East Palo Alto, California
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

East Palo Alto ( ; abbreviated E.P.A.) is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of East Palo Alto was 30,034. It is situated on the San Francisco Peninsula, roughly halfway between the cities of
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
and San Jose. To the north and east is the
San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...
, to the west is the city of Menlo Park, and to the south the city of
Palo Alto Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...
. East Palo Alto was founded as an unincorporated community and was incorporated in July 1983. The two cities are separated only by San Francisquito Creek and, largely, the Bayshore Freeway (the vast majority of East Palo Alto is northeast of the freeway, while all of the residential part of Palo Alto is southwest of the freeway). The revitalization projects in 2000, and high income high-tech professionals moving into new developments, including employees from Google and Facebook, have begun to slowly eliminate the historically wide cultural and economic differences between the two cities. East Palo Alto and Palo Alto share both telephone area codes and postal ZIP codes. In 1990, 43% of East Palo Alto's residents were
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 ...
s, which was the result of
redlining Redlining is a Discrimination, discriminatory practice in which financial services are withheld from neighborhoods that have significant numbers of Race (human categorization), racial and Ethnic group, ethnic minorities. Redlining has been mos ...
practices and racial deed restrictions in Palo Alto, while 34% were Latinos. As of 2020, African Americans were 11%, while Latinos are about 66%. A small minority of Pacific Islanders also reside in East Palo Alto, most of Tongan, Samoan, and Fijian origin. The prosperity that benefited
Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...
during the dot-com boom of the late 1990s largely bypassed East Palo Alto. The Ravenswood City School District, which serves East Palo Alto and part of adjoining Menlo Park, has struggled with low academic performance. Eventually, however, the Peninsula's shortage of land and soaring property prices meant that East Palo Alto became an option for urban regeneration. East Palo Alto includes a small piece of land southwest of the Bayshore Freeway ( U.S. Route 101), across the freeway from the Gateway 101 shopping center. This land is roughly triangular and sits between the freeway and San Francisquito Creek. This land was formerly the site of a two-block-long retail business district known as Whiskey Gulch. Since 1888,
Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
, on the west side of Palo Alto, prohibited alcohol sales within a radius of from the campus. Whiskey Gulch, which was just outside these limits, became home to a number of liquor stores, bars, and music venues. The rules were relaxed in 1970, but the neighborhood still retained this character until 2000, when the city tore down Whiskey Gulch and replaced it with the University Circle office complex. A 200-room Four Seasons hotel opened in University Circle in 2006. Over 25% of East Palo Alto (400+ acres) has been bulldozed and replaced with brand new housing and brand-name retail establishments since approximately 1997, attracting an entirely new demographic. The University Square community has become particularly appealing to young high-tech professionals and high-income couples, including many employees from
Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
,
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
,
Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...
,
Yahoo! Yahoo (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web portal that provides the search engine Yahoo Search and related services including My Yahoo, Yahoo Mail, Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo Sports, y!entertainment, yahoo!life, and its a ...
, and various other software and startup companies.


