City, San Mateo County
© McCormack's Guides
Zip Code: 94404
Located
halfway down the Peninsula, this
city of 30,308 residents has done perhaps the best job of any town in the Bay
Region of mixing housing with water. www.mccormacks.com
Median age
of residents is 38. Under 18 years, 21 percent. Over 55 years, 22 percent. Many
singles and empty nesters.
Drawn from
the Bay, the water meanders throughout Foster City and here and there collects
into lagoons. Many homes and apartments oriented toward the water. On summer
evenings, residents take to their rear patios and decks where they dine and
watch the ducks paddle by.
Click for regional or detailed map
If they
feel like exercising, residents may break out the canoe or small sailboat
(Motor boats and jet skis are forbidden). Or head over to the Bay, which is
fringed with a trail-promenade that extends up to Coyote Point in Burlingame.
The trail is popular with walkers, runners, skaters and cyclists. Swimming at
Coyote Point Park (but watch the current; this is a tidal basin).
Served by
two districts. San Mateo-Foster City district covers grades kindergarten
through eighth and includes the City of San Mateo.
At eighth
grade, students move up to schools of San Mateo Union High District, which
extends north to San Bruno. Most of the Foster City kids attend San Mateo and
Hillsdale High schools. After spending several years in portable buildings,
students at San Mateo High in 2005 took over a new campus. The old buildings
had been deemed earthquake unsafe. www.mccormacks.com
At the
elementary level, Foster City schools score generally in the 70th to 90th
percentile, among the top 30 percent in the state. The two high schools land
generally in the 70th and 80th percentiles. See Schools.
The elementary
district in 1997 won voter approval of a $79 million bond. Money was used to
add classrooms, renovate and rewire buildings, and construct a district theater. In 2003, voters approved a parcel
tax for teacher recruiting and program retention.
In 2000,
after several tries, voters approved a bond measure to renovate every high
school in the San Mateo Union High School District and in 2006 another bond,
for $298 million, was passed to rebuild many of the classrooms and facilities —
nice show of support for the high schools.
For the
high schools, school starts in mid August.
The
elementary district has designated about nine of its schools as magnets,
schools that teach the basic curriculum and then specialize in different
programs — gifted, Montessori, science, music, high tech, etc. www.mccormacks.com
Because of
magnets and the district's choice policies, many children attend schools
outside their neighborhoods. Some schools may be over subscribed. Lotteries are
sometimes held to decide admissions to some schools. Application deadlines are
important. Parents should check with the school district straight off to get
information. Or do search under the San Mateo-Foster City Elementary School
District.
The same
applies to the high school. The district offers choices among its schools.
At the
elementary schools, ask about the calendar. Some schools run on year-round
schedules.
Some
parents are trying to start a charter high school located in Foster City.
Zero
homicides between 1997 and 2005, one in 1996, one in 1995, zero in 1994. For
previous years, homicides numbered one, one, two, one, one, zero, zero. See Crime. www.mccormacks.com
Foster
City is situated about a dozen miles south of San Francisco International
Airport, the major employment center of San Mateo County. Many residents work
for the airlines, reports the chamber of commerce. For them, the commute is a
hop-and-a-skip up Highway 101.
Foster
City has a done a good job of attracting businesses (about 600), many of them
in bio-tech. It’s the headquarters city for Visa. About a dozen or so office complexes
have been built nearby at the intersection of Highways 101 and 92. Many local
jobs mean a short commute for Foster City residents.
For those
who head for San Francisco, 21 miles to the north, or to the Silicon Valley
cities to the south, the commute probably falls into the category of “not bad.”
Another freeway, Interstate 280, located about three miles east of Foster City,
also leads to San Francisco and Silicon Valley.
SamTrans
runs express buses to downtown San Francisco. Caltrain, which runs to Silicon
Valley and to San Francisco, can be picked up in nearby San Mateo.
For people
working in the East Bay, Foster City borders the Hayward-San Mateo Bridge
(Highway 92), which opened another span in 2003. This is speeding the commute
to and from the East Bay. www.mccormacks.com
In
appearance, Foster City is clean and well-maintained. New. Almost all the homes were built in
the last 40 years. Graffiti zero. Utility lines buried. Waterways and lagoons
add charm.
Many
cities and neighborhoods in San Mateo County were built before homeowner
associations became popular. Foster City is the biggest exception; many associations,
which explains in part why the city looks so neat. The associations (and the
city) enforce codes and take care of the common grounds, mini parks and members-only
rec centers or swimming pools. For buyers, covenants and restrictions and dues —
the standard procedures of homeowner associations.
Recreation
plentiful. About 20 parks scattered around city. Pooper-scooper laws. Large
library with children's room and computers. Nine-hole golf course with driving
range.
City rec
department runs sports and activities for toddlers, children and teens, and for
adults and the elderly. Usual kids sports: soccer, baseball, etc. Summer camps.
Other activities in adjoining cities. Summer swimming in lagoons. Boating, wind
surfing, Kite-boarding on the Bay. Plays and musicals at Hillbarn Theater.
Large Jewish community center.
