Sunnyvale
Sunnyvale is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is one of the major cities that make up the Silicon Valley. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 131,760.
The city is bordered by the San Francisco Bay and portions of San Jose to the north, Moffett Federal Airfield to the northwest, Mountain View to the west, Los Altos to the southwest, Cupertino to the south, and Santa Clara to the east. It lies along the historic El Camino Real and Highway 101.
As part of the Silicon Valley, Sunnyvale is headquarters to several high-tech companies such as Maxim Integrated Products, Juniper Networks, Palm, Inc., AMD, NetApp, Spansion, Yahoo!, Mirapoint, and Ariba. Sunnyvale is also home to several aerospace/defense companies; Lockheed Martin has a major facility in Sunnyvale, and Honeywell, Northrop Grumman Electronic Systems - Marine Systems (location of the Hendy Iron Works Museum), and Spirent Communications also have offices in Sunnyvale. Sunnyvale is also the home to Onizuka Air Force Station, where its main building, locally known as the Blue Cube, is its most prominent feature. The base, named for the deceased Space Shuttle Challenger astronaut Ellison Onizuka, is the primary artificial satellite control facility of the United States armed forces.
Sunnyvale is one of the few U.S. cities to have a single unified Department of Public Safety, where all personnel are trained as firefighters, police officers, and EMTs, so they can respond to an emergency in any of the three roles.
Library services for the city are provided by the Sunnyvale Public Library, located at the Sunnyvale Civic Center.
Mountain View
Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, in the U.S. state of California. 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.
Mountain View has a pedestrian-friendly downtown along Castro Street that is about six blocks long, next to the Caltrain station. The police station, which is home to some roosters, is two blocks away on Villa Street. Going south towards El Camino Real, there are four blocks of restaurants and shops. Asian and Indian restaurants are abundant, but there are many types of cuisine to choose from. Chez TJ, one of the few restaurants rated by the prestigious Michelin Guide in the Bay Area, is located in downtown Mtn View, just off Castro Street. The Tied House was one of the first brewpubs to open in the Bay Area, and remains a popular stop in downtown. Kapps Pizza displays many photographs of the downtown from 100 years ago.
The core of downtown is the plaza shared by City Hall, the Mountain View Center for Performing Arts and the award-winning Mountain View Public Library. Behind those buildings is Pioneer Park, which enjoys a quiet environment resulting from the City Hall building blocking out the noise from Castro Street. The Plaza between City Hall and the Performing Arts Center is a well-used spot for community gatherings and events, and features an impressive collection of public art.
Palo Alto
Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, USA. It is named after a tree called El Palo Alto. The city includes portions of Stanford University and is headquarters to a number of Silicon Valley high-technology companies, including Hewlett-Packard, VMware and Facebook. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 58,598 residents.
Palo Alto, north of Oregon Expressway, is filled with older homes, including Craftsman and California Colonials, some of which date back to the 1890s but most of which were built in the first four decades of the 20th century. South of Oregon Expressway, the homes, including many Joseph Eichler-designed or Eichler-style houses, were primarily built in the first 20 years after World War II.
While the city contains homes that now cost anywhere from $800,000 to well in excess of $40 million, much of Palo Alto's housing stock is in the style of California mid-century middle-class suburbia. It has highly rated public schools, a high quality of life, and a vibrant downtown. The median home sale price for all of Palo Alto was more than $1.3 Million in 2006. The median home sale price of Palo Alto for Feb. 2009 fell to $1,195,000 Palo Alto ranks in as the 5th most expensive city in the United States, with an average home sales price of $1,677,000 as of 2007. Palo Alto is by some measures the most expensive college town in the United States; as a result, most Stanford University students live on campus.