About Cupertino

Cupertino /ˌkuːpərˈtiːnoʊ/ is a city in Santa Clara County, California in the United States, directly west of San Jose on the western edge of the Santa Clara Valley with portions extending into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. This affluent city is the 11th richest city with a population over 50,000 in the United States with an estimated per-capita income of $51,965 and a median household income exceeding $160,000, as many households need two or more incomes to meet the high cost of property and living. The population was 58,302 at the 2010 census. Forbes ranked it as one of the most educated small towns. It is perhaps best known as being the home town of Apple Inc.'s corporate headquarters.

Cupertino was named after Arroyo San José de Cupertino (now Stevens Creek). The creek had been named by Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza's cartographer, who named it after Saint Joseph of Cupertino. Saint Joseph (born Giuseppe Maria Desa, and later known as Giuseppe da Copertino) was named after the town of Copertino in the Apulia region of Italy. The name Cupertino first became widely used when John T. Doyle, a San Francisco lawyer and historian, named his winery on McClellan Road "Cupertino". After the turn of the 20th century, Cupertino displaced the former name for the region, which was “West Side”.

Cupertino in the 19th century was a small rural village at the crossroads of Stevens Creek Road and Saratoga-Mountain View Road (also known locally as Highway 9; later Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road, and then renamed to De Anza Boulevard within Cupertino city limits). Back then, it was known as the West Side and was part of Fremont Township. The primary economic activity was fruit agriculture. Almost all of the land within Cupertino's present-day boundaries was covered by prune, plum, apricot, and cherry orchards. A winery on Montebello Ridge overlooking the Cupertino valley region was also operating by the late 19th century.

Cupertino is one of many cities that claim to be the “heart” of Silicon Valley, as many semi-conductor and computer companies were founded here and in the surrounding areas. The worldwide headquarters for Apple Inc. is located here in a modern complex circled by the Infinite Loop. Apple has announced that it plans to build a new 150-acre (610,000 m2) second campus between Interstate 280, N Wolfe Rd, E Homestead Rd and along Tantau Ave one mile east of the old campus. The nine properties (50-acre (0.2 km2) south of Pruneridge Avenue were bought in 2006, the property (100-acre (0.4 km2) north of it in 2010 (from Hewlett-Packard).

Cupertino was incorporated in 1955. The highest body in the city government - the City Council - is made up of five members who serve overlapping, four-year terms. The council elects the mayor and vice-mayor for a term of one year. The city does not have its own charter. Instead, it is a General Law city, which follows provisions and requirements for cities established by the state of California.

The city's symbol is a conquistador's morion. A sculpture of this helmet stands next to Cupertino City Hall, and several versions of the helmet have also been used as the city logo. The original sculpture was made in 1971 by John Augsburger of San Luis Obispo. A full-sized replica of the sculpture, made by Fred Subega was given to the city of Toyokawa, Japan as a gift to commemorate their tenth anniversary as sister cities. A smaller sculpture in the shape of the helmet in the 1999-2007 Cupertino city seal was also given to the city of Toyokawa as a twenty-fifth anniversary present.