Portola Valley, California
Encyclopedia
Portola Valley is an incorporated town in San Mateo County
San Mateo County, California
San Mateo County is a county located in the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. It covers most of the San Francisco Peninsula just south of San Francisco, and north of Santa Clara County. San Francisco International Airport is located at the northern end of the county, and...

, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The population was 4,353 at the 2010 census. It was named for Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portola
Gaspar de Portolà
Gaspar de Portolà i Rovira was a soldier, governor of Baja and Alta California , explorer and founder of San Diego and Monterey. He was born in Os de Balaguer, province of Lleida, in Catalonia, Spain, of Catalan nobility. Don Gaspar served as a soldier in the Spanish army in Italy and Portugal...

, who led the first party of Europeans to explore the San Francisco Peninsula
San Francisco Peninsula
The San Francisco Peninsula is a peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area that separates the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. On its northern tip is the City and County of San Francisco. Its southern base is in Santa Clara County, including the cities of Palo Alto, Los Altos, and Mountain...

, in 1769.

Portola Valley is one of the top forty wealthiest towns in the United States of America, with a median household income of $164,479 a year. Within the State of California, Portola Valley is ranked as the sixth wealthiest place. The zip code 94028, which encompasses the whole of Portola Valley, has the 31st most expensive housing prices within the country according to Forbes Magazine 2010.

Geography

Portola Valley is located at 37°22′30"N 122°13′7"W (37.375023, -122.218635), on the eastern slope of the Peninsula Coastal Range of the Santa Cruz Mountains
Santa Cruz Mountains
The Santa Cruz Mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are a mountain range in central California, United States. They form a ridge along the San Francisco Peninsula, south of San Francisco, separating the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco Bay and the Santa Clara Valley, and continuing south,...

. The Windy Hill Open Space Preserve
Windy Hill Open Space Preserve
Windy Hill Open Space Preserve is a regional park located in San Mateo County, California and operated by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District...

 is on the town's southwest side and the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve
Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve
The Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve is a 1,200 acre is a nature preserve and biological field station owned by Stanford University, located at south of Sand Hill Road and west of Interstate 280 in Portola Valley, California. It is used by students, researchers, and docents to conduct biology...

 is on the north side of town. It is off Interstate 280
Interstate 280 (California)
Interstate 280 is a 57-mile long north–south Interstate Highway in the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It connects San Jose and San Francisco, running along just to the west of the cities of San Francisco Peninsula for most of its route.I-280 from its northern end at King...

, near Woodside
Woodside, California
Woodside is a small incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula. It uses a council-manager system of government. The U.S. Census estimated the population of the town to be 5,287 in 2010....

, just west of Palo Alto
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...

 and Los Altos
Los Altos, California
Los Altos is a city at the southern end of the San Francisco Peninsula, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The city is in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population was 28,976 according to the 2010 census....

 and south of Menlo Park
Menlo Park, California
Menlo Park, California is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; Atherton, North Fair Oaks, and Redwood City...

, and is in a mostly wooded area, with some open plains.

According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...

, the town has a total area of 9.1 square miles (23.6 km²), 99.98% of it land and 0.02% of it water.

2010

The 2010 United States Census reported that Portola Valley had a population of 4,353. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 was 478.7 people per square mile (184.8/km²). The racial makeup of Portola Valley was 3,960 (91.0%) White, 12 (0.3%) African American, 5 (0.1%) Native American, 242 (5.6%) Asian, 1 (0.0%) Pacific Islander, 29 (0.7%) from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...

, and 104 (2.4%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 175 persons (4.0%).

The Census reported that 4,309 people (99.0% of the population) lived in households, 9 (0.2%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 35 (0.8%) were institutionalized.

There were 1,746 households, out of which 518 (29.7%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 1,149 (65.8%) were opposite-sex married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

 living together, 70 (4.0%) had a female householder with no husband present, 35 (2.0%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 37 (2.1%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships
POSSLQ
POSSLQ is an abbreviation for "Persons of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters," a term coined in the late 1970s by the United States Census Bureau as part of an effort to more accurately gauge the prevalence of cohabitation in American households....

, and 21 (1.2%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 420 households (24.1%) were made up of individuals and 290 (16.6%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.47. There were 1,254 families
Family (U.S. Census)
A family or family household is defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes as "a householder and one or more other people related to the householder by birth, marriage, or adoption. They do not include same-sex married couples even if the marriage was performed in a state...

 (71.8% of all households); the average family size was 2.93.

The population was spread out with 1,001 people (23.0%) under the age of 18, 145 people (3.3%) aged 18 to 24, 538 people (12.4%) aged 25 to 44, 1,496 people (34.4%) aged 45 to 64, and 1,173 people (26.9%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 51.3 years. For every 100 females there were 98.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.2 males.

There were 1,895 housing units at an average density of 208.4 per square mile (80.5/km²), of which 1,392 (79.7%) were owner-occupied, and 354 (20.3%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.0%; the rental vacancy rate was 9.8%. 3,702 people (85.0% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 607 people (13.9%) lived in rental housing units.

