Foster City is a master-planned

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

located in

San Mateo County, California San Mateo County ( ), officially the County of San Mateo, is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 764,442. Redwood City, California, Redwood City is th ...

, United States. Foster City is sometimes considered to be part of

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 ...

for its local industry and its proximity to Silicon Valley cities. There are many notable companies headquartered in Foster City, such as

Gilead Sciences Gilead Sciences, Inc. () is an American biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Foster City, California, that focuses on researching and developing antiviral drugs used in the treatment of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, influenza, and CO ...

, Zoox, and

Replit Replit (), formerly Repl.it, is an American AI company with natural language application development through its Agent platform. Founded in 2016 as a online integrated development environment (IDE), Replit creates software via AI with a platf ...

. Visa and

Sledgehammer Games Sledgehammer Games, Inc. is an American video game developer company formed in 2009 by Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey. The pair formerly worked at EA Redwood Shores and are responsible for the creation of ''Dead Space (2008 video game), Dead ...

were formerly headquartered in Foster City. The 2020 census put the population at 33,805, an increase of more than 10% over the 2010 census figure of 30,567. Foster City contains at least 10 bridges of which 7 cross its lagoon, two go across Highway 92 and one is the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge which crosses the San Francisco Bay. Foster City is one of the United States’ safest cities, with an average of one murder per decade.

History

Foster City was founded in the 1960s, built on the existing

Brewer Island Brewer Island is an island in the San Francisco Bay, in San Mateo County, California. Originally owned by W. P. A. Brewer, for over one hundred years it was used for hay farming. Several attempts to develop the island failed between 1912 and 1959 ...

in the marshes of 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 ...

on the east edge of San Mateo, enlarged with engineered

landfill A landfill is a site for the disposal of waste materials. It is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of waste with daily, intermediate and final covers only began in the 1940s. In the past, waste was ...

. The city was named after T. Jack Foster, a real estate magnate who owned much of the land comprising the city and who was instrumental in its initial design. His firm, Foster Enterprises, now run by his descendants, relocated to San Mateo in 2000 and is still active in real estate affairs throughout the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

. The first residents moved into Foster City on March 7, 1964. Charles Zerbe, a San Francisco firefighter with a wife and two young sons, paid $23,500 for his four-bedroom house on Pilgrim Drive. In the early 1960s, the first homes built in Foster City were sold for under $18,000. By the late 1960s, the average home price was just under $30,000.

United States census The United States census (plural censuses or census) is a census that is legally mandated by the Constitution of the United States. It takes place every ten years. The first census after the American Revolution was taken in 1790 United States ce ...

data shows the median household income for Foster City residents in 1970 was $30,000 and in 1980 was $60,000. As of 2020, the median household income for Foster City was $161,000. In 2024, the average home value was $1,926,381.

Geography

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 is water. The total area is 81.07% water. Foster City has ongoing issues with water intrusion from the

and is potentially subject to permanent inundation as the

sea level rise The sea level has been rising from the end of the last ice age, which was around 20,000 years ago. Between 1901 and 2018, the average sea level rose by , with an increase of per year since the 1970s. This was faster than the sea level had e ...

s. A project to improve the existing levee with a steel-reinforced wall has been underway since

FEMA The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Exec ...

designated the entire area as a floodplain making residents subject to much higher flood insurance rates.

Climate

Foster City, like most of the peninsula, has a mild warm-summer

Mediterranean climate A Mediterranean climate ( ), also called a dry summer climate, described by Köppen and Trewartha as ''Cs'', is a temperate climate type that occurs in the lower mid-latitudes (normally 30 to 44 north and south latitude). Such climates typic ...

, with warm, dry summers and cool, wet winters. The warmest month of the year is September, with an average daytime temperature of and an average nighttime temperature of , while the coldest month of the year is January, with an average daytime temperature of and an average nighttime temperature of .

Demographics

2020

The 2020 United States census reported that Foster City had a population of 33,056 with 12,243 households. The 2020 median home price in Foster City was $1,439,375. The population density was . The racial makeup of Foster City was 13,171 (39.8%)

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 ...

, 818 (2.5%)

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 ...

, 39 (0.1%) Native American, 16,715(50.6%) Asian, 30 (0.1%)

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 ...

, 394 (1.2%) from other races, and 1,889 (5.7%) 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 2,605 persons (7.9%). 52% of the population was born in the United States, and 22% of the population are naturalized citizens. The Census reported that the median household income was $163,322, 3.2% of the population was below the poverty line, out of the total population 2.5% of those under the age of 18 and 5.1% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line. For those over the age of 25, 96% had a

high school diploma A high school diploma (sometimes referred to as a high school degree) is a diploma awarded upon graduation of high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary s ...

or higher, 71% had a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

, and 36.6% had a

graduate degree Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor ...

or professional degree.

