Bay Area housing: Rich, poor collide in this spot

MENLO PARK, CA - JANUARY 03: A portrait of a Redwood City resident Carmen Preciado and her 10-year-old twins, Aliyah Alcala-Moya and Gustavo Alcala-Moya at St. Anthony's Padua Dining Room, which provides free lunch and food for people in need, on Jan. 3, 2020, in Menlo Park, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
REDWOOD CITY, CA - JANUARY 03: A view of Middlefield Road in Redwood City, Calif., on Jan. 3, 2020. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
REDWOOD CITY, CA - JANUARY 03: Pedestrians are seen at Middlefield Road in Redwood City, Calif., on Jan. 3, 2020. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
MENLO PARK, CA - JANUARY 03: St. Anthony's Padua Dining Room seen here on Jan. 3, 2020, in Menlo Park, Calif., provides free lunch and food for people in need. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
MENLO PARK, CA - JANUARY 03: Clara Villegas of San Mateo eats lunch at St. Anthony's Padua Dining Room, which provides free lunch and food for people in need, on Jan. 3, 2020, in Menlo Park, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
MENLO PARK, CA - JANUARY 03: Redwood City resident Carmen Preciado's twin children, Gustavo Alcala-Moya, 10, and Aliyah Alcala-Moya eat lunch at St. Anthony's Padua Dining Room, which provides free lunch and food for people in need, on Jan. 3, 2020, in Menlo Park, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
MENLO PARK, CA - JANUARY 03: A hot meal sits on the table inside St. Anthony's Padua Dining Room, which provides free lunch and food for people in need, on Jan. 3, 2020, in Menlo Park, Calif. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
ATHERTON, CA - JANUARY 03: A luxury car drives on James Avenue in Atherton, Calif., on Jan. 3, 2020. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
ATHERTON, CA - JANUARY 03: Cars travel on Middlefield Road in Atherton, Calif., on Jan. 3, 2020. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

By Dai Sugano | dsugano@bayareanewsgroup.com and Erica Hellerstein | ehellerstein@bayareanewsgroup.com

PUBLISHED: February 17, 2020 at 12:38 p.m. | UPDATED: February 18, 2020 at 3:58 a.m.

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Carmen Preciado has always been able to identify the precise spot along Middlefield Road that marks the end of her world and the beginning of another.

“When I go to the other side, it’s just like: ‘Oh, this is a rich people area,’” said Preciado, a 31-year-old single mother and life-long Redwood City resident. “You can see the difference.”

At one end of the road is famously well-to-do Atherton, where a luxurious canopy of trees hovers over multimillion-dollar mansions. At the other, just a few miles away, is a neighborhood of modest, single-story homes in Redwood City with a poverty rate that’s nearly twice the average in the five-county Bay Area.

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