Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Foster City, CA

Foster City is a master-planned city in San Mateo County that was incorporated on April 27, 1971.

The city was founded in the 1960s on engineered landfill in the San Francisco Bay marshes of Brewer Island, at the east edge of San Mateo, and its first residents moved in during March 1964.

Foster City is named for T. Jack Foster, the real estate magnate who owned much of the land and was instrumental in the city's design.

About 81% of Foster City's 19.8 square miles is water: the city is laced with 223 acres of lagoon waterways, 13 miles of shoreline and 12 residential islands.

Only electric, wind or human-powered watercraft are permitted on Foster City's lagoon, a rule meant to protect the waterways and keep noise down.

The 2020 census counted 33,805 residents in Foster City, up more than 10% from 30,567 in 2010.

Foster City has about 12,998 households, and only about half of its homes are owner-occupied, even though the median value of an owner-occupied home is about $1.84 million.

Biotechnology giant Gilead Sciences is headquartered in Foster City, along with self-driving company Zoox and software firm Replit; Visa was formerly headquartered here.

Foster City is counted among the safest cities in the United States, averaging roughly one murder per decade.

Leo J. Ryan Memorial Park, the city's 20-acre central park overlooking the lagoon's Central Lake, holds the William E. Walker Recreation Center, an outdoor amphitheater used for summer concerts, a boardwalk and boat tie-ups.