San José California: The heart of Silicon Valley

San Jose, like most of the Bay Area, has a Mediterranean climate. Unlike San Francisco, which is exposed to the ocean or Bay on three sides and whose temperature therefore varies relatively little year-round and overnight, San Jose lies farther inland, protected on three sides by mountains. This shelters the city from rain and makes it more of a semiarid, near-desert area, with a mean annual rainfall of 14.4 inches (366 mm), compared to some other parts of the Bay Area, which can get up to four times that amount. It also avoids San Francisco's omnipresent fog most of the year.

Like most of the Bay Area, San Jose is made up of dozens of microclimates. Downtown San Jose experiences the lightest rainfall in the city, while South San Jose, only 10 miles (16 km) distant, experiences more rainfall and slightly more extreme temperatures.

Economy

The large concentration of high-technology engineering, computer, and microprocessor companies around San Jose has led the area to be known as Silicon Valley. As the largest city in the valley, San Jose has billed itself "the capital of Silicon Valley." Area schools such as the University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Santa Cruz, San José State University, San Francisco State University, California State University, East Bay, Santa Clara University, and Stanford University pump thousands of engineering and computer science graduates into the local economy every year.

High economic growth during the tech bubble caused employment, housing prices, and traffic congestion to peak in the late 1990s. As the economy slowed in the early 2000s, employment and traffic congestion diminished somewhat. In the mid-2000s, traffic along major highways again began to worsen as the economy improved. San Jose had 405,000 jobs within its city limits in 2006, and an unemployment rate of 4.6%. In 2000, San Jose residents had the highest median household income of any city with a population over 300,000, and currently has the highest median income of any city with over 280,000 people.

San Jose lists 25 companies with 1,000 employees or more, including the headquarters of Adobe Systems, BEA Systems, Cisco, SunPower and eBay, as well as major facilities for Flextronics, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Hitachi and Lockheed Martin. Sizable government employers include the city government, Santa Clara County, and San José State University.

The cost of living in San Jose and the surrounding areas is among the highest in California and the nation. Housing costs are the primary reason for the high cost of living, although the costs in all areas tracked by ACCRA are above the national average. Despite the high cost of living in San Jose, households in city limits have the highest disposable income of any city in the U.S. with over 500,000 residents.

San Jose residents produce more U.S. patents than any other city. Thirty-five percent of all venture capital funds in the U.S. are invested in San Jose and Silicon Valley companies.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 894,943 people, 276,598 households, and 203,576 families residing in the city. The population density was 5,117.9 people per square mile (1,976.1/km²). There were 281,841 housing units at an average density of 1,611.8 per square mile (622.3/km²). Of the 276,598 households, 38.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.0% were married couples living together, 11.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.4% were non-families. 18.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.20 and the average family size was 3.62.

In the city the population was spread out with 26.4% under the age of 18, 9.9% from 18 to 24, 35.4% from 25 to 44, 20.0% from 45 to 64, and 8.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 103.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 102.5 males.

According to a 2007 estimate, the median income for a household in the city was the highest in the US for any city with more than a quarter million residents with $76,354 annually. The median income for a family was $85,816. Males had a median income of $49,347 versus $36,936 for females. The per capita income for the city was $26,697. About 6.0% of families and 8.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 10.3% of those under age 18 and 7.4% of those age 65 or over.

At the 2007 U.S. Census estimates, the city's population was:

* 51.9% White (31.7% non-Hispanic-White alone)
* 3.8% Black or African American
* 1.1% American Indian and Alaska Native,
* 32.5% Asian
* 0.6% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander
* 13.5% from some other race
* 3.2% from two or more races
* 31.3% Hispanic or Latino of any race.

According to the United States Census Bureau, San Jose's population on January 1, 2007 was 939,899, third in the state behind Los Angeles and San Diego. The estimate indicated a growth of 1.6 percent from the previous year. According to United States Census Bureau estimates, as of July 1, 2008, San Jose had a population of 939,899, making it the tenth most populous city in the United States.

San Jose has a very diverse religious life with thousands of churches, mosques, temples, and religious centers. San Jose and the rest of the San Francisco Bay Area is home to many Christian congregations (including large, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses) alongside centers of Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist and Sikh faiths among numerous other religious communities.

When it comes to dealing with such a diverse demographic, San Jose has a relatively easy situation with race relations. A high percentage of foreign-born live in the city, including many high-tech workers from East and South Asia. The people from these countries have settled in the city and across the Santa Clara Valley during the last three decades. Many Central American, Southeast Asian and Eastern European immigrants have lived in San Jose since the late 1970s and early 1980s. A large, multi-generational Hispanic barrio is in the Alum Rock district. Many Chinese Americans and Japanese Americans thrive downtown on the streets of Guadalupe and Almaden.

