Palo Alto City

PALO ALTO CITY HOUSING TRENDS

Who wouldn’t want to live in a town whose streets are named for poets? Whose citizens, even in an age of budget cuts, routinely pass parcel taxes to support school programs? Whose neighborhoods have names like Professorville and College Flats? And whose excellent high schools send a stream of students to Stanford—right across the street?

 

A city of well over fifty thousand on the border of San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, Palo Alto is a university town, and it shows. When Stanford opened its doors in 1891—co-ed from the start—the surrounding areas had a focus not found elsewhere on the Peninsula. And when technology (read, computers) began its rise after World War Two, Palo Alto was on the cutting edge (still is). This is where Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard started off in a garage (on Addison Street, recently restored by the company.) This is the town Steve Jobs chose to live in and raise his family.

Palo Alto has two distinct downtown areas; one located in and around University Avenue which is the main downtown, and a smaller though very charming downtown located around California Avenue (both these areas have Caltrain stops). One of the must see spots on University Avenue is the Stanford Theatre; sponsored by the Packard family, this wonderful old world theatre shows movies from a bygone era, including silent movies. On Friday and Saturday nights the theatre is graced with an organist who literally rises out of the floor amid much applause from the audience!

 

Special to Palo Alto is its large stock of Eichler homes, built in the years after the Second World War. They’re very much lived in. I remember, years ago, in England, watching a television show on Eichlers, and falling in love with them and their openness. Totally different than what I grew up with, in India and in England. Then I got to come here and see them first hand—and even live in one for several years. Who knows where life leads us? For those interested, there’s even an Eichler Swim and Tennis Club serving the community, check it out at http://eichlerclub.com

History Sidebar: Stanford University

 

In my opinion, one of the great stories; New York boy turned Sacramento shopkeeper helps build a railroad through the impossible mountains and deserts of the American West, miraculously (after eighteen years) has a single son same year the railroads meet in dusty Utah. Raises son happily until they take Grand Tour together (by railroad, of course) across Europe preparatory to son leaving for college back East (where else? No colleges out West!). Son gets typhoid fever, dies in Florence. Body brought back across continent, ocean, continent (certainly a world record for travel after death) and buried in marble mausoleum still opened to public one day a year. And son’s name attached to that highest piece of technology of Western civilization: a university. Boy hadn’t died, no university. Jane and Leland Stanford leave everything to it—and everything means a fortune. American West gets the benefit of that death; a benefit pays off fifty years later as Stanford University claims world-class status . . . certainly the stuff of opera.

 

Footnote: Visit Florence, walk beside the Arno River, look up at high wall, see a plaque in English. There, thousands of miles from the Peninsula and San Francisco, a commemoration of Leland Junior’s death, put on the walls of the hotel where he died by Stanford alumni some fifty years after his death.

 

APARTMENTS

The Marc, 501 Forest Avenue, Palo Alto

 

Near Forest and Cowper; in the middle of downtown Palo Alto; close to all restaurants, shopping, etc. Easy access to Alma (Central Expressway) and 101

 

Gym, laundry on each floor http://www.themarc-pa.com/THEMARCPALOALTOCA/Index.aspx

 

Palo Alto Place, 565 Arastradero Road Near Arastradero and El Camino Real; not too far from 280
http://www.srgliving.com/paloaltoplace/

 

Parksquare, Palo Alto, end of Wilkie near Whitclem
http://www.rent.com/rentals/california/san-josesouth-bay-and-peninsula/palo-alto/parksquare-apartments/436893/?linkname=myrent-9500-view-properties

 

Roble Vista, 220 Palo Alto Avenue 1br units close to University Avenue, parks, Caltrain, and shops; granite counters and cats are OK
http://www.roblevista.com

 

Tan Plaza Continental, 580 Arastradero Road, Palo Alto A Prometheus development close to El Camino Real. Easy access to 280 and 101
http://www.prometheusreg.com/?page_id=101&property=Tan+Plaza+Continental

 

CITY INFORMATION

http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/

 

POINTS OF INTEREST

    • Stanford Movie Theatre (old time movies with organ player most Fridays and Saturdays)
    • Palo Alto Baylands for hiking and bird watching
    • Two downtowns (main one on University Avenue and smaller one on California Avenue)
    • Stanford University
    • Nearby Stanford Shopping Center
    • Palo Alto Hills Golf and Country Club (private)
    • Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course
    • Town and Country Shopping Center
    • Several movie theatres (Aquarius in downtown and Palo Alto Square, both showing independent movies)
    • Caltrain station (2 stops)

http://www.caltrain.com/

 

WHY LIVE IN PALO ALTO

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palo_Alto,_California