If you have ever wondered at the high price of Peninsula Real Estate this recent survey might help you sort it out...it speaks to the resilience and entrepreneurial spirit of the special place in which we live!
Source: exerpted from
Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
In a time of downer headlines and depressing recession news, California's 14th Congressional District - home to Silicon Valley - has something to "wahoo!" about: It is a comparative bastion of contentment and well-being, according to a new Gallup Poll.
The region that stretches from Belmont to near Santa Cruz was ranked as the nation's most contented congressional district in the country in Gallup's latest "well-being" study - a detailed poll that ranks dozens of factors in American life, from emotional health and work quality to job satisfaction and typical body mass index.
Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, the eight-term representative and the first woman ever elected to represent the district - which includes the cities of Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Santa Clara and Palo Alto - said that the news is welcome indeed in a time when, well, happy headlines are hard to come by.
"There's not a shred of good news around - but when I woke up and saw this on my BlackBerry, I let out an 'all right!' right in my bathroom," said an ecstatic Eshoo in an interview on Tuesday.
Eshoo said she has long bragged to her congressional colleagues that "I represent the most distinguished district in the entire nation" - but she noted that the new Gallup survey now confirms that there's more than just bragging rights involved.
"It is an extraordinary place," she said of the region that boasts of Stanford University, the venture capital bastions of Sand Hill Road, Santa Clara University and the Google headquarters. In a region where her constituents include some of the country's most innovative and successful high-tech entrepreneurs, she said, "change is not this year's political promise ... it's a constant requirement and continuing expectation."
Other Bay Area districts also ranked well among the 435. The Peninsula's 12th, represented by Jackie Speier, ranked No. 11 while San Francisco's 8th, represented by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, ranked one below that. Northern California Republican Tom McClintock's 4th District ranked 25th overall.
The Gallup Poll, in conjunction with the American Health Insurance Plans and Healthways, created what it calls "The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index" to rank factors that help measure well-being in America's rural and urban communities. The effort, "an on-going daily survey that began in January 2008," polls 1,000 Americans per day, 350 days per year, according to the survey's Web site.
The poll studies "not only the absence of infirmity and disease, but also a state of physical, mental and social well-being," pollsters say.
But Eshoo says other factors - the geographic and environmental factors - are a key reason her district is the nation's standout.
"Is there a better place for magnificent weather - with the bay on one side, and the Pacific Ocean on the other, and the magnificent parts of the California coast?" she asks, sounding like a proud parent. "People value the land there and they're worked hard for generations to protect it. The environment is not an issue here - it's valued, cherished ... and sustained by each generation."
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