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Cupertino Information
Cupertino is a suburban city in Santa Clara County, California, USA, on the
western edge of the Santa Clara Valley with portions extending into the
foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The population was 50,546 at the 2000
census.
Notable natives and residents of Cupertino include Primus drummer Brian Mantia,
actor Aaron Eckhart, and former NBA player and current assistant coach of the
Los Angeles Lakers Kurt Rambis. Cupertino is also the location of the
world-renowned technology company Apple Inc.
Cupertino in the 1800s was originally a small rural village at the crossroads of
the Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road and Stevens Creek Road. Back then, it was known as
the West Side and was part of the Fremont Township. The primary economical
activity was fruit agriculture. Almost all of the land within Cupertino's
present-day boundaries were covered by plum, apricot, and cherry orchards. A
winery on Montebello Ridge overlooking the Cupertino valley region was also
operating by the late 1800s.
Soon, railroads, electric railways, and dirt roads traversed the West Side
farmlands. Monta Vista, Cupertino's first housing tract, was developed in the
mid-1900s as a result of the electric railway's construction.
After World War II, a population and suburban housing boom dramatically shifted
the demographics and economy of the Santa Clara Valley as the "Valley of Heart's
Delight" was beginning to convert into the "Silicon Valley". In 1954, Cupertino
leaders began to drive for incorporation as they were concerned about unplanned
development and rising property taxes. In the September 27, 1955 election,
voters approved the incorporation of the City of Cupertino. Cupertino officially
became Santa Clara County's 13th City on October 10, 1955.
A major milestone in Cupertino's development was the creation by some of the
city's largest landowners of VALLCO Business and Industrial Park in the early
1960s. Of the 25 property owners, 17 decided to pool their land to form VALLCO
Park, 6 sold to Varian Associates (property later sold to Hewlett-Packard), and
two opted for transplanting to farms elsewhere. The name VALLCO was derived from
the names of the principal developers: Varian Associates and the Leonard,
Lester, Craft, and Orlando families. A neighborhood shopping center and, much
later, the Vallco Fashion Park were also developed. Apple Computer, Symantec,
and Portal Software also built their headquarters in Cupertino.
De Anza College soon opened. The college, named for Juan Bautista De Anza,
occupies a 112-acre site that was the location of another winery built at the
turn of the last century, called Beaulieu by its owners, Charles and Ella
Baldwin. Their mansion has now become the California History Center. De Anza
College then accumulated a total of 26,000 students and became the hub of
activity in the city.
Housing developments were rapidly constructed in the following years as
developers created many neighborhoods, including Fairgrove, Garden Gate, Monta
Vista, and many other developments. Although originally low-cost housing,
Silicon Valley's housing prices shot up dramatically as many houses that were
formerly priced under $100,000 became million-dollar homes. The high cost of
living in Cupertino can be seen in that neighborhoods with a median household
income of $90,000 or $100,000 may have small, one-story houses that average
1,000 to 1,500 square feet in living space area.
The Cupertino region is mainly suburban residential and technical-industrial
with a relatively high standard of living. The two main thoroughfares are
Stevens Creek Boulevard, which runs east-west, and De Anza Boulevard, which runs
north-south.
Because Cupertino has developed so quickly since the 1960s, it has never
developed a true downtown or Main Street. Instead, the major streets are lined
with strip malls, shopping centers, offices and fast food restaurants.
The closest equivalent to a downtown is the busy intersection of Stevens Creek
and De Anza Boulevards, known as the Crossroads, where Cupertino first started.
It is currently bordered by two open-air shopping centers, two gas stations, and
the high-rise Cupertino City Center mixed-use complex at Cali Mill Plaza (with
offices, newly built condominiums, Le Boulanger Bakery, Armadillo Willy's
Steakhouse, and Cypress Hotel).
The goal of developing a true downtown has been regularly debated by the City
Council ever since the city was incorporated in 1955. The city recently
completed an update to its General Plan, which includes plans to move Cupertino
to a more pedestrian-oriented community. Several more pedestrian-oriented
developments are being proposed or built throughout the city.
