Founded in Gold Rush days, the community of East Palo Alto remained unincorporated until 1983. The upshot of this meant that Menlo Park and Palo Alto had already annexed much of the land around the town’s core, leaving it without a strong tax base. East Palo Alto has experienced many ups and downs over the years and is currently enjoying the attention of those who see it as undervalued real estate, ready to be developed with new housing or office space.
Renters and house buyers can find probably the Peninsula’s cheapest housing here—a good place to start if Silicon Valley prices might otherwise prove insuperable, and a good place to start building equity. Less money can get you more house in E.P.A. As for the schools, Stanford University recently made Ravenswood a kind of test district, starting a charter school there (now part of Aspire) with programs designed by University faculty and, I believe, partly staffed by students from Stanford’s school of education. The town is centrally located for the whole Peninsula, within decent commuting distance of both San Francisco and San Jose, and with easy access to the Peninsula’s main artery, the Bayshore Freeway aka 101.