Alum Rock () is a district of

San Jose, California San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...

, located in

East San Jose East Side San Jose (abbreviated as ESSJ), commonly called The East Side and less commonly as the East Valley, is the eastern region of the city of San Jose, California. The East Side is made up of numerous neighborhoods grouped into two larger ...

. Formerly an independent town, it has been a neighborhood of San Jose since the 1950s, though some portions are still unincorporated as a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

. Alum Rock is one of San Jose's most notable and historic

Chicano Chicano (masculine form) or Chicana (feminine form) is an ethnic identity for Mexican Americans that emerged from the Chicano Movement. In the 1960s, ''Chicano'' was widely reclaimed among Hispanics in the building of a movement toward politic ...

Mexican-American Mexican Americans are Americans of full or partial Mexican descent. In 2022, Mexican Americans comprised 11.2% of the US population and 58.9% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexican Americans were born in the United State ...

districts. It is home to

Alum Rock Park Alum Rock Park, in the Alum Rock, San Jose, Alum Rock district of San Jose, California, San Jose, California, is California's oldest municipal park, established in 1872 but serving as public land since the pueblo was established in 1777. Located ...

, the oldest municipal park in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

and one of the largest in the country.

History

Alum Rock was named after a rock formerly thought to be composed of

alum An alum () is a type of chemical compound, usually a hydrated double salt, double sulfate salt (chemistry), salt of aluminium with the general chemical formula, formula , such that is a valence (chemistry), monovalent cation such as potassium ...

in nearby

. In the 19th century and early 20th century Alum Rock was mostly fruit orchard land. During the 1940s and 1950s, developers began building housing and formed the community of Alum Rock. During that time, Alum Rock Avenue and a passenger railroad passed through the town on the way to

. In the 1980s and 1990s, the neighborhood became older and increasingly populated with Latino immigrants as "

white flight The white flight, also known as 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 Racism ...

" affected the area of

. Today, Alum Rock remains a distinct community separated from the rest of San Jose.

Geography

Alum Rock is a vast district of

, made up of numerous smaller neighborhoods. Neighborhoods include Little Portugal,

Little Saigon Little Saigon () is a name given to ethnic enclaves of overseas Vietnamese, expatriate Vietnamese mainly in English-speaking countries. (). Saigon is the former name of the capital of the former South Vietnam (now Ho Chi Minh City), where a lar ...

Mayfair Mayfair is an area of Westminster, London, England, in the City of Westminster. It is in Central London and part of the West End. It is between Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane and one of the most expensive districts ...

, King & Story, East Foothills, Alum Rock Village, Mount Pleasant, among others. Alum Rock is located north of the

Evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...

district, south of the Berryessa district, and east of

Downtown San Jose Downtown San Jose is the central business district of San Jose, California, San Jose, California, United States. Downtown is one of the largest tech Business cluster, clusters in Silicon Valley, as well as the cultural and political center of Sa ...

. Alum Rock is bound by the

Diablo Range The Diablo Range is a mountain range in the California Coast Ranges subdivision of the Pacific Coast Ranges in northern California, United States. It stretches from the eastern San Francisco Bay Area at its northern end to the Salinas Valley a ...

to the east, Coyote Creek to the west, Mabury Road to the north and Ocala Avenue to the south.

Demographics

The following demographic data is about the Alum Rock CDP, not the larger Alum Rock district of San Jose. The 2020 United States census reported that the CDP had a population of 12,042. The population density was . The racial makeup of the CDP was 16.7%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 1.4%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 3.4% Native American, 19.0% Asian, 0.3%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 43.3% from other races, and 15.8% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 67.1% of the population. The census reported that 98.7% of the population lived in households, 0.4% lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 1.0% were institutionalized. There were 2,922 households, out of which 47.1% included children under the age of 18, 53.1% were married-couple households, 7.2% were

cohabiting Cohabitation is an arrangement where people who are not legally married live together as a couple. They are often involved in a romantic or sexually intimate relationship on a long-term or permanent basis. Such arrangements have become incr ...

couple households, 24.0% had a female householder with no partner present, and 15.7% had a male householder with no partner present. 14.1% of households were one person, and 5.8% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 4.07. There were 2,332

families Family (from ) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictability, structure, and safety as ...

