Foster City

In the California State Legislature, Foster City is in the 13th Senate District, represented by Democrat Jerry Hill, and in the 22nd Assembly District, represented by Democrat Kevin Mullin.

In the United States House of Representatives, Foster City is in California’s 14th congressional district, represented by Democrat Jackie Speier.

As of December, 2017, Foster City’s Mayor is Sam Hindi and its Vice-Mayor is Gary Pollard. Mr. Hindi is the first Palestinian-American Mayor in the history of California.

Foster City is home to four public schools in the San Mateo-Foster City Elementary School District. Foster City Elementary School (which has recently been remodeled), Brewer Island Elementary School, and Audubon Elementary School serve kindergarten through fifth grades. Nathaniel Bowditch Middle School serves 6th through 8th grades. There are several private preschools and elementary schools. There is a separate High School District: San Mateo Union High School District. There is no high school located east of Highway 101 so Foster City high school students attend the public schools in the San Mateo Union High School District and other private high schools in San Francisco Bay Area.

All four public schools in Foster City (Audubon School, Brewer Island School, Foster City School, and Bowditch Middle School) have won California Distinguished School awards. In 1993, Bowditch was recognized with the U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon. In 2005, Bowditch became a California Distinguished School for the second time. A third recognition was given in 2013.

Foster City has one private Jewish day school: Ronald C. Wornick Jewish Day School is a kindergarten – eighth grade school. It was rated the number one Jewish day school in the South Bay/Peninsula.

Foster City also has one private elementary school: Kids Connection is a kindergarten – fifth grade school.

The city is served by the Peninsula Library System.

Foster City, like most of the peninsula, has a mild Mediterranean climate, with warm dry summers, and cool wet winters. The warmest month of the year is July with an average daytime temperature of 80.8 degrees Fahrenheit and an average nighttime of 55 degrees Fahrenheit, while the coldest month of the year is December with an average daytime temperature of 57 degrees Fahrenheit and an average nighttime temperature of 38.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

The annual average precipitation is 20.16 inches. The wettest month of the year is January with an average rainfall of 4.20 inches.

Around 1993 Visa Inc. began consolidating various scattered offices in San Mateo, California to a location in Foster City. Visa’s headquarters were in Foster City, and Visa became Foster City’s largest employer. Visa owns four buildings at the intersection of Metro Center Boulevard and Vintage Park Drive. As of 2009 it employed about 3,000 people at the complex. During that year Visa signed a 10-year lease agreement for the top three floors of 595 Market Street in San Francisco and moved its top executives there. Visa continued to keep employees at the Foster City offices. As of 2009, after the headquarters move, the Foster City facilities remained the company’s center of employment, and the post-headquarters move Foster City buildings housed 2,400 employees as of 2009.

Foster City boasts 24 parks occupying more than 200 acres (0.8 km2), including many public tennis courts, baseball and soccer fields, basketball courts, and rollerblading/biking trails along the San Francisco Bay.

Foster City also boasts:

• World Class Windsurfing and Kite-Surfing A world-class windsurfing and kite-surfing spot in the San Francisco Bay can be found within the city limits of Foster City. It is located adjacent to Mariners Point.
• A Golf course and driving range There is one 9-hole golf course, and driving range Mariners’ Point, on land owned by the City, and operated by VB Golf.
• Dragon Boating The Bay Area Dragons and Ho’okahi Pu’uwai Outrigger Canoe clubs operate in the lagoon. In an attempt to preserve the city’s waterways and reduce noise levels, only electric, wind, or man-powered watercraft are permitted in the Lagoon.
• Teen Activities Center A newly constructed $4 million center for teens that will provide access to: TV’s, computers, video games, art rooms, homework rooms, a kitchen and outdoor basketball courts. The center is also known as “The Vibe” and has a concrete skatepark adjacent to it.
• Public Amphitheatre Located in Leo J. Ryan Memorial Park, is a newly constructed Amphitheatre. It serves as the location for the Foster City Summer concerts. Adjacent to the park is a boardwalk with boat tie-up facilities.
• Community Theatre The historic Hillbarn Theatre was founded in 1941 and provides the community with a robust calendar of events as well as performance classes.

In addition, Foster City maintains an extensive 218-acre (0.9 km2), man-made enclosed lagoon system. The lagoons were initially designed as a drainage system required in order to efficiently drain the lowland city.

Foster City’s Werder Pier is a remainder of the original expanse of the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge. It is also one of the state’s longest and oldest piers in existence. Unfortunately, due to much needed repair, the once popular fishing pier is no longer in operation.

A number of San Francisco professional athletes have called Foster City home. Former San Francisco Giants players Kevin Mitchell and Jeff Kent won the National League Most Valuable Player award while they were residents of Foster City.[citation needed]

Peter Thiel, political activist and founder of PayPal was raised in Foster City.

Norman Hsu, the Hong Kong born convicted criminal (Ponzi scheme scam artist) and political activist is a former resident of Foster City.

The movie Over the Edge is based upon events occurring in Foster City, chronicled in a 1973 article titled “Mousepacks: Kids on a Crime Spree” in the San Francisco Examiner.

The music video for “Super Hyphy”, a song by Bay Area rapper Keak Da Sneak, was filmed at Bowditch Middle School. R&B singer Keyshia Cole was also featured in the music video which was produced by Half-White Productions.[citation needed]

Foster City TV broadcasts a variety of programs related to operation of and life in Foster City. Foster City TV provides programming through a dedicated Government-access television (GATV) channel.

Herb Perez, 1992 Olympic gold medalist in Tae Kwon Do, formerly served as chairman of the Foster City parks and recreation committee. Perez also appeared as himself (with the nickname “Olympus”) on ’90s martial-arts TV series WMAC Masters. He was the city mayor and is now a member of the city council.