Living in San Mateo

Neighborhoods — The flats

Shoreview & Fiesta Gardens

Reclaimed bay land east of 101, laid out in the 1950s and 60s, where a fair number of houses have a lagoon behind the fence.

The Third Avenue bridge over US-101 at low sun, seen from the walkway beneath its signs, with a cyclist and a person pushing a stroller crossing toward the far side
On a map the freeway reads as a wall. The Third Avenue bridge is why it isn't one — people cross here on foot, on bikes, on scooters, and on the 250.

On the map

On the slope

Elevation cross section of San Mateo, west to east: the Crystal Springs watershed at 560 feet falls to San Francisco Bay at sea level in roughly four miles. San Mateo Highlands — 310 ft Laurelwood & Sugarloaf — 330 ft Baywood — 130 ft Aragon — 90 ft North Central — 38 ft Downtown — 28 ft Hillsdale — 22 ft Bay Meadows — 14 ft Sunnybrae — 11 ft Shoreview & Fiesta Gardens — 8 ft Coyote Point & North Shoreview — 5 ft
The hills East of the freeway, near sea level. The Bay Drag toward the Bay →
Elevation
8 ft
Band
The flats
Nearest platform
Hayward Park
Getting to it
2 miles over the Third Avenue bridge — a bike ride, a bus, or a long walk
Street pattern
Long, straight, and wide, some ending at water
Fog
No. Wind most afternoons.
Tree canopy
Low — young and middle-aged street trees, and a lot of open sky
Noise
Low. Wind is the dominant sound from early afternoon

Everything east of 101 here was under water or under marsh within living memory. It was filled and subdivided in the 1950s and 60s, and the developers gave the streets Spanish names — Fiesta Gardens is the tract where that theme runs hardest, with a lagoon threading through it and houses backing directly onto the water.

The houses are single-story, wide-fronted, and mostly original in outline even where they have been remodeled inside. Lots are large by Peninsula standards. It is one of the few parts of San Mateo where an ordinary house comes with something unusual attached — a dock, a paddleboard on the lawn, ducks.

What it's actually like

Flat and open, with more sky than anywhere else in the city. The wind arrives in the early afternoon most of the summer and stays until evening; sailors and kiteboarders at Coyote Point plan their lives around it and everyone else keeps a jacket in the car. Los Prados and the smaller neighborhood parks fill up on weekends, and the Bay Trail is close enough to be a habit.

Two things separate one block here from the next. Flood zone designation and insurance vary parcel by parcel and matter more than anywhere else in San Mateo, and the city has long-term levee and sea-level planning underway. Both are matters of record rather than rumour, and both are specific to a parcel rather than to the neighborhood.

Getting out

By car, the default and the design. 101 is the whole story, on at Hillsdale or 19th Avenue, and the crossings back over the freeway are the pinch points.

By bus, the SamTrans 250 runs through the neighborhood on roughly twenty-minute headways. That is frequent enough to use without planning your day around the timetable, and it is the simplest way over the freeway for anyone not driving.

By bike, better than the distances suggest. The Bay Trail is close, flat, and car-free, and the Third Avenue bridge takes bikes and scooters — a bike over the freeway sometimes beats a car through the same crossing at rush hour.

By train, two miles to Hayward Park over the Third Avenue bridge. That is a bike ride or a bus for most people and a long walk for some, but the crossing itself is not the obstacle it looks like on a map.

On foot, further than the map suggests. The parks, the lagoon paths, and the Bay Trail are all close and genuinely good. Most errands are on the far side of 101, but the Third Avenue bridge has a walkway and crossing it is ordinary rather than heroic — a walk to the other side is a walk, not an expedition.