Santa Clara Valley in California

7 April 2026 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, San Francisco Bay Area Reading Time:  8 minutes

Santana Row in San Jose © flickr.com - Payton Chung/cc-by-2.0

Santana Row in San Jose © flickr.com – Payton Chung/cc-by-2.0

The Santa Clara Valley (Spanish: Valle de Santa Clara) is a geologic trough in Northern California that extends 90 miles (140 km) south–southeast from San Francisco to Hollister. The longitudinal valley is bordered on the west by the Santa Cruz Mountains and on the east by the Diablo Range; the two coastal ranges meet south of Hollister. The San Francisco Bay borders the valley to the north, and fills much of the northern third of the valley. The valley floor is an alluvial plain that formed in the graben (tectonic depression) between the San Andreas Fault to the west and the Hayward and Calaveras faults to the east. Within the valley and surrounding the bay on three sides are the urban communities of San Mateo County, Santa Clara County, and Alameda County, while the narrow southern reaches of the valley extend into rural San Benito County to Hollister. In practical terms, the central portion of the Santa Clara Valley is often considered by itself, contained entirely within Santa Clara County.   read more…

Pleasanton in California

28 November 2022 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, San Francisco Bay Area Reading Time:  7 minutes

© Michael C. Berch/cc-by-sa-2.5

© Michael C. Berch/cc-by-sa-2.5

Pleasanton is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. Located in the Amador Valley, it is a suburb in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 79,871 at the 2020 census. In 2005 and 2007, Pleasanton was ranked the wealthiest middle-sized city in the United States by the Census Bureau. Pleasanton is home to the headquarters of Safeway, Workday, Ellie Mae, Roche Molecular Diagnostics, Blackhawk Network Holdings, and Veeva Systems. Other major employers include Kaiser Permanente, Oracle and Macy’s. Although Oakland is the Alameda County seat, a few county offices are located in Pleasanton. The Alameda County Fairgrounds are located in Pleasanton, where the county fair is held during the last week of June and the first week of July. Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park is located on the west side of town.   read more…

University of California, Berkeley

3 September 2018 | Author/Destination: | Category: General, Architecture, San Francisco Bay Area, Universities, Colleges, Academies Reading Time:  15 minutes

Campus © flickr.com - brainchildvn/cc-by-2.0

Campus © flickr.com – brainchildvn/cc-by-2.0

The University of California, Berkeley is a public research university in Berkeley, California. Founded in 1868, Berkeley is the flagship institution of the ten research universities affiliated with the University of California system. It is often ranked as a top-ten university in the world and the top public university in the United States. Established in 1868 as the University of California, resulting from the merger of the private College of California and the public Agricultural, Mining and Mechanical Arts College in Oakland, Berkeley offers approximately 350 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines. The Dwinelle Bill of March 5, 1868 (California Assembly Bill No. 583) stated that the “University shall have for its design, to provide instruction and thorough and complete education in all departments of science, literature and art, industrial and profession[al] pursuits, and general education, and also special courses of instruction in preparation for the professions”.   read more…

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