San Mateo County

The price of living here has certainly gone up as well. In California, the average home price in 2000 dollars was $36,700 in 1940, and $211,500 in 2000 (also in 2,000 dollars) though the average home price now is about $550,000 in the state, San Mateo County’s is significantly higher at about $1.5 million. However, you might think that the way some people talk that homes were practically free in the 1970s and that everyone who bought one back then won some kind of lottery and are now living high on the hog. Rents are super high right now, though leveling off but I’m willing to say that everything has doubled in the last decade. That’s not normal. But then nothing around here has been that normal.

In San Mateo County, you can cut down your own Christmas tree and buy a crab off a boat (though not just yet, but coming soon!) all within a few miles, then go up and over the about 2,500 feet of Skyline and across the manmade majesty of the Crystal Springs Reservoir down to the Bayshore within minutes, as long as you do it at the right time of day. There you can spot the planes coming in at a steady clip into the nation’s seventh busiest airport as of 2017 with an annual passenger count of nearly 56 million. If the weather is right, from the top of the old dump off Third Avenue, you can see the San Francisco and Oakland skylines, Mount Diablo to the east and San Bruno Mountain north of South San Francisco. Here you can find some respite, and you can also see the San Mateo many of us have come to know and love. Based on some landmarks, you can make out the downtown street grid, and where the city spread in the early 20th century. You can also see some of our mistakes, and our progress. You can see the fingers of fog caressing the Skyline to the north, cooling the hills of San Bruno and Millbrae.

We have 15 cities in San Mateo County, five towns and 12 census designated places. The cities and towns each have a mayor and four other councilmembers (except for Redwood City and Woodside which have six others) who probably think they could do a better job as mayor. Only one city, San Bruno, has an independently elected mayor. The rest rotate every year without controversy except for when there is, which is always too bad. We also have a Board of Supervisors with five members who work in the county seat of Redwood City and oversee most everything else, and also sure like to dole out that magic Measure K money we pay a half-penny for with every dollar we spend here.

We have lowlands and ridges, flora and fauna, tall buildings and one-story single-family homes — and too many or too few of each depending on who you ask. We have about 20 county parks, about 10 state parks, 12 state beaches and portions of two national protected areas. All sorts of trails. We have a few malls, some major companies like Facebook, Oracle, Genentech, Electronic Arts, Gilead Sciences and YouTube, along with some quaint downtowns and plenty of open space amidst the hustle and bustle of what makes this place so interesting and unique.

It’s not unusual to hear five different languages at the park as about a third of us were born in another country. And each and every one of us has our own San Mateo County story to tell. It is what makes us, well, us, and it’s what makes this place home. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Jon Mays is the editor in chief of the Daily Journal. He can be reached at jon@smdailyjournal.com. Follow Jon on Twitter @jonmays.