Milpitas, California
Encyclopedia
Milpitas is a city
in Santa Clara County, California
. It is a suburb of the major city of San Jose, California
. It is located with San Jose
to its south and Fremont
to its north, at the eastern end of State Route 237
and generally between Interstates 680
and 880 which run roughly north/south through the city. With Alameda County
bordering directly on the north, Milpitas sits in the extreme northeast section of the South Bay, bordering the East Bay
and Fremont
. Milpitas is also located within the Silicon Valley
. The corporate headquarters of Maxtor
, LSI Corporation
, Flextronics
, Adaptec
, Intersil
, Cisco Systems
, JDSU and SanDisk
sit within the industrial zones of Milpitas. The population was 66,790 at the 2010 census.
(also spelled Thomien, Tamien, Thamien, or Tamiayn), a linguistic subgroup of the Muwekma Ohlone
people who had resided in the San Francisco Bay Area
for thousands of years. The Ohlone Indians lived a traditional life based on everyday hunting
and gathering. Some of the Ohlone lived in various villages within what is now modern-day Milpitas, including sites underneath what are now the Calvary Assembly of God Church and Higuera Adobe Park.4 Archaeological evidence gathered from Ohlone graves at the Elmwood Correctional Facility in 1993 revealed a rich trade with other tribes from Sacramento to Monterey.
During the Spanish expeditions of the late 18th century, several missions were founded in the San Francisco Bay Area. During the mission period, Milpitas served as a crossroads between Mission San José de Guadalupe in modern-day Fremont
and Mission Santa Clara de Asis
, in present Santa Clara
. The land in modern-day Milpitas was divided between the 6353 acres (25.7 km²) Rancho Rincon de Los Esteros granted to Ygnacio Alviso; the 47738 acres (193.2 km²) Rancho Milpitas
(Spanish for "little corn fields") granted to José María Alviso
; and the 26581 acres (107.6 km²) Rancho Los Tularcitos
granted to José Higuera. Jose Maria Alviso was the son of Francisco Xavier Alviso and Maria Bojorquez, both of whom arrived in San Francisco as children with the de Anza Expedition. (A son of Ygnacio Alviso was also named Jose Maria Alviso, this has led to some confusion by researchers.) Due to Jose Maria Alviso's descendents' difficulty securing his claims to the Rancho Milpitas property, much of his land was either swindled from the Alviso family or had to be quickly sold to American settlers.
Both landowners had built prominent adobe
homes on their properties. Today, both adobes still exist and are the oldest structures in Milpitas. The seriously eroded walls of the Jose Higuera Adobe, now in Higuera Adobe Park, are encapsulated in a brick shell built c.1970 by Marian Weller, a descendant of pioneer Joseph Weller.
The Alviso Adobe
can be seen mostly in its original form with one kitchen addition made by the Cuciz family c.1920. Prior to the city acquiring the Alviso Adobe it was the oldest continuously occupied adobe house in California dating from the Mexican period and is gradually being restored and undergoing seismic upgrades by the City of Milpitas. Alviso Adobe History Park is to be opened, after the restoration is completed, as an educational museum with historic items, trees, buildings, and documents.
In the 1850s, large numbers of Americans of English
, German
, and Irish
descent arrived to farm the fertile lands of Milpitas. The Burnett, Rose, Dempsey, Jacklin, Trimble, Ayer, Parks, Wool, Weller, Minnis, and Evans are among the early settlers of Milpitas. 1 (Today many schools, streets, and parks have been named in honor of these families.) These early settlers farmed the land and set up many businesses on a section of what was then called Mission Road, which by the late 20th century became known as the "Midtown" district. Yet another influx of immigration came in the 1870s and 1880s as Portuguese sharecroppers from the Azores
came to farm the Milpitas hillsides. Many of the Azoreans had such locally well-known surnames like Coelho, Covo, Mattos, Nunes, Spangler, Serpa, and Silva.
There is a local legend that during the late 19th century, when the U.S. Postal Service wanted to locate a Post Office in the town, there was some support for naming the town Penitencia, after the small Roman Catholic confessional building that served local Indians and ranchers and that stood near Penitencia Creek which ran along the Mission Road. Prominent land owner and civic leader, Joseph Weller, felt the Spanish word Penitencia might be confused with the English word "penitentiary." Instead of choosing Penitencia, he suggested another popular name for the area, Milpitas, after the name of Alviso's property, Rancho Milpitas.
For over a century, Milpitas served as a popular rest stop for travelers on the old Oakland–San Jose Highway. At the intersection of that road with the Milpitas-Alviso Road, Smith's Corners, which still stands, was built in 1895 as a saloon that served beer and wine to thirsty travelers for a century before becoming a restaurant in 2001. Around this central core, grocery and dry goods stores, blacksmithys, service stations, and, in the 1920s, one of America's earliest "fast food" chain restaurants, "The Fat Boy", opened nearby. Another of Milpitas' most popular restaurants was the "Kozy Kitchen" established in 1940 by the Carlo family in the former "Central Market" building. Kozy Kitchen was demolished soon after Jimmy Carlo sold the restaurant in 1999. Even in the early 1950s, Milpitas served a farming community of 800 people who walked a mere one or two blocks to work.
On January 26, 1954, faced with getting swallowed up by a rapidly expanding San Jose, Milpitas residents incorporated as a city that included the recently built Ford Auto Assembly plant. When San Jose attempted to annex
Milpitas barely seven years later, the "Milpitas Minutemen" were quickly organized to oppose annexation and keep Milpitas independent. An overwhelming majority of Milpitas registered voters voted "No" to annexation in the 1961 election as a result of a vigorous anti-annexation campaign. Following the election, the anti-annexation committee, who had compared themselves to the Revolutionary War Minutemen who fought the British on Lexington Green - a role filled in this case by the neighboring city of San Jose - adopted the image of Daniel Chester French's Minuteman statue, that stands near the site of the Old North Bridge in Concord, MA, as part of the official city seal. In the 1960s, the city approved the construction of the Calaveras overpass. Formerly at a junction with the Union Pacific railroad, Calaveras Boulevard had a bridge passing over six sets of railroad tracks after the construction was completed. Though the result was that local residents could now drive over the train tracks without waiting for a slow freight to pass, it resulted in the loss of the historical residential area. Here houses owned by city leaders had to be purchased by the city at full market value and either moved or demolished. 2
Starting in 1955, with the construction of the Ford Motor Mustang/Mustang Shelby Assembly Plant, and accelerating in the 1960s and 1970s, extensive residential and retail development took place. Hayfields in Milpitas rapidly disappeared as industries and residential housing developments spread. Soon, the once rural town of Milpitas found itself a San Jose
suburb. In only 30 years, the population jumped from about 20,500 in 1970 to 62,698 in 2000. Slightly less than half (47.3%) of Milpitas' residents are foreign-born in contrast to a California state average of 26.2%. Much of its computer industries' increased labor demand was met by workers from China
, Taiwan
, Vietnam
, and the Philippines
. As a result, the percentage of Asian American
residents more than tripled from 12% of the population in 1980 to 37% in 1990 and 51% in 2000. The Ford Mustang/Mustang Shelby factory closed in 1984, being converted into a shopping mall, "The Great Mall of the Bay Area", which opened in 1994.
In the early 21st century, Milpitas light rail transit system
station was added, making it the northeasternmost light rail destination in the region. On January 26, 2004, the city celebrated its 50th anniversary of incorporation and issued the book Milpitas: Five Dynamic Decades to commemorate 50 years of Milpitas' history as a busy, exciting crossroads community.
diminutive
of milpa
, a Mexican Spanish
word for "garden where maize is grown." The word milpa is a word derived from Nahuatl
milli, meaning "agricultural field," and pan, meaning "on."
In a milpa, several crops are grown simultaneously in the same location. The combination of crops provides complete nutrition for humans, and the method of growing them preserves the soil's quality better than what generally results from industrial agriculture. So the name Milpitas as used by Jose Maria Alviso to name his land grant, Rancho Milpitas, thus most likely meant "little or precious garden where many crops can be grown," reflecting the rich alluvial soils of the area. As a 19th century California Spanish idiomatic expression, the reason Alviso used Milpitas to name his rancho, occupying more than 4000 acres (16.2 km²), is, for the present, lost to us. Given the extended meaning attached to milpa, however, the most reasonable modern American equivalent expression to Milpitas might be "backyard vegetable garden."
, which is south of San Francisco. http://www.topozone.com/ http://www.mapquest.com/. Milpitas is generally considered to be a San Jose
suburb in the South Bay, a term used to denote the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area
.
According to the United States Census Bureau
, the city has a total area of 13.6 square miles (35.3 km²). 13.6 square miles (35.2 km²) of it is land and 0.05 square miles (0.13 km²) of it (0.36%) is water.
The median elevation of Milpitas is 19 feet (6 m). At Piedmont Road, Evans Road, and North Park Victoria Avenue, the elevation is generally about 100 feet (30 m), while the western area is almost at sea level
. The highest point in Milpitas is a 1,289-foot (393 m) peak in the southeastern foothills.
To the east of Milpitas is a range of high foothills and Mountains, part of the Diablo Range which runs along the east side of San Francisco Bay. Monument Peak, the most prominent summit in the eastern Milpitas hills, is one of the oldest and most well-known symbols of Milpitas. It currently has a broadcasting antenna which provides several television channels to the San Francisco Bay Area
.
Although not within Milpitas' city limits, Monument Peak, Calaveras Reservoir
, Arroyo Hondo
, Laguna Valley, and the surrounding region are culturally and historically considered part of Milpitas. (Loomis, Patricia - Milpitas: A Century of Little Cornfields) Many Portuguese farmers from the Azores
have settled there, including the Coelho, Covo, Mattos, Serpa, and Silva families. They are often nicknamed by longtime Milpitans as the "hill people." These Azorean families still own the undeveloped lands in the Milpitas foothills, such as the Silvas living on Old Calaveras Road. 4 The southeasternmost hills belong to the City of Milpitas, which then leases the lands to cattle
livestock companies.
There are also many creeks in Milpitas, most of which are part of the Berryessa Creek
watershed
. Calera Creek
, Arroyo de los Coches, Penitencia Creek
and Piedmont Creek are some of the creeks that flow from the Milpitas hills and empty into the San Francisco Bay
. (See Berryessa Creek
)
and 880. To the west of I-880 is a largely industrial and commercial area. Between I-880 and its eastern counterpart freeway, I-680, is an industrial zone in the south and residential neighborhoods in the north. Other residential neighborhoods and undeveloped mountains lie east of I-680.
In reality, Milpitas has no concentrated downtown "center," but instead has several small retail centers generally located near residential developments and anchored by a supermarket. The so-called "Midtown" area, the oldest part of Milpitas, has few remaining historic residences and was the only commercial district that existed before 1945. Midtown is situated in the region where Main and Abel Streets run parallel to each other bordered by Montague Expressway in the south and Weller Street at the north end. A USPS
post office, Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church, Elementary & Junior High Catholic School, the Milpitas Public Library
(which incorporates the old Milpitas Grammar School building), the Smith/DeVries mansion, the Senior Center, and Elmwood Correctional Facility are all in the Midtown section of Milpitas. The Milpitas Civic Center, which includes City Hall, is not located in Midtown, but stands at the intersection of Milpitas and Calaveras Boulevards. The Civic Center is separated from Midtown by the Calaveras overpass. The boundaries that divide major Milpitas neighborhoods and districts include Calaveras Boulevard running from east to west and the Union Pacific railroad, which runs from north to south. The newest retail centers are west of Interstate 880. There are several predominantly Asian retail centers with store signs written in Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean.
Set within a warm Mediterranean climate
zone in Santa Clara County, Milpitas enjoys warm, sunny weather with only some extreme temperatures and very little snow fall. Having one of the mildest climates in the United States
, the city's temperature seldom drops below 35 °F
(2 °C) and very rarely experiences snow. The ice storms, or blizzard
s found in the eastern US are unknown in Milpitas. During the winter, temperatures are relatively warm at an average of 40 °F (4.4 °C) to 58 °F (4 °C to 14 °C). Showers and cloudy days are frequent during this season dropping most of the city's annual 18 inches (457.2 mm) of precipitation, and as spring approaches, the gentle rains gradually dwindle. In summer, the grasslands on the hillsides dehydrate rapidly and form bright, golden sheets on the mountains set off by stands of oak. As opposed to Milpitas' rainy, cool winters, the summer is dry and warm but not hot like in other parts the Bay Area. Temperatures infrequently reach over 100 °F (38 °C) with most days in the mid 70s to the high 70's. From June to September, Milpitas experiences little rain, and as autumn approaches, the weather gradually cools down. Many temperate-climate trees drop their leaves during fall in the South Bay but the winter temperature is warm enough for evergreens like date palms to thrive.
was 4,896.5 people per square mile (1,890.6/km²). The racial makeup of Milpitas was 13,725 (20.5%) White, 1,969 (2.9%) African American, 309 (0.5%) Native American, 41,536 (62.2%) Asian, 346 (0.5%) Pacific Islander, 5,811 (8.7%) from other races
, and 3,094 (4.6%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 11,240 persons (16.8%).
The Census reported that 64,092 people (96.0% of the population) lived in households, 104 (0.2%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 2,594 (3.9%) were institutionalized.
There were 19,184 households, out of which 8,616 (44.9%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 12,231 (63.8%) were opposite-sex married couples
living together, 2,279 (11.9%) had a female householder with no husband present, 1,105 (5.8%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 760 (4.0%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships
, and 100 (0.5%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 2,470 households (12.9%) were made up of individuals and 742 (3.9%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.34. There were 15,615 families
(81.4% of all households); the average family size was 3.61.
The population was spread out with 15,303 people (22.9%) under the age of 18, 5,887 people (8.8%) aged 18 to 24, 21,827 people (32.7%) aged 25 to 44, 17,434 people (26.1%) aged 45 to 64, and 6,339 people (9.5%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36.1 years. For every 100 females there were 104.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 104.6 males.