Large mansions and undeveloped lands occupy the foothills of the Santa Cruz
Mountains. Major roads in the hills include Foothill Boulevard, Prospect Road,
Regnart Road, and Rainbow Drive. The Permanente Cement Plant, now operated by
Hanson PLC, founded in the 1930s, is located on the western end of Stevens Creek
Boulevard in the foothills.
Cupertino is sometimes referred to as the "heart" of Silicon Valley, as the
worldwide headquarters for Apple (the creator of the Apple Macintosh and the
iPod) is located here in a modern complex circled by the playfully named
Infinite Loop. Apple has also recently announced that it will be building a new
50-acre campus along Interstate 280 near Pruneridge Rd. -- across the street
from the 100-acre HP parcel. Other companies headquartered in Cupertino include
Borland, NetManage, Packeteer, Portal Software, and Symantec. Over 60 high-tech
companies have offices here, including Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Sun
Microsystems. Most of these hi-tech companies are located on De Anza Boulvevard,
Cali Mill Plaza, and Bubb Road.
Though Cupertino is home to the headquarters of many high-tech companies, very
little manufacturing actually takes place in the city. The city's large office
parks are primarily dedicated to management and design functions.
Earlier in its history Cupertino attributed some of its city income from Vallco
Fashion Park (see above), at the time one of the only major indoor shopping
malls in the South Bay area. People from the greater South Bay area would come
to spend money and contribute to the sales tax. Since then, several other
shopping malls have sprung up; Valley Fair (now known as Westfield Shoppingtown)
in San Jose, caters to the high end, expensive name brand boutique stores, while
the Great Mall in Milpitas in the 1990s opened to the low-priced and bargain
retailers. Vallco Fashion Park was hit hard by these developments, as well as
the loss of one of its anchor stores, Emporium, and has had a hard time
recovering ever since.
In 2002, Cupertino had a labor force of 25,780 with an unemployment rate of
4.5%. The unemployment rate for the Santa Clara County as a whole was 8.4%.
An industrial operation, which includes a cement kiln, operates in the foothills
west of Cupertino. The gravel quarry and Kiln, run by Hanson PLC (formerly
Kaiser Cement), were started in the 40's to supply cement for the War effort.
State regulations require a study of emissions from the kiln. A three-volume
report describing health risks, Air Toxic "Hot Spots" - AB2588: Health Risks
Assessment, (Sacramento, California: Radian Corporation, 1991), has been
compiled. The report describes health risks associated with particulate and
chemical fallout. Maps showing areas affected by health risks extend as far as
Monterey Bay and San Ramon. The study evaluates risks of exposure to Arsenic,
Cadmium, Mercury, Nickel, Crystalline Silica, Benzene, Benzo(a)pyrene,
Formaldehyde, and Hydrogen Chloride resulting from operations at the facility.
Emissions from the facility are regulated by agencies including the Bay Area Air
Quality Management District.
Some Things to Consider When Looking for an Apartment...
When searching for a new apartment make sure to take your time to think
through what are the most important things to you in an apartment and plan your
search based on those priorities. Here are some things to consider when planning
your move:
1. Consider the areas where you would like to live
* What is the crime rate?
* If you have children - what rating does the local school system have?
* Is there area convenient shopping, health and recreation services in the area?
2. Make a list of your housing priorities
* Do you have pets?
* Do you need parking?
* Do you need to be on the ground floor?
* What amenities are important to you - swimming pool, fitness room, in unit
laundry?
3. Evaluate the building
* What is the condition of the unit and building?
* Are the grounds maintained?
* Are windows, steps, and railings in good condition?
* View the property at night. Is it safe and well lit?
4. The security of the property
* Are there security service? When is the guard on duty?
* Does the building have controlled access?
* Does each unit have secure door and window locks?
5. Talk to the neighbors
* Ask other residents whether they are satisfied with the building.
6. Amenities
* Who is allowed to use the amenities?
* When are they open?
* Are the fees charged to use those facilities included in rent?
7. Ask about Utilities
* Does the owner or tenant pay the utility bills?
* Are any utilities included with monthly rent?
* Do units have separate thermostats to control heat and air conditioning?
8. Review the lease
* How much notice must you give before moving out?
* Can the rent be increased? If so, by how much and how often?
* Are pets allowed?
* What is the security deposit and cleaning costs upon move out?
* What is the responsibility of tenants for damage to property?
