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For other places in California called “Mountain View”, see Mountain View, California (disambiguation).

Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, in the U.S. state of California, USA. The city gets its name from the views of the Santa Cruz Mountains. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 70,708. It is one of the major cities that make up Silicon Valley. Google headquarters (the Googleplex), the Mozilla Foundation/Mozilla Corporation, Microsoft’s MSN/Hotmail/Xbox/MSNTV divisions, Intuit, Silicon Graphics and NASA Ames Research Center are just a few of the high tech institutions that are located in Mountain View. Mountain View is the first city in the United States which will be entirely covered by a free wireless Internet access network provided by Google. The antennas are being installed at this time.

Geography

Mountain View is located at (37.392640, −122.082023).

Mountain View is located at the north end of Highway 85, where it meets Highway 101. The historic route El Camino Real also runs through Mountain View.

Mountain View is bounded to the northwest by Palo Alto, to the southwest by Los Altos, to the southeast by Sunnyvale, and to the northeast by the San Francisco Bay.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 31.7 km² (12.2 mi²). 31.2 km² (12.1 mi²) of it is land and 0.4 km² (0.2 mi²) of it (1.39%) is water.

History

After the former rancho of Don Mariano Castro was split, the south eventually became the city of Sunnyvale, and the north became Mountain View. The town began as a stage stop on the route between San Francisco and San Jose (corresponding to El Camino Real), close to present-day Grant Road. With the coming of the railroad, the center of town eventually moved to its current location at Castro Street.

Much of Mountain View was agricultural through the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. Row crops and orchards were common during this era when there was open space between Palo Alto and Mountain View. In Bittersweet: memories of Old Mountain View, an oral history, residents of Japanese ancestry recall their family's strawberry fields adjoining Moffett Field. Orchards lined much of Grant Road and Miramonte. In the early 1900s, grapes were a common crop in the area of present-day Continental Circle. Phylloxera ended grape production in Mountain View in the early 1900s.

During the Cold War, the drone of turboprop aircraft was a constant presence. The horns of railroad locomotives were also frequently heard.

The El Camino Hospital District, a government entity called a Special District under the California Government Code, came to life in the 1960s. The hospital facility at 2500 Grant Road has been in continual operation since.

The preponderance of persons using the term Silicon Valley would include Mountain View in that region. An early Silicon Valley company was Fairchild Camera and Instrument Company, located along Whisman Road. Several of Intel's founders came from Fairchild. Local watering holes for workers included Chubby's Broiler (which once stood at Ellis and Whisman) and Walker's Wagon Wheel on Middlefield Road near Whisman. Folklore was that semiconductor pioneers were collaborative and met at the Wagon Wheel to discuss problems they were having with production. Things are more competitive and proprietary today.

In late 1997, as part of a major area code relief in the Bay Area, Mountain View's area code was switched from (415) to (650).

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 70,708 people, 31,242 households, and 15,902 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,263.7/km² (5,861.4/mi²). There were 32,432 housing units at an average density of 1,038.3/km² (2,688.5/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 63.77% White, 2.53% African American, 0.39% Native American, 20.67% Asian, 0.26% Pacific Islander, 8.32% from other races, and 4.07% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 18.26% of the population.

There were 31,242 households out of which 21.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.0% were married couples living together, 7.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 49.1% were non-families. 35.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.25 and the average family size was 2.97.

In the city the population was spread out with 18.0% under the age of 18, 8.3% from 18 to 24, 43.4% from 25 to 44, 19.8% from 45 to 64, and 10.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 106.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 106.9 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $69,362, and the median income for a family was $80,379. Males had a median income of $64,585 versus $44,358 for females. The per capita income for the city was $39,693. About 3.6% of families and 6.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.2% of those under age 18 and 5.9% of those age 65 or over.

Government

Mountain View has a council-manager government system. An executive city manager is in charge of several departments, while the city council, supported by several boards, commissions, and committees, is the legislature responsible for the ordinances of the city code. The executive in turn enforces the code and promulgates administrative regulations to execute it. The city clerk and attorney perform supporting roles. The Community Development Department is the agency responsible for planning and zoning.