There were 19,806 housing units at an average density of 1,452.0 per square mile (560.6/km²), of which 12,825 (66.9%) were owner-occupied, and 6,359 (33.1%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.2%; the rental vacancy rate was 3.1%. 42,501 people (63.6% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 21,591 people (32.3%) lived in rental housing units.
of 2000, there were 62,698 people, 17,132 households, and 13,996 families residing in the city. The population density
was 1,785.2/km² (4,622.9/mi²). There were 17,364 housing units at an average density of 494.4/km² (1,280.3/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 51.81% Asian, 30.87% White, 3.66% African American, 0.62% Native American, 0.63% Pacific Islander, 7.48% from other races
, and 4.94% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 16.61% of the population.
There were 17,132 households out of which 43.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 65.1% were married couples
living together, 10.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 18.3% are nonfamilies. 11.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 2.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.47, and the average family size was 3.72.
In the city, the population was spread out with 24.6% under the age of 18, 9.5% from 18 to 24, 38.0% from 25 to 44, 20.9% from 45 to 64, and 7.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females, there are 110.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 111.4 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $84,429, and the median income for a family was $84,827 (these figures had risen to $85,186 and $91,232 respectively as of a 2007 estimate). Males had a median income of $51,316 versus $36,681 for females. The per capita income
for the city was $27,823. About 3.3% of families and 5.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5.5% of those under age 18 and 6.4% of those age 65 or over. http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DatasetMainPageServlet?_program=DEC&_lang=en
Compared to rural parts of California, living in Milpitas is more expensive, as it is throughout Silicon Valley. Compared to other South Bay bedroom communities Milpitas is considered affordable. For example, a regular one-story, detached single-family home with a 1,300-square-foot (140 m²) size sells for between $600,000 to $700,000 in the city. These prices are slightly more affordable than the rest of the San Francisco Bay Area
, as a similar sized house may cost well over a million dollars in more affluent cities such as Palo Alto
, Cupertino
or Saratoga
. Reasons for the expensive housing in the South Bay Area include the regional high tech industries, mild climate, strong foreign investment in the West Coast
's housing, and a huge demand for limited homes. With the decline in the housing market , however, median sales prices in Milpitas have declined from nearly $700,000 to less than $500,000, and single-family new house construction building permits have plummeted from a 2004 average price of $949,900 to $269,400 in 2007.
, one vice mayor, and three council members. Currently, Milpitas is served by mayor
Jose "Joe" Esteves, vice mayor Pete McHugh, and council members Armando Gomez, Jr., Althea Polanski, and Debbie Giordano. The city manager
is Thomas C. Williams; the police chief is Dennis Graham; the Fire Chief is Brian Sturdivant; the Finance Director is Emma Karlen; and the city clerk is Mary Lavelle. The city's seal shows Daniel Chester French's Minuteman statue, musket in hand, standing in the Santa Clara Valley
, with the golden hills of Milpitas rising to the east. He faces defiantly south toward San Jose because early residents of Milpitas considered themselves like minutemen when they defeated efforts by San Jose to annex newly incorporated Milpitas.
The Milpitas Police Department has a long tradition of reaching out to the community and its citizens. Most recently, in the Spring of 2007, the police department conducted a youth academy, in which teenagers were able to experience various aspects of policing, including the K-9 program, use of force issues and Internet safety.
Milpitas is located in the 10th Senate
District, represented by Democrat
Ellen Corbett
, and in the 20th Assembly
District, represented by Democrat Bob Wieckowski
. Federally, Milpitas is located in California's 15th congressional district
, which has a Cook PVI
of D +14 and is represented by Democrat Mike Honda
.
Most people who live in Milpitas work out of the city, while most of the workers employed in Milpitas come from other cities. This results in heavy traffic commutes along key arterial roads twice each day.
The computer
industry, which includes computer equipment manufacturing and software programming, is the largest source of employment in Milpitas.
Milpitas is home to the headquarters of Adaptec
, Intersil
, JDSU, KLA-Tencor, Linear Technology
, LSI Logic, LTX-Credence, Sandisk
, Sigma Designs
, and Solectron
. Many other companies have offices in Milpitas including Quantum, Maxtor
, Cisco Systems
, Avaya
, Seagate Technology
, LifeScan
, Phoenix Technologies
and International Microsystems Inc. Creative Technology
's well-known U.S. subsidiary, Creative Labs, is based in Milpitas.
Milpitas is also home to one of Santa Clara County's
two correctional facilities, the Elmwood Correctional Facility, which houses 3,035 inmates.
(MUSD). The school district was originally Milpitas Elementary S.D. when it was started as a separate district in the 1950s. Formerly, James Lick High School
in Alum Rock
was the closest high school to Milpitas. Samuel Ayer High School (now the Milpitas Sports Center, Teen Center, Calaveras Hills HS., and Adult Education Center) on Calaveras Road was built as the only high school located in the city. In the late 1960s MUSD was formed and included Ayer High which had previously been part of East Side Union High School District. In 1970s, Milpitas High School
was built on Escuela Parkway and, due to declining enrollment, Samuel Ayer High School closed. Currently Milpitas High is one of the biggest high schools in the county, with approximately 3000 students. The continuation school, Calaveras Hills High School is one of the best schools for "at risk" students in the state. CHHS was designated a California Model Continuation High School.
Milpitas unified API score for 2011 is 849, higher than the county average of 827. From 2003 to 2011, the district API has risen by 87 points. Additionally, Milpitas schools have consistently attained API growth year over year. In 2011, two Milpitas Elementary schools, Sinnot and Curtner achieved scores of 900 and 913 respectively.
, and like all cities it has a few areas of concern to its citizens. Dominant among these are overcrowded schools, lack of adequate open parkland, traffic congestion, and air quality. Seekers of public offices typically face stiff competition at election time.
es from the Newby Island landfill
and from the San Jose
sewage treatment
plant's percolation ponds. Most malodorous during the autumn, it is especially pungent west of Interstate 880 because of its close location to the San Francisco Bay
and the direction of the prevailing winds out of the north-northwest. The City of Milpitas would like to remedy this air quality problem to the extent it can and encourages its residents to file odor complaints.
Local creeks and the nearby San Francisco Bay suffer somewhat from water pollution originating from street water runoff
and industrial wastes. The creeks in Milpitas, especially Calera
, Scott, and Berryessa Creek
s, used to be prime fishing spots for native steelhead until pollutants from urban development and industry killed the fish starting in the 1950s. While small populations of steelhead and even salmon still may be seen in area streams these cannot legally be fished and consumption of legal catches is limited by mercury contamination.
The I880 corridor has experienced relatively elevated levels of air pollution from freeway traffic. For example eight hour standards for carbon monoxide
have been near to maximum levels for the last two decades.
s, plays
, sculpture
s, and many other forms of art. The "Art in Your Park" project has put many sculptures in local Milpitas parks, including a ceramic tower in Hillcrest Park, a sundial in Augustine Park, and a historical memorial in Murphy Park. The Celebrate Milpitas Festival is held annually every August, featuring vendors of crafts-type merchandise and providing local talent with a performance venue while selling visitors samplings of exotics like garlic fries or lumpia and even offerings from one or two Californian wineries. The suburb offers a rich variety of food options, including sit-down restaurants and fast food.
The city has many athletic and educational recreational programs which are located in several city buildings, including the city's sports center, teen center, library, community center, and senior center.
. The Great Mall is a part of the Simon mall branch and is the biggest mall/outlet shopping center in northern California. There are approximately 200 stores within the mall, with a total of 1357000 square feet (126,069.4 m²) of retail area.
A large outdoor shopping center called Milpitas Square
is anchored by the 99 Ranch Market
west of Interstate 880.
Other Milpitas shopping centers and plaza
s include Ulferts Center, Milpitas Town Center, Jacklin Square, McCarthy Ranch, Parktown Plaza, Beresford Square, and the City Square.
There are two car dealerships in Milpitas that are located on the east side of Interstate 880, near Great Mall Parkway.
In the past, Milpitas had a very different culture from that of its modern suburban state. As late as the 1950s, Milpitas was an unincorporated rural town with the Midtown district on Main Street as its main center of business and social activities. Many old businesses include Main Street Gas (operated by the Azorean
Spangler brothers), Smith's Corner Saloon, and Kozy Kitchen. The Cracolice Building was one of the oldest commercial buildings in Milpitas and was the site of many political conventions and meetings. "As Milpitas Goes, So Goes the State" used to be a popular slogan around the town. Most of the land now within modern-day Milpitas' boundaries was used for strawberry
, asparagus
, apricot
, and potato
cultivation until the postwar boom during the 1950s and 1960s.
is the largest county regional park near Milpitas. The County of Santa Clara Parks and Recreation Department runs the park. Monument Peak can be accessed through trails that lead north through the county park. The park also provides facilities for hang gliding
and paragliding
and includes a newly built dog park
that was a joint effort by the county and the city of Milpitas. Two golf courses, Spring Valley Golf Course and Summitpointe Golf Course, are located in the Milpitas foothills. Both have expensive gated residential developments located adjacent to them.
Milpitas itself has 17 traditional neighborhood parks which are generally 3 to 10 acre
s (12,000 to 40,000 m²). There also is a sports complex and sports parks with baseball and tennis play areas fenced off. There are also smaller parks of less than 3 acres (12,140.6 m²) scattered in newer developments. Milpitas has begun to develop the San Francisco Water District's Hetch Hetchy right-of-way as park land in lieu of using land from new high density residential developments adjacent to it. Together, these parks total 166 acres (671,778.8 m²) of land area or less than 2% of the city's acreage.
Country:
News/Talk:
Christian Rock:
Sports:
Light rock/Adult alternative:
Modern Rock:
Hip-hop/R&B:
Pop:
Urban AC/R&B:
Rock/Classic rock:
Children's:
Hot Adult Contemporary
Classical:
Variety/Public:
Jazz:
Spanish:
Religious:
Asian:
College/School:
service available to Milpitas includes:
, UPS
, FedEx, and DHL
are readily available to Milpitas. The USPS post office on Abel Street is Milpitas' main office for postal mail and is the only USPS post office in the city. ZIP code
95035 is exclusively for Milpitas and is the only standard ZIP code for the city. 95036 is a new ZIP that is used sometimes for post office box
es in Milpitas. Until the merge with SBC, Milpitas had relied on Pacific Bell
for its telecommunications services. American Telegraph and Telephone (AT&T) acquired Southern Bell (SBC) in 2006 and became the land-line telephone provider in the city. As part of the agreement for the merger of AT&T with SBC, Milpitas residents were offered high speed DSL internet access with AT&T for only $10 per month until December, 2009, although few residents are aware of the offer.
On Earth Day
, April 22, 2009, the public-private partnership Silicon Valley Unwired announced the implementation of a free municipal WiFi
wireless network for the entire City. It joins the Google WiFi
network in Mountain View as the second fully operational municipal wireless network, providing free Internet access to all citizens.
As with many other Californian suburbs, Milpitas has divided roads that are maintained well by the local city government. Street signs are in green, as opposed to San Jose's blue ones. Like the San Jose public works system, all pedestrians must manually press a button in order to turn the pedestrian signal lights on (unlike the South Bay cities, San Francisco
has automatic pedestrian lights at intersections and does not have "press to cross" buttons for pedestrians).
Not all streets in Milpitas have bicycle lanes or sidewalks. Piedmont Road, Evans Road, and Jacklin Road have excellent bike lanes and sidewalks with ample spacing, but Montague Expressway and South Milpitas Boulevard have limited sidewalks and narrow bike lanes, which causes some problems for workers commuting by bike or on foot. The roads most favorable for recreational jogging and biking are Evans and Piedmont Roads.
State Route 237
, Interstate 680
, and Interstate 880 link Milpitas to the rest of the Bay Area. Interstates 680 and 880 lead north to Fremont and south to downtown San Jose. On the other hand, Highway 237 begins at Milpitas and goes west to Sunnyvale
and Mountain View
.
The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority
(VTA) runs light rail
(high-speed transit) and local buses for public transportation. VTA bus routes in Milpitas are 46, 47, 66, 70, 71, 77. http://www.vta.org/
The Altamont Commuter Express provides 3 morning express train service towards Milpitas from neighboring cities in San Joaquin and Alameda County, and 3 returning evening trips. Although the nearest stop is located near Great America Park, in San Jose, shuttle busses are provided with stops in Milpitas.
The nearest airports to the city are the Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport
(SJC) and Reid-Hillview Airport in East San Jose
, the latter which is for small private airplanes. Although Milpitas is bordered by the San Francisco Bay
in the extreme northwest, that area is not accessible to ships and boats. Being landlocked, the city depends on the Port of Oakland
for oceangoing freight and on the Union Pacific Railroad
for cargo transport.
An extension of Bay Area Rapid Transit
from Fremont
to San Jose
is being constructed, and will include a major multi-modal station in Milpitas
that will begin being built in Summer 2012 and open in 2018.
In addition, China Airlines
operates bus services to San Francisco International Airport
from Lion Food Center at 1838 North Milpitas Boulevard to feed its flight to Taipei
, Taiwan
.
, overflowing waste disposal
site. The townspeople rally to destroy the creature, which has an uncontrollable desire to consume large quantities of garbage cans.
The movie River's Edge
was inspired by the true story of a murder that happened in Milpitas in 1981. It is a story about a teenage boy that murders a classmate and shows off the body to his friends. The names and races of the individuals involved were changed. The story was "Hollywood-ized" for dramatic purposes. The filmmakers added stories that did not occur and characters that did not exist. It starred some relatively unknown actors at the time, including Keanu Reeves
, Crispin Glover
and Ione Skye
, as well as veteran actor Dennis Hopper
. The movie was inspired by the murder of Marcy Renee Conrad
who was killed by a fellow teen named Anthony Broussard. He later dumped her body in a ditch in the East foothills of Milpitas.
Similar name:
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A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
in Santa Clara County, California
Santa Clara County, California
Santa Clara County is a county located at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. As of 2010 it had a population of 1,781,642. The county seat is San Jose. The highly urbanized Santa Clara Valley within Santa Clara County is also known as Silicon Valley...