* Is there a penalty for breaking a lease?
9. Information too bring to a lease signing
* Credit Report
* Pay stubs/tax returns
* Reference
* Application
More Apartment Information
An apartment (or flat in Britain and most other Commonwealth countries) is a
self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building. Apartments
may be owned (by an owner-occupier) or rented (by tenants).
Some apartment-dwellers own their apartments, either as co-ops, in which the
residents own shares of a corporation that owns the building or development; or
in condominiums, whose residents own their apartments and share ownership of the
public spaces. Most apartments are in buildings designed for the purpose, but
large older houses are sometimes divided into apartments. The word apartment
connotes a residential unit or section in a building. Apartment building owners,
lessors, or managers often use the more general word units to refer to
apartments. Units can be used to refer to rental business suites as well as
residential apartments. When there is no tenant occupying an apartment, the
lessor is said to have a vacancy. For apartment lessors, each vacancy represents
a loss of income from rent-paying tenants for the time the apartment is vacant
(i.e., unoccupied). Lessors' objectives are often to minimize the vacancy rate
for their units. The owner of the apartment typically transfers possession to
the occupant by giving him/her the key to the apartment entrance door and any
other keys need to live there, such as a common key to the building or any other
common areas, and an individual unit mailbox key. When the occupant move out,
these keys should typically be returned to the owner.
Apartments can be classified into several types. Studio, efficiency, bed-sit, or
bachelor apartments tend to be the smallest apartments with the cheapest rents
in a given area. These kinds of apartment usually consist mainly of a large room
which is the living, dining, and bedroom combined. There are usually kitchen
facilities as part of this central room, but the bathroom is its own smaller
separate room. Moving up from the efficiencies are one-bedroom apartments where
one bedroom is a separate room from the rest of the apartment. Then there are
two-bedroom, three-bedroom, etc. apartments. Small apartments often have only
one entrance/exit. Large apartments often have two entrances/exits, perhaps a
door in the front and another in the back. Depending on the building design, the
entrance/exit doors may be directly to the outside or to a common area inside,
such as a hallway. Depending on location, apartments may be available for rent
furnished with furniture or unfurnished into which a tenant usually moves in
with his/her own furniture. Permanent carpeting is often included in an
apartment.
Laundry facilities are usually kept in a separate area accessible to all the
tenants in the building. Depending on when the building was built and the design
of the building, utilities such as water, heating, and electric may be common
for all the apartments in the building or separate for each apartment and billed
separately to each tenant (however, many areas in the US have ruled it illegal
to split a water bill among all the tenants, especially if a pool is on the
premises). Outlets for connection to telephones are typically included in
apartments. Telephone service is optional and is practically always billed
separately from the rent payments. Cable television and similar amenities are
extra also. Parking space, air conditioner, and extra storage space may or may
not be included with an apartment. Rental leases often limit the maximum number
of people who can reside in each apartment. On or around the ground floor of the
apartment building, a series of mailboxes are typically kept in a location
accessible to the public and, thus, to the letter-carrier too. Every unit
typically gets its own mailbox with individual keys to it. Some very large
apartment buildings with a full-time staff may take mail from the mailman and
provide mail-sorting service. Near the mailboxes or some other location
accessible by outsiders, there may be a buzzer (equivalent to a doorbell) for
each individual unit. In smaller apartment buildings such as two- or
three-flats, or even four-flats, garbage is often disposed of in trash
containers similar to those used at houses. In larger buildings, garbage is
often collected in a common trash bin or dumpster. For cleanliness or minimizing
noise, many lessors will place restrictions on tenants regarding keeping pets in
an apartment.
In some parts of the world, the word apartment is used generally to refer to a
new purpose-built self-contained residential unit in a building, whereas the
word flat means a converted self-contained unit in an older building. An
industrial, warehouse, or commercial space converted to an apartment is commonly
called a loft.
When part of a house is converted for the ostensible use of a landlord's family
member, the unit may be known as an in-law apartment or granny flat, though
these (sometimes illegally) created units are often occupied by ordinary renters
rather than family members. In Canada these suites are commonly located in the
basements of houses and are therefore normally called basement suites.
Staying in privately owned apartments rather than in a hotel is quickly becoming
popular with travelers.