Everything about San Mateo California totally explained
San Mateo (
"san muh-TAY-o") is a city in
San Mateo County,
California, in the
San Francisco Bay Area. It is one of the larger suburbs on the
San Francisco Peninsula, located between
Burlingame to the north,
Foster City to the East, and
Belmont to the south. San Mateo was incorporated in 1894.
History
Originally part of the
Rancho de las Pulgas (literally "Ranch of the Fleas"), the earliest recorded history is in the archives of
Mission Dolores. It indicates in 1789 the Missionaries had named a
Native American village along Laurel Creek
Los Laureles or the
Laurels (Mission Delores, 1789). An 1835 sketch map of the Rancho refers to the creek as
arroyo de los Laureles, but by now most of the Laurels have vanished.
Coyote Point was an early recorded feature of San Mateo in 1810. Beginning in the 1850s some wealthy San Franciscans began looking for summer or permanent homes in the milder mid-peninsula. While most of this early settlement occurred in adjacent Hillsborough and Burlingame, a number of historically important mansions and buildings trickled over into San Mateo.
A.P. Giannini, founder of the
Bank of Italy (that became
Bank of America), lived here most of his life. His mansion, Seven Oaks, currently in disrepair and listed in the National Register of Historic Places (No.99001181), is located at 20 El Cerrito Drive.
The Howard Estate was built in 1859 on the hill accessed by Crystal Springs Road. The Parrott Estate was erected in 1860 in the same area, giving rise to two conflicting names for the hill, Howard Hill and Parrott Hill. After substantial use of the automobile by about 1935, neither name was commonly applied to that hill (Brown, 1975}. The Borel estate was developed near Borel Creek in 1874, with present uses being modern offices and shops; the property is still managed and owned by the Borel Estate Company.
Scholars Cottage, at 37 E. Santa Inez Avenue, was built by Ernest Coxhead in 1875 in the
Tudor Revival style. The Eugene J. De Sabla Teahouse and Tea Garden was established in 1900 at 70 De Sabla Avenue, designed by Makota hagiwara. It exists today as a garden of a later home, and it features rock art and other sculpture.
"Hayward Park," the extraordinary 1880
American Queen Anne style residence of silver and banking millionaire
Alvinza Hayward (often said to be "California's first millionaire"), was built on an estate in San Mateo. The property, which included a deer park and racetrack, was converted into a hotel after Hayward's death in 1904. It burned in a spectacular 1920 fire.
Geography
Perhaps the best-known natural area is
Coyote Point Park, a rock outcropped peninsula that juts out into
San Francisco Bay. The early Spanish navigators named it
la punta de San Mateo (Brown, 1975), but cargo ships carrying grain in the bay renamed it
Big Coyote (BLM, 1853). In any case sailors had a penchant for naming promontories at the edge of San Francisco Bay after the
coyote, since across the bay in Fremont are the Coyote Hills, part of
Coyote Hills Regional Park. By the 1890s the shore area was a popular beach called San Mateo Beach, originally named by the Spanish in 1842 as
playa de San Mateo. Today Coyote Point is home to the
Coyote Point Museum, one of the best
natural history museums and wildlife centers in California. The
Peninsula Humane Society is also situated at Coyote Point.
There are a variety of natural habitats present, including mixed
oak woodland,
riparian zones and bayland marshes. One
endangered species, the
California clapper rail, was sighted feeding on mudflats by the Third Avenue bridge in San Mateo (Pfeifle, 1980). The marsh areas are also likely habitat for the endangered
Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse, who enjoys the middle and high zones of salt and
brackish marshes, as well as for the endangered marsh plant,
Point Reyes bird's beak.
Sugarloaf Mountain, whose name derives from at least 1870, is a prominent landform between the forks of Laurel Creek (Brown, 1975). In recent years, this mixed oak woodland and chaparral habitat, has been a site of controversy involving proposals to develop a portion of the mountain for residential use.
San Mateo is located at (37.554286, -122.313044). According to the
United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 16.0 square miles (41.3 km²), of which, 12.2 square miles (31.6 km²) of it's land and 3.7 square miles (9.7 km²) of it (23.43%) is water.
Climate
San Mateo enjoys a mild
Mediterranean climate, shielded from the
Pacific Ocean by the Montara Mountain block of the
Santa Cruz Mountains. There is a gap in the mountains, west of the
College of San Mateo, where
State Route 92 meets
State Route 35, resulting in gusty afternoon winds and allowing fog to flow toward San Mateo in the late afternoon through early morning in the summer months.
The
National Weather Service maintained a cooperative weather station in San Mateo until 1978; records for the period show that January, the coolest month, had an average maximum of and an average minimum of, and September, the warmest month, had an average maximum of and an average minimum of . The record maximum temperature was on June 14, 1961, and the record minimum temperature was on January 5, 1949, and December 9, 1972. Annual precipitation averaged, falling on an average of 60 days each year. The wettest year was in 1973 and the dryest year was in 1953. The most precipitation in one month was in December 1955 and the most precipitation in 24 hours was on December 23, 1955. Based on comparison with the existing NWS office at San Francisco International Airport, San Mateo is generally a few degrees warmer in summer than the airport and a few degrees cooler in winter, while annual precipitation is almost the same at the airport and in San Mateo. In recent years, daily temperature reports for San Mateo from local weather observers have been published in the
San Mateo Times and the
San Francisco Chronicle.
