Pleasanton, California

Pleasanton is a city in Alameda County, California and was incorporated in 1894. According to the city's website, the city has a total population of 67,724. In 2005, Pleasanton was ranked the wealthiest middle-sized city in the United States by the Census Bureau. ^[1] Pleasanton is home to the headquarters of Safeway Inc. and the now-defunct PeopleSoft. Both Oracle and Kaiser Permanente have offices on the former PeopleSoft headquarters in Hacienda Business Park. Although Oakland is Alameda's county seat, a few county offices and a courthouse are located in Pleasanton. Additionally, the county jail is just a stone's throw away in the neighboring city of Dublin. The Alameda County Fairgrounds are located in Pleasanton, and the annual County Fair is held there during the last week of June and the first week of July. Pleasanton is sometimes referred to as "P-Town".

1 History
2 Geography
3 Economy
4 Public transit
5 Notable past and current residents
6 Demographics
7 Schools
8 Media
9 References
10 External links

[edit] History

The town was founded and named by John W. Kottinger, an Alameda County justice of the peace, after his friend, Union army cavalry Major General Alfred Pleasonton. A typographical error by a U.S. Postal Service employee apparently led to the current spelling. In the 1850s, the town was nicknamed "The Most Desperate Town in the West" and it was ruled by bandits and desperados. Main Street shootouts were not uncommon. Bandits, such as Joaquin Murrieta, would ambush prospectors on their way back from the gold rush fields and then seek refuge in Pleasanton. This reputation passed and in 1917, Pleasanton became the backdrop for the film Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, which starred Mary Pickford. The town was also home to Phoebe Apperson Hearst, who lived in a 50-room mansion on a 500-acre ranch, now the site of Castlewood Country Club.

[edit] Geography

Pleasanton is located at 37°40′21″N, 121°52′57″W (37.672530, -121.882517)^GR1 and is adjacent to Livermore and Dublin. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 56.5 km² (21.8 mi²). 56.1 km² (21.7 mi²) of it is land and 0.4 km² (0.2 mi²) of it (0.78%) is water.

Pleasanton is situated at the crossroads of two major Interstate Highways, I-580 and I-680, which mirror the prehistoric crossroutes of Native American tribes who used the precursor paths as major trading routes. This fact was first discovered with the excavations for Hacienda Business Park, revealing significant tribal artifacts and human skeletal remains^[2].

Pleasanton is known for its lively downtown and Stoneridge Shopping Center, a regional mall. There are three high schools in town, Amador Valley High School, Foothill High School and a continuation school, Village High. Foothill High School and Amador Valley High School rank among the top 300 schools in the nation. There are a number of private schools in Pleasanton, such as Carden West School. Pleasanton is considered a prominent example of the edge city phenomenon.

[edit] Economy

Distinctive traffic lights of the Hacienda Business Park

Pleasanton experienced a major economic boom starting in the early 1980s, largely associated with the development of a number of business parks, the largest of which is the Hacienda Business Park. These host a number of campus-like clusters of low-rise and medium-rise office buildings. Pleasanton has been successful in attracting a number of corporate headquarters, such as those of Safeway, Inc., Thoratec Corporation, Polycom, Shaklee Corporation, and Ross Stores. Despite an increase in office space vacancy rates in 2000-2004, economic development has remained strong through the middle of the decade.

Pleasanton was also the headquarters of the former PeopleSoft, Inc. (which was acquired by Oracle Corporation), E-Loan (which was acquired by Popular, Inc.), Spreckels Sugar Company (which was acquired by Imperial Holly), and the home loan operation of Providian (which was acquired by Washington Mutual). Oracle maintains the former Peoplesoft campus as a major division, and is the second-largest employer in Pleasanton, behind Safeway. In addition, Pleasanton is the site of a large AT&T campus, formerly that of SBC Communications.

Other companies with major operations in Pleasanton include Sage (accpac), CooperVision, Clorox, Roche, Applied Biosystems, EMC Corporation, and Symantec.

