Brisbane, California

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 20.1 square miles (52 km²), of which 3.1 square miles (8.0 km²) is land and 17.0 square miles (44 km²) (84.58%) is water, the latter the Brisbane Lagoon. A remnant of San Francisco Bay, the Lagoon was formed by the construction of the U. S. Highway 101 causeway, and became diminished as most of its north and central portions were filled with landfill.[5] Brisbane sits at the southeast corner of the Guadalupe Valley.

Guadalupe Valley Creek is a small creek which flows east through Brisbane along the north flank of San Bruno Mountain and enters the Brisbane Lagoon after passing under the Tunnel Avenue bridge.

Recorded streets as of 1938

The first recorded inhabitants were the Costanoan Indians. They built dome-shaped dwellings of boughs and tules. By 1776, Spanish explorers had arrived and the Franciscan missionaries soon followed leaving numerous large land grants in their wake. With Mexican rule, the lands controlled by the Mission were released to private enterprise.

Brisbane was originally part of Rancho Cañada de Guadalupe la Visitación y Rodeo Viejo, a large tract of land that included the Cañada de Guadalupe (now Guadalupe Valley), and also the Bayshore district of Daly City, the Visitacion Valley district of San Francisco, and San Bruno Mountain. Visitacion City, as it was initially known, was platted in 1908[6] adjacent to a new rail line that had been completed in 1907 to the east of the town site. The Southern Pacific Railroad built the new line to create a faster and more direct route into San Francisco. The railroad also planned to build extensive terminal facilities just north of the town site.[7] The Visitacion Valley rail yard and locomotive works were expected to employ over 1,000 workers, but construction was halted soon after it began due to the Panic of 1907.[8] The town site remained largely undeveloped for many years.[6] The railroad resumed construction of the yard and shops during World War I, and the facilities were completed by 1918.[8]

The city is served by San Mateo County Libraries.

In the 1920s Arthur Annis[9] proposed the name change from Visitacion City to Brisbane. Annis regarded the name Visitacion City as a handicap "being so close to a San Francisco city district with a similar name", which he felt would confuse people and prevent "Brisbane" from establishing its own unique identity. Accounts of how the city acquired its name vary. According to his daughter, the city was named for Brisbane, Queensland,[10] perhaps due to the area's resemblance to that port city at the time.[11] Another story holds that it was named for newspaper columnist Arthur Brisbane.[12]

In the 1930s, the city was home to several slaughterhouses. Animals kept at the nearby Cow Palace were butchered in Brisbane, and the meat was loaded onto railway cars for transport.

In the California State Legislature, Brisbane is in the 13th Senate District, represented by Democrat Josh Becker, and in the 22nd Assembly District, represented by Democrat Kevin Mullin.[16]

In the United States House of Representatives, Brisbane is in California's 14th congressional district, represented by Democrat Jackie Speier.[17]

The mayor is Terry O'Connell, and Karen Cunningham is Mayor Pro Tempore.[18]

According to the California Secretary of State, as of February 10, 2019, Brisbane has 2,794 registered voters. Of those, 1,455 (52.1%) are registered Democrats, 292 (10.5%) are registered Republicans, and 906 (32.4%) have declined to state a political party.[19]

The main arterial road serving Brisbane is Bayshore Boulevard. The boulevard continues north to San Francisco and south to South San Francisco and SFO. U.S. Route 101 also goes past the city on the eastern side adjacent to San Francisco Bay.

SamTrans provides bus service through the city along Bayshore Boulevard. Shuttles connecting to nearby BART, Muni T-Third Street line and Caltrain stations are available to residents and employees in the city.

Brisbane's economy is dominated by office parks at Sierra Point and an industrial park around the Valley Drive corridor. There are commercial areas at Brisbane Village, Visitacion Avenue, and Bayshore Avenue. The population of Brisbane doubles during the work day as such facilities fill up with commuters. Some of the larger office tenants in Brisbane are Cutera Inc., Dolby, Tercica, Sing Tao, and Intermune. Monster Cable Products and bebe stores (traditionally spelled in lowercase) are headquartered in Brisbane on Valley Drive. The Sierra Point office park area is home to a number of well-known class A office buildings like the Dakin Building.[20]

Universal Paragon's proposed 659-acre (2.67 km²) Brisbane Baylands project, if approved by Brisbane voters, proposes to more than double the existing employment base of the City by providing new office, research & development, retail, hotel and other land uses that are accessible by a proposed multi-modal transit station (Caltrain, Muni T-Third light rail and proposed Bus Rapid Transit).[21][22] Houses are quite expensive, as the average home cost is around $639,000. This compared to the California average of $393,000 follows a common home price trend in the surrounding areas.

In 1989, north of Sierra Point Humphrey the whale was beached on a mudflat after an anomalous journey into the San Francisco Bay. His rescue was filmed for national TV and witnessed by hundreds of onlookers from the upper floors of the Dakin Building. The rescue was carried out by staff of The Marine Mammal Center and United States Coast Guard.

The city is served by the Brisbane Public Library of the San Mateo County Libraries, a member of the Peninsula Library System.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Brisbane, California.

• City of Brisbane
• History of Brisbane
• Brisbane Baylands Project