Chinese school in the San Francisco Bay Area. The school was formed with a merger between a Cantonese school and a Mandarin Mandarin or The M ...
– oldest
Chinese school A Chinese school () is a school that is established for the purpose of teaching the varieties of Chinese (in particular, Mandarin and Cantonese), though the purpose can vary to teaching different aspects of Chinese culture such as Chinese art, ca ...
in
Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...
.


Higher education

Palo Alto is home to Palo Alto University, a school focused on psychology; and
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...
, a private research university.


Libraries

The Palo Alto City Library has five branches, with a total of 265,000 items in their collections. The library's mission is to enable people to explore library resources to enrich their lives with knowledge, information, and enjoyment. For Palo Alto library card holders, the main library web page also offers links to primary source databases with collections of magazines, newspapers, and other print articles. The Palo Alto City Library is also a member of the Northern California Digital Library, which allows cardholders to browse and download the digital resources made available. Library cards are freely available for California residents. The Mitchell Park Library, now the largest one in Palo Alto, was rebuilt between 2010 and December 2014 to be the largest in Palo Alto. The former Main Library was then renamed the Rinconada branch. Palo Alto Children's Library is located close to the former Main Library. There are smaller branches in the Downtown and College Terrace neighborhoods.


Media

The ''
Palo Alto Daily Post ''The Daily Post'' is a free newspaper in Palo Alto, California, founded in 2008 by the ''Palo Alto Daily News's'' founders, Dave Price and Jim Pavelich, who had sold that paper to new owners three years earlier. ''The Post'' is published Monday- ...
'' publishes six days a week. '' Palo Alto Daily News'', a unit of the San Jose Mercury News, publishes five days a week.''
Palo Alto Weekly The ''Palo Alto Weekly'' is a weekly community newspaper in Palo Alto in the U.S. state of California. Owned by Embarcadero Media, it serves Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Atherton, Portola Valley, Stanford, East Palo Alto and Los Altos Hills. It w ...
'' is published on Fridays. ''Palo Alto Times'', a daily newspaper, served Palo Alto and neighboring cities beginning in 1894. In 1979, it became the ''Peninsula Times Tribune''. The newspaper ceased publication in 1993.
KDOW KDOW (1220 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station broadcasting a financial news/talk format. Licensed to Palo Alto, California, United States, the station serves the greater San Francisco Bay Area. The station is owned by the Salem Media Group ...
, 1220 AM, began broadcasting in 1949 as KIBE; it later became KDFC, simulcasting classical KDFC-FM. As
KDOW KDOW (1220 kHz) is a commercial AM radio station broadcasting a financial news/talk format. Licensed to Palo Alto, California, United States, the station serves the greater San Francisco Bay Area. The station is owned by the Salem Media Group ...
it broadcasts a business news format. The transmitter is in East Palo Alto near the western approach to Dumbarton Bridge, with power of 5,000 watts daytime and 145 watts nighttime. KTLN-TV, virtual channel 68, with transmitter facilities on Mt. Allison across San Francisco bay, east of Palo Alto. The Midpeninsula Community Media Center provides
public, educational, and government access Public-access television is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is narrowcast through cable television specialty channels. Public-access television was creat ...
(PEG)
cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...
channels 26, 28, 29, 30 and 75. Among other programs,
Palo Alto Institute Palo may refer to: Places * Palo, Argentina, a village in Argentina * Palo, Estonia, village in Meremäe Parish, Võru County, Estonia * Palo, Huesca, municipality in the province of Huesca, Spain * Palo, Iowa, United States, a town located with ...
runs a unique film festival, the
Palo Alto International Film Festival The Palo Alto International Film Festival (abbreviated as PAIFF) was a four-day festival that ran at the end of September. The Festival celebrated the innovation in cinema. PAIFF's speakers series, Palo Alto Talks, hosted conversations between indus ...
, that focuses on the ways in which new technologies influence and are influenced by artistic revolution in media. The movie '' Palo Alto'' (2007) was filmed in the town and many landmarks can be seen in the background but the plot could be centered in any smaller town or city. The 2013 film '' Palo Alto,'' directed by Gia Coppola is based on a book by James Franco that has gathered experiences from teens living in Palo Alto.


Transportation


Roads

Palo Alto is served by two major
freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...
s, Highway 101 and Interstate 280, and is traversed by the Peninsula's main north-south boulevard, El Camino Real ( SR 82). The city is also served indirectly by State Route 84 which traverses the Dumbarton Bridge to the north and State Route 85 via Mountain View to the south. There are no parking meters in Palo Alto, and all municipal parking lots and multi-level parking structures are free but limited to two or three hours per weekday 8am–5pm. Downtown Palo Alto has recently added many new lots to fill the overflow of vehicles.


