Northern San Mateo County

Daly City, South San Francisco, San Bruno, Millbrae, Colma & Brisbane

The cities that make up Northern San Mateo County—Daly City, South San Francisco, San Bruno, Millbrae, Colma and Brisbane—have a different feel than the rest of the Peninsula. Some are mere miles from downtown San Francisco, lending itself to a shared history and climate. When it’s sunny in the south bay, it’s often much cooler here with a dense curtain of fog.

The 1906 earthquake propelled many of these ranch land areas into established towns. San Franciscans were left homeless and sought out refuge in these areas, which met the demand via new housing developments. Post-war we saw another influx that turned these modest-sized towns into the cities we know today.

Many of these communities have maintained their working class roots as the high-tech community opts for the larger, more expensive homes further south. You’ll find a lot of long-time residents who’ve lived here all their lives, and a strong sense of community where kids who grew up together now raise their kids together blocks away. It’s also more affordable than much of San Mateo County, making it a good entrypoint for first time home buyers. It’s close to San Francisco International Airport and well connected to public transportation with BART and Caltrain stops in virtually every city.

Daly City:

Daly City is the largest and most northern with a population of around 107,000. It’s surrounded by the ocean to the west, San Bruno Mountain to the east and San Francisco to the north. Highway 1 and Interstate 280 run down the middle. The unincorporated area of Broadmoor sits in the center, completely surrounded by Daly City proper.

The namesake is John Daly, a dairy farmer who had been in the Bay Area since 1853. After the 1906 earthquake, many residents found refuge on ranch land to the south, including Daly’s. He eventually subdivided his property into new housing developments and the population of Daly City began to grow.

The next big step for the city was in the late 1940s when San Francisco builder, Henry Doelger, developed Westlake. When he was done, he continued building west and south, and became one of the United States biggest home builders. You’ll notice a lot of the homes look very similar in Daly City—that’s because Doelger built it all to his very specific standards. There’s even a song inspired by it called “Little Boxes” (the theme song for Showtime’s Weeds) that summarizes the many tracts of colorful wall-to-wall, box-shaped homes. The Daly City BART station opened in 1972 and for a long time it was the southernmost station, connecting the Peninsula to the city.

Along the coastline, you’ll find 58-acre Thornton State Beach and the rocky coastline of Mussel Rock Park. Directly over the border in San Francisco is Fort Funston, Lake Merced Park and the elite Olympic Club which has hosted five U.S. Golf Opens. In Daly City, you’ll also find the Lake Merced Golf Club. To the east, San Bruno Mountain State & County Park features 2,416 acres and incredible views from the 1,314-foot summit.

The Daly City Parks and Recreation Department offers just about any type of class you could imagine and maintains two public indoor swimming pools. There is really no downtown in Daly City but there are plenty of small businesses, retail and medical offices. Seton Medical Center along Interstate 280 is the largest employer. Serramonte Shopping Center is nearby with your typical assortment of big box and mall clothing stores. Westlake Shopping Center to the northwest is the other large shopping destination with a Target, Home Depot, Safeway and other large chains. One of the most popular restaurants is Original Joe’s in Westlake, an Italian restaurant with an old school menu and complete remodel.

Daly City has multiple school districts—Jefferson Elementary School District, Bayshore Elementary School District and Jefferson Union High School District, with Jefferson and Westmoor the main high schools in Daly City. Brisbane School District and South San Francisco Unified School District also have schools in Daly City. Private schools include Our Lady of Perpetual Help (K-8) and Our Lady of Mercy (K-8).

South San Francisco:

South San Francisco has a population of about 68,000 and is more commonly called South City. It doesn’t actually share a border with San Francisco—Brisbane, San Bruno Mountain, Colma and Daly City act as a buffer.

