Foster City Apartments
Foster City Apartment Listings
Foster City is an affluent planned city located in San Mateo County, California. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 28,803.
Foster City was founded in the 1960s on engineered landfill in the marshes of the San Francisco Bay, on the east edge of San Mateo. The city was named after T. Jack Foster, a real estate magnate who owned much of the land comprising the city and who was instrumental in the initial design. His successor firm, Foster Enterprises, run by his descendants, is still active in real estate affairs throughout the San Francisco Bay area.
Foster City is home to four public elementary schools in the San Mateo-Foster City Elementary School District: Foster City Elementary School, Brewer Island Elementary School, and Audubon Elementary School serve kindergarten through fifth grades. Nathaniel Bowditch Middle School serves 6th through 8th grades. There are several private preschools and elementary schools through 5th grade. There is a separate High School District: San Mateo Union High School District. There is no high school located east of Highway 101 so Foster City high school students attend the public schools in the San Mateo Union High School District and other private high schools in San Mateo County. There is an effort on the way to establish a Charter Public High School in Foster City as part of the community center. However, such efforts have received little recognition and have advanced little since their first proposal.
Of the four public schools in Foster City, Audubon School, Foster City School, and Bowditch Middle School have won California Distinguished School awards. In 1993, Bowditch was recognized with the U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon. In 2005, Bowditch became a California Distinguished School for the second time.
Foster City is the home to the world headquarters of Visa International, the main corporate body of the Visa payment card organization. Additional offices for the Visa USA corporate headquarters, opened in San Francisco in 1999, but were closed in 2006.
Foster City is also the headquarters of Applied Biosystems, Electronics for Imaging and Gilead Sciences. Sony Computer Entertainment America’s headquarters are in Foster City. The Picture People is headquartered in Foster City. The For Dummies series of instructional books is headquartered in Foster City.
As a planned community, Foster City was made for recreation. It boasts 19 parks made up of more than 100 acres, including many public tennis courts, baseball and soccer fields, basketball courts, and a levee along the San Francisco Bay. Foster City also maintains an extensive 212-acre, man-made enclosed lagoon system. A world-class windsurfing spot in the San Francisco Bay can be found within the city limits of Foster City. There is one 9-hole golf course. Additionally, the Bay Area Dragons Dragon boat and Ho’okahi Pu’uwai Outrigger Canoe clubs operate in the lagoon.
