San Mateo County, California
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San Mateo County is a county located in the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. It covers most of the San Francisco Peninsula just south of San Francisco, and north of Santa Clara County. San Francisco International Airport is located at the northern end of the county, and Silicon Valley begins at the southern end. As of 2005 the population was 712,462. The county seat is Redwood City. It is among the 20 most affluent counties in the U.S., in term of personal, per capita and household income, strongly Democratic and ethnically diverse with no ethnic majority. The county's built-up areas are mostly suburban, and are home to several corporate campuses.
HistorySan Mateo County was formed from parts of San Francisco County and Santa Cruz County in 1856. The county bears the Spanish name for Saint Matthew. As a place name, San Mateo appears as early as 1776 and several local geographic features were also designated San Mateo on early maps including variously: a settlement, an arroyo, a headland jutting into the Pacific (Point Montara), and a large land holding (Rancho San Mateo). Until about 1850, the name appeared as San Matheo. GeographyAccording to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 741 sq mi (1,919 km²). 449 sq mi (1,163 km²) of it is land and 292 sq mi (756 km²) of it (39.40%) is water. A number of bayside watercourses drain the eastern part of the county including San Bruno Creek and Colma Creek. Streams draining the western county include Frenchmans Creek, Pilarcitos Creek, Naples Creek, Arroyo de en Medio, and Denniston Creek. Incorporated citiesUnincorporated communities
Adjacent counties
Transportation infrastructureMajor highways
Public transportationSamTrans (San Mateo County Transit District) provides local bus service within San Mateo County. Local and commuter bus routes also operate into San Francisco. Caltrain, the commuter rail system, traverses the county from north to south, running alongside the Highway 101 corridor for most of the way. Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) trains serve San Francisco International Airport and the northern portion of the county, terminating at Millbrae. Caltrain, BART, and SamTrans converge at the Millbrae Intermodal station. AirportsSan Francisco International Airport is geographically located in San Mateo County, but it is owned by the City and County of San Francisco. San Mateo County does own two general aviation airports: Half Moon Bay Airport and San Carlos Airport.[citation needed] Marine transportThe only deepwater port in South San Francisco Bay is the Port of Redwood City, situated along Redwood Creek, originally created as a lumber float channel in 1850. Demographics
 As of the census of 2007, there were 721,161 people, 286,024 households, and 196,265 families residing in the county. The population density was 1,685/sq mi (679/km²). There were 266,392 housing units at an average density of 620/sq mi (254/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 57.49% White, 3.71% Black or African American, 0.54% Native American, 21.04% Asian, 1.53% Pacific Islander, 11.17% from other races, and 5.52% from two or more races. 23.98% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 7.4% were of Italian, 7.1% Irish, 7.0% German and 5.3% English ancestry according to Census 2000. 55.6% spoke English, 19.3% Spanish, 6.5% Tagalog, 4.5% Chinese or Mandarin and 1.4% Cantonese as their first language. In 2005 47.3% of San Mateo County's population was non-Hispanic whites. African-Americans had declined to 3.4% of the county population. 23.4% of the population was Asian. The Hispanic proportion had grown, but had fallen below that of the Asians. Hispanics now made up 22.6% of the county population. There were 254,103 households out of which 31.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.0% were married couples living together, 10.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.6% were non-families. 24.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.74 and the average family size was 3.29. In the county the population was spread out with 22.9% under the age of 18, 7.9% from 18 to 24, 33.2% from 25 to 44, 23.5% from 45 to 64, and 12.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 97.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 95.6 males. The median income for a household in the county was $70,819, and the median income for a family was $80,737. Males had a median income of $51,342 versus $40,383 for females. The per capita income for the county was $36,045. About 3.50% of families and 5.80% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.00% of those under age 18 and 5.10% of those age 65 or over. PoliticsFederal/State/LocalSan Mateo County has a five-member Board of Supervisors, representing five geographic districts, but elected at large. As of 2007-12-07, the county had 351,351 registered voters [1].
San Mateo is a strongly Democratic county in Presidential and congressional elections. The last Republican to win a majority in the county was Ronald Reagan in 1984. San Mateo is part of California's 12th and 14th congressional districts. The 12th district is currently not represented due to former Democratic representative Tom Lantos' death on February 11, 2008. The 14th district's representative is Democrat Anna Eshoo. In the State Assembly, San Mateo is in the 12th, 19th, and 21st districts, which are held by Democrats Fiona Ma, Gene Mullin, and Ira Ruskin, respectively. In the State Senate, San Mateo is in the 8th and 11th districts, which are held by Democrats Leland Yee and Joe Simitian, respectively. Environmental featuresSan Mateo County encompasses a variety of habitats including estuarine, marine, oak woodland, redwood forest, coastal scrub and oak savannah. There are numerous species of wildlife present, especially along the San Francisco Bay estuarine shoreline, San Bruno Mountain, Fitzgerald Marine Reserve and the forests on the Montara Mountain block. Several creeks discharge to the San Francisco Bay including San Mateo Creek and Laurel Creek and several coastal streams discharge to the Pacific Ocean such as Frenchmans Creek and San Vicente Creek. The county is home to several endangered species including the San Francisco garter snake and the San Bruno elfin butterfly, both of which are endemic to San Mateo County. The endangered California clapper rail is also found on the shores of San Francisco Bay, in the cities of Belmont and San Mateo. The endangered wildflower Hickman's potentilla is found near the Pacific Ocean on the lower slopes of Montara Mountain. The endangered wildflowers White-rayed pentachaeta, Pentachaeta bellidiflora, San Mateo Woolly Sunflower, Eriophyllum latilobum, Marin Dwarf Flax, Hesperolinon congestum and the San Mateo Thornmint, Acanthomintha duttonii, are found in the vicinity of the Crystal Springs Reservoir. Some students in San Mateo County's public schools attend outdoor education in La Honda[citation needed]. San Mateo Outdoor Education is a residential school that teaches major concepts of ecology via exploration of forest, pond, garden, tidepool, wetland, and sandy shore habitats. The center's mascot is the banana slug, a large yellow gastropod. Notable structuresThere are a number of well known structures within San Mateo County:
County trailsSee this county page for trail descriptions.
County parks
Source: http://www.sanmateocountyparks.org/ County Parks http://www.eparks.net/smc/department/esa/home/0,2151,5556687_10575168,00.html State parks
State beaches
Source: http://www.parks.ca.gov/parkindex/default.asp?tab=3 State Parks, Choose San Mateo See also
External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Coordinates: ar:مقاطعة سان ماتيو، كاليفورنيا bg:Сан Матео (окръг) de:San Mateo County es:Condado de San Mateo fr:Comté de San Mateo bpy:সান মাতেউ কাউন্টি, ক্যালিফোর্নিয়া it:Contea di San Mateo pam:San Mateo County, California nl:San Mateo County ja:サンマテオ郡 no:San Mateo County nds:San Mateo County pt:Condado de San Mateo sv:San Mateo County | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