The city was developed as an industrial suburb, and you’ll still feel that blue color vibe today with a ton of warehouses and industrial areas. The city plan was presented in 1888 by the founder of a meat packing firm who envisioned several meat-packing firms, a shared stockyard and a residential area and services for employees. Development began and other industries like brick, steel, paint and lumber moved in. The city was incorporated into San Mateo County in 1908. The city took on the nickname “The Industrial City.” Driving down 101 today, you’ll see Sign Hill where that motto has lived in large white letters since 1923. It’s on the National Register of Historic Places and surrounded by 2 miles of hiking trails. Over time the industries have evolved, and what was once referred to as “the smokestack capital of the Peninsula” is now called “the birthplace of biotechnology.” The city’s top employer is Genentech with over 8000 employees.

Most warehouses and office parks are to the east of 101 with the west reserved for residential neighborhoods. You’ll find a true community feel that’s hard to come by in a lot of these neighborhoods—generations that have lived here since the city’s early days and neighbors that help each other out. There are a lot of modest-sized single-family homes on small lots, kept up but not necessarily remodeled. There’s also an assortment of newer construction condos and other multi-family housing.

Downtown runs along Grand Avenue and has several historic buildings and businesses. Bertolucci’s has been serving Italian food here since 1928 and the Plymire-Schwartz house was the first hospital in the northern Peninsula. There’s even historical markers and a self-guided walking tour you can take to learn more about the history. Airport parking lots and rental car companies are concentrated in the south of town, close to SFO. Oyster Point Park is a 33-acre area along the bay with boat ramp, fishing pier, 408-berth marina and park with trails, picnic area and beach.

The South San Francisco Unified School District is large with nine elementary schools, three middle schools, three high schools and two continuation schools. Private schools include All Souls (K-8) and St. Veronica (K-8).

San Bruno:

San Bruno sits opposite Highway 101 from SFO airport. Daly City and South San Francisco act as a buffer between San Francisco, and though it doesn’t feel like you’re anywhere near the city--downtown is just about 12 miles away.

San Bruno transitioned from wilderness to ranch land in the 1880s, and supplied nearby San Francisco with horses, milk and meat. After the 1906 earthquake, neighborhoods began springing up to meet the demand of displaced San Franciscans and the population grew to 1,400 by the time San Bruno became an official city in 1914.

The land Tanforan Mall sits on is an important part of San Bruno’s history. It is now a shopping center with an assortment of big box stores with a Century movie theater near BART. But once it was the site of Tanforan Racetrack, which opened in 1899 and was then used for the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. This brought military into the area, many who decided to settle here after the war, contributing to a housing boom that led to a population of over 35,000 by the mid 1960s. (Today, the population is around 43,000). Golden Gate National Cemetery sits across El Camino from Tanforan, and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was one of many Army-planned cemeteries built to service areas with a large veteran population.

Junipero Serra Park is in the south of the city with 103 acres, panoramic views, hikes, a creek and is a true escape into nature. Crestmoor Canyon is another less utilized open space in the middle of the city. Sweeney Ridge is an excellent hilly hiking area separating San Bruno and Pacifica.

YouTube and Walmart both have large corporate offices off Interstate 380 between El Camino and 280. San Mateo Avenue is home to a sleepy old school downtown. One of the coolest things about it is the diverse restaurants you can choose from—Korean, Japanese, Pakistani, Hawaiian, Mexican, Filipino—there’s a lot to explore. One of the oldest businesses in the city is Artichoke Joe’s Casino, which opened as a one-room pool parlor in 1916.

A lot of San Bruno’s housing was developed for people who wanted to escape San Francisco and settle into a more suburban, middle-class existence. San Bruno Park is the oldest neighborhood and also currently one of the most affordable. It’s close to downtown and San Bruno BART station. Surrounding post-war neighborhoods sprung up next, like Mills Park and Huntington Park with modest, single-story homes on small, neatly subdivided lots. Later, development creeped into the hills surrounding Crestmoor Canyon with its mid-century architecture and slightly larger 3-bedroom homes. Homes get more spacious as you head into the western hills with neighborhoods like Pacific Heights and Portola Highlands. In the 1970s, a large neighborhood of condos called Shelter Creek was developed, which now consists of 1,296 condos on 46 acres with surrounding open space.

