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Renting an Apartment in Pleasanton
Pleasanton is a city in Alameda County, California and was incorporated in 1894.
It is a major suburb (or edge city) in the San Francisco Bay Area and located
about 25 miles (40 km) east of Oakland. According to the city's website, the
city has a total population of 67,724. In 2005, Pleasanton was ranked the
wealthiest middle-sized city in the United States by the Census Bureau.
Pleasanton is home to the headquarters of Safeway Inc. and the now-defunct
PeopleSoft. Both Oracle and Kaiser Permanente have offices on the former
PeopleSoft headquarters in Hacienda Business Park. Although Oakland is the
Alameda County seat, a few county offices and a courthouse are located in
Pleasanton. Additionally, the main county jail is just a stone's throw away in
the neighboring city of Dublin. The Alameda County Fairgrounds are located in
Pleasanton, and the annual County Fair is held there during the last week of
June and the first week of July.
Economy
Pleasanton experienced a major economic boom starting in the early 1980s,
largely associated with the development of a number of business parks, the
largest of which is the Hacienda Business Park. These host a number of
campus-like clusters of low-rise and medium-rise office buildings. Pleasanton
has been successful in attracting a number of corporate headquarters, such as
those of Safeway, Inc., Thoratec Corporation, Polycom, Shaklee Corporation, and
Ross Stores. Despite an increase in office space vacancy rates in 2000-2004,
economic development has remained strong through the middle of the decade.
Pleasanton was also the headquarters of the former PeopleSoft, Inc. (which was
acquired by Oracle Corporation), E-Loan (which was acquired by Popular, Inc.),
Spreckels Sugar Company (which was acquired by Imperial Holly), and the home
loan operation of Providian (which was acquired by Washington Mutual). Oracle
maintains the former Peoplesoft campus as a major division and is the
second-largest employer in Pleasanton, behind Safeway. In addition, Pleasanton
is the site of a large AT&T campus.
Other companies with major operations in Pleasanton include Hitachi High
Technologies America, Inc., Sage Software (Accpac, etc.), CooperVision, Clorox,
Fireside Bank, Roche, BMC Software, Applied Biosystems, EMC Corporation,
Portrait Displays, Inc. and Symantec.
In the retailing field, Pleasanton has one major regional mall (Stoneridge
Shopping Center) and a number of other shopping centers. Most national and
regional retailers have a Pleasanton location; besides the anchor tenants
Nordstrom, Macy's, Sears, and JC Penney at Stoneridge, notable large stores
elsewhere in the city include Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Kohl's, and Borders Books.
In addition to the business parks and retail centers, Pleasanton is known for
its lively downtown, which is home to a number of fine-dining, casual, and
ethnic restaurants, specialty retailers, and service businesses. A redesign of
Main Street in the 1990s emphasized pedestrian traffic and outdoor dining.
According to the latest U.S. Census information, Pleasanton is the wealthiest
midsize city in the nation. In 2005, the median household income in Pleasanton
was $101,022, the highest income for any city with a population between 65,000
and 249,999 people.
Pleasanton is considered a prominent example of the edge city phenomenon.
Public transit
The eastern terminus of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) commuter train
system's Dublin/Pleasanton - SFO/Millbrae Line is located in Pleasanton.
Groundbreaking ceremonies for another station, West Dublin/Pleasanton, took
place on September 29, 2006. Plans for this station include transit-oriented
development in the form of 170,000 sq ft (16,000 m²) of offices in Pleasanton
and apartments, a hotel, and a restaurant in Dublin. BART had previously
estimated completion of public improvements by late 2007, although this was
based on construction beginning in 2005. Later reports project completion by
2009.
The WHEELS bus transit system, which has a number of routes in the city, serves
Pleasanton. Additionally, the Altamont Commuter Express rail service stops near
Pleasanton's downtown.
Demographics
As of the censusGR2 of 2000, there were 63,654 people, 23,311 households, and
17,390 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,134.1/km²
(2,938.1/mi²). There were 23,968 housing units at an average density of
427.0/km² (1,106.3/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 78.44% White, 3.38%
African American, 0.33% Native American, 10.69% Asian, 0.13% Pacific Islander,
2.35% from other races, and 3.68% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of
any race were 8.87% of the population.
There were 23,311 households out of which 40.8% had children under the age of 18
living with them, 63.7% were married couples living together, 7.8% had a female
householder with no husband present, and 25.4% were non-families. 19.3% of all
households were made up of individuals and 5.2% had someone living alone who was
65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.72 and the average
family size was 3.15.
In the city the population was spread out with 28.2% under the age of 18, 5.5%
from 18 to 24, 33.4% from 25 to 44, 25.3% from 45 to 64, and 7.6% who were 65
years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there
were 96.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.3 males.
According to a 2006 estimate, the median income for a household in the city was
$105,956, and the median income for a family was $117,898. Males had a median
income of $77,072 versus $44,493 for females. The per capita income for the city
was $41,623. About 3.6% of families and 4.6% of the population were below the
poverty line, including 2.4% of those under age 18 and 3.8% of those age 65 or
over.