1. Uber rich California town that made it's zillions from the tech boom of the 80's. Went down a bit after the tech market crashed, but the residents are still far from poor.

2. A kickass song by Radiohead, probably about the same town.

Spanish "Tall Tree", a city in Western California by San Francisco. Palo Alto is home to many intelligent and not always, rich people. Palo Alto is home to Stanford University and many multi-million dollar computer companies. Palo Alto is bahsed by po folks who are fucking jealous of it.

Rich Bay Area city, close to stanford. Everyone drives a Range Rover or a Benz. Everyone lives in a 2 story mansion. Every nieghborhood is upper class except for Greer Park. It is filled with over crowded low income apartments. I live by Greer and just driving by Greer Park I have seen boys who looked no older than 14 standing on the corners selling drugs. They wear those t-shirts that hang past their knees, possibly trying to conceal weapons, a lot of gang activity. Other than Greer Park, Palo Alto is a nice city.

A lot of these definitions talk about how Palo Alto is rich, and how it's filled with ex-hippies turned Republican, and all that is true. What none of them mention, and what might be the very worst thing about the town, is its banality. Everything - from the style of the buildings, to the cars people drive, to the the clothes they wear, to the food they eat, and even the ideals they hold - is overpriced and bland, more show than substance. There's no art scene, nor even any venues for live music. Both Palo Alto and its sister institution, Stanford, have long made their bread by whoring themselves out to the federal government, doing R&D for defense and intelligence agencies. That's why all the hippies worth their salt left even before they got priced out of the place, and that is what people mean when they say, "Shallow Alto."

WHERE THE PARTY'S AT!

THE COOL-KID TOWN!

A town located in northern California about 2 hours away from San Francisco. It is stereotyped as a rich white neighborhood- because Jame Franco and other famous people were born there. Its two high schools are Paly (northern) and Gunn(southern). Do not be fooled by what people say, there are many ratty parts and homeless people wandering University ave. Watch out!

Small suburban town in the Bay Area, about an hour's drive south of San Francisco. Home to Steve Young, the Hewlett Packard garage, Steve Jobs and Robert Wozniak (founders of Apple), Stanford University, and the Grateful Dead. LIKE ANY TOWN, it has rich, middle-class, lower-middle-class, and even a few homeless people. But mostly rich people, because the minumum house price is around $750K. Ironically, the people who call it "Shallow Alto" are the shallowest ones around.

Palo Alto has a liberal atmosphere and Republicans are pretty much persecuted, but the town members tend to vote conservatively because when it comes down to it, they want to keep their money.

Palo Alto is home to two high schools: Palo Alto High School (north side, informally known as Paly) and Henry M. Gunn High School (south side, informally known as Gunn). Paly is located close to Stanford (across El Camino Real) and is ranked 199th on the Newsweek list of best public high schools. Gunn is ranked 50th.

living within the palo alto bubble is pleasant, because palo alto has a lot of genuinely good people. i remember whenever caltrain stopped at palo alto, the train operator would announce: "palo alto, friendly village". no other train stop would get a comment like this.

palo alto is materialistic. we really enjoy spending money, eating out and living large. there is a peaceful, tolerant, beautiful vibe in palo alto with a tinge of ignorance.
palo alto is not the ideal town for young people. nearly everyone who grows up here ends up leaving to seek out and discover the real world. they seek excitement and danger because they have lived their lives sheltered for so long with everything served on a silver platter.

you will usually see K-12 kids and middle-aged people walking the streets.
there exists a pestilent substance-abusing underground which many of the high schoolers who spend their parents' money on weed, alcohol, cocaine and ecstasy inhabit.
also, some kids growing up here hate this town.

gunn is extremely overrated. the students are more concerned with getting into a highly prestigious college, as if this guarantees high income. its quite a delusion that pervades gunn. academic achievement is valued over actual life-learning. the GPA matters more than your actual skills! that is why many people ive talked to say they absolutely hate gunn, and i've had a damaging experience there as well.

A rich Northern California town about 40 miles south of San Francisco. People cannot stress enough how rediculiouslly rich the residents of Palo Alto are. A one room shack cost more then a 10 room mansion in Connecticut. It's known as the Greenwich of the west coast. Palo Alto is made up of two sections, the north end and the south end. The north end is the older part, full of old large mansions, Downtown, and Stanford University. The south end is new and more hip, full of large, four story, city like town houses and a starbucks or apple store on every block. There are two high schools, Gunn and Paly. Palo Alto is known for having two of the best public high schools in the country, Gunn ranking 50th in the country. Kids that grow up in Palo Alto have larger trust funds then Paris Hilton and more then 3/4 either go to a UC school (UCLA, UC Berkeley) or Stanford. The other 50 kids either go out of state, go to Foothill Communty College, or live off their parents millions. Laguna Beach should have been filmed in Palo Alto, the kids are richer, the houses are larger, and the people are hotter. The Grateful Dead are from Palo Alto, and many famous artists, poets, and bands from the 60's and 70's got their start in Palo Alto, making Palo Alto the largest hippie town full of rich people in the world. Like greenwich in CT, there are other rich towns that boarder Palo Alto. Darien, Wilton, Westport, and Fairfield are the rich towns that boarder Greenwich, whereas, Atherton, Woodside, Menlo Park, and Los Altos are the super rediculiosly rich towns that boarder Palo Alto. A lot of famous internet people, sports people, and hollywood people live in Palo Alto, and even the cool homeless guy that hangs out by Piazza's has a laptop and rolex watch. Stanford Shopping Center is also the most damn expensive place to shop for designer clothes, and serves a good sandwhich from La Bagguet.