Scandals

In April, 2002, after five years of conflict, former mayor Mario Ambra was found guilty of misconduct and removed from office for directly ordering city employees instead of going through the city manager.

In May, 2004, the husband of the head of the city's garbage company and president of the Chamber of Commerce's board of directors accused City Attorney Michael Martello of lying to council members about his extramarital affair with her, and misusing city funds in supporting a budget that included an 8.95% increase totaling over $740,000 for the garbage company. Martello was cleared of wrongdoing after sixteen city employees said that he "had no involvement with the increased garbage fees or any other matters involving ... the Chamber of Commerce." The City Attorney's Office drafts contracts pertaining to the City's business. *

Schools

Beginning with the 2006-2007 school year, Mountain View will have twelve public and eight private schools. The public elementary and middle schools (with the exception of Springer Elementary) are governed by the Mountain View-Whisman School District: Bubb Elementary, Castro Elementary, Crittenden Middle, Graham Middle, Huff Elementary, Landels Elementary, Monta Loma Elementary, Slater Elementary, and Theuerkauf Elementary. Springer Elementary, located withing the city's borders, is governed by the Los Altos Elementary School District. The public high schools are governed by the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District: Alta Vista High and Mountain View High.

Mountain View-Whisman School District students
qualified for free and reduced-price lunches
Year Enrollment Free Reduced
1999-0 4710 n/a n/a
2003-4 4418 1375 (28%) 454 (10%)
2004-5 4391 1593 (37%) 435 (10%)
2005-6 4313 1898 (44%*) 409 (11%)
Source: MVWSD/Sodexho Food Service Dept., November, 2005
and 2005-6 General Fund Budget Assumptions Presentation
* inconsistent percentage values verbatim in source

Recently, the elementary schools in Mountain View have suffered declining enrollment. While the number of students qualified for free lunches (economically disadvantaged students) has increased substantially, those qualifying for reduced-price lunches has remained about constant. Therefore, most of the loss of students has primarily been due to economically advantaged students from wealthy families fleeing to private schools. (Note: this is conjecture, it has never been investigated or verified. Declining enrollment is a widespread problem throughout California's public school districts, and is due to a wide variety of factors.) Instead of seeking to raise funds to reduce the class size ratio from 20.4 to that of, for example, the neighboring Palo Alto Unified school district's 16.9 well-performing Slater Elementary School instead. *" target="_blank" >[http://www.mv-voice.com/morgue/2005/2005_02_11.slater.shtml (Note also that the assessment data shown at the referenced link is from 1999; Slater's API numbers were considerably lower, on average, in the years from 2001 through 2004. Full assessment data for several years for each school in the district, including disaggregated data for each subgroup, can be viewed at the California Department of Education website. Regardless, the API numbers were not used in the decision to close a school. The comment regarding deciding not to raise funds to reduce class sizes is irrelevant. This was never a factor nor an issue in the process of school consolidation. Also, the author fails to note that Palo Alto Unified operates under a different funding model (Basic Aid), and therefore has several thousand dollars more per student it its annual budget than does Mountain View-Whisman (a Revenue Limit district), allowing them to have far smaller class sizes than the vast majority of districts in the state. The Mountain View-Los Altos High School district is also a Basic Aid district, with significantly more money to spend per student than the elementary school district.)

Google has leased the former Slater Elementary for use as a private daycare and preschool. * This arrangement provides for a short-term Joint Use Agreement, allowing the district to regain access to the school in 5 years should enrollment increase.

Libraries

Mountain View has one public library.

Transportation

Mountain View is served by the Caltrain rail system, which runs from San Francisco to Gilroy. It also served by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, including various bus lines and the Mountain View - Winchester light rail line.

Moffett Federal Airfield is located just north of Mountain View, but its use is restricted to aeromedical, government and military users. The nearest major airports are in San Jose (SJC) and San Francisco (SFO). The nearest general aviation airport is the Palo Alto Airport of Santa Clara County.

Notable features

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Mountain View, California".

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