. It is a suburb of the major city of San Jose, California
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
. It is located with San Jose
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
to its south and Fremont
Fremont, California
Fremont is a city in Alameda County, California. It was incorporated on January 23, 1956, from the merger of five smaller communities: Centerville, Niles, Irvington, Mission San Jose, and Warm Springs...
to its north, at the eastern end of State Route 237
California State Route 237
State Route 237 runs from El Camino Real in Mountain View to Interstate 680 in Milpitas. It runs south of the San Francisco Bay, connecting the East Bay to the Peninsula.This route is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System....
and generally between Interstates 680
Interstate 680 (California)
Interstate 680 is a north–south Interstate Highway in Northern California. It curves around the eastern cities of the San Francisco Bay Area from San Jose to Interstate 80 at Cordelia, bypassing cities along the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay such as Oakland and Richmond while serving...
and 880 which run roughly north/south through the city. With Alameda County
Alameda County, California
Alameda County is a county in the U.S. state of California. It occupies most of the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 1,510,271, making it the 7th most populous county in the state...
bordering directly on the north, Milpitas sits in the extreme northeast section of the South Bay, bordering the East Bay
East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area)
The East Bay is a commonly used, informal term for the lands on the eastern side of the San Francisco Bay, in the San Francisco Bay Area, in California, United States...
and Fremont
Fremont, California
Fremont is a city in Alameda County, California. It was incorporated on January 23, 1956, from the merger of five smaller communities: Centerville, Niles, Irvington, Mission San Jose, and Warm Springs...
. Milpitas is also located within the Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a term which refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The region is home to many of the world's largest technology corporations...
. The corporate headquarters of Maxtor
Maxtor
Maxtor Corporation, founded in 1982 and acquired by Seagate Technology in 2006, was an American manufacturer of computer hard disk drives, the third largest in the world immediately prior to acquisition...
, LSI Corporation
LSI Corporation
LSI Corporation is an electronics company based in Milpitas, California that designs semiconductors and software that accelerate storage and networking in datacenters and mobile networks.-History:...
, Flextronics
Flextronics
Flextronics International Ltd. is an electronics manufacturing services provider that offers services to original equipment manufacturers . It also provides supporting supply chain services, including packaging and transportation throughout the world, as well as design and after-sales...
, Adaptec
Adaptec
Adaptec is a computer hardware brand owned by PMC-Sierra that is used on some of its host adapters for connecting storage devices to computers. The production line of Adaptec is in Indonesia. Products are made to interface with SCSI, Serial ATA, and Serial attached SCSI. Some of its host adapters...
, Intersil
Intersil
Intersil Corporation is an American company that specializes in the design, development and manufacturing of high-performance analog semiconductors for four high-growth markets — Communications, Computing, High End Consumer and Industrial.-Company history:...
, Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services. Cisco has more than 70,000 employees and annual revenue of US$...
, JDSU and SanDisk
SanDisk
SanDisk Corporation is an American multinational corporation that designs, develops and manufactures data storage solutions in a range of form factors using the flash memory, controller and firmware technologies. It was founded in 1988 by Dr. Eli Harari and Sanjay Mehrotra, non-volatile memory...
sit within the industrial zones of Milpitas. The population was 66,790 at the 2010 census.
History
Milpitas was first inhabited by the TamyenTamyen
The Tamyen are one of eight linguistic divisions of the Ohlone people groups of Native Americans who lived in Northern California. The Tamyen lived throughout the Santa Clara Valley...
(also spelled Thomien, Tamien, Thamien, or Tamiayn), a linguistic subgroup of the Muwekma Ohlone
Ohlone
The Ohlone people, also known as the Costanoan, are a Native American people of the central California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the late 18th century, the Ohlone inhabited the area along the coast from San Francisco Bay through Monterey Bay to the lower Salinas Valley...
people who had resided in the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
for thousands of years. The Ohlone Indians lived a traditional life based on everyday hunting
Hunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
and gathering. Some of the Ohlone lived in various villages within what is now modern-day Milpitas, including sites underneath what are now the Calvary Assembly of God Church and Higuera Adobe Park.4 Archaeological evidence gathered from Ohlone graves at the Elmwood Correctional Facility in 1993 revealed a rich trade with other tribes from Sacramento to Monterey.
During the Spanish expeditions of the late 18th century, several missions were founded in the San Francisco Bay Area. During the mission period, Milpitas served as a crossroads between Mission San José de Guadalupe in modern-day Fremont
Fremont, California
Fremont is a city in Alameda County, California. It was incorporated on January 23, 1956, from the merger of five smaller communities: Centerville, Niles, Irvington, Mission San Jose, and Warm Springs...
and Mission Santa Clara de Asis
Mission Santa Clara de Asís
Mission Santa Clara de Asís was founded on January 12, 1777 and named for Santa Clara de Asis , the foundress of the order of the Poor Clares. Although ruined and rebuilt six times, the settlement was never abandoned.-History:...
, in present Santa Clara
Santa Clara, California
Santa Clara , founded in 1777 and incorporated in 1852, is a city in Santa Clara County, in the U.S. state of California. The city is the site of the eighth of 21 California missions, Mission Santa Clara de Asís, and was named after the mission. The Mission and Mission Gardens are located on the...
. The land in modern-day Milpitas was divided between the 6353 acres (25.7 km²) Rancho Rincon de Los Esteros granted to Ygnacio Alviso; the 47738 acres (193.2 km²) Rancho Milpitas
Rancho Milpitas
Rancho Milpitas was a Mexican land grant in Santa Clara County, California. The name comes from the Nahuatl word for maize and could be translated "little cornfields". The grant included what is now the city of Milpitas.-History:...
(Spanish for "little corn fields") granted to José María Alviso
José María Alviso
José María de Jesus Alviso was an early settler of the Silicon Valley in California, alcalde of San José, and grantee of Rancho Milpitas. Alviso's house, the Jose Maria Alviso Adobe, is listed on National Register of Historic Places.-Biography:Alviso was born in 1798 and baptized at Mission Santa...
; and the 26581 acres (107.6 km²) Rancho Los Tularcitos
Rancho Los Tularcitos
Rancho Los Tularcitos was a Spanish land concession in present day Santa Clara County, California given in 1821 to José Loreto Higuera by the last Spanish governor of Alta California, Pablo Vicente de Solá. The land grant was confirmed by Mexican Governor Juan Alvarado in 1839. The name means...
granted to José Higuera. Jose Maria Alviso was the son of Francisco Xavier Alviso and Maria Bojorquez, both of whom arrived in San Francisco as children with the de Anza Expedition. (A son of Ygnacio Alviso was also named Jose Maria Alviso, this has led to some confusion by researchers.) Due to Jose Maria Alviso's descendents' difficulty securing his claims to the Rancho Milpitas property, much of his land was either swindled from the Alviso family or had to be quickly sold to American settlers.
Adobe
Adobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material , which the builders shape into bricks using frames and dry in the sun. Adobe buildings are similar to cob and mudbrick buildings. Adobe structures are extremely durable, and account for...
homes on their properties. Today, both adobes still exist and are the oldest structures in Milpitas. The seriously eroded walls of the Jose Higuera Adobe, now in Higuera Adobe Park, are encapsulated in a brick shell built c.1970 by Marian Weller, a descendant of pioneer Joseph Weller.
The Alviso Adobe
Jose Maria Alviso Adobe
The Jose Maria Alviso Adobe, located in Milpitas, California, United States, was the home of José María Alviso, an early alcalde of neighboring Pueblo de San Jose. It was built in 1837 and enlarged in the early 1850s, and stands as an excellent example of the Monterey Colonial style of...
can be seen mostly in its original form with one kitchen addition made by the Cuciz family c.1920. Prior to the city acquiring the Alviso Adobe it was the oldest continuously occupied adobe house in California dating from the Mexican period and is gradually being restored and undergoing seismic upgrades by the City of Milpitas. Alviso Adobe History Park is to be opened, after the restoration is completed, as an educational museum with historic items, trees, buildings, and documents.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, and Irish
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
descent arrived to farm the fertile lands of Milpitas. The Burnett, Rose, Dempsey, Jacklin, Trimble, Ayer, Parks, Wool, Weller, Minnis, and Evans are among the early settlers of Milpitas. 1 (Today many schools, streets, and parks have been named in honor of these families.) These early settlers farmed the land and set up many businesses on a section of what was then called Mission Road, which by the late 20th century became known as the "Midtown" district. Yet another influx of immigration came in the 1870s and 1880s as Portuguese sharecroppers from the Azores
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
came to farm the Milpitas hillsides. Many of the Azoreans had such locally well-known surnames like Coelho, Covo, Mattos, Nunes, Spangler, Serpa, and Silva.
There is a local legend that during the late 19th century, when the U.S. Postal Service wanted to locate a Post Office in the town, there was some support for naming the town Penitencia, after the small Roman Catholic confessional building that served local Indians and ranchers and that stood near Penitencia Creek which ran along the Mission Road. Prominent land owner and civic leader, Joseph Weller, felt the Spanish word Penitencia might be confused with the English word "penitentiary." Instead of choosing Penitencia, he suggested another popular name for the area, Milpitas, after the name of Alviso's property, Rancho Milpitas.
For over a century, Milpitas served as a popular rest stop for travelers on the old Oakland–San Jose Highway. At the intersection of that road with the Milpitas-Alviso Road, Smith's Corners, which still stands, was built in 1895 as a saloon that served beer and wine to thirsty travelers for a century before becoming a restaurant in 2001. Around this central core, grocery and dry goods stores, blacksmithys, service stations, and, in the 1920s, one of America's earliest "fast food" chain restaurants, "The Fat Boy", opened nearby. Another of Milpitas' most popular restaurants was the "Kozy Kitchen" established in 1940 by the Carlo family in the former "Central Market" building. Kozy Kitchen was demolished soon after Jimmy Carlo sold the restaurant in 1999. Even in the early 1950s, Milpitas served a farming community of 800 people who walked a mere one or two blocks to work.
On January 26, 1954, faced with getting swallowed up by a rapidly expanding San Jose, Milpitas residents incorporated as a city that included the recently built Ford Auto Assembly plant. When San Jose attempted to annex
Annexation
Annexation is the de jure incorporation of some territory into another geo-political entity . Usually, it is implied that the territory and population being annexed is the smaller, more peripheral, and weaker of the two merging entities, barring physical size...
Milpitas barely seven years later, the "Milpitas Minutemen" were quickly organized to oppose annexation and keep Milpitas independent. An overwhelming majority of Milpitas registered voters voted "No" to annexation in the 1961 election as a result of a vigorous anti-annexation campaign. Following the election, the anti-annexation committee, who had compared themselves to the Revolutionary War Minutemen who fought the British on Lexington Green - a role filled in this case by the neighboring city of San Jose - adopted the image of Daniel Chester French's Minuteman statue, that stands near the site of the Old North Bridge in Concord, MA, as part of the official city seal. In the 1960s, the city approved the construction of the Calaveras overpass. Formerly at a junction with the Union Pacific railroad, Calaveras Boulevard had a bridge passing over six sets of railroad tracks after the construction was completed. Though the result was that local residents could now drive over the train tracks without waiting for a slow freight to pass, it resulted in the loss of the historical residential area. Here houses owned by city leaders had to be purchased by the city at full market value and either moved or demolished. 2
Starting in 1955, with the construction of the Ford Motor Mustang/Mustang Shelby Assembly Plant, and accelerating in the 1960s and 1970s, extensive residential and retail development took place. Hayfields in Milpitas rapidly disappeared as industries and residential housing developments spread. Soon, the once rural town of Milpitas found itself a San Jose
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
suburb. In only 30 years, the population jumped from about 20,500 in 1970 to 62,698 in 2000. Slightly less than half (47.3%) of Milpitas' residents are foreign-born in contrast to a California state average of 26.2%. Much of its computer industries' increased labor demand was met by workers from China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, and the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. As a result, the percentage of Asian American
Asian American
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...
residents more than tripled from 12% of the population in 1980 to 37% in 1990 and 51% in 2000. The Ford Mustang/Mustang Shelby factory closed in 1984, being converted into a shopping mall, "The Great Mall of the Bay Area", which opened in 1994.
In the early 21st century, Milpitas light rail transit system
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority
The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority is a special-purpose district responsible for public transit services, congestion management, specific highway improvement projects, and countywide transportation planning for Santa Clara County, California, United States...
station was added, making it the northeasternmost light rail destination in the region. On January 26, 2004, the city celebrated its 50th anniversary of incorporation and issued the book Milpitas: Five Dynamic Decades to commemorate 50 years of Milpitas' history as a busy, exciting crossroads community.
Etymology of the name Milpitas
The name Milpitas is a variation of the pluralPlural
In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
diminutive
Diminutive
In language structure, a diminutive, or diminutive form , is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object or quality named, encapsulation, intimacy, or endearment...
of milpa
Milpa
right|thumb|A typical modern Central American Milpa. The corn stalks have been bent and left to dry with cobs still on, for other crops, such as beans, to be planted. Milpa is a crop-growing system used throughout Mesoamerica...
, a Mexican Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
word for "garden where maize is grown." The word milpa is a word derived from Nahuatl
Nahuatl
Nahuatl is thought to mean "a good, clear sound" This language name has several spellings, among them náhuatl , Naoatl, Nauatl, Nahuatl, Nawatl. In a back formation from the name of the language, the ethnic group of Nahuatl speakers are called Nahua...
milli, meaning "agricultural field," and pan, meaning "on."
In a milpa, several crops are grown simultaneously in the same location. The combination of crops provides complete nutrition for humans, and the method of growing them preserves the soil's quality better than what generally results from industrial agriculture. So the name Milpitas as used by Jose Maria Alviso to name his land grant, Rancho Milpitas, thus most likely meant "little or precious garden where many crops can be grown," reflecting the rich alluvial soils of the area. As a 19th century California Spanish idiomatic expression, the reason Alviso used Milpitas to name his rancho, occupying more than 4000 acres (16.2 km²), is, for the present, lost to us. Given the extended meaning attached to milpa, however, the most reasonable modern American equivalent expression to Milpitas might be "backyard vegetable garden."
Geography
Milpitas is located at 37°26′5"N 121°53′42"W (37.434586, -121.895059). Milpitas lies in the northeastern corner of the Santa Clara ValleySanta Clara Valley
The Santa Clara Valley is a valley just south of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California in the United States. Much of Santa Clara County and its county seat, San José, are in the Santa Clara Valley. The valley was originally known as the Valley of Heart’s Delight for its high concentration...
, which is south of San Francisco. http://www.topozone.com/ http://www.mapquest.com/. Milpitas is generally considered to be a San Jose
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
suburb in the South Bay, a term used to denote the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
.
