Los Altos, California

Los Altos is a city at the southern end of the San Francisco Peninsula (part of the Silicon Valley). The city is located in Santa Clara County, California. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 27,693.

Design and planning

Los Altos, by design, strives to maintain a semi-rural atmosphere. Los Altos has no sidewalks except around the commercial zones just mentioned and along the most important arterial roads like San Antonio Road. Most roads have broad dirt shoulders and little or no street lighting. The civic center sits in the middle of an orchard, a tiny remnant of the large farms which once covered the entire area. The downtown is a triangle with arterials on all sides that allow most through traffic to bypass Main Street. In contrast, several nearby cities have downtowns that lack adequate bypasses (notably, Palo Alto and Menlo Park). Due to the city's strict low-density zoning, many Los Altos homes are now valued at $1 million and higher.

Related Topics:
Arterial road - Shoulders - Street light - Orchard - Main Street - Palo Alto - Menlo Park

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From the mid-1990s onward, downtown Los Altos has experienced mild economic difficulties due to competition from shopping centers and big box retailers in nearby Mountain View and Palo Alto, as well as its lack of a hotel or movie theater. The problem of how to revitalize the downtown area continues to be a major issue in city politics{{ref|mcpherson}}.

Related Topics:
Hotel - Movie theater

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