It’s a sign

Back in 1914, Redwood City had suspended a large electrically lighted sign with just the city’s name across Broadway at Winslow Street, where it could be easily seen from the nearby train station and the passing trains. But, armed with its new slogan, in 1926, the city created two new signs (either the ones adorning the city today or, more likely, ones that looked just like them) sporting both the name of the city and the more concise version of that slogan. One of those signs straddled El Camino Real on the south side of Broadway, while the other straddled El Camino Real at the Five Points intersection (which is roughly where today’s Woodside Road crosses over El Camino Real). Both stood some 20 feet above the street, with letters some three feet tall. There they remained until 1947, when El Camino Real was widened.

Widening El Camino Real forced the relocation of one, if not both, of the signs; the one at Broadway was relocated to just north of Whipple Avenue. There it no longer spanned El Camino but instead stood just to the west of the street and perpendicular to it (roughly where the parking lot for the 7-Eleven is today, although somewhat closer to Whipple).

The original 1914 sign had, I’m guessing, been lit by incandescent bulbs, but these newer signs employed letters made from neon tubes. Presumably to make the city a bit more classy, the Redwood City Council in 1963 tightened its sign ordinance and banned neon displays. But it took until 1970 for it to occur to someone that the city’s own signs violated the updated ordinance, at which time the signs were taken down and put into storage.

Thanks to the efforts of Jeffrey Filippi, a chiropractor with a passion for history who was born and raised in Redwood City, in 1994 the signs were restored (or recreated) and reerected in their current locations: one alongside Broadway at the city’s Transit Center and one spanning Broadway near Spring Street. There they’ve remained with only one substantial change; in 2016, the neon tubes were replaced with LEDs.

How Wilbur Doxsee came up with his slogan is a matter of contention. Although there was a rumor that Doxsee simply “made it up,” it seems more likely that he got the idea from local resident and amateur meteorologist Henry Finkler, who collected weather statistics and had concluded there were three “perfect climate belts: the Canary Islands, Africa and a 20-mile radius around Redwood City.” His conclusions may have been based at least in part on a 1912 German study that looked at rainfall, sunny days per year and average temperatures for various locations around the globe — although no solid evidence of such a study has yet been discovered.

Finkler’s own measurements of local conditions certainly would have revealed just how good Redwood City’s weather really is. It may or may not be “best” — that is highly subjective and depends on the judge and the criteria they are using — but those of us who live here have little to complain about. Redwood City’s temperatures rarely get below freezing in the winter and rarely climb beyond the upper 90s in the summer. Indeed, the average high temperature (using data from 1991 through 2021) peaked at 76.4 degrees (in September), while the average low bottomed out at 43.9 degrees (in January, typically the coldest month). Of course, those are just averages; actual temperatures on any given day may have exceeded the average high or dropped below the average low.

As for rainfall, Redwood City receives roughly 21 inches per year. So far, I’ve measured 15.5 inches of rain in my backyard (starting last October; meteorologists measure rainfall from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30), so we’re likely going to fall short of that average this time around. Then again, we still have time — and I’m seeing a number of rainy days in the immediate forecast. Twenty-one inches seems a good amount, not so much as to cause major trouble, but enough to keep the local flora and fauna happy.

Is Redwood City’s climate “best by government test?” Maybe. Does it matter? Not really. All that does matter is that Redwood City is a great place to live and work, with some of California’s best weather.

Greg Wilson is the creator of Walking Redwood City, a blog inspired by his walks throughout Redwood City and adjacent communities. He can be reached at greg@walkingRedwoodCity.com. Follow Greg on Twitter @walkingRWC.