History

The Ohlone tribe of Native Americans inhabited this area at least by 1500 to 1000 BC. One
tumulus A tumulus (: tumuli) is a mound of Soil, earth and Rock (geology), stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds, mounds, howes, or in Siberia and Central Asia as ''kurgans'', and may be found through ...
was discovered in 1951 during development of the University Village subdivision near today's Costaño School. After a year-long excavation of 60 graves and 3,000 artifacts, researchers concluded Native Americans had utilized the area as a
cemetery A cemetery, burial ground, gravesite, graveyard, or a green space called a memorial park or memorial garden, is a place where the remains of many death, dead people are burial, buried or otherwise entombed. The word ''cemetery'' (from Greek ...
and camp, rather than as a permanent settlement. In later years another mound was found near Willow Road and the railroad right-of-way. From the 1850s through the 1940s, the area which was to become East Palo Alto went through many changes. In 1849, Isaiah Churchill Woods (1825–1880) attempted to make the area around what is now ''Cooley Landing'' in the northeast of the current city a major shipping town and named the area ''Ravenswood''. In 1868, after Woods' investments failed he sold the wharf to Lester Phillip Cooley (1837–1882), who leased the land to the brick factory ''Hunter and Schakleford''. When the brick factory left the landing in 1884, the land around the landing was reverted to a ranch. With the outbreak of
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, the north side of East Palo Alto became a military training ground, of which only the Veterans Administration Hospital in Menlo Park still exists (now as part of the VA Sierra Pacific Network). In the 1940s, East Palo Alto was a farming community with many Japanese residents. During the war, the Japanese were forced out, many to relocation centers, and did not return after the war. In the 1950s the farms were built over with cheap housing and many African-American families moved in, the result of
redlining Redlining is a Discrimination, discriminatory practice in which financial services are withheld from neighborhoods that have significant numbers of Race (human categorization), racial and Ethnic group, ethnic minorities. Redlining has been mos ...
housing policies. In particular, in 1954 the then-president of the California Real Estate Association, Floyd Lowe, implemented a strategy that turned a neighborhood on the East side of Palo Alto from predominantly white to predominantly black in a very short amount of time. He did this by " blockbusting," which is a strategy that was employed all over the country to similar results. Blockbusting involves instilling panic in white neighborhoods by warning of a "Negro invasion" when a black family considers purchasing a house in an area, in order to produce
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 ...
and an ensuing drop in property values, which can then be purchased at a heavy discount and sold or rented to African Americans for a profit. In 1954, Lowe alerted the neighborhood that a "Negro invasion" was imminent, and as intended, white flight ensued. Lowe profited due to the low prices at which the white families fleeing were willing to sell their homes, and within a few years, the demographics of the area had flipped. As white-owned businesses fled the area, it became poorer and overcrowded – a legacy that has persisted. This segregationist act was never questioned by the government, and it led to many of the demographic and socioeconomic differences that exist between Palo Alto and East Palo Alto today. These differences in demographics and wealth perversely accelerated with the introduction of the Community Reinvestment Act of 1977, which banned redlining. Home prices doubled by 1979, and many of the more educated and upwardly mobile African Americans took advantage of their newfound freedom to move into wealthier communities with more amenities, leaving the remaining community even poorer and with less access to home ownership than had been the case before the Act. During the civil rights movement of the 1960s there was a renewed interest in African history, one expression of which was a fad for Swahili. In 1968 the area was almost renamed
Nairobi Nairobi is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Kenya. The city lies in the south-central part of Kenya, at an elevation of . The name is derived from the Maasai language, Maasai phrase , which translates to 'place of cool waters', a ...
, after the center of the Swahili-speaking area, to reflect the population's African roots. Critics of the change pointed out that Nairobi was the capital of
Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...
, in East Africa, and had little to do with the cultural roots of most black Americans. In the end, the change was not made. Historically East Palo Alto had relatively little shopping and business compared to surrounding areas, and most of it constituted an unincorporated "island" (until 1983) within San Mateo County, depending on county government for services and on the San Mateo County Sheriff for police protection and ineligible for many revenue benefits requiring city status. After several years of pro-incorporation campaigning by local community groups, a 1982 ballot measure that was stopped by a lawsuit, and a subsequent election the next year, East Palo Alto became a city on July 1, 1983. The final tally for incorporation was 1,777 for and 1,764 against, a margin of 13 votes and a majority of 50.2%. The main proponents of incorporation included Barbara A. Mouton, East Palo Alto's Senior Citizen Center president Ruth I. Myers, and the East Palo Alto Citizen’s Committee on Incorporation (EPACCI). The main opposition to incorporation was spearheaded by a group called Citizens Coalition Against Incorporation Now (CCAIN), along with three members of the pre-existing and powerless Municipal Council — Gertrude Wilks, Henry Anthony and Pat Johnson. Barbara A. Mouton was East Palo Alto's first Mayor, with Omowale Satterwhite, Ruben Abrica, and James Blakey as initial council — all of whom were involved in efforts to incorporate the city. Because of subsequent legal challenges to the last ballot measure, it was not until 1987 that the city was officially recognized as such. The legal challenges were led by former U.S. Congress member Pete McCloskey, who represented one of the real-estate brokers whose original blockbusting campaign had turned EPA into a mostly black town. The lawsuit alleged that voter fraud through absentee ballots contributed to the success of the vote for incorporation; However, the California Supreme Court unanimously denied this claim on August 22 1986, and upheld the incorporation of the city. In the 1980s, large numbers of
Hispanics The term Hispanic () are people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an ethnic or meta-ethnic term. The term commonly appli ...
moved into East Palo Alto and by 1990, the city had lost its Black majority population which declined from 60 percent in 1980 to 41.5 percent in 1990 while the Hispanic population increased from 14 percent to 36 percent. Significant
gentrification Gentrification is the process whereby the character of a neighborhood changes through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents (the "gentry") and investment. There is no agreed-upon definition of gentrification. In public discourse, it has ...
occurred in East Palo Alto from around the founding of
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
, with the construction of a large
shopping center A shopping center in American English, shopping centre in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English (see American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, spelling differences), shopping complex, shopping arcade, ...
named Ravenswood 101 and several upscale housing communities intended for high-earning Silicon Valley workers. This development faced opposition from some residents, who charged that it priced locals out of one of the region's only affordable communities while providing only low-paying retail jobs and consuming disproportionate land area (2.2 square miles). Supporters pointed to an increased tax base. In 2008, after twenty years without a supermarket, East Palo Alto individuals and organizations established the East Palo Alto Community Farmers' Market. In November 2009, the Mi Pueblo Food Center grocery store opened in the Ravenswood 101 shopping center in the location of the former Circuit City store. Mi Pueblo was the city's first full-service supermarket in 23 years. Starting in 2006, a large real estate investor, Page Mill Properties, purchased almost the entire west side of East Palo Alto and contested most of the city's rent control laws in what some claimed was a 'predatory equity scheme'. Page Mill left East Palo Alto in the fall of 2009 after defaulting on a $240-million bank loan. In 1992, the city had the country's highest per-capita murder rate, with 42 murders for 25,000 residents. This led to East Palo Alto being dubbed the "Murder Capital" of the United States during this time in the 1990s. In 2023, the city had no murders, the first time in its history.


