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Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, in the U.S. state of California. The city gets its name from the views of the Santa Cruz Mountains. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 70,708.
Mountain View's sister cities are Iwata, Japan and Hasselt, Belgium.
Geography
Mountain View is located at 37°25′19″N, 122°5′4″W (37.42223, −122.08429).[1]
Mountain View is located at the north end of Highway 85, where it meets Highway 101. The historic route El Camino Real also runs through Mountain View.
Mountain View is bounded to the northwest by Palo Alto, to the southwest by Los Altos, to the southeast by Sunnyvale, and to the northeast by the San Francisco Bay.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 31.7 km² (12.2 mi²). 31.2 km² (12.1 mi²) of it is land and 0.4 km² (0.2 mi²) of it (1.39%) is water.
History
After the former rancho of Don Mariano Castro was split, the south eventually became the city of Sunnyvale, and the north became Mountain View. The town began as a stage stop on the route between San Francisco and San Jose (corresponding to El Camino Real), close to present-day Grant Road. With the coming of the railroad, the center of town eventually moved to its current location at Castro Street.
Much of Mountain View was agricultural through the 1940s, 1950s, and most of the 1960s. Row crops and orchards were common during this era, when there was still open space between Palo Alto and Mountain View. In Bittersweet: Memories of Old Mountain View, an Oral History, residents of Japanese ancestry recall their family's strawberry fields adjoining Moffett Field. Orchards lined much of Grant Road and Miramonte. In the early 1900s, grapes were a common crop in the area of present-day Continental Circle. Phylloxera ended grape production in Mountain View in the early 1900s.
In the 1950s, the most popular places for young folk were the drive-in movie theater on Grant Road, Johnny Mac's Scottish-themed burger drive-in (the building still stands vacant on El Camino), and the Eagles Shack dances in the Adobe Building.
During the Cold War, the drone of Navy P-3 turboprop aircraft was a constant presence, Moffett Field being the home of squadrons of them and their almost constant touch-and-go training flights. The horns of railroad locomotives were also frequently heard.
Mountain View was once the home of Arrow Development, a designer and builder of amusement park rides. During its time in Mountain View, Arrow was contracted to build many of the original rides at Disneyland. [1]
The El Camino Hospital District, a government entity called a Special District under the California Government Code, came to life in the 1960s. The hospital facility at 2500 Grant Road has been in continual operation since.
Nearly anyone using the term Silicon Valley would include Mountain View in that region. An early Silicon Valley company was Fairchild Camera and Instrument Company, located along Whisman Road. Several of Intel's founders came from Fairchild. Local watering holes for workers included Chubby's Broiler (which once stood at Ellis and Fairchild near Hwy 101, but which moved in 1999 to near Tasman and Lawrence Expressway in Sunnyvale[8]) and Walker's Wagon Wheel on Middlefield Road near Whisman (since torn down). Folklore was that semiconductor pioneers were collaborative and met at the Wagon Wheel to discuss problems they were having with production.
Downtown
- Mountain View has a pedestrian-friendly downtown along Castro Street that is six blocks long.
- The 100 block is next to the Caltrain lines.
- The police station is two blocks away on Villa Street.
- Going south towards El Camino Real, there are four blocks of restaurants and shops. The restaurants leave their chairs out on the sidewalk overnight.
- Kapps Pizza displays many photographs of the downtown from 100 years ago.
- In a one-block civic center are nestled City Hall, the Center for Performing Arts and the Mountain View Public Library. Behind these buildings is Pioneer Park, which enjoys a quiet environment resulting from the Civic Center blocking out the noise on Castro Street.
Demographics
As of the census[2] of 2000, there were 70,708 people, 31,242 households, and 15,902 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,263.7/km² (5,861.4/mi²). There were 32,432 housing units at an average density of 1,038.3/km² (2,688.5/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 63.77% White, 2.53% African American, 0.39% Native American, 20.67% Asian, 0.26% Pacific Islander, 8.32% from other races, and 4.07% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 18.26% of the population.
There were 31,242 households out of which 23.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.0% were married couples living together, 7.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 49.1% were non-families. 35.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.25 and the average family size was 2.97.
In the city the population was spread out with 18.0% under the age of 18, 8.3% from 18 to 24, 43.4% from 25 to 44, 19.8% from 45 to 64, and 10.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 106.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 106.9 males.
According to a 2006 estimate the median income for a household in the city was $80,599, and the median income for a family was $98,836.[2] Males had a median income of $64,585 versus $44,358 for females. The per capita income for the city was $39,693. About 3.6% of families and 6.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.2% of those under age 18 and 5.9% of those age 65 or over.
