City, Alameda County
© McCormack's Guides
Zip Code: 94587
Bedroom
town in southern Alameda County.
Population 73,402. Many new homes, especially along Mission Boulevard in
the hills and along Union City Boulevard in the flatlands near the shore. More
coming around the BART (commute rail) station. www.mccormacks.com
In the 1990s, the city built about
3,100 homes and apartments and between 2000 and 2006 about 1,150 units.
School
enrollments slipping but for several decades kids abounded and this and dynamic
civic leaders created a strong constituency for bonds and improvements. Four
school bonds, for total $276 million, passed in last 20 years, the most recent
in 2003. Served by New Haven Unified School District.
Click for regional or detailed map
Academic
rankings, on statewide comparisons, land above and below the 50th percentile
but elementary schools and Logan High have a reputation for hard work and close
attention to academics. Logan sends many kids to top universities and boasts
one of the top athletic programs in the state.
Logan,
which has probably the largest enrollment of any high school in Northern Cal
(about 4,200 students), has innovative student-union building. Place for kids
to go after school. The school's swimming pool is open to the community in
summer months.
Guy
Emanuele, who retired in 1997, had been superintendent of the school district
seemingly forever. He was one of the best schmoozers and administrators in
education (top-down style, forceful; he made a lot of the decisions), close to
parents and business and civic leaders. In his era, it was rare for school
districts to win bonds because a two-thirds approval (almost 67 percent) was
needed; now it’s 55 percent. Nonetheless, on his watch, the district won three
bonds and at a time when schools were cutting art and science, he saved these
programs. The district has named a school after him. www.mccormacks.com
School
district, with enrollment declining, is closing Cabello Elementary in 2007 and
Barnard-White Middle in 2008 (but kept open another year to house students from
Cesar Chavez Middle School, which is to be rebuilt.) Attendance boundaries for
the elementary schools will be changed in 2007, for the middle schools, in
2008. See Schools.
Union City
followed a development path common to many cities along the East shore —
with one big difference.
Small farm
villages with manufacturing plants get overun by housing boom that was
precipitated by World War II. The war industries needed workers, the workers
needed housing.
After war,
GI’s flock to California and, backed by government loans, create an even bigger
boom for housing. Civic and business leaders scramble to handle the boom and
often discover that they need stronger planning controls. Hayward and San
Leandro, older and more established communities, incorporated as legal cities
in the 1800s. Fremont and Union City did not incorporate until the 1950s, after
their booms had started.
The big
difference: Hayward and San Leandro blossomed right after the war; a lot of
their housing dates from the late 1940s, the 1950s and 1960s — old
suburbia. www.mccormacks.com
Union City
and Fremont expanded a little in these decades but really came to life after
1970s, when Silicon Valley, to the south, boomed. Modern suburbia.
Union City
has its older neighborhoods with two- and three-bedroom homes, many well
maintained but showing their age, and it has its young or fairly young
neighborhoods with two-story homes, four to six bedrooms, tile roofs, creamy
stucco, the vague Meditterrean style popular in California over the past three
decades.
In several parts of town, the old and
the young are huggermugger and the city has pursued policies that try to
nourish the old, and their stores and village settings, by giving them more
customers in the form of new housing.
The
results: at least in some instances charming because the old has a certain
charm, a small-town feeling, which the new lacks. For the best of the efforts,
drive the water near Union City
and Alvarado boulevards. See also the new multiples along Mission
Boulevard.
Housing
units number 20,483 — single homes 12,926, single attached 2,381,
multiples 4,249, mobile homes 927 (state tally, 2008). www.mccormacks.com
Three
homicides in 2005, one each in 2004 and 2003, two in 2002, three in 2001. The
counts for previous years are, 2, 2, 0, 0, 0, 3, 3, 1, 2, 1, 0. Curfew for
kids. If under 18, with reasonable exceptions, they have to be in by 10 p.m. See Crime.