Geography

East Palo Alto is located in San Mateo County. Despite its name, it lies almost entirely north, and not east of
Palo Alto Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...
. It is bordered on the west by Menlo Park, to the south by Palo Alto, and to the east by the
San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...
. The San Francisquito Creek defines its southern edge. To the north are Ravenswood Point and the western end of the Dumbarton Bridge in Menlo Park. According to the
United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
, the city has a total area of , of which is land and of it (4.11%) is water.


Demographics


2020 census


2010

The 2010 United States Census reported that East Palo Alto had a population of 28,155. The
population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...
was . The racial makeup of East Palo Alto was 1,754 (6.2%)
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 ...
, 4,704 (16.7%)
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 ...
, 120 (0.4%) Native American, 1,057 (3.8%) Asian, 2,118 (7.5%)
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 ...
, 10,694 (38.0%) from other races, and 1,358 (4.8%) from two or more races.
Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
or Latino of any race were 18,147 persons (64.5%). Among the Hispanic population, 15,319 (54.4%) are Mexican, 69 (0.2%) are Puerto Rican, 23 (0.1%) are Cuban, and 2,736 (9.7%) are other Hispanic or Latino. The Census reported that 28,001 people (99.5% of the population) lived in households, 150 (0.5%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 4 (0%) were institutionalized. There were 6,940 households, out of which 3,767 (54.3%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 3,144 (45.3%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 1,510 (21.8%) had a female householder with no husband present, 625 (9.0%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 529 (7.6%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 59 (0.9%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 1,196 households (17.2%) were made up of individuals, and 316 (4.6%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 4.03. There were 5,279 families (76.1% of all households); the average family size was 4.38. The population was spread out, with 8,976 people (31.9%) under the age of 18, 3,487 people (12.4%) aged 18 to 24, 8,897 people (31.6%) aged 25 to 44, 5,120 people (18.2%) aged 45 to 64, and 1,675 people (5.9%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 28.1 years. For every 100 females, there were 102.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 102.5 males. There were 7,819 housing units at an average density of , of which 2,971 (42.8%) were owner-occupied, and 3,969 (57.2%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.1%; the rental vacancy rate was 13.3%. 12,628 people (44.9% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 15,373 people (54.6%) lived in rental housing units.


