For those who like the performing arts, Mountain View has the Center for the Performing Arts, and for the booklovers it has a state of the art 70,000 square foot library.  Downtown Mountain View provides a pedestrian-orientated destination point, offering cuisines for every taste preference, as well as specialty shops, bookstores, coffeehouses, and sidewalk cafes. With lots of great parking, year round events such as the Farmer’s Market, the Arts and Wine Festival, the A La Carte & Art, and the City’s summer concert series provide a lively, fun, and friendly environment.  Mountain View is home to some of the world’s most innovative companies like Google, LinkedIn and Simply Hired, who have shaped downtown Mountain View with their unique energy and creativity. 

The public elementary schools (Bubb, Castro, Huff, Landels, Monta Loma, Stevenson, and Theuerkauf) and middle schools (Crittenden and Graham) are governed by the Mountain View-Whisman School District. The public high schools are governed by the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District and consist of Alta Vista High School, Mountain View High School, and Los Altos High School. Mountain View High and Los Altos High each contain approximately 50%

Los Altos residents and 50% Mountain View residents.  Some Mountain View residents attend Almond Elementary and Egan Junior High in the Los Altos School District. 

Notable private schools in Mountain View include: Saint Francis High School, a Roman Catholic secondary school; German International School of Silicon Valley(GISSV), a PK-12 German-English bilingual international school; Yew Chung International School of Silicon Valley, a PK-12 Chinese-English bilingual international school; and St. Stephen Lutheran School, a K-8 school.

Mountain View offers a mixture of condos, townhomes, single family and apartments.  A lot of the downtown population is gone after work hours, due to the large Silicon Valley working population in the city.  In general, Mountain View offers a more affordable alternative to some of the Los Altos and Palo Alto neighbors.