According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the city has a total area of 13.6 square miles (35.3 km²). 13.6 square miles (35.2 km²) of it is land and 0.05 square miles (0.13 km²) of it (0.36%) is water.
The median elevation of Milpitas is 19 feet (6 m). At Piedmont Road, Evans Road, and North Park Victoria Avenue, the elevation is generally about 100 feet (30 m), while the western area is almost at sea level
Sea level
Mean sea level is a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation...
. The highest point in Milpitas is a 1,289-foot (393 m) peak in the southeastern foothills.
To the east of Milpitas is a range of high foothills and Mountains, part of the Diablo Range which runs along the east side of San Francisco Bay. Monument Peak, the most prominent summit in the eastern Milpitas hills, is one of the oldest and most well-known symbols of Milpitas. It currently has a broadcasting antenna which provides several television channels to the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
.
Although not within Milpitas' city limits, Monument Peak, Calaveras Reservoir
Calaveras Reservoir
Calaveras Reservoir is a lake located primarily in Santa Clara County, California with a small portion and its dam in Alameda County, California. The reservoir has a capacity of . In Spanish, Calaveras means "skulls."...
, Arroyo Hondo
Arroyo Hondo (Santa Clara County, California)
Arroyo Hondo is a river in Santa Clara County, California, United States, that lies east of Milpitas. The area is privately owned by the San Francisco Water Department and is closed to public access because of its usage as drinking water. Bounded to the east by Oak Ridge and to the west by Poverty...
, Laguna Valley, and the surrounding region are culturally and historically considered part of Milpitas. (Loomis, Patricia - Milpitas: A Century of Little Cornfields) Many Portuguese farmers from the Azores
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
have settled there, including the Coelho, Covo, Mattos, Serpa, and Silva families. They are often nicknamed by longtime Milpitans as the "hill people." These Azorean families still own the undeveloped lands in the Milpitas foothills, such as the Silvas living on Old Calaveras Road. 4 The southeasternmost hills belong to the City of Milpitas, which then leases the lands to cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
livestock companies.
There are also many creeks in Milpitas, most of which are part of the Berryessa Creek
Berryessa Creek
Berryessa Creek is a seasonal creek in northeastern San Jose and Milpitas. Its main source is located in the Los Buellis Hills slightly west of Felter Road. Berryessa Creek has many tributaries, including Piedmont Creek, Calera Creek, and Penitencia Creek. In the summer, Berryessa Creek is mostly...
watershed
Drainage basin
A drainage basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice converges to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea, or ocean...
. Calera Creek
Calera Creek
Calera Creek is a stream in the Rockaway Beach and Vallemar neighborhoods of Pacifica, California. The creek is named for the limestone deposits and historical quarry located nearby...
, Arroyo de los Coches, Penitencia Creek
Penitencia Creek
Upper Penitencia Creek is actually one of two creeks by the name Penitencia Creek in northeastern Santa Clara Valley of California. They are both tributaries of Coyote Creek....
and Piedmont Creek are some of the creeks that flow from the Milpitas hills and empty into the San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
. (See Berryessa Creek
Berryessa Creek
Berryessa Creek is a seasonal creek in northeastern San Jose and Milpitas. Its main source is located in the Los Buellis Hills slightly west of Felter Road. Berryessa Creek has many tributaries, including Piedmont Creek, Calera Creek, and Penitencia Creek. In the summer, Berryessa Creek is mostly...
)
Urban layout
Milpitas is divided into three sections by Interstates 680Interstate 680 (California)
Interstate 680 is a north–south Interstate Highway in Northern California. It curves around the eastern cities of the San Francisco Bay Area from San Jose to Interstate 80 at Cordelia, bypassing cities along the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay such as Oakland and Richmond while serving...
and 880. To the west of I-880 is a largely industrial and commercial area. Between I-880 and its eastern counterpart freeway, I-680, is an industrial zone in the south and residential neighborhoods in the north. Other residential neighborhoods and undeveloped mountains lie east of I-680.
In reality, Milpitas has no concentrated downtown "center," but instead has several small retail centers generally located near residential developments and anchored by a supermarket. The so-called "Midtown" area, the oldest part of Milpitas, has few remaining historic residences and was the only commercial district that existed before 1945. Midtown is situated in the region where Main and Abel Streets run parallel to each other bordered by Montague Expressway in the south and Weller Street at the north end. A USPS
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
post office, Saint John the Baptist Catholic Church, Elementary & Junior High Catholic School, the Milpitas Public Library
Santa Clara County Library
The Santa Clara County Library is a public library system headquartered in Los Gatos, California. The library serves the communities and cities of Campbell, Cupertino, Gilroy, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Milpitas, Morgan Hill, Saratoga, and all unincorporated areas of Santa Clara County...
(which incorporates the old Milpitas Grammar School building), the Smith/DeVries mansion, the Senior Center, and Elmwood Correctional Facility are all in the Midtown section of Milpitas. The Milpitas Civic Center, which includes City Hall, is not located in Midtown, but stands at the intersection of Milpitas and Calaveras Boulevards. The Civic Center is separated from Midtown by the Calaveras overpass. The boundaries that divide major Milpitas neighborhoods and districts include Calaveras Boulevard running from east to west and the Union Pacific railroad, which runs from north to south. The newest retail centers are west of Interstate 880. There are several predominantly Asian retail centers with store signs written in Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean.
Climate
Set within a warm Mediterranean climate
Climate
Climate encompasses the statistics of temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind, rainfall, atmospheric particle count and other meteorological elemental measurements in a given region over long periods...
zone in Santa Clara County, Milpitas enjoys warm, sunny weather with only some extreme temperatures and very little snow fall. Having one of the mildest climates in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, the city's temperature seldom drops below 35 °F
Fahrenheit
Fahrenheit is the temperature scale proposed in 1724 by, and named after, the German physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit . Within this scale, the freezing of water into ice is defined at 32 degrees, while the boiling point of water is defined to be 212 degrees...
(2 °C) and very rarely experiences snow. The ice storms, or blizzard
Blizzard
A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong winds. By definition, the difference between blizzard and a snowstorm is the strength of the wind. To be a blizzard, a snow storm must have winds in excess of with blowing or drifting snow which reduces visibility to 400 meters or ¼ mile or...
s found in the eastern US are unknown in Milpitas. During the winter, temperatures are relatively warm at an average of 40 °F (4.4 °C) to 58 °F (4 °C to 14 °C). Showers and cloudy days are frequent during this season dropping most of the city's annual 18 inches (457.2 mm) of precipitation, and as spring approaches, the gentle rains gradually dwindle. In summer, the grasslands on the hillsides dehydrate rapidly and form bright, golden sheets on the mountains set off by stands of oak. As opposed to Milpitas' rainy, cool winters, the summer is dry and warm but not hot like in other parts the Bay Area. Temperatures infrequently reach over 100 °F (38 °C) with most days in the mid 70s to the high 70's. From June to September, Milpitas experiences little rain, and as autumn approaches, the weather gradually cools down. Many temperate-climate trees drop their leaves during fall in the South Bay but the winter temperature is warm enough for evergreens like date palms to thrive.
2010
The 2010 United States Census reported that Milpitas had a population of 66,790. The population densityPopulation density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 4,896.5 people per square mile (1,890.6/km²). The racial makeup of Milpitas was 13,725 (20.5%) White, 1,969 (2.9%) African American, 309 (0.5%) Native American, 41,536 (62.2%) Asian, 346 (0.5%) Pacific Islander, 5,811 (8.7%) from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 3,094 (4.6%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 11,240 persons (16.8%).
The Census reported that 64,092 people (96.0% of the population) lived in households, 104 (0.2%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 2,594 (3.9%) were institutionalized.
There were 19,184 households, out of which 8,616 (44.9%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 12,231 (63.8%) were opposite-sex married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 2,279 (11.9%) had a female householder with no husband present, 1,105 (5.8%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 760 (4.0%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships
POSSLQ
POSSLQ is an abbreviation for "Persons of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters," a term coined in the late 1970s by the United States Census Bureau as part of an effort to more accurately gauge the prevalence of cohabitation in American households....
, and 100 (0.5%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 2,470 households (12.9%) were made up of individuals and 742 (3.9%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.34. There were 15,615 families
Family (U.S. Census)
A family or family household is defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes as "a householder and one or more other people related to the householder by birth, marriage, or adoption. They do not include same-sex married couples even if the marriage was performed in a state...
(81.4% of all households); the average family size was 3.61.
The population was spread out with 15,303 people (22.9%) under the age of 18, 5,887 people (8.8%) aged 18 to 24, 21,827 people (32.7%) aged 25 to 44, 17,434 people (26.1%) aged 45 to 64, and 6,339 people (9.5%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36.1 years. For every 100 females there were 104.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 104.6 males.
There were 19,806 housing units at an average density of 1,452.0 per square mile (560.6/km²), of which 12,825 (66.9%) were owner-occupied, and 6,359 (33.1%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.2%; the rental vacancy rate was 3.1%. 42,501 people (63.6% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 21,591 people (32.3%) lived in rental housing units.
2000
As of the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 62,698 people, 17,132 households, and 13,996 families residing in the city. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 1,785.2/km² (4,622.9/mi²). There were 17,364 housing units at an average density of 494.4/km² (1,280.3/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 51.81% Asian, 30.87% White, 3.66% African American, 0.62% Native American, 0.63% Pacific Islander, 7.48% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 4.94% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 16.61% of the population.
There were 17,132 households out of which 43.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 65.1% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 10.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 18.3% are nonfamilies. 11.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 2.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.47, and the average family size was 3.72.
In the city, the population was spread out with 24.6% under the age of 18, 9.5% from 18 to 24, 38.0% from 25 to 44, 20.9% from 45 to 64, and 7.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females, there are 110.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 111.4 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $84,429, and the median income for a family was $84,827 (these figures had risen to $85,186 and $91,232 respectively as of a 2007 estimate). Males had a median income of $51,316 versus $36,681 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the city was $27,823. About 3.3% of families and 5.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 5.5% of those under age 18 and 6.4% of those age 65 or over. http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DatasetMainPageServlet?_program=DEC&_lang=en
Compared to rural parts of California, living in Milpitas is more expensive, as it is throughout Silicon Valley. Compared to other South Bay bedroom communities Milpitas is considered affordable. For example, a regular one-story, detached single-family home with a 1,300-square-foot (140 m²) size sells for between $600,000 to $700,000 in the city. These prices are slightly more affordable than the rest of the San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
, as a similar sized house may cost well over a million dollars in more affluent cities such as Palo Alto
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...
, Cupertino
Cupertino, California
Cupertino is an affluent suburban city in Santa Clara County, California in the U.S., directly west of San Jose on the western edge of the Santa Clara Valley with portions extending into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The population was 58,302 at the time of the 2010 census. Forbes...
or Saratoga
Saratoga, California
Saratoga is a city in Santa Clara County, California, USA. It is located on the west side of the Santa Clara Valley, directly west of San Jose, in the San Francisco Bay area. The population was 29,926 at the 2010 census....
. Reasons for the expensive housing in the South Bay Area include the regional high tech industries, mild climate, strong foreign investment in the West Coast
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
's housing, and a huge demand for limited homes. With the decline in the housing market , however, median sales prices in Milpitas have declined from nearly $700,000 to less than $500,000, and single-family new house construction building permits have plummeted from a 2004 average price of $949,900 to $269,400 in 2007.
Local
The city is headed by one mayorMayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
, one vice mayor, and three council members. Currently, Milpitas is served by mayor
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
Jose "Joe" Esteves, vice mayor Pete McHugh, and council members Armando Gomez, Jr., Althea Polanski, and Debbie Giordano. The city manager
City manager
A city manager is an official appointed as the administrative manager of a city, in a council-manager form of city government. Local officials serving in this position are sometimes referred to as the chief executive officer or chief administrative officer in some municipalities...
is Thomas C. Williams; the police chief is Dennis Graham; the Fire Chief is Brian Sturdivant; the Finance Director is Emma Karlen; and the city clerk is Mary Lavelle. The city's seal shows Daniel Chester French's Minuteman statue, musket in hand, standing in the Santa Clara Valley
Santa Clara Valley
The Santa Clara Valley is a valley just south of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California in the United States. Much of Santa Clara County and its county seat, San José, are in the Santa Clara Valley. The valley was originally known as the Valley of Heart’s Delight for its high concentration...
, with the golden hills of Milpitas rising to the east. He faces defiantly south toward San Jose because early residents of Milpitas considered themselves like minutemen when they defeated efforts by San Jose to annex newly incorporated Milpitas.
The Milpitas Police Department has a long tradition of reaching out to the community and its citizens. Most recently, in the Spring of 2007, the police department conducted a youth academy, in which teenagers were able to experience various aspects of policing, including the K-9 program, use of force issues and Internet safety.
State and Federal
In the state legislatureCalifornia State Legislature
The California State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of California. It is a bicameral body consisting of the lower house, the California State Assembly, with 80 members, and the upper house, the California State Senate, with 40 members...
Milpitas is located in the 10th Senate
California State Senate
The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature. There are 40 state senators. The state legislature meets in the California State Capitol in Sacramento. The Lieutenant Governor is the ex officio President of the Senate and may break a tied vote...
District, represented by Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
Ellen Corbett
Ellen Corbett
Ellen Marie Corbett is a Democratic politician from San Leandro, California. She is currently serving her second term in the California State Senate. Corbett represents the 10th District, which includes San Leandro, Hayward, Pleasanton, Union City, Fremont, Newark, Milpitas and part of San Jose...
, and in the 20th Assembly
California State Assembly
The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature. There are 80 members in the Assembly, representing an approximately equal number of constituents, with each district having a population of at least 420,000...
District, represented by Democrat Bob Wieckowski
Bob Wieckowski
Bob Wieckowski is an American attorney and politician in California. He was elected November 2, 2010 to the California State Assembly to represent the 20th District, which includes the cities of Fremont, Newark, Union City, and Milpitas, as well as portions of San Jose, Pleasanton, Hayward, and...
. Federally, Milpitas is located in California's 15th congressional district
California's 15th congressional district
California's 15th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of California that covers part of Santa Clara County west of San Jose and includes the cities of Los Gatos and Cupertino in Silicon Valley...
