Milpitas Apartments
Milpitas is a city in Santa Clara County, California. Milpitas is usually considered to be a small northern suburb of San Jose. It is located with San Jose to its south and Fremont to its north, at the eastern end of Highway 237 and near the southern ends of Interstates 680 and 880. 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”, a region of “hi-tech” computer businesses and industries. The corporate headquarters of Maxtor, PalmOne, Sipex, LSI Logic, Solectron and Adaptec sit within the industrial zones of Milpitas.
The name Milpitas is a variation of the plural diminutive of milpa, a Mexican Spanish word for “corn field.” The proper diminutive form of milpa, though, is actually milpilla, not milpita. Thus, in Mexico, several towns and villages have the name Milpillas, but there is no Milpitas in Mexico. The word milpa is a word dervied from Nahuatl milli, meaning “agricultural field” and pan. meaning “on.” The name Milpitas literally means “little cornfields,” reflecting the farming background of the area. The name was originally given to a rancho in the southern half of the modern-day city, but the name was later given to the entire surrounding area.
Milpitas is a middle-class suburban community that is demographically similar to Berryessa and Evergreen Valley. Like Berryessa and Evergreen Valley, Milpitas has a large middle-class Vietnamese American population. Other significant ethnic groups, respectively in size, are Filipino Americans, Latinos, Caucasians, Chinese Americans, African Americans, and Samoans.
Milpitas is divided into three sections by Interstates 680 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 a busy downtown zone with many retailers and restaurants. The busier parts of Milpitas can be considered to be the section of Calaveras Boulevard west of Main Street and reaching all the way to Highway 237. The so-called “Midtown” region, the oldest part of Milpitas, has many 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. A USPS post office, Saint John the Baptist’s Elementary & Junior High Catholic School, the Senior Center, and Elmwood Correctional Facility are all in the Midtown section of Milpitas. The Milpitas Civic Center, which includes the City Hall and local branch of the Santa Clara County Library, 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 and the Union Pacific railroad, which runs from north to south.