Half-hour to ocean. On Fourth of July,
people take to boats to watch fireworks at Ryan Park. Park for dogs; allows
them to run off-leash. Supposedly, one of the best dog parks in Bay Area.
Synthetic turf. Rover won't track mud into the house. www.mccormacks.com
Big ticket
shopping in San Mateo, the neighboring city, at Hillsdale Mall (Macys,
Nordstrom, Sears, Mervyns, Barnes and Noble Books) or closer, the Bridge Pointe
Shopping Center (Target, Home Depot, Staples). Also in San Mateo, Trader Joe’s
and Whole Foods. In Foster City, supermarkets, variety of shops and
restaurants, and a Costco.
No more
than a reclaimed island 30 years ago, used for growing hay, Foster City owes
its existence to Jack Foster, a rags-to-riches orphan. He purchased the island,
devised an imaginative financing scheme, laid out the streets, brought in
seemingly endless loads of fill, built bridges, carved out lagoons, installed
sewers and utility lines, and constructed homes and apartments — just
your basic job of building a city from scratch. Foster City has 223 acres of
waterways, 13 miles of shoreline and 12 residential islands.
It is a
master-planned city, which may sound unexceptional but most Bay Area cities are
not “master planned.”
The
typical city started off with some zoning and a basic plan for the downtown,
which usually was oriented to the train station. As the population and the city
grew, streets and parks and schools were added, often haphazardly. When the
freeways came, stores moved to the access ramps, weakening but rarely killing
the downtowns and pulling traffic flows this way and that.
Children
of the late 20th century, master-planned communities are oriented toward the
freeway and are designed in grand scope. Before anything is built, the
arterials are laid out, the park and school sites identified, the neighborhood
shopping plazas spotted, the office and business zones delineated (near the
freeway). www.mccormacks.com
Foster
City has nine neighborhoods, each anchored by a park or parks. Many streets
have nautical names, some dashing and heroic — Corsair Lane and
Farragut Boulevard — some
not, as in Cod Street and Gull Boulevard. Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria Lanes are
located near one another. For those who take a pessimistic view of life ...
sorry no Titanic Street or Lusitania Boulevard.
The
result: well, it’s not San Francisco. It’s not a jumble of styles and custom
homes. It’s not eccentric. But to use a worn-out suburban word: it’s nice. And
it’s efficient. The hassles are fewer. The city has its beautification laws.
And the homeowner associations, many in number, have theirs.
For about
10 years, the Foster family or a developer ran the city as a company town but
it was only a matter of time before residents, generally professionals, decided
they wanted to do the governing. Foster City incorporated in 1971, and in 2006
celebrated its 35th year as a city.
Foster
City has some custom homes, built on the water. It also has many apartments.
The state in 2008 counted 12,477 residential units, of which 4,808 were single
detached homes, 2,464 single attached, 5,198 apartments or condos, 7 mobiles.
Planes
approaching San Francisco International glide down just east of Foster City,
over the Bay. Very little noise but check it out for yourself. Some residents
are concerned about noise from San Carlos Airport. www.mccormacks.com
Marina
Lagoon, which borders Foster City on the east, is outside city limits and open
to motorboats. Another place to check out noise.
Chamber of
commerce (650) 573-7600.
• In 2005,
city council passed ordinance that forbids newcomers from bringing in dogs
that have been labeled “dangerous.” Dangerous dogs already in the city may be
allowed to stay if muzzled. Check with city hall.
• On every
tenth or so light pole in Foster City sits a little cylindrical device —
wi-fi transmitters. Foster City offers free wi-fi.
• In 2007,
the city was debating what to do with 15 acres near the civic center —
one of the few large undeveloped parcels in town. Among proposals, a charter
high school, seniors housing and a movie theater.
• Geese.
Lovely to look at, hard to live with; poop all over the place. City contracts
with a husband and wife who have trained six border collies to harass (but not
attack) the geese and make them feel at home — elsewhere. www.mccormacks.com
• City
uses chemicals to kill weeds and algae in the lagoons but would like to find
something less toxic. It is experimenting with floating pumps, solar powered,
that keep the water circulating and the vegetation from forming. Downside: ugly
things, residents complain.
• San
Mateo woman, Cimeron Morrissey, hiking the Bay Trail through Foster City came
across feral kittens scampering through rocks. Over the next few months, she
did a count and came up 174 cats. Worried about the cats and more kittens, she
joined the Homeless Cat Network and contacted the Sequoia Audubon Society and
the Foster City government. The plan, which she and others put into action:
trap the cats, take them to two vets for free spaying and neutering, and turn
them loose on the trail. Says Morrissey, “Over time, the population will cease
to exist. It’s the right way to do it.”
• Foster
City has reached the stage where it is looking at some of its original
commercial development and saying, we can do better. Among plans: replace
office buildings with stores, offices, apartments, condos and live-work lofts.
•
Distracting — that’s what the local elementary schools labeled text
messaging and cell phones. So during school hours, no cell phones, Palm pilots,
beepers, pagers or similar devices. In an emergency, school office will contact
parents.
City web
site: www.fostercity.org
