The city of East Palo Alto (often called EPA) is a city in San Mateo County. Despite its name, East Palo Alto lies almost entirely north, and not east, of Palo Alto. It is bordered on the west by Menlo Park and Palo Alto, and to the east by the San Francisco Bay. As of the 2000 census, there were 29,506 residents.
It is situated on the San Francisco Peninsula, roughly halfway between San Francisco and San Jose. To the east is the San Francisco Bay, and to the west the prosperous city of Palo Alto. Many assume that East Palo Alto is merely the eastern side of Palo Alto, but East Palo Alto is in fact a separate city in Santa Clara County's neighboring San Mateo County, with an entirely different demographic makeup.
Though the two cities are separated only by San Francisquito Creek, they are worlds apart culturally and economically. East Palo Alto has an unenviable reputation for crime and poverty, a reputation well deserved during the 1980s and early 1990s. Since that time the city's crime problems have somewhat subsided.
Eventually, however, the Bay Area's extreme shortage of land, decent commute options for the Silicon Valley and metro San Francisco, along with soaring property prices meant that East Palo Alto became a viable option for urban housing. Significant development has been underway in East Palo Alto. The construction of a large shopping center named Ravenswood 101 (including branches of Home Depot and Best Buy, and giant IKEA furniture store) and several upscale housing communities have been completed.
East Palo Alto also includes a small piece of land across the Bayshore Freeway (US-101) from the shopping center, a roughly triangular area between Highway 101 and the San Francisquito Creek, which includes a former two-block-long retail business district known as Whiskey Gulch. The city has torn down Whiskey Gulch and replaced it with the University Circle office complex. A 200-room Four Seasons hotel opened in University Circle in 2006.
The city has a culturally diverse population and hosts many events thorughout the year. One of these events is the Annual Collard Greens Festival, celebrating culture, history of traditional African-American food. Another annual event is Children's Day in the Park, develops a sense of community and freedom by offering a free, fun-filled day for all families, the annual Juneteenth celebration.
Students are served by schools of the Ravenswood City School District, which serves about 4,500 students, kindergarten through eighth grades, from East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park. The district has nine elementary and pre-schools, along with four charter schools, which includes one high school, East Palo Alto High located in Menlo Park.
In February 2010, the average home sales price for a single family home or condo in East Palo Alto was $268,333. While this data is collected from the MLS and deemed reliable, it is not guaranteed.
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