The San Bruno Park School District consists of 1 preschool, 5 elementary schools and an intermediate school. Capuchino High School is the main high school in town. Private K-8 schools are Highlands Christian School and St. Robert. There is also Skyline Community College up in the hills.

Millbrae:

Millbrae gets its name from Darius Ogden Mills, a gold rush entrepreneur and Bank of California founder. He was also a Scotsman, so combining his name with “brae” (Scottish for rolling hills), you get Millbrae—the name of his estate, and later the city surrounding it. Mills opened a dairy, which was initially the primary source of employment in Millbrae and the impetus for smaller businesses and housing developments to spring up in the area.

Millbrae sits between 101 and 280 with Burlingame to the south and San Bruno to the north. On the other side of 101 is San Francisco International Airport. This was established in 1926, and initially called Mills Field. Because it is so close to the airport, there are a lot of hotels in town. Millbrae is also the start of the BART line, connecting commuters to San Francisco and the East Bay. Caltrain also stops at the station making it a popular connection point for anyone wanting to continue traveling from BART into the Peninsula or South Bay. There is a large transit-oriented development planned on BART property, which will include a mix of retail, residential, office space and a hotel. Interestingly, transit has always been embedded into the history of Millbrae. In the first half of the 1900s, the #40 interurban streetcar traveled through Millbrae connecting San Francisco to San Mateo.

Green Hills Country Club was built in 1929 by a famed golf course architect and has served as a U.S. Open qualifying site. Central Park is another large green space in the city with 13 acres, a summer concert series, play structure and picnic facilities.

Downtown Millbrae runs parallel to El Camino on Broadway. It has not undergone a modern transformation like many other peninsula downtowns but it has the basics—Trader Joe’s, Safeway, post office, banks and restaurants.

With a name like Millbrae (“rolling hills”), you can expect to find a lot of homes with views, many of the most desirable in Mills Estate which borders Burlingame. There are also your fair share of starter neighborhoods with small, single-family homes on 5,000 square foot lots, like Bayside Manor or Capuchino. In general, homes get bigger and more expensive as you travel west into the hills.

The Millbrae School District consists of four elementary and one middle school. Mills High School is rated high and is part of the San Mateo Union High School District. St. Dunstan’s is a private K-8 school in Millbrae.

Colma:

Colma is an incorporated town wedged between Daly City and South San Francisco. If you look on a map, you will see Colma is almost entirely made up of cemeteries. There are around 1.5 million people buried there—a staggering number compared to the 1,500 or so living residents. This all began when San Francisco banned new burials in 1901 then evicted cemeteries and relocated bodies to Colma. The history is actually quite fascinating. Famous people buried in Colma include Joe DiMaggio, William Randolph Hearst and Wyatt Earp. Most homes are in a neighborhood to the north of town by the Colma BART station. Homes are modest in size and there are a lot of rentals. Colma is part of the Jefferson Elementary School District with two schools in Colma city limits—Garden Village Elementary and Benjamin Franklin Intermediate. Holy Angels is a private K-8 school.

Brisbane:

Brisbane is a small city with a population of less than 5,000. It sits along the bay at the northern point of San Mateo County and borders San Francisco. The city is hilly with a mix of spacious bay view homes, small original cottages, some newer condos and older apartment buildings. There is a small downtown with most businesses and restaurants along Visitacion Avenue. There are a lot of office parks and industrial areas, and many commute in to work at companies like BiRite, TheRealReal, Dolby and Frito-Lay. The town is nicknamed the “City of Stars” for the large, light up stars residents put on their hillside properties during the holiday season. There are two elementary and one middle school in the Brisbane School District. Across 101 is Candlestick, the former home of the Giants and 49ers, currently being transformed into a modern mixed-used community.