About Santa Clara County

California Local gives you reliable information about Santa Clara County, beginning with three pillars of old-fashioned journalism: Santa Clara County news, Santa Clara County traffic, and Santa Clara County weather. 

Our primary mission is to support democracy in California by presenting honest news about local—in this case Santa Clara County—government and politics. We also give you access to community organizations and nonprofits throughout the county.

Obviously, we’ve optimized all of the above for easy-breezy online consumption.

San Jose, California‘s third largest city and the nation’s tenth, sits at the southern end of San Francisco Bay, and is the cultural heart of Santa Clara County and the Santa Clara Valley.

Blessed with a unique Mediterranean climate and easy proximity to San Francisco, the Santa Clara Valley, once blanketed with orchards, ranches and farms, was then nicknamed “The Valley of Heart's Delight.” Nowadays, of course, it’s known worldwide as Silicon Valley, and the City of San Jose has adopted as its official motto “The Capital of SIlicon Valley.” (Some folks up the road in San Mateo County, which is where Palo Alto and Stanford University are located, have long disputed this claim, and San Francisco would probably win the distinction if a vote were taken today. ;-)

If you live in Santa Clara County, it’s likely that whatever is happening in “Silicon Valley” is not as important to your and your family's life as what is happening in your city and neighborhood. While many of the world's biggest companies are headquartered in the communities that make up Santa Clara County, apart from their obvious role as a vast economic engine, these companies do not have a ton of impact on local, everyday life.

If you live in San Jose, what’s going on with your school board will impact your children more than whatever is going on at Cisco or Adobe. If you live in Cupertino, there are decisions being made by the city council that will impact your life more than anything happening at Apple. The same can be said about Mountain View and Google, Los Gatos and Netflix, Campbell and eBay, etc.

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About California Local

California Local produces community journalism for the digital age. Headquartered in Santa Cruz, we have a virtual state bureau in Sacramento. Our chief content officer, managing editor and senior writer together have decades of journalism experience in San Jose and Santa Clara County.

Here at California Local, we present news you can use about the place you call home in Santa Clara County. This includes trustworthy news from our allies in the California Local Media Alliance—such as San Jose Inside, Metro Silicon Valley, the Morgan Hill Times and the Los Gatan. We also present a news digest of work from Palo Alto Online, San Jose Spotlight, Cupertino Today, the San Jose Mercury News and other trusted Santa Clara County news outlets.

We also provide original reporting in the form of statewide California news, and Explainers that put the day-to-day news in context.

We’re Building a Virtual Community

California Local also offers you free access to a comprehensive “civic database” that is fully integrated with our news products. At its heart is a Community Groups directory, where you will find hundreds of Santa Clara County-based nonprofits and charities listed under 28 topics, from Agriculture and Animals to Veterans and Water.

The staff and volunteers at these organizations do important work in Santa Clara County. We make it easy for you to learn about them, contact them, volunteer, and donate.

Our database also makes it easy to find information about elected officials in Santa Clara County, including:

• Councilmembers, mayors and appointed officials in Santa Clara County’s 13 municipalities: Campbell, Cupertino, Gilroy, Los Altos, Los Gatos, Milpitas, Morgan Hill, Mountain View, Palo Alto, San Jose, Santa Clara, Saratoga, Sunnyvale.

 Each of these officials has a page on California Local where you can find info compiled by our writers, as well as easy access to the public officials’ websites, social media channels and contact information. 

• Santa Clara County government listings, including a page for each member of the board of supervisors as well as information about the County's agencies and departments (Budget, Planning, Public Works, etc.). You will also find in this directory the District Attorney, Sheriff, and County Assessor.

In a nutshell: California Local offers you reliable news and information, and access to the people who make Santa Clara County tick. We are committed to helping you make this place as good as it can be. We take our motto seriously: “We make it easy to citizen,” in which “citizen“ is a verb. 

And again, Santa Clara County traffic and Santa Clara County weather!