Demographics
As of the
census of 2000, there were 92,482 people, 37,338 households, and 22,328 families residing in the city. The
population density was 7,569.5 people per square mile (2,922.1/km²). There were 38,249 housing units at an average density of 3,130.6/sq mi (1,208.5/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 66.23%
White, 2.59%
African American, 0.48%
Native American, 15.10%
Asian, 1.64%
Pacific Islander, 8.93% from
other races, and 5.03% from two or more races. 20.52% of the population were
Hispanic.
There are 37,338 households of which 25.9% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.9% were
married couples living together, 9.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 40.2% were non-families. 31.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 3.09. The age distribution is: 20.4% under the age of 18, 7.2% from 18 to 24, 35.1% from 25 to 44, 22.2% from 45 to 64, and 15.1% who are 65 or older. The median age is 38 years. For every 100 females there were 95.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 93.5 males.
According to a 2006 estimate, the median
income for a household in the city was $73,916, and the median income for a family was $90,613.
(External Link
) Males had a median income of $51,280 versus $41,231 for allfemales. The
per capita income for the city was $36,176. About 3.6% of families and 6.1% of the population were below the
poverty line, including 6.8% of those under age 18 and 5.9% of those age 65 or over.
Politics
In the
state legislature San Mateo is located in the 8th
Senate District, represented by
Democrat Leland Yee, and in the 19th
Assembly District, represented by Democrat
Gene Mullin. Federally, San Mateo is located in
California's 12th congressional district, which has a
Cook PVI of D +22 and is currently represented by Democrat
Jackie Speier, who succeeded Democrat
Tom Lantos after his death in 2008.
Education
Residents are zoned for schools in the
San Mateo Union High School District. Actress
Alicia Silverstone attended
San Mateo High School while living in nearby
Hillsborough. Other prominent students of San Mateo High School included
Merv Griffin,
Barry Bostwick,
Kris Kristofferson and
Dennis Haysbert.
San Mateo is also home to private
Junípero Serra High School, whose graduates have included
Barry Bonds,
Tom Brady,
Lynn Swann,
Gregg Jefferies and
Dan Serafini.
Public transportation
The city has good public transportation.
SamTrans,
AC Transit (Transbay service) and
Caltrain are public transit providers here. See
public transportation in San Mateo County for more details.
Prominent places
The San Mateo Performing Arts Center, located on
San Mateo High School, is one of the largest theatres on the peninsula outside of San Francisco. The
College of San Mateo is also located here and is home to radio station
KCSM. A heavily attended attraction has been the
Bay Meadows horse-racing track. The
San Mateo Arboretum in is of interest.
U.S. Route 101,
Interstate 280, and
State Route 92 pass through San Mateo. The Japanese garden in Central Park was made in order to commemorate this event. Century 12 Cinema is on Delaware Street.
Prominent companies based in San Mateo
Media
San Mateo Daily News - Newspaper
San Mateo County Times - Newspaper
KCSM (FM) - National Public Radio outlet
KCSM-TV - PBS television station
Notable People Who Are From San Mateo
Andy Banachowski, 41 year Hall of Fame coach of the UCLA women's volleyball team
Lina Basquette, actress
Barry Bostwick, American actor
Tom Brady, Quarterback of the New England Patriots in the NFL
Barry Bonds, San Francisco Giants Left Fielder, MLB
Keith Carradine, American actor
Daniel Dellamonica, US Navy
Sam Francis, modern artist
Merv Griffin, actor, producer, and game show creator.
Paul Guay, writer, actor, and script consultant
Greg Gutfeld, blogger and host of the late night talk show, Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld
Dennis Haysbert
Patty Hearst
Kris Kristofferson, Songwriter, musician, actor
Yul Kwon, winner of Survivor: Cook Islands.
Zoe Lofgren
Marc McClure
Helen J. Myers
Graham Norwood, Guitarist, Bryan Scary
Sean Payton, Head Coach of the New Orleans Saints in the NFL
Darick Robertson, comic book artist
Barbara Roles, figure skater
Neal Schon, musician (guitarist for Santana and Journey)
Lindsey Shaw, niece of John Cale and actress (from "Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide")
Paul Terry, animated film producer
Michael Trucco, actor
Diane Varsi, actress
John Wetteland, baseball player
Aaron Moncreiff, owner of MonSpilka Industries
Sister cities
San Mateo has three sister cities, as designated by the Sister Cities International, Inc.:
Varde, Denmark
Toyonaka, Japan
San Pablo City, PhilippinesFurther Information
Get more info on 'San Mateo California'.
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