Corporate residents
Mountain View is one of the major cities that make up Silicon Valley, and has many notable Silicon Valley companies either headquartered there or with a large presence, including:
- Adobe Systems
- Actel Corporation Headquarters
- AOL
- Google Headquarters (the Googleplex)
- Intuit
- Jajah Headquarters
- LinkedIn Headquarters
- Microsoft’s Tellme/MSN/Hotmail/Xbox/MSNTV/MacBU divisions
- Mozilla Foundation/Mozilla Corporation
- Red Hat
- Silicon Graphics (formerly; now headquartered in Sunnyvale[10])
Mountain View also has a number of major corporate installations located just beyond its borders, including:
Government
Mountain View has a council-manager government system. An executive city manager is in charge of several departments, while the city council, supported by several boards, commissions, and committees, is the legislature responsible for the ordinances of the city code. The executive in turn enforces the code and promulgates administrative regulations to execute it. The city clerk and attorney perform supporting roles. The Community Development Department is the agency responsible for planning and zoning.
As of January, 2008, the City Manager is Kevin Duggan, the Mayor is Tom Means, the Chief of Police is Scott Vermeer, and the Fire Chief is Mike Young.
State and Federal legislators
In the state legislature Mountain View is located in the 13th Senate District, represented by Democrat Elaine Alquist, and in the 22nd Assembly District, represented by Democrat Sally Lieber. Federally, Mountain View is located in California's 14th congressional district, which has a Cook PVI of D +18[11] and is represented by Democrat Anna Eshoo.
Scandals
In April 2002, after five years of conflict, former mayor Mario Ambra was found guilty of misconduct and removed from office for directly ordering city employees instead of going through the city manager.[12][13]
In May, 2004, City Attorney Michael Martello admitted to having an extramarital affair with Pamela Read, the head of Foothill Disposal Co., the city's garbage company, who was also president of the Chamber of Commerce's board of directors. Martello was accused by Read's husband of lying to city council members about when the affair began, and misusing city funds in supporting an increase totaling over $740,000 for the garbage company.[14] While the accusations concerning whether Martello promptly disclosed the affair were not resolved, he was cleared of financial wrongdoing after sixteen city employees said that he "had no involvement with the increased garbage fees or any other matters involving ... the Chamber of Commerce."[15] The City Attorney's Office is responsible for drafting contracts pertaining to the City's business.[16]
Schools
Beginning with the 2006-2007 school year, Mountain View has twelve public and eight private schools. The public elementary and middle schools, which are (with the exception of Springer Elementary) governed by the Mountain View-Whisman School District, are: Benjamin Bubb Elementary School, Castro Elementary, Crittenden Middle School, Graham Middle School, Huff Elementary, Landels Elementary, Monta Loma Elementary, PACT School an alternative public school [3], and Theuerkauf Elementary. Springer Elementary, located within the city's borders, is governed by the Los Altos School District. The public high schools, governed by the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District, are Alta Vista High, Mountain View High School and Los Altos High School, which is located within Los Altos city boundaries.
Mountain View-Whisman School District students
qualified for free and reduced-price lunches
|
| Year |
Enrollment |
Free |
Reduced |
| 1999-0 |
4710 |
n/a |
n/a |
| 2003-4 |
4418 |
1375 (28%) |
454 (10%) |
| 2004-5 |
4391 |
1593 (37%) |
435 (10%) |
| 2005-6 |
4313 |
1898 (44%*) |
409 (11%) |
Source: MVWSD/Sodexho Food Service Dept., November, 2005
and 2005-6 General Fund Budget Assumptions Presentation
* inconsistent percentage values verbatim in source |
Recently, the public elementary schools in Mountain View have suffered declining enrollment as a result of white flight and Asian flight out of the public school system. While the number of students qualified for free lunches — economically disadvantaged students — has increased substantially, those qualifying for reduced-price lunches have remained roughly constant. As the income in Mountain View has increased over time, wealthy white and Asian families can afford to enroll their students in private schools. The elementary schools are left behind with decreasing enrollment and a larger percentage of low-income, mainly Latino students. Although Latinos represent a little under 20% of the total Mountain View population, they make up 43% of the population enrolled in public schools in Mountain View.[citation needed]