, which has a Cook PVI
Cook Partisan Voting Index
The Cook Partisan Voting Index , sometimes referred to as simply the Partisan Voting Index , is a measurement of how strongly an American congressional district or state leans toward one political party compared to the nation as a whole...
of D +14 and is represented by Democrat Mike Honda
Mike Honda
Michael Makoto "Mike" Honda is an American Democratic Party politician. He currently serves as the U.S. Representative for , encompassing western San Jose and Silicon Valley...
.
Economy
The computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
industry, which includes computer equipment manufacturing and software programming, is the largest source of employment in Milpitas.
Milpitas is home to the headquarters of Adaptec
Adaptec
Adaptec is a computer hardware brand owned by PMC-Sierra that is used on some of its host adapters for connecting storage devices to computers. The production line of Adaptec is in Indonesia. Products are made to interface with SCSI, Serial ATA, and Serial attached SCSI. Some of its host adapters...
, Intersil
Intersil
Intersil Corporation is an American company that specializes in the design, development and manufacturing of high-performance analog semiconductors for four high-growth markets — Communications, Computing, High End Consumer and Industrial.-Company history:...
, JDSU, KLA-Tencor, Linear Technology
Linear Technology
Linear Technology Corporation designs, manufactures and markets a broad line of standard high performance analog integrated circuits. Applications for the company's products include telecommunications, cellular telephones, networking products, notebook and desktop computers, video/multimedia,...
, LSI Logic, LTX-Credence, Sandisk
SanDisk
SanDisk Corporation is an American multinational corporation that designs, develops and manufactures data storage solutions in a range of form factors using the flash memory, controller and firmware technologies. It was founded in 1988 by Dr. Eli Harari and Sanjay Mehrotra, non-volatile memory...
, Sigma Designs
Sigma Designs
Sigma Designs is an American public corporation that designs and builds high-performance system-on-a-chip semiconductor technologies for Internet-based set-top boxes, DVD players/recorders, high-definition televisions, media processors, digital media adapters, portable media players and home...
, and Solectron
Solectron
Solectron Corporation was a global electronics manufacturing company for original equipment manufacturers . It pioneered the electronics manufacturing services industry in 1977 and was a leader in the field...
. Many other companies have offices in Milpitas including Quantum, Maxtor
Maxtor
Maxtor Corporation, founded in 1982 and acquired by Seagate Technology in 2006, was an American manufacturer of computer hard disk drives, the third largest in the world immediately prior to acquisition...
, Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services. Cisco has more than 70,000 employees and annual revenue of US$...
, Avaya
Avaya
Avaya Inc. is a privately held computer networking, information technology and telecommunications company that is a global provider of business communications systems. The international head quarters is in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, United States...
, Seagate Technology
Seagate Technology
Seagate Technology is one of the world's largest manufacturers of hard disk drives. Incorporated in 1978 as Shugart Technology, Seagate is currently incorporated in Dublin, Ireland and has its principal executive offices in Scotts Valley, California, United States.-1970s:On November 1, 1979...
, LifeScan
LifeScan
LifeScan, Inc. is a Johnson & Johnson company headquartered in Milpitas, California.LifeScan manufactures and markets Blood Glucose Monitoring Systems like the OneTouch Ultra family for home and hospital use...
, Phoenix Technologies
Phoenix Technologies
Phoenix Technologies Ltd designs, develops and supports core system software for personal computers and other computing devices. Phoenix's products — commonly referred to as BIOS or firmware — support and enable the compatibility, connectivity, security and management of the various components and...
and International Microsystems Inc. Creative Technology
Creative Technology
Creative Technology Ltd. is a Singapore-based global company headquartered in Jurong East, Singapore. The principal activities of the company and its subsidiaries consist of the design, manufacture and distribution of digitized sound and video boards, computers and related multimedia, and personal...
's well-known U.S. subsidiary, Creative Labs, is based in Milpitas.
Milpitas is also home to one of Santa Clara County's
Santa Clara County, California
Santa Clara County is a county located at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. As of 2010 it had a population of 1,781,642. The county seat is San Jose. The highly urbanized Santa Clara Valley within Santa Clara County is also known as Silicon Valley...
two correctional facilities, the Elmwood Correctional Facility, which houses 3,035 inmates.
Top Employers
According to the City's 2010 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report, the top employers in the city are:| # | Employer | # of Employees |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cisco Systems Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services. Cisco has more than 70,000 employees and annual revenue of US$... |
4,339 |
| 2 | Great Mall Great Mall of the Bay Area The Great Mall of the Bay Area is a large outlet shopping mall in Milpitas, California built by Ford Motor Land Development and Petrie Dierman Kughn in 1994, then acquired by Mills Corporation in 2003, and is now owned by the Simon Property Group since April 2007.-History:Formerly a Ford... |
3,380 |
| 3 | KLA Tencor KLA Tencor KLA-Tencor Corporation is a supplier of process control and yield management solutions for the semiconductor and related microelectronics industries. These technologies serve the semiconductor, data storage, LED, photovoltaic, and other related nanoelectronics industries... |
2,000 |
| 4 | Flextronics Flextronics Flextronics International Ltd. is an electronics manufacturing services provider that offers services to original equipment manufacturers . It also provides supporting supply chain services, including packaging and transportation throughout the world, as well as design and after-sales... |
|
| 5 | LSI LSI Corporation LSI Corporation is an electronics company based in Milpitas, California that designs semiconductors and software that accelerate storage and networking in datacenters and mobile networks.-History:... |
1,320 |
| 6 | SanDisk SanDisk SanDisk Corporation is an American multinational corporation that designs, develops and manufactures data storage solutions in a range of form factors using the flash memory, controller and firmware technologies. It was founded in 1988 by Dr. Eli Harari and Sanjay Mehrotra, non-volatile memory... |
1,200 |
| 7 | Linear Technology Linear Technology Linear Technology Corporation designs, manufactures and markets a broad line of standard high performance analog integrated circuits. Applications for the company's products include telecommunications, cellular telephones, networking products, notebook and desktop computers, video/multimedia,... |
1,100 |
| 8 | LifeScan LifeScan LifeScan, Inc. is a Johnson & Johnson company headquartered in Milpitas, California.LifeScan manufactures and markets Blood Glucose Monitoring Systems like the OneTouch Ultra family for home and hospital use... |
1,000 |
| 9 | Milpitas Unified School District Milpitas Unified School District The Milpitas Unified School District operates nine elementary schools , two junior high schools , and three high schools in Milpitas, California, USA... |
833 |
| 10 | JDSU | 800 |
Primary and secondary schools
Milpitas' public schools are run by the Milpitas Unified School DistrictMilpitas Unified School District
The Milpitas Unified School District operates nine elementary schools , two junior high schools , and three high schools in Milpitas, California, USA...
(MUSD). The school district was originally Milpitas Elementary S.D. when it was started as a separate district in the 1950s. Formerly, James Lick High School
James Lick High School
James Lick High School is a high school in the East Side Union High School District located in San Jose.-History:Lick High School was built in 1950 and is the oldest of the eleven high schools in the ESUHSD...
in Alum Rock
Alum Rock, California
Alum Rock is a census-designated place in Santa Clara County, California, United States and a community of San Jose. The CDP, which excludes all annexed areas, had a population of 15,536 at the 2010 census. Alum Rock was named after a rock formerly thought to be composed of alum in nearby Alum...
was the closest high school to Milpitas. Samuel Ayer High School (now the Milpitas Sports Center, Teen Center, Calaveras Hills HS., and Adult Education Center) on Calaveras Road was built as the only high school located in the city. In the late 1960s MUSD was formed and included Ayer High which had previously been part of East Side Union High School District. In 1970s, Milpitas High School
Milpitas High School
Milpitas High School is a public four-year comprehensive high school in Milpitas, California, a suburban community adjacent to San Jose. It is one of two high schools within the Milpitas Unified School District....
was built on Escuela Parkway and, due to declining enrollment, Samuel Ayer High School closed. Currently Milpitas High is one of the biggest high schools in the county, with approximately 3000 students. The continuation school, Calaveras Hills High School is one of the best schools for "at risk" students in the state. CHHS was designated a California Model Continuation High School.
Milpitas unified API score for 2011 is 849, higher than the county average of 827. From 2003 to 2011, the district API has risen by 87 points. Additionally, Milpitas schools have consistently attained API growth year over year. In 2011, two Milpitas Elementary schools, Sinnot and Curtner achieved scores of 900 and 913 respectively.
| Elementary School | 2010-2011 API Score |
|---|---|
| Sinnott | 900 |
| Curtner | 913 |
| Burnett | 880 |
| Pomeroy | 877 |
| Spangler | 874 |
| Zanker | 869 |
| Weller | 864 |
| Rose | 827 |
| Randall | 780 |
| Middle School | 2010-2011 API Score |
| Russell | 880 |
| Rancho | 870 |
| High School | 2010-2011 API Score |
| Milpitas | 812 |
Issues and concerns
Milpitas is a suburban community in the South Bay of the San Francisco Bay AreaSan Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
, and like all cities it has a few areas of concern to its citizens. Dominant among these are overcrowded schools, lack of adequate open parkland, traffic congestion, and air quality. Seekers of public offices typically face stiff competition at election time.
Pollution
Milpitas occasionally experiences odorous air traveling downwind from bay salt marshSalt marsh
A salt marsh is an environment in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and salt water or brackish water, it is dominated by dense stands of halophytic plants such as herbs, grasses, or low shrubs. These plants are terrestrial in origin and are essential to the stability of the salt marsh...
es from the Newby Island landfill
Landfill
A landfill site , is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is the oldest form of waste treatment...
and from the San Jose
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
sewage treatment
Sewage treatment
Sewage treatment, or domestic wastewater treatment, is the process of removing contaminants from wastewater and household sewage, both runoff and domestic. It includes physical, chemical, and biological processes to remove physical, chemical and biological contaminants...
plant's percolation ponds. Most malodorous during the autumn, it is especially pungent west of Interstate 880 because of its close location to the San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
and the direction of the prevailing winds out of the north-northwest. The City of Milpitas would like to remedy this air quality problem to the extent it can and encourages its residents to file odor complaints.
Local creeks and the nearby San Francisco Bay suffer somewhat from water pollution originating from street water runoff
Surface runoff
Surface runoff is the water flow that occurs when soil is infiltrated to full capacity and excess water from rain, meltwater, or other sources flows over the land. This is a major component of the water cycle. Runoff that occurs on surfaces before reaching a channel is also called a nonpoint source...
and industrial wastes. The creeks in Milpitas, especially Calera
Calera Creek
Calera Creek is a stream in the Rockaway Beach and Vallemar neighborhoods of Pacifica, California. The creek is named for the limestone deposits and historical quarry located nearby...
, Scott, and Berryessa Creek
Berryessa Creek
Berryessa Creek is a seasonal creek in northeastern San Jose and Milpitas. Its main source is located in the Los Buellis Hills slightly west of Felter Road. Berryessa Creek has many tributaries, including Piedmont Creek, Calera Creek, and Penitencia Creek. In the summer, Berryessa Creek is mostly...
s, used to be prime fishing spots for native steelhead until pollutants from urban development and industry killed the fish starting in the 1950s. While small populations of steelhead and even salmon still may be seen in area streams these cannot legally be fished and consumption of legal catches is limited by mercury contamination.
The I880 corridor has experienced relatively elevated levels of air pollution from freeway traffic. For example eight hour standards for carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide , also called carbonous oxide, is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas that is slightly lighter than air. It is highly toxic to humans and animals in higher quantities, although it is also produced in normal animal metabolism in low quantities, and is thought to have some normal...
have been near to maximum levels for the last two decades.
Hillside Open Space Initiative
In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Milpitas voters enacted measures to protect the west-facing hillsides east of the city from development.Culture and recreation
Milpitas residents enjoy various visual and performing arts. The Milpitas Alliance for the Arts, founded in 1997, is an organization which promotes and funds muralMural
A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. A particularly distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.-History:Murals of...
s, plays
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
, sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
s, and many other forms of art. The "Art in Your Park" project has put many sculptures in local Milpitas parks, including a ceramic tower in Hillcrest Park, a sundial in Augustine Park, and a historical memorial in Murphy Park. The Celebrate Milpitas Festival is held annually every August, featuring vendors of crafts-type merchandise and providing local talent with a performance venue while selling visitors samplings of exotics like garlic fries or lumpia and even offerings from one or two Californian wineries. The suburb offers a rich variety of food options, including sit-down restaurants and fast food.
The city has many athletic and educational recreational programs which are located in several city buildings, including the city's sports center, teen center, library, community center, and senior center.
Shopping Super Centers
Milpitas is also home to the largest Bay Area enclosed shopping mall (in terms of land area), the Great Mall of the Bay AreaGreat Mall of the Bay Area
The Great Mall of the Bay Area is a large outlet shopping mall in Milpitas, California built by Ford Motor Land Development and Petrie Dierman Kughn in 1994, then acquired by Mills Corporation in 2003, and is now owned by the Simon Property Group since April 2007.-History:Formerly a Ford...
. The Great Mall is a part of the Simon mall branch and is the biggest mall/outlet shopping center in northern California. There are approximately 200 stores within the mall, with a total of 1357000 square feet (126,069.4 m²) of retail area.
A large outdoor shopping center called Milpitas Square
Milpitas Square
Milpitas Square is a large outdoor shopping center in Milpitas, California, at the junction of Interstate 880 and California State Route 237. Milpitas Square opened in July 1996 to answer the needs of Asian immigrants in the area...
is anchored by the 99 Ranch Market
99 Ranch Market
Although most of its customers are ethnic Chinese Americans and Taiwanese Americans, shoppers also include recent immigrants from China, ethnic Chinese from Vietnam, and others. The chain sells a wide range of imported food products and merchandise from Hong Kong, Japan, Mainland China, Taiwan, ...
west of Interstate 880.
Other Milpitas shopping centers and plaza
Plaza
Plaza is a Spanish word related to "field" which describes an open urban public space, such as a city square. All through Spanish America, the plaza mayor of each center of administration held three closely related institutions: the cathedral, the cabildo or administrative center, which might be...
s include Ulferts Center, Milpitas Town Center, Jacklin Square, McCarthy Ranch, Parktown Plaza, Beresford Square, and the City Square.
There are two car dealerships in Milpitas that are located on the east side of Interstate 880, near Great Mall Parkway.