Air

Palo Alto is served by
Palo Alto Airport Palo Alto Airport is a general aviation airport in the city of Palo Alto in Santa Clara County, California, United States, near the south end of San Francisco Bay on the western shore. Facilities Palo Alto Airport covers and has one as ...
(KPAO), one of the busiest single-runway
general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...
airports in the country. It is used by many daily commuters who fly (usually in private single-engine aircraft) from their homes in the Central Valley to work in the Palo Alto area. The nearest commercial airport is San Jose International Airport (SJC) (also known as Norman Mineta Airport), about southeast. Nearby is San Francisco International Airport (SFO), about north.


Rail

Passenger train service is provided exclusively by Caltrain, with service between San Francisco and San Jose, extending to Gilroy. Caltrain has two regular stations in Palo Alto, the main one at the
Palo Alto Station Palo Alto station (also called Palo Alto Transit Center) is an intermodal transit center in Palo Alto, California. It is served by Caltrain regional rail service, SamTrans and Santa Clara VTA local bus service, Dumbarton Express regional bus ...
in downtown Palo Alto (local, limited, and express). The main Palo Alto station is the second busiest (behind
4th and King San Francisco 4th and King Street station (previously 4th & Townsend), or Caltrain Depot is a train station in San Francisco, California. It is presently the northern terminus of the Caltrain commuter rail line along the San Francisco Peninsul ...
in San Francisco) on the entire Caltrain line. The other station is located at California Avenue, (local and limited). A third, the Stanford station, located beside Alma Street at Embarcadero Road, is used for occasional sports events (generally football) at Stanford Stadium. Freight trains through Palo Alto are operated by Union Pacific (formerly Southern Pacific).


Bus

The Palo Alto Transit Center adjacent to the Palo Alto Train Station is the major bus hub for northern Santa Clara county. The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) provides primary bus service through Palo Alto with service to the south bay and Silicon Valley.
San Mateo County Transit District SamTrans (stylized as samTrans; officially the San Mateo County Transit District) is a public transport agency in and around San Mateo, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It provides bus service throughout San Mateo County and into porti ...
(
SamTrans SamTrans (stylized as samTrans; officially the San Mateo County Transit District) is a public transport agency in and around San Mateo, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It provides bus service throughout San Mateo County and into porti ...
) provides service to San Mateo County to the north but some lines include the Palo Alto Transit Center. The Stanford University Free Shuttle (Marguerite) provides a supplementary bus service between Stanford University and the Palo Alto Transit Center, and the Palo Alto Free Shuttle (Crosstown and Embarcadero), which circulates frequently, and provides service to major points in Palo Alto, including the main library, downtown, the Municipal Golf Course, the Palo Alto Transit Center, and both high schools. The Dumbarton Express is a weekday-only limited stop bus service that connects Union City BART in the East Bay to Palo Alto via the Dumbarton Bridge serving Stanford University, Stanford Research Park, Palo Alto Transit Center, and Veterans Hospital.


Cycling

Cycling is a popular mode of transportation in Palo Alto. 9.5% of residents bicycle to work,"American Community Survey 2010 – 2012, Table S0801, ''Commuting Characteristics By Sex''"
U.S. Census Bureau.
the highest percentage of any city in the
Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...
, and third-highest in the United States, after Davis, California and
Boulder, Colorado Boulder is a home rule city that is the county seat and most populous municipality of Boulder County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,250 at the 2020 United States census, making it the 12th most populous city in Colora ...
. Since 2003, Palo Alto has received a Bicycle Friendly Community status of "Gold" from the
League of American Bicyclists The League of American Bicyclists (LAB), officially the League of American Wheelmen, is a membership organization that promotes cycling for fun, fitness and transportation through advocacy and education. A Section 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizatio ...
. The city's flat terrain and many quiet tree-shaded residential streets offer comfort and safety to cyclists, and the temperate climate makes year-round cycling convenient. Palo Alto pioneered the bicycle boulevard concept in the early 1980s, enhancing residential Bryant Street to prioritize it for cyclists by removing stop signs, providing special traffic signals, and installing traffic diverters, and a bicycle/pedestrian bridge over Matadero Creek. However, busy arterial streets which often offer the fastest and most direct route to many destinations, are dangerous for cyclists due to high volumes of fast-moving traffic and the lack of bicycle lanes. El Camino Real, Alma Street, and Embarcadero and Middlefield roads, all identified as "high priorities" for adding bicycle lanes to improve safety by the 2003 Palo Alto Bicycle Transportation Plan, still contain no provisions for cyclists. The Palo Alto Police Department decided to stop using
tasers A taser is an electroshock weapon used to incapacitate people, allowing them to be approached and handled in an unresisting and thus safe manner. It is sold by Axon, formerly TASER International. It fires two small barbed darts intended to ...
to detain bicyclists after a 2012 incident in which a 16-year-old boy, who had bicycled through a stop sign, was injured after police officers pursued him, fired a taser at him and suddenly braked their patrol car in front of him, causing the boy to crash.


