Travel and Work In Pleasanton CA- Unique Monorail Community

Founded in the 1890s, Pleasanton is a busy suburb of San Francisco in addition to being one of Money Magazine's 100 Best Places to Live in America: Number 63. In Southern California near Sacramento, Rocklin is Number 65; so the state is home to more than one Best City and in different regions. This gives hope for a fuller state recovery from the economic recession of the last 2000s.

To earn the distinction of a Money.com Best Place, the city scored high for its school system, availability of jobs, reasonably priced housing, lower crime rates, effective transportation, tourist and recreational attractions, and several other facets.

Two outstanding features that make Pleasanton different from some other cities and towns in America are its focused recognition and support of

1) Military service people and their families, and

2) Continuing construction of affordable housing for mid-to lower income families and Seniors.

Pleasanton leadership adopted the Community of Character program as well as the Main Street Community program described futher below. Banners posted throughout the city declare the required qualities attributed to good character, as defined by the program. These include Responsibility, Compassion, Self-Disciplne, Honesty, Respect, and Integrity and are taught in the public school system.

Pleasanton is near the I-680 and I-580 business corridors, between Oakland and San Jose, California.

This places Pleasanton at an advantage in offering goods and services to nearby Nevada and Oregon, along with the rest of its own state. Related to this, efficient business and personal transportation is abundant with the area's BART rapid transit system, the Altamont Commuter Express (mornings and late afternoons on weekdays), Pleasanton Paratransit, Amtrak, and Wheels. Several airports are located in the Bay Area, along with water transport.

Wheels is mass transit service that operates during Rush Hours Monday through Friday before 9:00 AM and after 2:00 PM, with Direct Access Response Transit on an on-call basis form 9 - 2. This is convenient and a service that many American cities do not offer.

PERSONAL RAPID TRANSIT - FAST AND SUSTAINABLE

PRT (personal rapid transit) -- Electric, 200-mpg-equivalent, elevated train, each a 4-person vehicles. There is a proposal for a 47-station PRT system along a 15 mile stretch in Hacienda Business Park, which includes residences for 3,500 people.

The city's downtown area is a walkable historic district with over 700 member businesses. Pleasanton is a California Main Street Community that has agreed to pursue ongoing development and maintainence of its historic districts and buildings. One part of this agreement is to promote economic health and with it, new jobs. This program, under state jurisdiction, is one reason that Pleasanton is the only Best Place to Live in the SF Bay Area for 2010.

Businesses in the downtown district include a variety of dining opportunities, real estate businesses, spas, IT companies, salons and many skin care businesses for men and women, art galleries, businesses, non-profit agencies, upscale clothing shops, banks and insurance companies, schools, healthcare professionals, bicycle shops, Senior housing, and several other types of establishments.

Since 2004, Pleasanton has provided a support group for active military peoplle and families.  It consistently offers emotional support, and goods and services when wage earners are on the battlefield or anywhere far from home in the military. It connects people with counseling, financial help, and community reentry services for veterans. Welcome Home parties are very uplifting. Other services are described on the city website.  

Pleasanton operates an Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance to provide affordable housing required from residential builderss. Any new single-family residential development of 15+ units must also furnish 20% of its units at below-market sales prices and 15% of every multi-family complex units. 

Low income rental housing of 70 units has been established by the Bart mass transit staion by Stoneridge Mall. Another older complex of 100 units nearby is already rented at reduced rates. Several other reside3ntial developments have provided lower-priced housing as well.

Senior housing and homeowners' education classes have also been developed by Pleasanton successfully. Additional information is located at the city web link.

The Confederation of the Ohlone Peoples, founded in 2009, is a grouping of Native American Nations indigenous to the lands surrounding the San Francisco Bay, extending north and south for several counties. The Confederation includes all of these groups so far, with links at http://ohlonenation.org:

• Amah-Mutsun Band of Ohlone/Costanoan Indians
• Costanoan Ohlone Rumsen-Mutsen Tribe
• Costanoan Rumsen Carmel Tribe
• Indian Canyon Band of Costanoan, Mutsun Indians
• Muwekma Ohlone
• Ohlone/Costanoan Esselen Nation

The Blog attached to the web site is very interesting, particularly in describing the Confederation's purpose and mission for education and community building. Ohlone Nation was a federally recognized tribe up until 1927, when they were removed from the list of such nations by the US Federal Government. In more recent years, the archaeological work of the early 1900s has been used to demonstrate that Ohlone Nation has been living in the Bay Area for over 10,000 years. This helped to establish one band of the nation as the First People of San Francisco, but not until 2003.

At this time, the Confederation is working to reclaim some sacred and historic sites form commercial and industrial planning in the Bay Area. The organization hosts an annual pow wow and events for Indigenous Peoples Day (an alternative to Columbus Day in October).

Job Listings Increased 61% in 18 Months, 2010 to mid-2011 to found 103,300+ job vacancies in and around Pleasanton CA within a 25-mile radius that is easily covered by mass transit.Numbers of jobs reduced to 87,400 from July 2011 to July 2012.

The leading industries offering these positions are involved largely in IT that includes Biotechnologies; Retail Sales, and Healthcare. These job openings are available in large clusters in Pleasanton and nearby San Jose, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Oakland, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Fremont, Redwood City, Walnut Creek, and other local communities.

1. IBM
2. Kaiser Permanente
3. Google
4. Yahoo! Inc.
5. Oracle
6. Cybercoders.com
7. Bank of America Corp.
8. Stanford University
9. EMC Corporation
10. Kforce Professional Staffing
11. Cisco Systems
12. Sutter Health
13. ATR International, Inc.
14. VMware
15. Robert Half International

Many top employers are located in the Hacienda Business and Residential Park (map below).

1. Sr. Software Engineers
2. Software Engineers
3. Retail Sales Representatives
4. Physical Therapists
5. Retail Customer Service and Support Reps
6. Project Managers
7. Product Managers
8. Web Developers
9. Administrative Assistants
10. Java Developers
11. Occupational Therapists
12. Program Managers
13. Business Analysts
14. Housekeepers - Hotels, ambulatory care centers.
15. Water Process Technicians

Additional High Demand Jobs

1. Infrastructure Project Managers
2. Technical Staff for AT&T
3. Accounts Receivable Staff
4. Registered Nurses (RNs)