San Jose has the distinction of being the U.S. city with the largest Vietnamese American population, with about 9% of the city population identifying as Vietnamese according to the 2000 census. Municipal signs and brochures are sometimes displayed in Vietnamese language in addition to English and Spanish. In an effort to cater to this demographic, the San Jose Mercury News published a Vietnamese-language newspaper from 1999–2005 called Viet Mercury.

Utilities

Potable water is provided primarily by the private-sector San Jose Water Company, with some by the Great Oaks Water Company, and ten percent by the public-sector San Jose Municipal Water System. Great Oaks provides exclusively well water, while the other two provide water from multiple sources, including well water, and surface water from the Los Gatos Creek watershed, Santa Clara Valley Water District, and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission's Hetch Hetchy reservoir.

Garbage, wastewater treatment, and recycling services are overseen by the city of San Jose's Environmental Services Department. San Jose recycles 64% of its waste, an exceptionally high percentage that is attributed to the recycling program's accepting an unusually long list of recyclable items without requiring that materials be sorted. Among the items accepted are all types of plastic, aerosol cans and paint cans, foam packing materials, aluminum furniture, small metal appliances, pots and pans, and clean fabrics.

Wastewater treatment happens at the San Jose/Santa Clara Water Pollution Control Plant, which treats and cleans the wastewater of the more than 1,500,000 people that live and work in the 300 square mile (780 km²) area encompassing San Jose, Santa Clara, Milpitas, Campbell, Cupertino, Los Gatos, Saratoga, and Monte Sereno.

About ten percent of the treated wastewater is sold for irrigation ("water recycling") in San Jose, Santa Clara, and Milpitas, through local water providers San Jose Municipal Water System, City of Milpitas Municipal Services, City of Santa Clara Water & Sewer Utility, Santa Clara Valley Water District, San Jose Water Company, and Great Oaks Water Company.

Natural gas and electricity are provided by PG&E. Telephone service is provided primarily by AT&T. Cable television is provided by Comcast.

Education

Colleges and universities

San Jose is home to several colleges and universities. The largest and most well known is San José State University, which was founded by the California Legislature in 1862 as the California State Normal School and is the original campus of the California State University system. Located in downtown San Jose since 1870, the university's 30,000 students in bachelor's and master's degree programs are primarily commuters from many areas in the South Bay. National Hispanic University, with an enrollment of 600, offers associate and bachelor's degrees and teaching credentials to its students, focusing on Hispanic students. Lincoln Law School of San Jose offers law degrees, catering to working professionals. The San Jose campus of Golden Gate University offers business bachelor and MBA degrees. San Jose's community colleges, San Jose City College and Evergreen Valley College, offer associate degrees, general education units to transfer to CSU and UC schools, and adult and continuing education programs. The West campus of Palmer College of Chiropractic is also located in San Jose.

The University of California, Santa Cruz operates Lick Observatory atop Mount Hamilton. In addition, San Jose residents attend several other area universities, including Santa Clara University, Stanford University in Palo Alto, Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley in Mountain View and the University of California, Berkeley. Additionally, San Jose and South Bay residents also comprise large sections of the student population at both the University of California, Santa Cruz and the University of California, Davis.

Primary and secondary education

Most San Jose students go to schools in the San Jose Unified School District. Prior to 1954, California law required cities and school districts to have the same boundaries. When San Jose began expanding, rural school districts became one of the major opponents, as their territory and tax base was taken by the city. The city's legislators pushed a bill through the California Legislature, removing that requirement, and ending much of the opposition. The result is a patchwork of local school districts in the areas annexed after 1954.[14] Public education in the city is provided by four high school districts, fourteen elementary districts, and four unified school districts (which provide both elementary and high schools).

In addition to the main San Jose Unified School District, the unified school districts are Milpitas Unified School District, Morgan Hill Unified School District, and Santa Clara Unified School District.

The following districts use the "feeder" system:

* Campbell Union High School District receives students from:
o Cambrian
o Campbell Union
o Luther Burbank
o Moreland
o Union School District.
* East Side Union High School District receives students from:
o Alum Rock Union
o Berryessa Union
o Evergreen Elementary
o Franklin-McKinley
o Mount Pleasant Elementary
o Oak Grove
o Orchard Elementary
* Fremont Union High School District receives students from:
o Cupertino Union School District.
* Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District receives students from
o Los Gatos Union School District.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Library

Private schools in San Jose are primarily run by religious groups. The Catholic Diocese of San Jose has the second largest student population in the Santa Clara County, behind only SJUSD; the diocese and its parishes operate several schools in the city, including four high schools: Archbishop Mitty High School, Bellarmine College Preparatory, Notre Dame High School, and Presentation High School. There are two Baptist high schools, Liberty Baptist School and White Road Baptist Academy. Valley Christian High School is a Protestant high school in the North Valley neighborhood. There is also the nonsectarian K-12 Harker School.

Source: Wikipedia