2000

As of the census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

of 2000, there were 4,392 people, 1,772 households, and 1,269 families residing in the town. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 was 487.5 people per square mile (188.3/km²). There were 1,772 housing units at an average density of 193.6 per square mile (74.8/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 4,210 White, 29 African American, 22 Native American, 217 Asian, 5 Pacific Islander, 54 from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...

, and 64 from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 149.

There were 1,772 households out of which 532 had children under the age of 18 living with them, 1,176 were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

 living together, 68 had a woman householder with no man present, and 431 were non-families. 339 of all households were made up of individuals and 226 had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.75 and the average family size was 2.93.

In the town the population was spread out with 1021 persons under the age of 18, 90 from 20 to 24, 867 from 25 to 44, 1492 from 45 to 64, and 938 who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 47.5 years old. For every 100 women there were 96.8 men. For every 100 women age 18 and over, there were 91.7 men.

The median income
Income
Income is the consumption and savings opportunity gained by an entity within a specified time frame, which is generally expressed in monetary terms. However, for households and individuals, "income is the sum of all the wages, salaries, profits, interests payments, rents and other forms of earnings...

 for a household in Portola Valley, including earnings, is $244,771 and the median income for a family was $180,893. Men have a median income of over $100,000 versus $92,585 for women. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...

 for Portola Valley is $99,621. About 18 families and 104 people were below the poverty line, including 38 of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.

Education

The Portola Valley Elementary School District
Portola Valley Elementary School District
The Portola Valley Elementary School District is a top-ranked public elementary school district in the San Francisco Bay Area, USA, serving the communities of Portola Valley and Woodside. The district, code 4168981, serves over 700 students...

 has two public primary schools: Ormondale School (with grades K-3) and Corte Madera School (grades 4-8). Portola Valley is one of the few (perhaps only) school districts that has a school named after a race horse (Ormonde).

Portola Valley is also home to a Roman Catholic Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...

 monastery and an independent college-preparatory Roman Catholic day and boarding school, Woodside Priory School
Woodside Priory School
The Woodside Priory School, sometimes known as The Priory, is an independent, coeducational, Roman Catholic, college preparatory, day and boarding school in the Benedictine tradition located in Portola Valley, California in the United States...

, with grades 6-12.

The nearest public secondary school is Woodside High School
Woodside High School (Woodside, California)
Woodside High School is an American public high school located in Woodside on the border with Redwood City, California. It is part of the Sequoia Union High School District. It has scored a perfect ten in California's similar-school rankings in 2009 and 2010....

, located in neighboring Woodside
Woodside, California
Woodside is a small incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula. It uses a council-manager system of government. The U.S. Census estimated the population of the town to be 5,287 in 2010....

. Many children attend other public and private institutions such as Woodside Priory School
Woodside Priory School
The Woodside Priory School, sometimes known as The Priory, is an independent, coeducational, Roman Catholic, college preparatory, day and boarding school in the Benedictine tradition located in Portola Valley, California in the United States...

 (located within the town limits of Portola Valley), Menlo-Atherton High School
Menlo-Atherton High School
Menlo-Atherton High School is a four-year comprehensive secondary school located in Atherton, California which was established in 1951. Menlo-Atherton is part of the Sequoia Union High School District....

, Saint Francis High School (Mountain View)
Saint Francis High School (Mountain View)
Saint Francis High School, founded in 1954 by the Brothers of Holy Cross, is a Roman Catholic, co-educational, college preparatory secondary school located in Mountain View, CA. The Brothers of Holy Cross serve both on the faculty and on the Board of Directors...

, Menlo School
Menlo School
Menlo School, also referred to simply as Menlo, is an independent college preparatory school in Atherton, California, near the heart of Silicon Valley. Menlo comprises a middle school that includes grades 6–8 and a high school that includes grades 9–12...

, Sacred Heart Preparatory (Atherton, California)
Sacred Heart Preparatory (Atherton, California)
Sacred Heart Schools Atherton, formerly known as Sacred Heart Preparatory, Sacred Heart Prep, or, more colloquially, SHP, is an independent private, Society of the Sacred Heart affiliated college preparatory school in Atherton, California, USA...

, Junipero Serra High School
Junipero Serra High School
Junípero Serra High School is a private secondary school in San Mateo County, California, United States serving students in grades 9-12. A part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco, this high school provides single-sex education, accepting only young men...

, and Crystal Springs Uplands School
Crystal Springs Uplands School
Crystal Springs Uplands School is an independent, coeducational, college prep day school with 350 students located in Hillsborough, California...

.

Peninsula Library System
Peninsula Library System
The Peninsula Library System is the public library organization serving San Mateo County, California, United States, which forms the bulk of the region within the San Francisco Bay Area known as "The Peninsula"...

 operates the Portola Valley Library.

Politics

In the state legislature
California State Legislature
The California State Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of California. It is a bicameral body consisting of the lower house, the California State Assembly, with 80 members, and the upper house, the California State Senate, with 40 members...

