Menlo Park

City, San Mateo County

© McCormack's Guides

 

Zip Codes: 94025, 94026, 94027, 94028

Palo Alto goes hand-in-glove with Stanford but if the university could be said to have a second city, it would be this town on its northern border. www.mccormacks.com

Menlo Park, population 31,490, provides housing for the Stanford community, draws businesses associated with the university and has benefited greatly from the wealth and ideas that the university has generated. Both cities share Sand Hill Road, the boulevard of venture capitalists.

Menlo Park also suffers some of the “town-gown” strains of university life. For years it fought Stanford over a development on Sand Hill Road — apartments, stores, road extension — that added traffic to some Menlo Park streets. Stanford won but Menlo Park muddles on in a pleasant way.

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This is the kind of town where people rally around the local bookstore, which was forced to close because of competition from the web and from Borders and Barnes and Noble. The store was reopened.

Menlo Park also saved one old movie house — the Guild — which favors artsy or foreign movies and the Rocky Horror Show, and it is trying to save another and convert it into a dance studio.

The city council vows to do its best to reduce global warming by, for example, encouraging solar and replacing the city’s vehicles with hybrid cars. Around town, you will notice middle-aged people peddling bikes with sturdy containers strapped to the rear, the better to carry the groceries. www.mccormacks.com

On the hard-reality side, the city is struggling to balance its books and bring in more businesses to boost tax revenues. When red ink flowed in 2006, the city leaders asked residents to approve a utility tax. They did, barely, and with a good deal of grumbling.

School scores are high, crime generally low, incomes substantial but Menlo Park doesn’t fit neatly into the description “upper-middle-class suburb.” East of Highway 101 it has a low-income neighborhood, called Belle Haven, that has inserted some diversity into Menlo Park life.

Median age of residents is 37. Under 18 years, 22 percent. Over 55 years, 24 percent. These numbers from the 2000 census suggest a mature town with not that many kids but school enrollments are rising.

School situation a little confusing but for most easy to sort out.

Three elementary districts, a high school district and several charter schools educate the town’s children:

Las Lomitas, one elementary school in Menlo Park, one middle school in Atherton. Scores in the high 90s, top three percent in the state. www.mccormacks.com

Menlo Park City Elementary, Two elementary schools in Atherton, one elementary and a middle school in Menlo Park. Scores in the 90s, mostly the high 90s.

Ravenswood Elementary, Ten schools, seven in East Palo Alto, three in Menlo Park — Belle Haven, Willow Oaks and Flood. The first two score about the 10^th percentile, Flood about the 50^th percentile. Included in the East Palo Alto schools is a charter school that scores in the 50^th to 80^th percentiles. Also in the picture, a private school that is so heavily subsidized that it might as well be public. Charter schools often have open enrollment. See East Palo Alto and Choosing a School.

Sequoia Union High School District, which includes five regular high schools. Of these, Menlo-Atherton and Woodside are the closest to Menlo Park. The first scores in the 80^th percentile, the second in the 70^th and 80^th. These schools attract students from diverse neighborhoods; scores across the spectrum. See Schools.

East Palo Alto High School, a (public) charter located in Menlo Park.

East Palo Alto and the Belle Haven neighborhood of Menlo Park have turned into sort of proving ground for Stanford University, Aspire schools and various tycoons including Bill Gates of Microsoft. They put up funds. www.mccormacks.com

Many people have lost confidence in public schools and are looking to private schools and charter schools (publicly funded) to do a better job of educating low-scoring, usually low-income kids. The East Palo Alto school district, situated within a few miles of Stanford, has just about been adopted by the university, to the occasional discomfort of the people who work in the public schools. For some general background, see Choosing a School and What Scores Mean.

Many parents in Menlo Park and Atherton send their kids to private schools. McCormack's Guides did a rough breakout of elementary attendance in the two towns and came up with half public, half private, give or take 5 percent. See Private Schools.

In 2001 and 2004, the Sequoia district passed bonds to renovate its schools.

Las Lomitas passed a $12 million bond to modernize its two schools and build a gym at La Entrada Middle School.

In 2006, the Menlo Park Elementary District passed a $91 million bond to replace portables and upgrade facilities. Voters also renewed a parcel tax to pay for smaller classes, for instruction in art, music and science, and for higher salaries. www.mccormacks.com

Ravenwood has also passed bonds and a parcel tax for programs.

Every year, the Menlo-Atherton Foundation donates about $1.5 million to local schools — lot of money.

Overall, good support for schools.

Zero homicides in 2005, three in 2004, zero from 2003 to 2000, one in 1999, zero in 1998 and one in 1997. Counts for the previous years are one, one, five, two, one, four, one, one, one, one. New police station in Belle Haven. Also community center and clinic. Swimming pool. School district and city have built a library at one of the schools. City, through redevelopment (a tax targeting plan), and other groups are laying in improvements to the neighborhood. See Crime.