Walking

Conditions for walking are excellent in Palo Alto except for crossing high-volume arterial streets such as El Camino Real and Oregon Expressway. Sidewalks are available on nearly every city street, with the notable exception of the Barron Park neighborhood, which was the last to be incorporated into the city. Palo Alto's street grid is well-connected with few dead-end streets, especially in the city's older northern neighborhoods. An extensive urban forest, which is protected by the city's municipal code, provides shade and visual diversity, and slows motor vehicle traffic. 4.8% of residents walk to work.


Sister cities

*
Albi Albi (; oc, Albi ) is a commune in southern France. It is the prefecture of the Tarn department, on the river Tarn, 85 km northeast of Toulouse. Its inhabitants are called ''Albigensians'' (french: Albigeois, Albigeoise(s), oc, albigé ...
, Tarn, Occitanie, France, since 1994 * Linköping, Sweden, since 1987 *
Oaxaca Oaxaca ( , also , , from nci, Huāxyacac ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca), is one of the 32 states that compose the Federative Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 570 municipaliti ...
,
Oaxaca Oaxaca ( , also , , from nci, Huāxyacac ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca), is one of the 32 states that compose the Federative Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 570 municipaliti ...
, Mexico, since 1964 * Enschede, Overijssel, Netherlands, since 1980 * Palo, Philippines, since 1963 * Tsuchiura, Japan, since 2009 *
Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German: ') is a city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914, of which roughly a quarter consisted of students ...
, Germany, since 2017 In 1989, Palo Alto received a gift of a large, whimsical wooden sculpture called ''Foreign Friends'' (''Fjärran Vänner'')—of a man, woman, dog and bird sitting on a park bench—from Linköping. The sculpture was praised by some, called "grotesque" by others, and became a lightning rod for vandals. It was covered with a large addressed postcard marked "Return to Sender." A former Stanford University professor was arrested for attempting to light it on fire. It was also doused with paint. When the original heads were decapitated on Halloween, 1993, the statue became a shrine—flowers bouquets and cards were placed upon it. Following an anonymous donation, the heads were restored. Within weeks, the restored heads were decapitated again, this time disappearing. The heads were eventually replaced with new ones, which generated even more distaste, as many deemed the new heads even less attractive. A few months later, the man's arm was chopped off, the woman's lap was vandalized, the bird was stolen, and the replacements heads were decapitated and stolen. The sculpture was removed from its location on Embarcadero Road and Waverley Avenue in 1995, dismantled, and placed in storage until it was destroyed in 2000. Ironically, the statue was designed not as a lasting work of art, but as something to be climbed on with a lifespan of 10 to 25 years.


Notable buildings and other points of interest


Historical buildings and architecture

*
Frenchman's Tower Frenchman's Tower is a two-story red brick structure located in Santa Clara County, California, that resembles a medieval fortification. Built in 1875, the structure was listed as a California Point of Historical Interest in 1969. The structure wa ...
was built in 1876 * Former Palo Alto Community House, at the intersection of University Avenue and El Camino Real; designed by Julia Morgan as the
YWCA The Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) is a nonprofit organization with a focus on empowerment, leadership, and rights of women, young women, and girls in more than 100 countries. The World office is currently based in Geneva, Sw ...
Hostess House but first used as a social centre in Camp Fremont during World War I; now a restaurant, MacArthur Park. * Lou Henry Hoover Girl Scout House, "the oldest scout meeting house remaining in continuous use in the United States". * Packard's garage where the company Hewlett-Packard was started in 1939. *
Printers Inc. Bookstore Printers Inc. Bookstore (1978–2001) was an independent bookstore in Palo Alto and Mountain View, California, that closed in 2001. ''Printers Inc'' is referenced in sonnets 8.13-8.16 of Vikram Seth's 1986 novel, '' The Golden Gate.''Seth, ...
, now defunct, was a landmark independent bookstore on California Ave. and was referenced in Vikram Seth's novel, '' The Golden Gate.'' It closed in 2001. * Saint Thomas Aquinas Church is the oldest church in Palo Alto. * Woman's Club of Palo Alto was built in 1916 in a Tudor-Craftsmen style, listed in 2014 in the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
.


Nature and hiking

* Arastradero Preserve * Elizabeth F. Gamble Garden, public
botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...
* Esther Clark Park, a small open oak/grassland park connecting to Los Altos Hills * Palo Alto Foothills Park *
Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve The Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve, known officially as the Baylands Nature Preserve, is the largest tract of undisturbed marshland remaining in the San Francisco Bay. Fifteen miles of multi-use trails provide access to a unique mixture of t ...