In the past, Milpitas had a very different culture from that of its modern suburban state. As late as the 1950s, Milpitas was an unincorporated rural town with the Midtown district on Main Street as its main center of business and social activities. Many old businesses include Main Street Gas (operated by the Azorean
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
Spangler brothers), Smith's Corner Saloon, and Kozy Kitchen. The Cracolice Building was one of the oldest commercial buildings in Milpitas and was the site of many political conventions and meetings. "As Milpitas Goes, So Goes the State" used to be a popular slogan around the town. Most of the land now within modern-day Milpitas' boundaries was used for strawberry
Strawberry
Fragaria is a genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, commonly known as strawberries for their edible fruits. Although it is commonly thought that strawberries get their name from straw being used as a mulch in cultivating the plants, the etymology of the word is uncertain. There...
, asparagus
Asparagus
Asparagus officinalis is a spring vegetable, a flowering perennialplant species in the genus Asparagus. It was once classified in the lily family, like its Allium cousins, onions and garlic, but the Liliaceae have been split and the onion-like plants are now in the family Amaryllidaceae and...
, apricot
Apricot
The apricot, Prunus armeniaca, is a species of Prunus, classified with the plum in the subgenus Prunus. The native range is somewhat uncertain due to its extensive prehistoric cultivation.- Description :...
, and potato
Potato
The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...
cultivation until the postwar boom during the 1950s and 1960s.
Parks
Ed R. Levin County ParkEd R. Levin County Park
Ed R. Levin County Park is the largest park in Milpitas, California. It is run by the County of Santa Clara and is located in the chaparral foothills east of the Santa Clara Valley. Monument Peak can be accessed through trails in the park...
is the largest county regional park near Milpitas. The County of Santa Clara Parks and Recreation Department runs the park. Monument Peak can be accessed through trails that lead north through the county park. The park also provides facilities for hang gliding
Hang gliding
Hang gliding is an air sport in which a pilot flies a light and unmotorized foot-launchable aircraft called a hang glider ....
and paragliding
Paragliding
Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure...
and includes a newly built dog park
Dog park
A dog park is a facility set aside for dogs to exercise and play off-leash in a controlled environment under the supervision of their owners...
that was a joint effort by the county and the city of Milpitas. Two golf courses, Spring Valley Golf Course and Summitpointe Golf Course, are located in the Milpitas foothills. Both have expensive gated residential developments located adjacent to them.
Milpitas itself has 17 traditional neighborhood parks which are generally 3 to 10 acre
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...
s (12,000 to 40,000 m²). There also is a sports complex and sports parks with baseball and tennis play areas fenced off. There are also smaller parks of less than 3 acres (12,140.6 m²) scattered in newer developments. Milpitas has begun to develop the San Francisco Water District's Hetch Hetchy right-of-way as park land in lieu of using land from new high density residential developments adjacent to it. Together, these parks total 166 acres (671,778.8 m²) of land area or less than 2% of the city's acreage.
Newspapers
- Milpitas Post
- San Jose Mercury NewsSan Jose Mercury NewsThe San Jose Mercury News is a daily newspaper in San Jose, California. On its web site, however, it calls itself Silicon Valley Mercury News. The paper is owned by MediaNews Group...
- East Bay ExpressEast Bay ExpressThe East Bay Express is an Oakland-based weekly newspaper serving the Berkeley, Oakland, and East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area...
- Oakland Tribune
- San Francisco ChronicleSan Francisco Chroniclethumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
- Metro NewspapersMetro NewspapersMetro Newspapers is an American newspaper company based in San Jose, California. It currently publishes three free alternative weekly newspapers in Northern California: Metro Silicon Valley, Santa Cruz Weekly and the North Bay Bohemian...
- Wave MagazineWave MagazineWave is an English language, monthly magazine published by Himal Media . Each month, Wave publishes articles addressing the youth and their varied interests. Apart from touching the lighter and the fun side, it also addresses the more 'serious' aspects- but from a youthful perspective. The magazine...
- San Francisco Bay GuardianSan Francisco Bay GuardianThe San Francisco Bay Guardian is a free alternative newspaper published weekly in San Francisco, California. The paper is owned mostly by its publisher, Bruce B...
- SF WeeklySF WeeklySF Weekly is a free alternative weekly newspaper in San Francisco, California. The newspaper, distributed throughout the San Francisco Bay Area every Wednesday, is published by Village Voice Media, a 16-paper alt weekly newspaper chain that also includes the New York City Village Voice and the Los...
- Singtao Daily Bay Area edition
- World JournalWorld JournalWorld Journal is a daily Chinese language newspaper serving overseas Chinese in North America. The newspaper has its headquarters in Whitestone, Queens, New York City....
Bay Area edition
Radio
- Note: FMFrequency modulationIn telecommunications and signal processing, frequency modulation conveys information over a carrier wave by varying its instantaneous frequency. This contrasts with amplitude modulation, in which the amplitude of the carrier is varied while its frequency remains constant...
channels have decimal points, but AMAmplitude modulationAmplitude modulation is a technique used in electronic communication, most commonly for transmitting information via a radio carrier wave. AM works by varying the strength of the transmitted signal in relation to the information being sent...
does not. http://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/fmq.htmlhttp://www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/amq.html
Country:
- KRTYKRTYKRTY is a commercial radio station located in San Jose, California, and broadcasting to the greater San Francisco Bay Area, from San Jose to Marin County, on 95.3 FM. KRTY airs a country music format.Listening Options...
, 95.3 - "San Jose Hot Country" (Empire Broadcasting)
News/Talk:
- KCBSKCBS (AM)KCBS is an all-news radio station in San Francisco, California, that is a key West Coast flagship radio station of the CBS Radio Network and Westwood One. Its transmitter is located in Novato, California. KCBS currently has studios on Battery Street, where it shares the location with co-owned KPIX...
, 740 - "KCBS All News 740 and 106.9" (CBS RadioCBS Radio NetworkThe CBS Radio Network provides news, sports and other programming to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by CBS Corporation, and operated by CBS Radio ....
) - KFRC-FMKFRC-FMKFRC-FM is a commercial radio station in San Francisco, California, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. It simulcasts sister station KCBS, which carries an all-news format...
, 106.9 - "KCBS All News 740 and 106.9" (CBS RadioCBS Radio NetworkThe CBS Radio Network provides news, sports and other programming to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by CBS Corporation, and operated by CBS Radio ....
) - KGOKGO (AM)KGO is a news/talk-format radio station radio with offices and studios in San Francisco, California. Unlike most other American news/talk stations, KGO originates nearly all of its own programming locally. Since 1978, KGO radio has received Arbitron's number-one ranking in the Bay Area...
, 810 - "KGO Newstalk 810" (ABCAmerican Broadcasting CompanyThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
) - KLIVKLIVKLIV is an AM radio station in the San Francisco Bay Area based in San Jose, California. The station operates at 1590 kHz on the AM band. It is owned by Empire Broadcasting, and is headed by News and Program Director George Sampson.-Programming:...
, 1590 - "Silicon Valley News 1590 KLIV" (CNN) (Empire Broadcasting) - KNEWKNEW (AM)KNEW is a radio station in San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, CA, USA. The station is owned by Clear Channel. Prior to the format change, the station operated as CNET Radio, offering business and technology news 24 hours a day...
, 910 - "Fox Newsradio 910" - KKGN, 960 - "The Green 960"
- KDOWKDOWKNTS is a radio station broadcasting a Spanish language Christian talk format. Licensed to Seattle, Washington, USA, it serves the Seattle metropolitan area. The station is currently owned by Salem Communications....
, 1220 - "Bay Area's Business Leader" - KSFO, 560 - "Hot Talk 560 KSFO"
Christian Rock:
- K265CY, 100.9 - rebroadcast of KSRI
- K257BE, 99.3 - rebroadcast of KLVM
- K205BN, 88.9 - rebroadcast of KLVM
- K220BV, 91.9 - rebroadcast of KLVM
Sports:
- KNBRKNBRKNBR, The Sports Leader, is the on-air branding used by two AM radio stations in the San Francisco, California, area broadcasting a sports radio format, owned by Cumulus Media....
, 680 - "KNBR 680 and 1050 The Sports Leader" - KTCT, 1050 - "KNBR 680 and 1050 The Sports Leader"
- KTRBKTRBKTRB ESPN Deportes 860 is a commercial radio station in San Francisco, California. The station has a Spanish sports-talk format since June 27, 2011.-History:...
, 860 - "ESPN Deportes 860" - KGMZKGMZKKOL-FM is an oldies music formatted radio station serving Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. The Salem Communications outlet broadcasts at 107.9 MHz with an ERP of 100 kW and is licensed to Aiea, Hawaii.-History:...
, 95.7 - "95.7 The Game" "Yahoo Sports Radio"
Light rock/Adult alternative:
- KBAYKBAYKBAY is a radio station licensed to Gilroy, California, and serving the San Francisco Bay Area. Its current format is Soft Rock It is owned by NextMedia Group along with sister station, "Mix-106.5" KEZR-FM...
, 94.5 - "The Bay Area's Soft Rock" - KOIT, 96.5 - "Lite Rock, Less Talk"
Modern Rock:
- KITSKITSKITS is a San Francisco, California, USA-based radio station broadcasting at 105.3 MHz. The station is owned by CBS Radio and programs a modern rock format. The station also broadcasts on HD channel L2, locally on Comcast cable channel 986, and is streaming online.-Hot Hits:The station's...
, 105.3 "Live 105" - KSAN-FMKSAN-FMKSAN is a commercial radio station licensed to San Mateo, California, with its transmitter located on San Bruno Mountain. It broadcasts to the San Francisco Bay Area...
, 107.7 - "107.7 The Bone"
Hip-hop/R&B:
- KYLD, 94.9 "Wild" 94.9
- KMELKMELKMEL is an Urban Contemporary-formatted radio station located in San Francisco, California, and owned by Clear Channel Communications....
, 106.1 – "106.1 KMEL"
Pop:
- KREV, 92.7 - "92.7 The Revolution"
- KMVQ, 99.7 - "Movin 99.7"
Urban AC/R&B:
- KISQKISQKISQ is a radio station licensed to San Francisco that features the Urban Oldies format on the 98.1 FM frequency. It is owned by Clear Channel.- History :As KABL...
, 98.1 - "98.1 Kiss FM" - KBLXKBLXKBLX-FM is an Urban Adult Contemporary radio station that broadcasts from San Francisco. The station is licensed to Berkeley, California, and is owned by Inner City Broadcasting Corporation.-About KBLX:...
, 102.9 "The Quiet Storm" (BerkeleyBerkeley, CaliforniaBerkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
)
Rock/Classic rock:
- KUFXKUFXKUFX is a classic rock-formatted radio station in San Jose, California. It is owned by Entercom Communications. The station is referred to on-air as K-FOX.On January 24, 2011, KUFX began simulcasting on KUZX 102.1 MHz in San Francisco....
, 98.5 - "KFOX" - KUZXKUZXKUZX is a classic rock-formatted radio station in San Francisco, California. It is owned by Entercom Communications. As of noon January 24, 2011, the station is simulcasting the programming of sister station KUFX in San Jose...
, 102.1 - simulcast of KUFX 98.5 - KFOGKFOGKFOG is an FM radio station in San Francisco, California, broadcasting on 104.5 and sister station KFFG 97.7 FM MHz. The 97.7 transmitter is located near Cupertino, California, and it is a simulcast of 104.5 KFOG....
, 104.5 - "104.5 and 97.7 KFOG World Class Rock" - KFFGKFFGKFFG is an FM radio station licensed to Los Altos, California, broadcasting on 97.7 FM MHz. The 97.7 frequency simulcasts the programming of sister station KFOG...
, 97.7 - "104.5 and 97.7 KFOG World Class Rock" - KKSFKKSFKKSF, known as "Oldies 103.7", is a classic hits radio station in San Francisco, California. The station is owned and operated by Clear Channel Communications.-History:...
, 103,7 - "103.7 The Band" - KSFHKSFHKSFH FM 87.9 is a student radio station broadcasting an active rock radio format. Licensed to serve Mountain View, California, USA, the station's broadcast range is the San Francisco Bay Area. The station is owned by private school Saint Francis High School, and is completely run by its students,...
, 87.9 - "Music Revolution"
Children's:
- KMKY, 1310 - Radio DisneyRadio DisneyRadio Disney is a radio network based in Burbank, California and headquartered out of the Disney Channel headquarters on West Alameda Ave., from where it has been based since November 2008. Prior to that, the network was based in Dallas, Texas...
Hot Adult Contemporary
- KEZRKEZRKEZR is a radio station licensed to San Jose, California and serving the San Francisco Bay Area. They program a Hot Adult Contemporary format as "Mix 106.5" and are owned by NextMedia Group....
, 106.5 - "Mix 106.5" - KIOIKIOIKIOI FM is a radio station licensed to San Francisco, California. The Clear Channel Communications-owned station programs a Hot Adult Contemporary format.- KPEN :...
, 101.3 - "Star 101.3" - KLLCKLLCKLLC is a commercial radio station located in San Francisco, California, broadcasting to the San Francisco Bay Area. KLLC airs an Adult Top 40 music format same as KZZO in Sacramento and on 97.3 HD-2 is Chill With Alice, a Chill format channel...
, 97.3 - "Alice 97.3"
Classical:
- KDFCKDFCKDFC-FM is a non-commercial radio station in the San Francisco Bay Area that broadcasts a classical music format on 90.3 MHz FM. The station is the radio home of the San Francisco Symphony and the San Francisco Opera....
, 90.3 - "Classical 90.3 KDFC"
Variety/Public:
- KPFAKPFAKPFA is a listener-funded progressive talk radio and music radio station located in Berkeley, California, broadcasting to the San Francisco Bay Area. KPFA airs public news, public affairs, talk, and music programming. The station signed on-the-air April 15 1949, as the first Pacifica Station...
, 94.1 - "Listener's Sponsored Radio" - KPOOKPOOKPOO is a community radio station licensed to San Francisco, California, USA. The station is currently owned by Poor People's Radio....
, 89.5 - KKUPKKUPKKUP is a community radio station broadcasting a Variety format. Licensed to Cupertino, California, United States, it serves the greater Bay Area. The station is currently owned by the Assurance Science Foundation, Inc., and is a member of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters...
