39 Facts About Palo Alto

Palo Alto is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto.

Palo Alto includes portions of Stanford University and borders East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park.

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.

Palo Alto has served as headquarters to several other high-tech companies, including Apple, Google, Facebook, Logitech, Tesla, Intuit, Pinterest, and PayPal.

The area of modern Palo Alto was first recorded by the 1769 party of Gaspar de Portola, a 64-man, 200-horse expedition setting out from San Diego to find Monterey Bay.

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Many of the Spanish names in the Palo Alto area represent the local heritage, descriptive terms, and former residents.

On July 2, 1925, Palo Alto voters approved the annexation of Mayfield and the two communities were officially consolidated on July 6, 1925.

Palo Alto continued to annex more land, including the Stanford Shopping Center area in 1953.

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.

Palo Alto is in the southeastern section of the San Francisco Peninsula.

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 in between the other two.

Palo Alto has a number of significant natural habitats, including estuarine, riparian, and oak forest.

Typical of the South Peninsula region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Palo Alto has a Mediterranean climate with mild, moderately wet winters and warm, dry summers.

Palo Alto ranked in as the 5th most expensive city in the United States as of 2007, 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.

Palo Alto is by some measures the most expensive college town in the United States.

However, for the most part, Palo Alto's housing was built on policies that are still reflected in the current demographics.

Palo Alto serves as a central economic focal point of the Silicon Valley and is home to more than 7, 000 businesses employing more than 98, 000 people.

Many nearby Silicon Valley companies, no longer primarily in Palo Alto, were once headquartered and experienced major growth in Palo Alto, including Google, Facebook (now in Menlo Park), and PayPal (now in San Jose).

Palo Alto is the location of the first street-level Apple Store, the first Apple mini store, the first West Coast Whole Foods Market store, and the first Victoria's Secret.

Palo Alto has a city-run and owned utility, City of Palo Alto Utilities, 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.

Palo Alto is a member of a joint powers authority, which cooperatively generates electricity for government power providers such as the City of Santa Clara, the City of Redding, and the Port of Oakland.

Palo Alto has an ongoing community debate about the city providing fiber optic connectivity to all residences.

One of the earliest central office facilities switching Palo Alto calls is the historic Davenport central office at 529 Bryant Street.

Palo Alto Fire has a contract with Stanford University to cover most of the campus.

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Palo Alto is home to Palo Alto University, a school focused on psychology, and Stanford University, a private research university.

Palo Alto Unified School District provides public education for most of Palo Alto.

Channel 28 is operated by the Mid-peninsula Community Media Center in Palo Alto, which is affiliated with the Alliance for Community Media.

The Palo Alto City Library is a member of the Northern California Digital Library, which allows cardholders to browse and download the digital resources made available.

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.

Movie Palo Alto 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.

Palo Alto is served by two major freeways, Highway 101 and Interstate 280, and is traversed by the Peninsula's main north-south boulevard, El Camino Real.

Downtown Palo Alto has recently added many new lots to fill the overflow of vehicles.

Palo Alto is served by Palo Alto Airport, one of the busiest single-runway general aviation airports in the country.

The main Palo Alto station is the second busiest on the entire Caltrain line.

Since 2003, Palo Alto has received a Bicycle Friendly Community status of "Gold" from the League of American Bicyclists.

Palo Alto has seven sister cities, as designated by Sister Cities International:.

In 1989, Palo Alto received a gift of a large, whimsical wooden sculpture called Foreign Friends—of a man, woman, dog and bird sitting on a park bench—from Linkoping.

Palo Alto was the first city in California to participate in a class action lawsuit against major battery producers, and currently serves as a representative for various cities and public entities across the state.