2000

As of the
census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
of 2000, there were 35,791 people, 7,104 households, and 5,793 families residing in the city. The
population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...
was . There were 8,046 housing units at an average density of . 21.3% spoke English, 64.8% Spanish, 9.5% Pacific Island languages, 0.4% Chinese or Mandarin, other
Indo-European 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. ...
1.4%, and other language 1.3%, as their first language from estimate census 2009. There were 7,104 households, of which 41.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 44.4% were married couples living together, 19.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.5% were non-families. 22.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 5.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 6.24 and the average family size was 7.65. In the city, the population was spread out, with 47.1% under the age of 18, 19.5% from 18 to 24, 31.2% from 25 to 44, 11.1% from 45 to 64, and 3.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 21 years. For every 100 females, there were 109.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 108.9 males. The median income for a household in the city was $44,006, and the median income for a family was $42,342. Males had a median income of $25,631 versus $28,044 for females. 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 ...
for the city was $13,774. About 22.2% of families and 21.0% of the population were below the
poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 20.1% of those under age 18 and 14.7% of those age 65 or over.


Economy


Top employers

According to the city's 2021 Annual Comprehensive Financial Report,''City of East Palo Alto, Annual Comprehensive Financial Report For the year ended June 30, 2021. Page 143.''
/ref> the city's top employers were: The total city employment for the year ended June 30, 2021, was 14,500, and the total city employment for 2014 was 13,800.


Parks and recreation

The local area around the Dumbarton Bridge is an important ecological area, hosting many species of birds, fish and mammals. The California clapper rail is known to be present in the western bridge terminus area. The Baylands Nature Preserve borders the city of East Palo Alto. The long trail along the marshland connects Mountain View, Palo Alto, and East Palo and it is used by bike commuters every day.


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). ...
, East Palo Alto 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 ...
, East Palo Alto is in , . The terms of Mayor and Vice Mayor are for one year and expire at the first meeting in December. , 29-year-old Antonio Lopez is the mayor.


Education


Primary and secondary schools

The Ravenswood City School District has its headquarters in East Palo Alto. The schools in the city are Costaño School of the Arts, Belle Haven Elementary, Los Robles-Ronald McNair Academy, and Cesar Chavez Ravenswood Middle School. The Sequoia Union High School District operates the zoned high schools in the area. Between 1958 and 1976 East Palo Alto had its own high school, Ravenswood High School. After the school was closed because of low enrollment, the building was demolished in 1995 to make room for the Gateway 101 Shopping Center. Following the closure of Ravenswood High School, East Palo Alto's high school students were bused out of the city to other schools in the region, primarily Carlmont High School in Belmont. Some have called for re-opening Ravenswood High School in a new location in East Palo Alto. In 2014, the Sequoia Union High School District discontinued the practice of busing. Today, East Palo Alto residents are zoned to
Menlo-Atherton High School Menlo-Atherton High School (known as M-A to locals) is a four-year public high school secondary school located in Atherton, California. Menlo-Atherton is part of the Sequoia Union High School District.
in Atherton. Through the district Open Enrollment process, some residents choose to attend Carlmont, Woodside High School in Woodside, or Sequoia High School in Redwood City. Alternatively, East Palo Alto Academy (opened in 2001 as East Palo Alto High School) and East Palo Alto Phoenix Academy (opened 2006) are
charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the ...
high schools in East Palo Alto. There is also a private high school, Eastside College Preparatory, which opened in 1996. Every year, parents of incoming minority children in kindergarten through grade 2 can enter a lottery (if there are more requests than the 135 slots available) to send their children to neighboring school districts under the Tinsley Voluntary Transfer Program.


Public libraries

San Mateo County Libraries operates the East Palo Alto Library, located in the municipal building at 2415 University Avenue.


Media

The '' Ravenswood Post'' (1953–1981) was an African-American weekly newspaper serving East Palo Alto. The East Palo Alto Progress (1983—1986) succeeded the Ravenswood Post, serving East Palo Alto immediately after incorporation, running for four volumes. Other local news publishings included the newspaper, ''East Palo Alto Today;'' former newspaper, ''The Peninsula Bulletin;'' and the magazine, ''El Ravenswood''.


Transportation

U.S. Route 101 cuts through the southern part of the city, with two on ramps and off ramps in the city (University and Willow). There are frontage roads on either side of the freeway. The Dumbarton Bridge in neighboring Menlo Park connects East Palo Alto to Alameda County, which lies to the east across
San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...
, and carries State Route 84 into East Palo Alto toward U.S. 101. Public transportation is provided by SamTrans.


Notable residents


References

{{Authority control Incorporated cities and towns in California Cities in San Mateo County, California Cities in the San Francisco Bay Area Pacific Islands American culture in California Populated coastal places in California