Sunnyvale, California
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Sunnyvale is a city located in Santa Clara County, California, USA. It is one of the major cities that make up the Silicon Valley. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 131,760.
The city is bordered by the San Francisco Bay to the north, Mountain View to the west, Santa Clara to the east, and Cupertino to the south. It lies along the historic El Camino Real and Highway 101.
Sunnyvale is headquarters to several high-tech companies such as AMD, TiVo, Sandisk, and Yahoo!. Honeywell and Lockheed Martin also have offices in Sunnyvale. Sunnyvale is also the home to Onizuka Air Force Station, the only active military base in the San Francisco Bay Area. The base - which is named after Ellison Onizuka - is the United States armed forces primary artificial satellite control facility.
Sunnyvale is one of the few U.S. cities to have a single unified Department of Public Safety where all personnel are trained as firefighters and police officers and can respond to emergencies in either capacity.
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Geography
Sunnyvale is located at 37°22'19" North, 122°1'34" West (37.371991, -122.026020)Template:GR.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 58.6 km² (22.6 mi²). 55.8 km² (21.9 mi²) of it is land and 1.8 km² (0.7 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 3.05% water.
History
When the Spanish first arrived in the 1770s at the Santa Clara Valley, it was heavily populated by the Ohlone. In 1777, Mission Santa Clara was built by Ohlone converts to Christianity.
In 1842, Rancho Pastoria de las Borregas was granted to Estrada and Inez Castro. Portions of the land given in this grant later developed into the cities of Mountain View and Sunnyvale. Two years later, in 1844, another land grant was provided to Lupe Yñigo, one of the few natives to hold land grants. His land grant was first called Rancho Posolmi, named in honor of Posolmi village of the Ohlone that once stood in the area. Rancho Posolmi was later known as Rancho Ynigo.
In 1844, Martin Jr. and Mary Murphy left Missouri and traveled by wagon along the California Trail to successfully cross the Sierra Nevada. In 1850, Martin Murphy Jr. bought a piece of Rancho Pastoria de las Borregas for $12,500. Murphy established a wheat farm and Bay View. Murphy had the first frame house, which was shipped from New England, in Santa Clara County built. When he died in 1884, his land was divided among his heirs.
In 1860, The San Francisco and San Jose Railroad agreed to use Murphy Station and was allowed to lay tracks on Bay View. Lawrence Station was later established on the southern edge of Bay View.
In the 1870s, county property tax laws, imports and soil degradation caused wheat farming to become uneconomical in Santa Clara County. Small fruit orchards replaced the large wheat farms. In 1871, James and Eloise Dawson established the first fruit cannery in Santa Clara County. Fruit agriculture and canning soon became a major industry in the county. The invention of the refrigerated rail car further increases the viability of an economy based upon fruit. The fruit orchards become so prevalent that in 1886, the San Jose Board of Trade calls Santa Clara County the "Garden of the World".
In the 1880s, Chinese workers made up 48% of the farm labor in Santa Clara County. This percentage reduced over time after the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed. In the following decade, the 1890s multitudes of immigrants from Italy, the Azores, Portugal and Japan arrive to work in the orchards.
In 1897, Walter Everett Crossman buys 200 acres (809,000 m²) and begins selling real estate. He advertises the area as Beautiful Murphy. Later, in the 1900s, real estate developer Walter Crossman it as "the City of Destiny".
Encina school is also opened in 1897 as the first school in Murphy. Previously, children in the town had to travel to Mountain View for school.
In 1901, the residents of Murphy were informed they could not use the names Encinal or Murphy for their post office. They decided to use the name Sunnyvale for the name of their town.
Sunnyvale continued to grow and in 1904, dried fruit production began. In 1906, Joshua Hendy Ironworks relocated to Sunnyvale. The ironworks was the first non-agricultural industry in the town. Joshua Hendy Ironworks switched from producing mining equipment to other products such as marine steam engines. In this same year, Libby, McNeill & Libby, a Chicago meat-packing company, decided to open its first fruit packing factory in Sunnyvale.
In 1912, the residents of Sunnyvale voted to incorporate.
Fremont High School first opened in 1925.
In 1930, Congress decided to place the West Coast dirigible base in Sunnyvale. This naval airstation was later renamed Moffet Airfield.
In 1939, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA, the forrunner of NASA) began research at Ames Laboratory.
During World War II, the war economy began a change from the fruit industry to the high-tech industry in Santa Clara County. Joshua Hendy Ironworks built marine steam engines, naval guns and rocket launchers to aid in the war effort. As the defense industry grew, a shortage of workers in the farm industry was created. Immigrants from Mexico came to Sunnyvale to fill this void of workers.
Following the war, orchards were cleared away to build homes, factories and offices. In 1956, the aircraft manufacturer Lockheed moved its headquarters to Sunnyvale. In 1969, AMD was founded and based in Sunnyvale.
Demographics
As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there are 131,760 people, 52,539 households, and 32,679 families residing in the city. The population density is 2,318.7/km² (6,006.5/mi²). There are 53,753 housing units at an average density of 946.0/km² (2,450.4/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 53.27% White, 2.22% African American, 0.46% Native American, 32.27% Asian, 0.32% Pacific Islander, 7.19% from other races, and 4.25% from two or more races. 15.48% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There are 52,539 households out of which 27.6% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.0% are married couples living together, 8.2% have a female householder with no husband present, and 37.8% are non-families. 27.1% of all households are made up of individuals and 6.4% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.49 and the average family size is 3.06.
In the city the population is spread out with 20.4% under the age of 18, 7.7% from 18 to 24, 41.3% from 25 to 44, 19.9% from 45 to 64, and 10.6% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 34 years. For every 100 females there are 105.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 106.5 males.
The median income for a household in the city is $74,409, and the median income for a family is $81,634. Males have a median income of $65,165 versus $43,051 for females. The per capita income for the city is $36,524. 5.4% of the population and 3.7% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 5.5% of those under the age of 18 and 5.2% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.
Facts and trivia
- Sunnyvale is a subject of interest for Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans, as "Sunnydale" is the name of the show's fictional town. The two towns are even given the same ZIP Code (see Cassie Newton).
- A long standing legend of Sunnyvale is of a ghost (http://www.snopes.com/horrors/ghosts/toysrus.htm) that haunts the town's Toys 'R' Us store.
- Teri Hatcher (actress on Desperate Housewives and Lois and Clark TV show) was born and raised in Sunnyvale.
- Brian Boitano (Olympic figure skater) is from Sunnyvale.
- Sunnyvale is ranked as the 5th (http://www.morganquitno.com/cit03pop.htm) safest city in the US according to the Morgan Quitno Awards
See also
External links
- City of Sunnyvale (http://www.sunnyvale.ca.gov/)
- The Sunnyvale Collection (http://sunnyvale.ca.gov/local/SVC%20CHRONOLOGY1.htm) - a timeline of local area history
Template:Cities of Santa Clara County, California