2010

The 2010 United States Census reported that Foster City had a population of 30,567. The 2009 median home price in Foster City was $1,025,000. The population density was . The racial makeup of Foster City was 13,912 (45.5%)

, 576 (1.9%)

, 29 (0.1%) Native American, 13,746 (45.0%) Asian, 189 (0.6%)

, 575 (1.9%) from other races, and 1,540 (5.0%) from two or more races.

or Latino of any race were 1,995 persons (6.5%). The Census reported that 30,458 people (99.6% of the population) lived in households, 52 (0.2%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 57 (0.2%) were institutionalized. There were 12,016 households, out of which 4,256 (35.4%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 7,127 (59.3%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 963 (8.0%) had a female householder with no husband present, 316 (2.6%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 531 (4.4%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 75 (0.6%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 2,807 households (23.4%) were made up of individuals, and 860 (7.2%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.53. There were 8,406

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 ...

(70.0% of all households); the average family size was 3.04. The population was spread out, with 6,913 people (22.6%) under the age of 18, 1,526 people (5.0%) aged 18 to 24, 9,801 people (32.1%) aged 25 to 44, 8,223 people (26.9%) aged 45 to 64, and 4,104 people (13.4%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39.3 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.0 males. There were 12,458 housing units at an average density of , of which 6,958 (57.9%) were owner-occupied, and 5,058 (42.1%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 0.8%; the rental vacancy rate was 3.5%. 18,423 people (60.3% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 12,035 people (39.4%) lived in rental housing units.

Economy

Headquarters

Around 1993

Visa Inc. Visa Inc. () is an American multinational payment card services corporation headquartered in San Francisco, California. It facilitates electronic funds transfers throughout the world, most commonly through Visa-branded credit cards, debit c ...

began consolidating various scattered offices in

San Mateo, California San Mateo ( ) is the most populous city in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula. It is part of the San Francisco Bay Area metropolitan region, and is located about south of San Francisco. San Mateo border ...

to a location in Foster City.Visa Finds a Passport to the Future San Mateo Company Bets on 'Smart' Cards That Will Exchange Information, Not Just Money
" ''

San Jose Mercury News ''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidia ...

''. Monday August 7, 1995. 1F Business. Retrieved on February 2, 2011. "Then, two years ago, it began consolidating scattered sites throughout San Mateo in nearby Foster City with .. Visa's headquarters were in Foster City, and Visa became Foster City's largest employer. Visa owns four buildings at the intersection of Metro Center Boulevard and Vintage Park Drive. As of 2009 it employed about 3,000 people at the complex. During that year Visa signed a 10-year lease agreement for the top three floors of 595 Market Street in

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 moved its top executives there. Visa continued to keep employees at the Foster City offices.Week in review
" '' The Daily Journal''. January 3, 2009. Retrieved on February 2, 2011. As of 2009, after the headquarters move, the Foster City facilities remained the company's center of employment, and those buildings housed 2,400 employees as of 2009.Visa joins The Chronicle 200 at No. 20
" ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. ...

''. April 19, 2009. Retrieved on February 2, 2011. Other companies with headquarters in Foster City: * Applied Underwriters * Conversica * Conviva * Electronics for Imaging *

* Guidewire Software * Imperva, Inc. * Live365.com * LiveRamp * Navigenics *

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), simply branded Philips, is a Dutch multinational health technology company that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, its world headquarters have been situated in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarter ...

(manufacturing facility) * QuinStreet Inc. *

Sling Media Sling Media Inc. is an American technology company that develops placeshifting and Smart TV solutions for consumers, multiple-system operators and set top box manufacturers. The company is based in Foster City, California, and was a subsidiary of ...

* Truviso * Zuora * Zoox

Top employers

According to the city's 2023 Top Ten Employers, the top ten employers in the city are:

Arts and culture

* The city is served by the

Peninsula Library System The Peninsula Library System (PLS) is a consortium of public and community college libraries in San Mateo County, California, San Mateo County, California, United States, which serves the part of the San Francisco Bay Area known as "San Francisco ...

. * The historic Hillbarn Theatre was founded in 1940 and provides the community with year-round access to live theatre, as well as workshop, classes, and summer camps for kids ages 6 to 18.

Parks and recreation

Foster City has 24 parks occupying more than , including many public tennis courts, baseball and soccer fields, basketball courts, and rollerblading/biking trails along the San Francisco Bay. Foster City also has: *Windsurfing and Kite-Surfing A windsurfing and kite-surfing spot in the

can be found within the city limits of Foster City. It is located adjacent to Mariners Point. * A Golf course and driving range There is one 9-hole golf course, and driving range Mariners' Point, on land owned by the city, and operated by VB Golf. * Dragon Boating The Bay Area Dragons and Ho'okahi Pu'uwai

outrigger canoe Outrigger boats are various watercraft featuring one or more lateral support floats known as outriggers, which are fastened to one or both sides of the main hull (watercraft), hull. They can range from small dugout (boat), dugout canoes to large ...

