As promised, I've decided to expand... This is part one of a four part set on the peninsula, which stretches from Daly City to Palo Alto. The first two parts will focus on the "flats" of the peninsula (ie by 101) and the next two will be on the hills (ie by 280).
Despite being the largest city on the peninsula other than San Francisco, San Mateo is a fairly low-key city. It has one of the most developed and lively downtowns on the peninsula and is the only true satellite city in San Mateo County other than Redwood City. It has a similar socio-economic mix to other cities on the peninsula; around 101 is very working class but the further up the hill you go the wealthier it gets. North Central and Shoreview (not featured in this thread) are the heart of the latino, pacific islander and black community of San Mateo.
I'm sure all of us here have heard of East Palo Alto, be it from "Dangerous Minds" or from the dubious distinction as the murder capital of America in 1992. The obvious question for most who are unfamiliar with it will amount to, "What's changed since 1992?" Well, the demographics have done a 180 for starters... EPA (East Palo Alto) has gone from 90% black to 70% Latino in less than 10 years. What happened to trigger such a drastic demographic change? Simple: Modesto, Stockton, Antioch, etc. happened. The majority of the upwardly mobile black families left to stretch their dollars further and latino families came in to capitalize on the (relatively) cheap housing that was left over. It remains a conundrum that what would be widely considered as prime real estate in different circumstances - it's right next to the Dumbarton for East Bay commuting, it has great weather, it's right on the bay - is instead seen as the ghetto of the peninsula. There has been a recent resurgence and effort to gentrify in the SE corner of the city around the Ravenswood Shopping Center, but its reputation is enough to keep many prospective buyers and renters away.
The fact that a city like Palo Alto exists an overpass away from a city like EPA highlights the socio-economic segregation that is prevalent in the Bay Area. Again, I'm sure all of you have heard of Palo Alto and the almost intoxicating amount of wealth that exists within it - not to mention Stanford - so I won't bore you with another paragraph.
Anyway, here's the pics.
San Mateo
Central
Downtown
North Central
Downtown (Continued)
Central (Continued)
North Central (Continued)
Downtown (Continued)
East Palo Alto
Palo Alto
Downtown North
Menlo Park
Redwood City
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