Outer limits

It doesn’t, really, although there are indeed five exits off Highway 101 that can lead you to some part of Redwood City. Where the discontinuity comes in, at least, for me, is that three of those five are exits I strongly associate with other cities. Given just a bit of thought, however, I realized that depending upon where you go, those exits really can take you to Redwood City.

Heading southbound, the sign is located just before you reach the Ralston Avenue exit (northbound, the sign stands just before Marsh Road). I normally associate the Ralston Avenue exit with Belmont, because Ralston is the one and only exit off Highway 101 that takes you right into that city. Even if you exit there and proceed eastward, you are initially in Belmont. But just before you reach the first cross street — Oracle Parkway — you pass into Redwood City’s Redwood Shores neighborhood and are suddenly driving along Marine Parkway. Similarly, the next exit to the south — Holly Street — is much the same, only there you initially are in San Carlos whichever way you go. But head east, and about halfway to Airport Way the street name changes to Redwood Parkway. Voilà, you’re in Redwood City.

Farther south, the Whipple Avenue and Woodside Road/Seaport Boulevard exits put you squarely within Redwood City, and are closely associated with it. But then you come to Marsh Road. Marsh Road, both to my mind and in truth, drops you into Menlo Park whichever way you go. To get to Redwood City, you either need to head west and then turn north anywhere up to and including the Marsh Manor shopping center, or you need to head east, turn north on Haven Avenue, and follow it through first a left and then a right turn. Once there, you are only in Redwood City if you look to the west: the various businesses squeezed between Highway 101 and that section of Haven Avenue — including Porsche Redwood City — are within Redwood City limits, whereas the multifamily housing buildings and various businesses on your right, at least for a distance of about two blocks, are in Menlo Park.

As someone who has walked nearly every inch of Redwood City’s sidewalks, I’ve developed an intimate familiarity with the city’s outer edges. In many cases, they seem somewhat logical, cleanly following a natural feature or street. For instance, between Alameda de las Pulgas and Industrial Road, Cordilleras Creek serves as the border between Redwood City and San Carlos. But west of Alameda the properties backing up onto the creek may be in Redwood City, in San Carlos or in unincorporated San Mateo County. And between Industrial Road and Highway 101, Cordilleras Creek exists entirely within San Carlos, along with the two office buildings just south of the creek standing where the Circle Star Theater once did. Oddly, though, the parking garage just south of those two buildings crosses the border: According to Redwood City’s GIS (Geographic Information System) maps, roughly half of the garage is in San Carlos, with the other half being in Redwood City.

In the western part of the city, most of Farm Hill Boulevard and the properties along it are entirely within Redwood City. However, almost all of Cañada College lies outside the city limits, on unincorporated county land. Oddly, two small slivers of what you might consider to be the campus — a short section of The Loop Road along with the adjacent Cañada College tennis courts, and the Cañada Vista apartment complex — lie within Redwood City proper. Why the former is located in Redwood City I have no idea, but I suspect the city border might have been shifted back in 2010 to facilitate the construction of the apartment complex and its 60 below-market-rate units.

The post office confuses things by assigning Redwood City addresses to many properties not technically within the city, such as many of the homes located in Emerald Lake Hills. But unless you own one of those properties and need to rely on certain municipal services — such as obtaining a building permit — or, like me, you find such minutiae interesting, knowing what is and is not truly in Redwood City matters little. Thus, feel free to continue ignoring those “Redwood City next 5 exits” signs.