MENLO PARK
Menlo Park is a quiet yet vibrant city of pleasant, tree-lined neighborhoods and friendly people. Menlo Park is also a planned city; a high number of the homes are owner-occupied. Investments in home ownership are protected by strict zoning ordinances. Twenty-eight percent of the employed residents earn their livelihood in occupations carried on in San Francisco, seventy-two percent are employed on the Peninsula. The city benefits from easy access to the nearby cities and towns with which it shares the San Francisco metropolitan area. Menlo Park contains a population of approximately 30,785.
The land now known as the City of Menlo Park was originally the home of Ohlone Indians, called by the Spaniards "Coastanoans", or Coast-dwellers. Spanish rule came to this area in 1769 when the exploration party led by Don Gaspar de Portola camped near "El Palo Alto" after their momentous discovery of San Francisco Bay. It was in 1854 that Menlo Park received its official name when two Irishmen, Dennis J. Oliver and D. C. McGlynn, whose wives were sisters, purchased 1,700 acres (some sources say it was 640 acres) bordering County Road, now El Camino Real, and built two houses with a common entrance.
The typical family in Menlo Park is better off than most in California. The city has a large middle class. Interestingly, lots of people in Menlo Park have Bachelor's degrees or higher. If you never see your neighbor it may be because he or she works from home rather than driving to the office. That's not unusual in the city. In Menlo Park, there is a large number of singles who make a good living.
February 2010 Median House: $1,025,000
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