City of Milpitas, California

City of Milpitas, CA

Milpitas is located at the far northeast boundary of Santa Clara County and of what is typically considered Silicon Valley. With more open land located nearby, the upward pressure on home prices has been a little less intense than for San Francisco Peninsula homes. The open land along state route 237 has been steadily converted into industrial sites for a couple decades. Many companies have their headquarters or major facilities in the industrial zones of Milpitas including: Maxtor, LSI Corporation, Flextronics, Adaptec, Intersil, FireEye, Cisco Systems, Brocade, Ericson, San Disk and others.

Like many local cities, Milpitas was first settled in the 1850s by Americans of European descent who sought to make their living from the rich fertile ground. In 1952 the Ford Motor Company had outgrown its assembly plant in Richmond CA and purchased about 120 acres of land in the little town of Milpitas (population 800). By 1954 residents of Milpitas were afraid the growing city of San Jose would swallow their town so they incorporated as a city. Seven years later San Jose did attempt to annex Milpitas leading to a group calling themselves the Milpitas Minutement forming to oppose the annexation. After the 1961 election defeated the annexation, the image of Daniel Chester French's Minuteman statue in Concord, MA was used to form part of the official Milpitas city seal.

The Ford Motor plant had several major impacts on Milpitas before it closed in 1984. In 1961 Ben Gross, with the backing of the UAW, became Milpitas' first black city councilman. The election received national attention from Look and Life magazines. In 1964 and again in 1968 Ben Gross was elected mayor of Milpitas.

The steadily increasing traffic into and through Milpitas caused roads and train tracks to be expanded which in turn has helped lead to the lack of a concentrated downtown center. Interstates 680 and 880 divide Milpitas into three sections. Milpitas has several retail centers typically located near residential developments and anchored by a supermarket. In 1994, ten years after the Ford assembly plant was closed, the plant was converted into "The Great Mall of the Bay Area".

U.S. Census Facts for Milpitas

• Total Population: 66,790
• 20,744 housing units - 65.6% owner occupied
• Median household income: $95,466
• Bachelors degree or higher: 40.8%
• Median age: 36.8