Museums, art, and entertainment

*
Palo Alto Art Center The Palo Alto Art Center is a multi-purpose center open to the public for art activities for all ages, located at 1313 Newell Road in Palo Alto, California. It is managed by the City of Palo Alto, California and supported by the non-profit Pa ...
*
Pacific Art League The Pacific Art League (PAL), formally known as the Palo Alto Art Club was founded in 1921 in Palo Alto, California and is a membership-run nonprofit arts organization, school, and gallery. The group is located in a historic building at 668 Ram ...
* Stanford Shopping Center * University Avenue (Downtown Palo Alto) * Palo Alto Children's Theatre * Palo Alto Players * Stanford Theatre * Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoo *
The Foster Museum The Foster Museum is a private non-profit single-artist museum located in Palo Alto, California, United States dedicated to the watercolor wilderness Journeys of artist-explorer Tony Foster (1946–). It houses the permanent collection of the Fo ...
* Winter Lodge Ice Skating Rink


Notable people


Litigation


Class-action lawsuit against battery makers

Palo Alto was the first city in
California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
to participate in a class action lawsuit against major
battery Battery most often refers to: * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact Battery may also refer to: Energy source *Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...
producers, and currently serves as a representative for various cities and public entities across the state. The lawsuit was filed against global manufacturers of lithium-ion batteries, including Panasonic,
LG Chem LG Chem Ltd. (Korean: LG화학), often referred to as LG Chemical, is the largest Korean chemical company and is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea. It was the 10th largest chemical company in the world by sales in 2017. It was first established ...
,
Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
, Hitachi and Sanyo. The companies were accused of
unfair business practices Unfair business practices encompass fraud, misrepresentation, and oppressive or unconscionable acts or practices by business, often against consumers, and are prohibited by law in many countries. In the European Union, each member state must re ...
. They were alleged to have fixed prices of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, which are commonly used in laptops, smartphones, and GPS devices, and Palo Alto has purchased a lot of such devices. Palo Alto's case will be consolidated with many others brought against the batteries producers in the
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California The United States District Court for the Northern District of California (in case citations, N.D. Cal.) is the federal United States district court whose jurisdiction comprises the following counties of California: Alameda, Contra Costa, De ...
. The companies are also facing at least 10 lawsuits in
New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...
. The city is represented by Rene Sloan Holtzman & Sakai, LLP, and Green & Noblin, P.C.


See also

* List of cities and towns in California *
List of cities and towns in the San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a metropolitan region surrounding the San Francisco Bay estuaries in Northern California. According to the 2010 United States Census, the region has over 7.1 million inhabitants an ...
* List of people from Palo Alto * Mayfield Brewery


References


Further reading

* John Jenks, David Crimp, C. Michael Hogan ''et al.'', ''Engineering and Environmental Evaluations of Discharge to the Coast Casey Canal and Charleston Slough'', prepared by Kennedy Jenks Engineers and Earth Metrics Inc. (1976) * ''Santa Clara County Heritage Resource Inventory'', Santa Clara County Historical Heritage Commission, published by Santa Clara County, San Jose, Ca., June 1979 * A description of high-tech life in Palo Alto around 1995 is found in the novel by Douglas Coupland, ''
Microserfs ''Microserfs'', published by HarperCollins in 1995, is an epistolary novel by Douglas Coupland. It first appeared in short story form as the cover article for the January 1994 issue of ''Wired'' magazine and was subsequently expanded to full nov ...
''. * Coleman, Charles M., ''P. G. and E. of California: The Centennial Story of Pacific Gas and Electric Company 1852–1952'', (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1952). * Hanson, Warren D., ''San Francisco Water and Power: A History of the Municipal Water Department and Hetch Hetchy System'', (San Francisco: San Francisco Public Utilities Communications Group, 2002). *''Map: PG&E Backbone Gas Transmission System'', (San Francisco: Pacific Gas and Electric Co., undated). *''Map: Water Conveyance, Treatment, and Distribution System'', (San Jose: Santa Clara Valley Water District, 1978). *''Earthquake Planning Scenario Special Publication #61'', (Sacramento, California: State of California, Division of Mines and Geology, 1981). *''$117,730,000 Bond Offering: Transmission Agency of Northern California'', (Sacramento, California: Transmission Agency of Northern California, 1992).


External links

*
Palo Alto neighborhood mapPalo Alto Chamber of CommercePalo Alto History.Org: The History of Palo AltoPalo Alto Historical Association
{{Authority control Populated coastal places in California Silicon Valley Cycling in California 1894 establishments in California Academic enclaves Cities in Santa Clara County, California Cities in the San Francisco Bay Area Incorporated cities and towns in California Populated places established in 1894