About 20
parks. Many sports, soccer, baseball, football, boxing club, softball. Teen
center. Skate park. Seniors center. Two community centers. Swim center (at high
school). Two farmers markets. City hall, through its rec department, offers
many activities.
Opening in
2007, a municipal sports center that charges fees — aerobics, weight
room, gym for basketball, volleyball and badminton, day-care center.
Logan High
lights its outdoor basketball courts until midnight. Popular with the teens.
BART
(commute rail) station. Union City is close to one freeway, Interstate 680, and
bisected by another, the congested I-880, which has been widened in recent
years but on many mornings and evenings crawls along. If commuting to San
Francisco or Oakland, BART might be the best bet. www.mccormacks.com
One of
these years, BART will be extended
to San Jose but don’t hold your breath waiting.
Just north
and south of Union City are two bridges, the San Mateo (jobs around San
Francisco International Airport) and the Dumbarton (Palo Alto and Silicon
Valley). Both I-680 and I-880 run to other Silicon Valley towns.
Thanks to
its location, Union City — compared to many other cities — has to
be described as a good commute (but the freeways, at peak hours, often snarl).
Union City
has its own bus service with express buses to Palo Alto. Also an Amtrak station
and service from the Altamont Commuter Express, rail commute that starts in
Manteca and ends in San Jose.
Like many
BART towns, Union City is going in for “smart growth” around its BART stations.
Clusters of apartments (or condos) are rising on the east side of the station. More
parking to be added. In discussion, three residential towers, two of them up to
12 stories, the third, 10 to 20 stories. www.mccormacks.com
About 100
small manufacturing plants in Union City. Kaiser Permanente medical center.
Many warehouses. City is trying to attract high-tech firms and is using
redevelopment to boost Dyer business section, near I-880 and Alvarado-Niles
Road.
Dyer
Triangle, also known as Union Landing, has a giant supermarket, Office Max,
Wal-Mart, movie complex. Also, Borders Books, Lowe's Home Improvement Store,
Michael's crafts, Krispy Kreme Donuts and In 'N Out Burger.
Ethnic mix
diverse and becoming more diverse. Schools and city are making efforts to help
everyone get along. Union City by building middle- and upper-middle housing
close to its low-income neighborhoods brings kids of varied backgrounds
together at an early age.
Chamber of
commerce: (510) 471-3115.
• Voters
in 1996 passed resolution to restrict development in the hills but there is a
fair amount of housing in the hills. www.mccormacks.com
• Gladioli
used to grow abundantly and commercially in Union City. The town song
celebrates the place where “ there’s rows and rows of gladiolus reaching up to
the sky….”
• Public
art. Scattered around town and in front of businesses.
• A town
with a little bang. City council voted to outlaw sale of fireworks. Residents
voted to bring them back and back they are, for the Fourth of July. Local civic
groups, to raise funds, sell the fireworks — supposedly safe.
• For the
dogs, Drigon Park. Friends of pooches are prodding city to light up the park at
nights and say they will pay some of the cost. Neighbors concerned about dogs
barking at the moon and other things.
• Closed
garbage dump on the bay to be converted into park-open space and with six acres
set aside for upscale housing. Garbage on the housing acres would be dug up and
sent elsewhere. www.mccormacks.com
• High
school offers classes in French, German, Tagalog, Punjabi and sign language.
• Chabot
College offers evening classes at Logan High.
• East Bay
Park District wants to build a bike-hiking trail on the bay. If all goes well,
trail would open in 2010.
• Barbie
Museum, owned and run by a local woman. 33361 Croatian Way.
• He’s got
a beef. Cows graze on the waterfront, which has a lot of pasture. Cows moo.
Cows deposit manure. Wilson Karamian bought a house in one of the new
developments nearby. He doesn’t’ find the moos music to his ears or the flops
perfume to his nose. Quite the opposite and has asked the county, the
controlling agency, to do something about this. www.mccormacks.com
City web
site: www.ci.union-city.ca.us