, 91.5 - KPFB, 89.3 - simulcast of 94.1 KPFA
- KQED-FMKQED-FMKQED-FM is an NPR-member radio station owned by Northern California Public Broadcasting in San Francisco, California.KQED-FM was founded by James Day in 1969 as the radio arm of KQED Television. The founding manager was Bernard Mayes who later went on to be Executive Vice-President of KQED TV and...
, 88.5 - KALWKALWKALW is a public radio station based in San Francisco, California. Its HD FM radio signal is broadcast over the immediate San Francisco Bay Area at 91.7 MHz, and is webcast with live streaming audio.-Background:...
, 91.7 - San Francisco Unified School DistrictSan Francisco Unified School DistrictSan Francisco Unified School District , established in 1851, is the only public school district within the City and County of San Francisco, and the first in the state of California... - K212AA, 90.3 - rebroadcast of KUSPKUSPKUSP is a community supported, National Public Radio affiliated public radio station. Located in Santa Cruz, California, USA, the signal covers most of California's Central Coast area. Station content consists of about 2/3 news and information and 1/3 music content.-Online audio:KUSP offers a...
Jazz:
- KCSM, 91.1 (noncommercial)- "Jazz 91"
Spanish:
- KRZZKRZZKRZZ is a commercial radio station located in San Francisco, California, broadcasting to the San Francisco Bay Area on 93.3 FM. KRZZ airs a regional mexican music format branded as "La Raza".-History:...
, 93.3 - "La Raza 93.3" - KSOL, 98.9 - "Estereo Sol 98.9"
- KZSFKZSFKZSF is a radio station broadcasting a Regional Mexican format in the San Francisco Bay Area. Licensed to San Jose, California, USA. The station is currently owned by Carlos A. Duharte.-History:...
, 1370 - "La Kaliente 1370" - KCNLKCNLKCNL is a radio station in San Jose, California and serves the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned by The Principle Broadcasting Network San Jose, LLC and airs a Mexican Oldies format....
, 104.9 - "La Preciosa 104.9" - KBRGKBRGKBRG is a Spanish-language station in San Jose, California. It is the oldest surviving Spanish music station in the San Francisco Bay Area, having first appeared in the 1960s or earlier as 105.3 . It moved to 104.9 in December 1983, and then to 100.3 in a three-station swap on December 31, 1997...
, 100.3 - "Recurdo 100.3" - KVVZKVVZKVVZ is a radio station broadcasting a Latin Pop format. Licensed to San Rafael, California, USA, it serves the San Francisco area. The station is currently owned by Univision Radio License Corporation. Between 2001 and 2003 KVVZ was KSFB Contemporary Christian 100.7 The Bridge...
, 100.7 - "Viva 100.7 and 105.7" - KVVF, 105.7 - "Viva 100.7 and 105.7"
- KIQIKIQIKIQI is a Spanish-language radio station in San Francisco, California, USA. It is under ownership of Multicultural Broadcasting. KIQI 1010 AM is now partnered up with the San Francisco Giants and they broadcast all weekend home games as well as another selected few .-External links:...
, 1010 - "Radio Unica 1010" - K265DI, 100.9 - rebroadcast of KVVZKVVZKVVZ is a radio station broadcasting a Latin Pop format. Licensed to San Rafael, California, USA, it serves the San Francisco area. The station is currently owned by Univision Radio License Corporation. Between 2001 and 2003 KVVZ was KSFB Contemporary Christian 100.7 The Bridge...
Religious:
- KEAR, 610 - "The Sound of the New Life"
- KSFB, 1260 - "Catholic Radio 1260"
- KFAXKFAXKFAX is a radio station licensed to transmit from San Francisco, California and heard in the Bay Area. , the station is owned by Salem Communications, and programs a Christian-oriented talk-radio format.- As KJBS :...
, 1100 - "The Spirit of the Bay" - KDIAKDIAKDIA is a radio station in Vallejo, California. It is a separate entity from the station at 1310 AM that held the KDIA call letters for many years. The 1640 AM frequency was licensed as part of an extension of the AM band in 1998, and adopted the abandoned KDIA call letters then.-KDIA 1310...
, 1640 - "The Light for San Francisco" - KDYAKDYAKDYA is a radio station licensed to Vallejo, California, but serves the San Francisco Bay Area. It broadcasts on 1190 frequency on the AM dial with an urban contemporary gospel format...
, 1190 - "1190 The Light"
Asian:
- KESTKESTKEST is a radio station in San Francisco, California. Most of the station's programming is foreign, such as Indian, Chinese, and other Asian languages. KEST does English-language programming during the week, usually from 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., which consists of New Age Talk.KEST is owned by...
, 1450 - "Personal Programming for the Bay Area" - KLOK, 1170 - "San Francisco's International Community Radio Station"
- KSFNKSFNKYDZ is a children's radio station located in North Las Vegas, Nevada, broadcasting to the Las Vegas, Nevada area on 1140 AM.-History:1140 AM was known as KRSR "The Krusher", a heavy metal-formatted station in the 1980s, whose DJ is a robotic voice similar to that of the Cylon voice used on...
, 1510 - "Chinese Radio" - KSJOKSJOKSJO is a commercial radio station in San Jose, California, and broadcasts to the San Francisco Bay Area on 92.3 FM. KSJO currently airs a Chinese format branded as "92.3 KSJO".-History:...
, 92.3, "Bay Area Chinese Radio" - KSJXKSJXKSJX is a radio station broadcasting a Vietnamese format. Licensed to San Jose, California, the station serves the San Francisco Bay Area. The station is currently owned by Multicultural Radio Broadcasting Licensee, LLC.-Fire:...
, 1500 - "Radio Station in Your Language" - KSQQKSQQKSQQ is a world ethnic radio station broadcasting in the Portuguese, Chinese, and Vietnamese languages. Licensed to Morgan Hill, California, USA with a translator, K277BN in San Martin, California, it serves the greater San Francisco Bay Area from North Santa Clara County to Marin County.The...
, 96.1 - "Q96 FM" - KVTOKVTOKVTO is a radio station broadcasting a World Ethnic format. Licensed to Berkeley, California, USA, the station serves the San Francisco Bay Area...
, 1400 - "Voice of the Orient" - KVVNKVVNKVVN is a radio station broadcasting a Vietnamese language format. Licensed to Santa Clara, California, USA, it serves the San Francisco Bay Area...
, 1430 - "San Jose's Asian Voice" - KZDG, 1550 - "Radio Zindagi"
College/School:
- KMTGKMTGKMTG is a radio station broadcasting student choice format. Licensed to San Jose, California, USA, the station serves the San Jose area. The station is currently owned by San Jose Unified School District. and operated at Pioneer High School by Pioneer High School students...
, 89.3 - San Jose Unified School DistrictSan Jose Unified School DistrictSan Jose Unified School District is a K-12 school district in Santa Clara County, California. It serves a large portion of the city of San Jose, California with a student population of approximately 32,000.-List of schools:... - KFJCKFJCKFJC is a non-commercial college radio station in Los Altos Hills, California at Foothill College, using an Variety radio format that features a broad spectrum of music styles and public affairs programming. KFJC's broadcast is 24/7 in the San Francisco Bay Area...
, 89.7 - Foothill CollegeFoothill CollegeFoothill College is a community college located in Los Altos Hills, California and is part of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District. It was founded on January 15, 1957 by Founding Superintendent and President Dr. Calvin C. Flint.-History:... - KZSUKZSUKZSU is a freeform FM radio station broadcasting from the campus of Stanford University in Stanford, California, USA.KZSU broadcasts in stereo at 90.1 MHz FM with an effective radiated power of 500 watts. The station is owned by the Trustees of Stanford University and is governed by a Board of...
, 90.1 - Stanford UniversityStanford UniversityThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San... - KALXKALXKALX is a freeform FM radio station that broadcasts from the University of California, Berkeley in Berkeley, California. KALX, a community- and student-run radio station licensed to the University of California, Berkeley, broadcasts in stereo with 500 watts of power...
, 90.7 - University of California Berkeley - KCEAKCEAKCEA is a high school radio station in Atherton, California, USA. The station features big band and swing music, mostly from the 1930s and 1940s...
, 89.1 - Sequoia Union High School DistrictSequoia Union High School DistrictThe Sequoia Union High School District is a public school district in the San Francisco Bay Area, primarily serving the communities of Atherton, Belmont, East Palo Alto, Ladera, San Carlos, Menlo Park, Portola Valley, Redwood City, and Woodside.... - KECGKECG-History:Construction of KECG began in 1972 in the basement of the north wing of the old El Cerrito HS.Mr Maynes woodshop built the studios and the electronics dept under Elmer Peterson installed the electronics....
, 88.1 - El Cerrito High SchoolEl Cerrito High SchoolEl Cerrito High School is a public school in the West Contra Costa Unified School District. It is located at 540 Ashbury Avenue, El Cerrito, California 94530.-Overview:The original main school building was built in the late 1930s as a WPA project... - KOHLKOHLKOHL is a radio station broadcasting a Contemporary Hit Radio format.Licensed to Fremont, California, USA. The station is currently owned by the Ohlone Community College District and is the primary instructional facility for the Ohlone College Radio Broadcast program.-1972 to 1984:89.3 KOHL...
, 89.3 - Ohlone CollegeOhlone CollegeOhlone College is a community college located in Fremont, California. It was established in 1965. Ohlone College is a single college, multi campus district serving the areas of Fremont, Newark, and Union City with its main campus and district office in Fremont... - KCRHKCRHKCRH is a radio station in Hayward, California, serving the Bay Area, primarily the East Bay. The station is owned by Chabot College and operated by students in its Mass Communications department.- Station overview :...
, 89.9 - Chabot CollegeChabot CollegeChabot College is a community college located in Hayward, California.-Campus:The campus has a 200-seat theatre, a 1,432-seat performing arts center, a full-size planetarium, four major athletic fields, an HD television studio, and an Olympic-class swimming pool.-History:Chabot College was the first... - KSJSKSJSKSJS is a college radio station that broadcasts 24 hours a day from the campus of San Jose State University in San Jose, California, USA. It went on the air on February 11, 1963, with only 85 watts of power. The studio is located in Hugh Gillis Hall, easily accessible to RTVF majors...
, 90.5 - San Jose State UniversitySan José State UniversitySan Jose State University is a public university located in San Jose, California, United States... - KSCUKSCUKSCU is a radio station broadcasting a Variety format. Licensed to Santa Clara, California, the station serves the San Jose area. The station is currently owned by Santa Clara University. The station plays independent music, varying from indie rock, punk, ska, jazz, blues, reggae, and others...
, 103.3 - Santa Clara UniversitySanta Clara UniversitySanta Clara University is a private, not-for-profit, Jesuit-affiliated university located in Santa Clara, California, United States. Chartered by the state of California and accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, it operates in collaboration with the Society of Jesus , whose...
Television
Digital televisionDigital television
Digital television is the transmission of audio and video by digital signals, in contrast to the analog signals used by analog TV...
service available to Milpitas includes:
- KAXT, 01 - "Que Hoang"
- KTVUKTVUKTVU, virtual channel 2 , is the Fox-affiliated television station serving the San Francisco Bay Area. Licensed to Oakland, California, the station has been owned by Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises since 1964, making it the largest Fox affiliate by market size that is not owned and operated by the...
, 02 - FoxFox Broadcasting CompanyFox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
affiliate - KRON, 04 - My Network TV news station
- KPIX, 05 - CBSCBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
affiliate - KGOKGO-TVKGO-TV, channel 7, is an owned-and-operated television station of the Walt Disney Company-owned American Broadcasting Company, based in San Francisco, California...
, 07 - ABCAmerican Broadcasting CompanyThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
affiliate - KQED, 09 - PBSPublic Broadcasting ServiceThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
- KNTVKNTVKNTV, channel 11, is the NBC owned-and-operated television station in the Bay Area market. It is licensed to San Jose, with its transmitter located on San Bruno Mountain, just south of San Francisco. It shares facilities in San Jose with NBC Universal sister station KSTS and CNBC's Silicon...
, 11 - NBCNBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, "NBC 11," broadcast from San Bruno Mountain in San Mateo County. - KDTVKDTVKDTV-DT, channel 14, is a Univision-owned and operated station in San Francisco.-History:KDTV began operation in 1975 on channel 60 as the Bay Area's first exclusively Spanish-language TV station. The station was owned by a local group headed by Reynold Anselmo and affiliated with the Spanish...
, 14 - UnivisionUnivisionUnivision is a Spanish-language television network in the United States. It has the largest audience of Spanish language television viewers according to Nielsen ratings. Randy Falco, COO, has been in charge of the company since the departure of Univision Communications president and CEO Joe Uva...
(broadcast from Mount Allison in FremontFremont, CaliforniaFremont is a city in Alameda County, California. It was incorporated on January 23, 1956, from the merger of five smaller communities: Centerville, Niles, Irvington, Mission San Jose, and Warm Springs...
) - KOFY, 20 - independent, "Your TV20"
- KTSFKTSFKTSF is an independent television station serving the San Francisco Bay Area. Although licensed to San Francisco, the station's studio building is located in south suburban Brisbane, California. It is owned by Lincoln Broadcasting Company, and broadcasts its digital signal on UHF channel 27 from a...
, 26 - San Francisco Asian TV - KFTL, 28 - Home Shopping NetworkHome Shopping NetworkHome Shopping Network or HSN began in 1977 as a 24-hour/7 day a week home shopping television network televised via cable, satellite, and some terrestrial channels in the Philippines. HSN can also be shopped online at hsn.com...
- KMTP, 32 - European (German, Italian) and Asian TV
- KICU, 36 - independent, "Action 36, Cable 6" (broadcasted from Monument Peak in Milpitas)
- KCNSKCNSKCNS is a digital television station in San Francisco, California, in the United States, owned by NRJ TV, LLC. It carries programming from the Retro Television Network on its main channel, and programming from Sino TV and Saigon TV on its subchannels. The station operates on 39 digital, covering...
, 38 - independent, "Sino TV" - KBCW, 44 - The CW
- KSTSKSTSKSTS is the NBCUniversal owned and operated Telemundo television station in the San Francisco Bay Area market. The station is located in San Jose, California and broadcasts on digital channel 49. KSTS shares facilities with NBC sister operation KNTV. The new all-digital broadcast center was opened...