From our recent drive of the Belle Haven neighborhood, all this shows. The sidewalks have been repaired, the streets are clean, many of the homes have been tidied up, some median strips have been planted. Lot of trees. A few new homes (with small porches, modern touch). Fewer security doors. If you are searching for homes that by today’s standards are reasonably priced, drive the shore neighborhood of Menlo Park. www.mccormacks.com

Named after the hometown of pioneering Irishmen, Menlo Park sprang to life in the 1860s when a railroad was run up the Peninsula, a station established in what is now the downtown, and large estates carved out of the countryside.

When Stanford University was built, some of the staff found homes in Menlo Park and in 1927 the village was incorporated as a legal city with a population of about 2,200. Over the next 10 or so years the number of residents increased by about 1,000 and then came the great postwar boom. By 1950 the population had jumped to 13,587 and by 1960 stood at 26,597.

Short of land, growth fizzled to almost nothing, then revived slightly.

Menlo Park has 12,790 residential units, of which 6,915 are single detached homes, 930 single attached, 4,940 apartments or condos and 5 mobile homes (2008 state figures). Between 2000 and 2007, the town city built about six units.

Although Menlo Park has its opulent homes, it is a city that was built mainly for blue collars and the middle class. Many two- and three-bedroom cottages and homes, especially northeast of El Camino Real, the main boulevard. Many of the homes have been remodeled. Tall trees envelop many streets and homes. Level of care high. In the fall, parts of Menlo Park could step straight out of a New England picture book. www.mccormacks.com

As you move toward the hills, the housing becomes more modern and expands to four-bedrooms. Some of the older streets lack curbs and sidewalks.

A few small homes have been torn down and replaced with bigger but not gigantic.

In the hills, Sharon Heights, probably the most expensive neighborhood. Shopping center and luxury apartments or condos at the entrance, along with a golf course and county club, then large single homes, many of them one-story ranchers, some two story. Homeowners association helps maintain common grounds. Very tidy neighborhood. Two parks, one with pond. Plenty of open space. Hills; many homes have views of Bay.

St. Patrick’s Seminary, just west of Highway 101, carved up 88 acres for 145 homes, new housing in an older neighborhood. Seminary remains.

Sunset Magazine is headquartered in Menlo Park, and from the town’s looks, the magazine has many avid local readers. Many homes have been imaginatively landscaped. www.mccormacks.com

Commute for many endurable. Interstate 280 borders the west side of the city, Highway 101 splits the city near the waterfront. Dumbarton Bridge feeds into Menlo Park, quick access to the East Bay. Caltrain up the Peninsula to San Francisco or down to Silicon Valley and San Jose. SamTrans buses. About 15-20 miles to three airports: San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland. Most of Menlo Park uses Highway 101. Sharon Heights is close to Interstate 280, the prettier freeway.

Many local jobs, at the university and at high-tech firms in or near Menlo Park.

The main drawback: internal traffic. El Camino Real, the main north-south boulevard, easily congests, which twangs the nerves. Several internal streets that were built for little traffic and now carry a lot; slow going. Many homes front directly on busy roads.

Movies, two city swimming pools, two gyms. About a dozen parks in or near the city. Soccer and gymnastics are among the most popular sports for kids. Many activities for kids and adults. Boys and girls club. Little theater. Dance academy. Many clubs. Annual soapbox derby. In 2001, voters approved a $38 million bond to renovate parks and recreational facilities.

Unlike many suburbs, Menlo Park has a historic center, near the train station and city hall. Restaurants, coffee shops and boutiques — an interesting mix. www.mccormacks.com

Trader Joe's in Menlo Park, Whole Foods in Palo Alto. Fish market. Menlo Park has a fair number of large businesses or institutions. Besides Sunset, they include the U.S. Geological Survey, a Veterans Hospital, the Stanford Research Institute, Raychem and Addison-Wesley (educational printers). In 1994, Sun Microsystems opened a giant research complex near the Bay. Business park also near the Bay.

Besides yielding tax revenue to fund amenities, these businesses enrich the town and its society because they bring in people with different ideas and viewpoints. Employees also patronize the local stores

Then there is Stanford and Palo Alto and all they offer: libraries, art shows, more movies, restaurants. The Stanford Mall, which sits on the Menlo Park border, sucks the tax dollars out of Menlo Park and other communities but it is a shopper’s delight: Nordstrom, Macys, Neiman-Marcus, Bloomindales, about other 140 stores and restaurants.

Chamber of commerce (650) 325-2818.

• Salt extractors have given up on the Bay and sold many of their lands to public agencies. Menlo Park is restoring a few hundred acres into a marsh that, all hope, will nourish the California Clapper Rail (bird) and the Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse, both endangered. There is concern, however, that the switch will make life difficult for the Western Snowy Plover, a bird that does well in salt flats. Maybe you can’t win them all.

• Train tracks through town. Check noise. www.mccormacks.com

City web site: www.menlopark.org