Guides — Errands

Settling in

Utilities, libraries, permits, schools, and the recycling rules nobody explains.

Checked August 2026

The first week

Power and gas come from PG&E, with the electricity itself supplied by Peninsula Clean Energy, the county's community choice program — enrollment is automatic, with an opt-out and an upgrade to the fully renewable tier.

Water is the City of San Mateo for most addresses; parts of the area are served by California Water Service. The address decides, not the preference.

Trash and recycling are three carts: landfill, recycling, and compost. Compost is not optional and takes food scraps, including meat and dairy — the county's rules are stricter than most places and the sorting is enforced at the processing end. Bulky item pickups are available a couple of times a year.

Street sweeping has posted days by block and the tickets are real.

The places that come up

The Main Library downtown, next to Central Park, is genuinely good — a large collection, meeting rooms, a busy children's floor, and Peninsula Library System borrowing privileges that cover the whole county. Branches at Hillsdale and Marina Lagoon cover the south and east.

City Hall and the police station are on the west side of downtown. Permits for anything structural go through the city's planning and building counters, and San Mateo is a city where a kitchen remodel involves a permit conversation.

The DMV is on El Camino. The county offices — recorder, courts, elections — are in Redwood City, fifteen minutes south on 101, not in San Mateo.

Schools

This is the part that confuses everyone: San Mateo has two districts, split by grade.

• San Mateo–Foster City School District runs elementary and middle schools.
• San Mateo Union High School District runs the high schools, and covers several cities beyond San Mateo.

Attendance areas do not match neighborhood names, they have been redrawn before, and they materially affect house prices. The district is the only authority on the assignment for a given address — not a listing, not a map site, not this page.

College of San Mateo is the community college on the hill — transfer programs, an observatory, a large adult-education catalog, and the parking lot that hosts the farmers market.

Health and emergencies

Several hospital systems operate in the area, including a hospital in San Mateo itself and larger facilities in Burlingame and Redwood City. Registering with a primary care provider is a thing to do before it is needed; the wait for a first appointment is the long one.

SMC Alert is the county's emergency notification system, and the channel for evacuation orders, water issues, and power shutoffs. Earthquake preparation is the local ritual it sounds like: water, a wrench for the gas shutoff, shoes under the bed, and a plan for where the household meets.