, 48 - TelemundoTelemundoTelemundo is an American television network that broadcasts in Spanish. The network is the second-largest Spanish-language content producer in the world, and the second-largest Spanish-language network in the United States, behind Univision....
(broadcast from Mount Allison in FremontFremont, CaliforniaFremont is a city in Alameda County, California. It was incorporated on January 23, 1956, from the merger of five smaller communities: Centerville, Niles, Irvington, Mission San Jose, and Warm Springs...
; shares same antenna as KDTV) - KQEH, 54 - PBSPublic Broadcasting ServiceThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
(broadcast from Monument Peak in Milpitas; shares same antenna as KICU) - KCSMKCSM-TVKCSM-TV, virtual channel 60, is an independent, non-commercial television station located in San Mateo, California, USA. Until 2009, KCSM-TV was a PBS member station...
, 60 - College of San MateoCollege of San MateoCollege of San Mateo is a community college in San Mateo, California. It is part of the San Mateo County Community College District.... - KKPXKKPXKKPX-TV, San Jose, California broadcasts on digital channel 41, serving the San Francisco Bay Area. It is an owned and operated affiliate of the Ion Television network.-History:...
, 65 - Ion Television - KFSF, 66 - TelefuturaTeleFuturaTeleFutura is a U.S. Spanish-language broadcast television network owned by Univision with headquarters in Miami, Florida.-Overview:TeleFutura Is America’s #2 Spanish-Language Network in prime time...
- KTLNKTLN-TVKTLN-TV is a Christian-themed TV station in San Rafael, California, broadcasting on UHF channel 47. KTLN is owned by OTA Broadcasting, LLC, a company controlled by Michael Dell; however, the station is operated under a local marketing agreement by Chicago-based Chistian Communications of...
, 68 - Total Living NetworkTotal Living NetworkTotal Living Network is a religious broadcasting channel based in Aurora, Illinois which carries a wide variety of family and ministry programs, including Ten Keys for Unlocking the Bible; Newsmakers, where leading Christian experts debate issues of interest to the Church; Inspiration Sensation, a...
Communications
Like most other Bay Area cities, USPSUnited States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the United States...
, UPS
United Parcel Service
United Parcel Service, Inc. , typically referred to by the acronym UPS, is a package delivery company. Headquartered in Sandy Springs, Georgia, United States, UPS delivers more than 15 million packages a day to 6.1 million customers in more than 220 countries and territories around the...
, FedEx, and DHL
DHL
DHL Express is a division of the German logistics company Deutsche Post providing international express mail services. DHL is a world market leader in sea and air mail....
are readily available to Milpitas. The USPS post office on Abel Street is Milpitas' main office for postal mail and is the only USPS post office in the city. ZIP code
ZIP Code
ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...
95035 is exclusively for Milpitas and is the only standard ZIP code for the city. 95036 is a new ZIP that is used sometimes for post office box
Post Office box
A post-office box or Post Office box is a uniquely addressable lockable box located on the premises of a post office station....
es in Milpitas. Until the merge with SBC, Milpitas had relied on Pacific Bell
Pacific Bell
The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company was the name of the Bell System's telephone operations in California. It gained in size by acquiring smaller telephone companies along the Pacific coast, such as Sunset Telephone & Telegraph in 1917...
for its telecommunications services. American Telegraph and Telephone (AT&T) acquired Southern Bell (SBC) in 2006 and became the land-line telephone provider in the city. As part of the agreement for the merger of AT&T with SBC, Milpitas residents were offered high speed DSL internet access with AT&T for only $10 per month until December, 2009, although few residents are aware of the offer.
On Earth Day
Earth Day
Earth Day is a day that is intended to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's natural environment. The name and concept of Earth Day was allegedly pioneered by John McConnell in 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco. The first Proclamation of Earth Day was by San Francisco, the...
, April 22, 2009, the public-private partnership Silicon Valley Unwired announced the implementation of a free municipal WiFi
WIFI
WIFI is a radio station broadcasting a brokered format. Licensed to Florence, New Jersey, USA, the station is currently operated by Florence Broadcasting Partners, LLC.This station was previously owned by Real Life Broadcasting...
wireless network for the entire City. It joins the Google WiFi
Google WiFi
Google WiFi is a municipal wireless network deployed in Mountain View, California. It is entirely funded by Google and installed primarily on Mountain View lightposts...
network in Mountain View as the second fully operational municipal wireless network, providing free Internet access to all citizens.
Transportation
From north to south, the major east-west roads in Milpitas are Dixon Landing Road, Jacklin Road, Calaveras Boulevard, and Landess Avenue/Montague Expressway. From east to west, the major north-south roads are Piedmont Road, Evans Road, Park Victoria Drive, Milpitas Boulevard, Main Street, Abel Street, and McCarthy Boulevard. Milpitas roads that reach into the hills are, from north to south, Country Club Drive, Old Calaveras Road, Calaveras Road, and a private ranch drive, the historic Urridias Ranch Road.As with many other Californian suburbs, Milpitas has divided roads that are maintained well by the local city government. Street signs are in green, as opposed to San Jose's blue ones. Like the San Jose public works system, all pedestrians must manually press a button in order to turn the pedestrian signal lights on (unlike the South Bay cities, San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
has automatic pedestrian lights at intersections and does not have "press to cross" buttons for pedestrians).
Not all streets in Milpitas have bicycle lanes or sidewalks. Piedmont Road, Evans Road, and Jacklin Road have excellent bike lanes and sidewalks with ample spacing, but Montague Expressway and South Milpitas Boulevard have limited sidewalks and narrow bike lanes, which causes some problems for workers commuting by bike or on foot. The roads most favorable for recreational jogging and biking are Evans and Piedmont Roads.
State Route 237
California State Route 237
State Route 237 runs from El Camino Real in Mountain View to Interstate 680 in Milpitas. It runs south of the San Francisco Bay, connecting the East Bay to the Peninsula.This route is part of the California Freeway and Expressway System....
, Interstate 680
Interstate 680 (California)
Interstate 680 is a north–south Interstate Highway in Northern California. It curves around the eastern cities of the San Francisco Bay Area from San Jose to Interstate 80 at Cordelia, bypassing cities along the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay such as Oakland and Richmond while serving...
, and Interstate 880 link Milpitas to the rest of the Bay Area. Interstates 680 and 880 lead north to Fremont and south to downtown San Jose. On the other hand, Highway 237 begins at Milpitas and goes west to Sunnyvale
Sunnyvale, California
Sunnyvale is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is one of the major cities that make up the Silicon Valley located in the San Francisco Bay Area...
and Mountain View
Mountain View, California
-Downtown:Mountain View has a pedestrian-friendly downtown centered on Castro Street. The downtown area consists of the seven blocks of Castro Street from the Downtown Mountain View Station transit center in the north to the intersection with El Camino Real in the south...
.
The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority
Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority
The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority is a special-purpose district responsible for public transit services, congestion management, specific highway improvement projects, and countywide transportation planning for Santa Clara County, California, United States...
(VTA) runs light rail
Light rail
Light rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...
(high-speed transit) and local buses for public transportation. VTA bus routes in Milpitas are 46, 47, 66, 70, 71, 77. http://www.vta.org/
The Altamont Commuter Express provides 3 morning express train service towards Milpitas from neighboring cities in San Joaquin and Alameda County, and 3 returning evening trips. Although the nearest stop is located near Great America Park, in San Jose, shuttle busses are provided with stops in Milpitas.
The nearest airports to the city are the Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport
San Jose International Airport
Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport is a city-owned public-use airport serving the city of San Jose in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is named for San Jose native Norman Yoshio Mineta, who was Transportation Secretary in the Cabinet of George W...
(SJC) and Reid-Hillview Airport in East San Jose
East San Jose
East San Jose is the name for several neighborhoods east of downtown San Jose, California. These neighborhoods include:* King and Story* Alum Rock* East Foothills* Little Portugal-Demographics:...
, the latter which is for small private airplanes. Although Milpitas is bordered by the San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
in the extreme northwest, that area is not accessible to ships and boats. Being landlocked, the city depends on the Port of Oakland
Port of Oakland
The Port of Oakland was the first major port on the Pacific Coast of the United States to build terminals for container ships. It is now the fifth busiest container port in the United States, behind Long Beach, Los Angeles, Newark, and Savannah...
for oceangoing freight and on the Union Pacific Railroad
Union Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad , headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, is the largest railroad network in the United States. James R. Young is president, CEO and Chairman....
for cargo transport.
An extension of Bay Area Rapid Transit
Bay Area Rapid Transit
Bay Area Rapid Transit is a rapid transit system serving the San Francisco Bay Area. The heavy-rail public transit and subway system connects San Francisco with cities in the East Bay and suburbs in northern San Mateo County. BART operates five lines on of track with 44 stations in four counties...
from Fremont
Fremont, California
Fremont is a city in Alameda County, California. It was incorporated on January 23, 1956, from the merger of five smaller communities: Centerville, Niles, Irvington, Mission San Jose, and Warm Springs...
to San Jose
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
is being constructed, and will include a major multi-modal station in Milpitas
Milpitas (BART station)
Milpitas BART station also known as Montague station is a future Bay Area Rapid Transit station scheduled to begin construction in the summer of 2012 and open in 2018 in the city of Milpitas, California as part of the Silicon Valley BART extension. It will be both the first BART station in Santa...
that will begin being built in Summer 2012 and open in 2018.
In addition, China Airlines
China Airlines
China Airlines is both the flag carrier and the largest airline of Republic of China . Although not directly state-owned, the airline is owned by China Airlines Group, which is owned by the China Aviation Development Foundation...
operates bus services to San Francisco International Airport
San Francisco International Airport
San Francisco International Airport is a major international airport located south of downtown San Francisco, California, United States, near the cities of Millbrae and San Bruno in unincorporated San Mateo County. It is often referred to as SFO...
from Lion Food Center at 1838 North Milpitas Boulevard to feed its flight to Taipei
Taipei
Taipei City is the capital of the Republic of China and the central city of the largest metropolitan area of Taiwan. Situated at the northern tip of the island, Taipei is located on the Tamsui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean...
, Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
.
Notable Movies featuring Milpitas
The Milpitas Monster was filmed in the town in 1976. Originally started as a high school project it developed into a feature length film. In the quiet town of Milpitas, California, a gigantic creature is spawned in a pollutedPollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...
, overflowing waste disposal
Landfill
A landfill site , is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is the oldest form of waste treatment...
site. The townspeople rally to destroy the creature, which has an uncontrollable desire to consume large quantities of garbage cans.
The movie River's Edge
River's Edge
River's Edge is a 1986 American drama film written by Neal Jimenez and starring Crispin Glover, Keanu Reeves, Ione Skye, Daniel Roebuck, and Dennis Hopper.It was awarded Best Picture from the Independent Spirit Awards in 1986.- Plot :...
was inspired by the true story of a murder that happened in Milpitas in 1981. It is a story about a teenage boy that murders a classmate and shows off the body to his friends. The names and races of the individuals involved were changed. The story was "Hollywood-ized" for dramatic purposes. The filmmakers added stories that did not occur and characters that did not exist. It starred some relatively unknown actors at the time, including Keanu Reeves
Keanu Reeves
Keanu Charles Reeves is a Canadian actor. Reeves is perhaps best known for his roles in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Speed, Point Break and the science fiction-action trilogy The Matrix...
, Crispin Glover
Crispin Glover
Crispin Hellion Glover is an American film actor, director and screenwriter, recording artist, publisher, and author. Glover is known for portraying eccentric people on screen such as George McFly in Back to the Future, Layne in River's Edge, unfriendly recluse Rubin Farr in Rubin and Ed, the...
and Ione Skye
Ione Skye
Ione Skye Lee is an English-born American actress, who became a teen idol after the 1989 movie Say Anything.... In 2006 VH1 placed her at number 84 in the "100 Greatest Teen Stars" list.-Early life:...
, as well as veteran actor Dennis Hopper
Dennis Hopper
Dennis Lee Hopper was an American actor, filmmaker and artist. As a young man, Hopper became interested in acting and eventually became a student of the Actors' Studio. He made his first television appearance in 1954 and appeared in two films featuring James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant...
. The movie was inspired by the murder of Marcy Renee Conrad
Murder of Marcy Renee Conrad
The murder of Marcy Renee Conrad was perpetrated by Anthony Jacques Broussard, a 16-year-old American high school student. Conrad's death gained national attention due to the age of her killer, forcing a re-evaluation of California statutes regarding juvenile sentencing for violent crimes...
who was killed by a fellow teen named Anthony Broussard. He later dumped her body in a ditch in the East foothills of Milpitas.
See also
Physical features:- Monument Peak
- Calaveras ReservoirCalaveras ReservoirCalaveras Reservoir is a lake located primarily in Santa Clara County, California with a small portion and its dam in Alameda County, California. The reservoir has a capacity of . In Spanish, Calaveras means "skulls."...
- Oak Ridge (California)Oak Ridge (California)Oak Ridge in Santa Clara County, California, is a ridge forming the east canyon wall of Arroyo Hondo, which drains into Calaveras Reservoir. Black Mountain is its highest point. The first known white settlers on Oak Ridge were the Parks family, who ran cattle on the ridge...
- Arroyo Hondo (Santa Clara County, California)Arroyo Hondo (Santa Clara County, California)Arroyo Hondo is a river in Santa Clara County, California, United States, that lies east of Milpitas. The area is privately owned by the San Francisco Water Department and is closed to public access because of its usage as drinking water. Bounded to the east by Oak Ridge and to the west by Poverty...
- Black Mountain (near Milpitas, California)Black Mountain (near Milpitas, California)Black Mountain, also known as Mount Day, is a mountain in the Diablo Range of eastern Santa Clara County, California, east of Poverty Ridge and Arroyo Hondo, and about from Milpitas....
- Berryessa CreekBerryessa CreekBerryessa Creek is a seasonal creek in northeastern San Jose and Milpitas. Its main source is located in the Los Buellis Hills slightly west of Felter Road. Berryessa Creek has many tributaries, including Piedmont Creek, Calera Creek, and Penitencia Creek. In the summer, Berryessa Creek is mostly...
Similar name:
- Milpitas Ranchhouse, an historic hotel in Monterey County