clubs operate in the lagoon. In an attempt to preserve the city's waterways and reduce noise levels, only electric, wind, or man-powered watercraft are permitted in the Lagoon. * Teen Activities Center A newly constructed $4 million center for teens that will provide access to: TV's, computers, video games, art rooms, homework rooms, a kitchen and outdoor basketball courts. The center is also known as "The Vibe" and has a concrete skatepark adjacent to it. * Public Amphitheatre Located in Leo J. Ryan Memorial Park, is a newly constructed Amphitheatre. It serves as the location for the Foster City Summer concerts. Adjacent to the park is a boardwalk with boat tie-up facilities. In addition, Foster City maintains an extensive , man-made enclosed lagoon system. The lagoons were initially designed as a drainage system required in order to efficiently drain the lowland city.

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). ...

, Foster City 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 ...

, Foster City is in . , Foster City's Mayor is Patrick Sullivan. Other councilmembers include Sam Hindi, Jon Froomin, Stacy Jimenez, Art Kiesel, and Patrick Sullivan. Froomin was elected to office after former councilmember Herb Perez was recalled by a majority of Foster City voters. Perez was the first city councilperson to be recalled since 1977. Former Mayor Sam Hindi was the first Palestinian-American Mayor in the history of California. Councilmember Sanjay Gehani was the first Mayor for Foster City of Indian descent. Current (2022) Mayor Richa Awashi is the first female minority Mayor and first woman Immigrant to be Foster City's Mayor. According to the

California Secretary of State The secretary of state of California is the chief clerk of the U.S. state of California, overseeing a department of 500 people. The Secretary of state (U.S. state government), secretary of state is elected for four year terms, like the state's o ...

, as of February 10, 2019, Foster City has 16,568 registered voters. Of those, 7,336 (44.3%) are registered Democrats, 2,756 (16.6%) are registered Republicans, and 5,977 (36.1%) have declined to state a political party.

Education

Foster City is home to five public schools in the San Mateo–Foster City Elementary School District. Foster City Elementary School (which has recently bee
remodeled
, Brewer Island Elementary School, Audubon Elementary School, and newly built Beach Park Elementary School serve kindergarten through fifth grades. Nathaniel Bowditch Middle School serves 6th through 8th grades. There are several private preschools and elementary schools. There is a separate High School District: San Mateo Union High School District. There is no high school located east of Highway 101 so Foster City high school students attend the public schools in the San Mateo Union High School District and other private high schools in the San Francisco Bay Area. Four public schools in Foster City (Audubon School, Brewer Island School, Foster City School, and Bowditch Middle School) have won California Distinguished School awards. In 1993, Bowditch was recognized with the U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon. In 2005, Bowditch became a California Distinguished School for the second time. A third recognition was given in 2013. Foster City has one private Jewish day school
Ronald C. Wornick Jewish Day School
is a kindergarten – eighth grade school. It was rated the number one Jewish day school in the South Bay/Peninsula.
Jewishsf.com (August 8, 2006). Retrieved on 2013-07-21. Foster City also has one private elementary school
Kids Connection
is a kindergarten – fifth grade school.

Items of interest

Foster City's Werder Pier is a remainder of the original expanse of the San Mateo–Hayward Bridge. It is also one of the longest and oldest piers in California. Unfortunately, due to much needed repair, the once popular fishing pier is no longer in operation. A number of San Francisco professional athletes have called Foster City home. Former

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...

players Kevin Mitchell and

Jeff Kent Jeffrey Franklin Kent (born March 7, 1968) is an American former professional baseball second baseman. He played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1992 to 2008 for the Toronto Blue Jays, New York Mets, Cleveland Indians, San Franci ...

won the

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

Most Valuable Player In team sports, a most valuable player (MVP) award is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particular competition, or ...

award while they were residents of Foster City.

Peter Thiel Peter Andreas Thiel (; born 11 October 1967) is an American entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and political activist. A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, he was the first outside investor in Facebook. According ...

, founder of

PayPal PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support E-commerce payment system, online money transfers; it serves as an electronic alter ...

, was raised in Foster City. Norman Hsu, the Hong Kong-born convicted criminal (Ponzi scheme scam artist) and political activist, is a former resident of Foster City. The movie '' Over the Edge'' is based on events occurring in Foster City and chronicled in a 1973 article titled "Mousepacks: Kids on a Crime Spree" in the ''

San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and has been published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst and the flagship of the He ...

''. Foster City TV broadcasts a variety of programs related to the operation of and life in Foster City. Foster City TV provides programming through a dedicated

government-access television In the United States, government-access television (GATV) is a type of specialty television channel created by government entities (generally local governments) and broadcast over cable TV systems or, in some cases, over-the-air broadcast t ...

(GATV) channel.

References

External links

* {{authority control 1971 establishments in California Cities in San Mateo County, California Cities in the San Francisco Bay Area Incorporated cities and towns in California Planned communities in California Populated places established in 1971 Populated coastal places in California