(79.8% of all households). The age distribution was 23.4% under the age of 18, 10.3% aged 18 to 24, 29.1% aged 25 to 44, 25.5% aged 45 to 64, and 11.7% who were 65years of age or older. The median age was 35.8years. For every 100 females, there were 103.8 males. There were 3,029 housing units at an average density of , of which 2,922 (96.5%) were occupied. Of these, 62.0% were owner-occupied, and 38.0% were occupied by renters. In 2023, the US Census Bureau estimated that 45.3% of the population were foreign-born. Of all people aged 5 or older, 27.3% spoke only English at home, 54.6% spoke

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

, 1.9% spoke other

Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

, 16.0% spoke Asian or Pacific Islander languages, and 0.2% spoke other languages. Of those aged 25 or older, 66.8% were high school graduates and 19.8% had a bachelor's degree. The median household income was $111,976, and the

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

was $34,255. About 5.1% of families and 8.7% of the population were below the poverty line.

Government

In the

California State Legislature The California State Legislature is the bicameral state legislature of the U.S. state of California, consisting of the California State Assembly (lower house with 80 members) and the California State Senate (upper house with 40 members). ...

, Alum Rock is in , and in . In the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

, Alum Rock is in . Regarding

San Jose City Council The San Jose City Council, officially San José City Council, is the legislature A legislature (, ) is a deliberative assembly with the legal authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country, nation or city on behalf of t ...

, most of Alum Rock falls inside of District 5, represented by Magdalena Carrasco, though small portions are inside of District 7 and District 4.

Education

Most of Alum Rock CDP is in Alum Rock Union Elementary School District. A small portion is in Mount Pleasant Elementary School District. All of it is in

East Side Union High School District The East Side Union High School District (abbreviated as ESUHSD) is a school district in San Jose, California, serving the East San Jose, East Side of San Jose. ESUHSD administers 19 high schools with a combined enrollment of approximately 2 ...

.
Text list
/ref> The Alum Rock school district operates elementary and middle schools. Schools in Alum Rock include:

Parks and plazas

Parks in the Alum Rock district include: *

*Cimarrón Park *Delano Manongs Park * Emma Prusch Farm Park * Overfelt Gardens (including the Chinese Cultural Garden) *

Park *Plata Arroyo Park *Zolezzi Park

Transportation

The Alum Rock Transit Center is an important transit center for East San Jose, operated by the Valley Transportation Authority. It is serviced by bus and light rail.

VTA light rail The VTA light rail system serves San Jose, California, San Jose and nearby cities in Santa Clara County, California. It is operated by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) and has of network comprising three main lines on stan ...

stations along Capitol Expressway within Alum Rock: * McKee station * Alum Rock station Penitencia Creek station is located right at the border of Alum Rock and Berryessa. The Eastridge Expansion of the VTA light rail plans the construction of another light rail station at Story Road and Capitol Expressway. Both the

Bayshore Freeway The Bayshore Freeway is a part of U.S. Route 101 (US 101) in the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. It runs along the west shore of the San Francisco Bay, connecting San Jose with San Francisco. Within the city of San F ...

(US-101) and the

Sinclair Freeway The Sinclair Freeway refers to portions of two contiguous stretches of freeway in California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Orego ...

(I-680) pass through Alum Rock.

Gallery

File:Los Delicios in Downtown Alum Rock 0664.jpg, Alum Rock Village File:Alum Rock station of the SJ Fire Department 2.jpg, Station 2 of the San Jose Fire Department File:Downtown Alum Rock 0666 (cropped).jpg, Alum Rock Village File:Alum Rock Transit Center 1881 06 (cropped).JPG, Alum Rock Transit Center

References

External links

Alum Rock branch of the San Jose Public Library systemCity of San Jose, Council District 5
{{authority control Census-designated places in Santa Clara County, California Neighborhoods in San Jose, California Census-designated places in California Chicano and Mexican neighborhoods in California