 Portola Valley is located in the 8th Senate
California State Senate
The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature. There are 40 state senators. The state legislature meets in the California State Capitol in Sacramento. The Lieutenant Governor is the ex officio President of the Senate and may break a tied vote...

 District, represented by Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 Leland Yee
Leland Yee
Leland Yee is a California State Senator in District 8 which represents the western half of San Francisco and most of San Mateo County. Prior to becoming state senator, Yee was a California State Assemblyman, Supervisor of San Francisco's Sunset District, and was a member and President of the San...

, and in the 21st Assembly
California State Assembly
The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature. There are 80 members in the Assembly, representing an approximately equal number of constituents, with each district having a population of at least 420,000...

 District, represented by Democrat Rich Gordon
Rich Gordon
Richard S. Gordon is an American politician from Menlo Park, California who currently serves in the California State Assembly representing the 21st district...

. Federally, Portola Valley is located in California's 14th congressional district
California's 14th congressional district
California's 14th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of California. It is located between San Francisco and San Jose. The district includes portions of San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties and most notably contains part of Silicon Valley. Major cities in...

, which has a Cook PVI
Cook Partisan Voting Index
The Cook Partisan Voting Index , sometimes referred to as simply the Partisan Voting Index , is a measurement of how strongly an American congressional district or state leans toward one political party compared to the nation as a whole...

 of D +18 and is represented by Democrat Anna Eshoo
Anna Eshoo
Anna Georges Eshoo is the U.S. Representative for , serving since 1993. She is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, which includes part of Silicon Valley, includes the cities of Redwood City, Sunnyvale, Mountain View and Palo Alto...

.

Notable residents

Laurence W. "Bill" Lane Jr.
Laurence W. Lane Jr.
Laurence William Lane Jr. often known as Bill Lane was an American magazine publisher and philanthropist.-Life:...

 (1919–2010), the first mayor and one of the founders of Portola Valley, also served as Ambassador to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 for the US, and the publisher of Sunset Magazine.

Operatic tenor Richard Crooks
Richard Crooks
Richard Alexander Crooks was an American tenor and a leading singer at the New York Metropolitan Opera.-Biography:He was born on June 26, 1900 in Trenton, New Jersey...

 (1900–1972), longtime host of The Voice of Firestone on network radio, lived in Portola Valley for many years until his death. In later years, he sang with the choir at the local Presbyterian church.

Computer pioneer Cuthbert Hurd
Cuthbert Hurd
Cuthbert Corwin Hurd was an American computer scientist and entrepreneur, who was instrumental in helping the International Business Machines Corporation develop its first general-purpose computers.-Life:...

 (1911–1996) ,
who discovered a popular variety manzanita
Manzanita
Manzanita is a common name for many species of the genus Arctostaphylos. They are evergreen shrubs or small trees present in the chaparral biome of western North America, where they occur from southern British Columbia, Washington to California, Arizona and New Mexico in the United States, and...

 in his garden.

Engineer Hewitt Crane
Hewitt Crane
Hewitt D. Crane was an American engineer best known for his pioneering work at SRI International on ERMA , for Bank of America, magnetic digital logic, neuristor logic, the development of an eye-movement tracking device, and a pen-input device for computers.-Early life and career:Crane was born in...

 (1927–2008) who invented a magnetic computer.

Jacques Littlefield
Jacques Littlefield
Jacques Littlefield founded the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation , also called the Littlefield Collection.-Collection:...

 (1949–2009), President and Founder of the Military Vehicle Technology Foundation
Military Vehicle Technology Foundation
The Military Vehicle Technology Foundation is a large collection of military vehicles located in Portola Valley, California. It was founded by the late Jacques Littlefield, and now is under the direction of Bill Boller....

, one of the largest collections of historical military vehicles in the world.

Vinod Khosla
Vinod Khosla
Vinod Khosla is an Indian-born American venture capitalist and an influential personality in Silicon Valley....

, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...

 and current owner of Khosla Ventures
Khosla Ventures
Khosla Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on early stage companies in the Internet, computing, mobile, silicon technology and clean technology sectors....

.

Ed Oates
Ed Oates
Edward A. "Ed" Oates co-founded Software Development Labs in August 1977 with Larry Ellison, and Bob Miner. Software Development Labs later became Oracle Corporation....

, a cofounder of Oracle Corporation; currently on the board of the San Francisco Zoological Society, and the San Jose State University Tower Foundation.

Pete McCloskey
Pete McCloskey
Paul Norton "Pete" McCloskey Jr. is a former Republican politician from the U.S. state of California who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1967 to 1983. He ran on an anti-war platform for the Republican nomination for President in 1972 but was defeated by incumbent President...

, former Member of Congress and Co-chair of Earth Day. Pete McCloskey
Pete McCloskey
Paul Norton "Pete" McCloskey Jr. is a former Republican politician from the U.S. state of California who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1967 to 1983. He ran on an anti-war platform for the Republican nomination for President in 1972 but was defeated by incumbent President...

was also the Town of Portola Valley's first city attorney.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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