In Mountain View public elementary schools the class size ratio is 20.4 students per full-time-equivalent teacher,[17] while that of the neighboring Palo Alto Unified School District is 16.9.[18] The Mountain View-Whisman district is a "Revenue Limit" district, meaning that the state provides additional funding to bring per-pupil spending up to a certain minimum limit, while the Mountain View High School District and neighboring Palo Alto's school district are "Basic Aid" districts, meaning that no additional funding is required to meet the state's per-pupil spending minimum, and the district keeps any excess above it. Mountain View taxes a large portion of its most valuable commercial and industrial properties in the Shoreline Regional Park Community at very low relative levels, and until the creation of a joint-powers agreement (JPA) in 2006, none of those property taxes reached any local schools. After the creation of the JPA, the Shoreline Regional Park Community will be sharing less than $1 million per year with the elementary and high school districts.[19][20]
Private Schools
Usage of Slater Elementary by Google
Because of declining enrollment, and after a long decision process, Mountain View-Whisman School District opted to close the Slater Elementary School.[21][22][23] Google has leased the former Slater Elementary for use as a private preschool and corporate daycare.[24]
Library
Mountain View has one central public library, the Mountain View Public Library, offering video, music, books, self-check out, and access to the Internet. During fiscal year 2006-7: 810,589 customers visited the Library. Circulation was more than 1.4 million, 105,870 reference and information questions were answered, 36,693 children listened to stories and participated in children's programs and 27,342 new books and media items were added to the collection which includes holdings of 300,000, including 210,000 books and 423 periodical subscriptions. The library also provides valuable outreach services through the bookmobile and S.O.S. volunteer program to those in Mountain View, who are unable to come to the main branch. The building was built in 1997. The second floor of the library has a special collection in a room devoted to the history of Mountain View, next to a portrait of Don Mariano Castro, for whom the downtown main street is named.
Transportation
Mountain View is served by the Caltrain rail system, which runs from San Francisco to Gilroy. It also served by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, including various bus lines and the Mountain View - Winchester light rail line.
Moffett Federal Airfield is located just north of Mountain View, but its use is restricted to aeromedical, government and military users. The nearest major airports are Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC) and San Francisco International Airport (SFO). The nearest general aviation airport is the Palo Alto Airport of Santa Clara County.
- See also: List of airports in the San Francisco Bay area
Communications
In late 1997, as part of a major area code relief in the Bay Area, Mountain View's area code was switched from (415) to (650).
On August 16 2006, after over a year of test deployments, Google declared, as planned, that its implementation for free IEEE 802.11g wireless service for all of the City was fully operational.[25] Mountain View is the first city in the United States entirely covered by a free wireless Internet access network provided by Google.
Notable features
Centennial Plaza at the Mountain View Caltrain station
- Shoreline Park runs along the bay north of Highway 101. It includes Shoreline Amphitheatre as well as historic Rengstorff House.
- Stevens Creek runs through Mountain View from the south. A lengthy paved pedestrian and bicycle path, the Stevens Creek Trail, runs alongside the creek for nearly its entire distance in Mountain View.
- Moffett Field is a Federal Airfield near the bay; that is home to NASA Ames Research Center .
- Castro Street is at the center of Mountain View’s downtown. It features a large number of restaurants, particularly of the Asian (Chinese and Indian) and Italian variety. It also features many retail shops, including four bookstores.
- The Adobe Building, on Moffett Boulevard, is on the National Register of Historic Places.
- The Jehning Family Lock Museum is located on Castro Street.
- The Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts (MVCPA) is located at 500 Castro Street in Mountain View, adjacent to City Hall. Highly acclaimed local theatre companies Peninsula Youth Theatre and TheatreWorksare among the Home Companies for the MVCPA
- San Antonio Shopping Center is a popular shopping mall in Mountain View, California.
- The Computer History Museum is located at 1401 North Shoreline Blvd in Mountain View, just north of Highway 101.
- The historic Huff House, built by the first postmaster of Mountain View in 1929, is located on Diericx Drive.
- Famous Los Angeles Radio DJ Rodney Bingenheimer was born in Mountain View. In addition to recently receiving a star on the walk of fame, he is credited for being the first DJ in America to break bands like No Doubt, The Donnas, Oasis, Coldplay and many others.
- Scenes from the movie Raising Cain, starring John Lithgow, were filmed at Mountain View City Hall.
- Mt. View was home to the World Famous St. James Infirmary Bar & Grill. Opened in 1967, it was known for its kitchy decor, notably a 30-foot-statue of Wonder Woman and great Buffalo Wings and burgers. Sadly, The Infirmary was destroyed by an arson fire in 1998.
See also
References
External links
Other points of interest
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