Sunnyvale celebrated its one-hundredth anniversary on August 25, 2012. It is bordered by Mountain View to the northwest, Los Altos to the Southwest, Cupertino to the south, Santa Clara to the east and San Jose to the north. It is also bordered by Moffett Federal Airfield which was established in the 1930’s and by the NASA Ames Research Center.

In 1901 the region was named Sunnyvale because the area had a mediterranean climate and was more sunny than the surrounding districts that tended to be much foggier. Temperatures in the summer on average reach high 70s and in the winter they rarely drop below 50˙.

Sunnyvale was originally a quiet agricultural region full of small fruit orchards but the economy began to move toward technology when Joshua Hendy Iron Works moved to Sunnyvale after their facilities were destroyed by the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco. The town began to produce mining equipment and steam engines for boats, and then during WWII the economy local industry moved even more toward technology as they began to build naval guns and rocket launchers. In 1956 the aircraft manufacturer Lockheed moved to Sunnyvale.

The original video game company Atari installed their first coin-operated game Pong in a local tavern in 1972 and the video game industry was born. Since then several high tech giants have established their headquarters in Sunnyvale, including Yahoo!, Apple, Linkedin, Google and Walmart Labs.

Today, with a population of more than 140,000, Sunnyvale is the seventh most populous city in the San Francisco Bay Area. It’s one of the few cities in America where firefighters, police officers and EMTs train together as one department and can respond to an emergency in any role.

Most elementary and middle schools in the area belong to the Sunnyvale School District whereas most high schools are divided between Fremont Union High District and Homestead High School. The lower half of the city is mostly residential while the upper half, north of Highway 237, is zoned for industry. The city is served by both buses and light rail as well as by Caltrain commuter rail, but the town also actively promotes the use of bicycles in town.

There are 467 acres of parks and open spaces in Sunnyvale including two public golf courses, and these have become a hallmark of Sunnyvale’s city planning. The charming downtown is the perfect combination of big city and small town, with main streets that were  recently completely remodeled and with a world of diverse culinary options that reflect the city’s diverse demographics . Sunnyvale boasts easy access to San Francisco, San Jose, the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. In addition to being the home of the most innovative companies in the county, it is also considered a cultural crossroads between America and Asia.