In the retailing field, Pleasanton has one major regional mall (Stoneridge Shopping Center) and a number of other shopping centers. Most national and regional retailers have a Pleasanton location; besides the anchor tenants Nordstrom, Macy's, Sears, and JC Penney at Stoneridge, notable large stores include Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Kohl's, and Borders Books.

In addition to the business parks and retail centers, Pleasanton's downtown is home to a number of fine-dining, casual, and ethnic restaurants, specialty retailers, and service businesses. A redesign of Main Street in the 1990s emphasized pedestrian traffic and outdoor dining.

Also, according to the latest U.S. Census information, Pleasanton is the wealthiest midsize city in the nation. In 2005, the median household income in Pleasanton was $101,022, the highest income for any city with a population between 65,000 and 249,999 people. ^[3]

[edit] Public transit

The eastern terminus of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) commuter train system's Dublin/Pleasanton - SFO/Millbrae Line is located in Pleasanton. Groundbreaking ceremonies for another station, West Dublin/Pleasanton, took place on September 29, 2006. Plans for this station include transit-oriented development in the form of 170,000 sq. ft of offices in Pleasanton and apartments, a hotel, and a restaurant in Dublin. BART had previously estimated completion of public improvements by late 2007, although this was based on construction beginning in 2005.^[4]

Pleasanton is served by the WHEELS bus transit system, which has a number of routes in the city. Additionally, the Altamont Commuter Express rail service stops near Pleasanton's downtown.

[edit] Notable past and current residents

Football Hall of Fame coach and commentator John Madden is a resident of the city (and lives in a historic restored adobe), and his production company is headquartered in the city.
Former NFL safety Rod Woodson.
LPGA golfer Paula Creamer grew up in Pleasanton.
Actress Gabrielle Union attended Foothill High School.
NFL player Scott Peters, currently with the Carolina Panthers, attended Amador Valley High School. His mother teaches Geometry and Pre-Calculus at Amador.
Musician Roger Manning attended Amador Valley High School.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there were 63,654 people, 23,311 households, and 17,390 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,134.1/km² (2,938.1/mi²). There were 23,968 housing units at an average density of 427.0/km² (1,106.3/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 78.44% White, 3.38% African American, 0.33% Native American, 10.69% Asian, 0.13% Pacific Islander, 2.35% from other races, and 3.68% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 8.87% of the population.

There were 23,311 households out of which 40.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 63.7% were married couples living together, 7.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.4% were non-families. 19.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 5.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.72 and the average family size was 3.15.

In the city the population was spread out with 28.2% under the age of 18, 5.5% from 18 to 24, 33.4% from 25 to 44, 25.3% from 45 to 64, and 7.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 96.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.3 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $90,859, and the median income for a family was $115,944. Males had a median income of $77,072 versus $44,493 for females. The per capita income for the city was $41,623. About 3.6% of families and 4.6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.4% of those under age 18 and 3.8% of those age 65 or over.

[edit] Schools

[edit] Elementary schools

Public: Alisal, Donlon, Fairlands, Hearst, Lydiksen, Mohr, Valley View, Vintage Hills, Walnut Grove
Private: Carden West, Hacienda

[edit] Middle schools

Public: Hart, Harvest Park, Pleasanton

[edit] High schools

Public: Amador Valley, Foothill, Village

[edit] Media

Due to its central location within the "Tri-Valley", a group of neighboring cities including Livermore, Dublin, and San Ramon, Pleasanton is home to most of the local media. This includes cable access station TV30, radio station 101.7 KKIQ, and newspapers Pleasanton Weekly, Tri-Valley Herald and Valley Times.

[edit] References

^ Kazmi, Sophia. "Pleasanton: midsize home of the biggest bucks", San Jose Mercury News, August 29, 2006. Retrieved on 2006-11-01.
^ Gary Deghi, C. Michael Hogan, George W. Ball, Miley Holman et. al., Environmental Assessment for Hacienda Business Park/ General Plan amendment, prepared for the City of Pleasanton by Earth Metrics Inc. (1984)
^
^ West Dublin/Pleasanton Infill Station (PDF). San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (2004-03-25). Retrieved on 2006-09-30.