I am not going to make suggestions for your area, but I would take the sycamore off the list. It's a messier tree than most IME, with tough leaves, chunks of bark, seed heads, and fairly stout twigs, all of which drop at least some throughout the year.

Also, having read about water restrictions in CA over the past couple of years, you might want to consider drought tolerance since there's nothing more heart-breaking than watching a tree you love die if it could have been prevented.

Thanks. Looks like the sycamore is out.

The Ginkgo is the safest bet. Strong limbs, disease/pest free, non-damaging roots, urban tolerant. It just seems like it will block the view to and from the house. But it's a great backup, in case I don't find something better.

I like Arbutus, but the fruit will be messy on the sidewalk. I'm planning on getting a smaller unedo as full-sun Japanese Maple substitute near the driveway. It's bark and form is very interesting.

In general, evergreen is not a major issue, since the Street tree will be on the north side of the house. I prefer deciduous though since you only have leaf litter once a year.

Jacaranda? Gingko would work also, but the main interest in it is fall color, and you said that shouldn't affect your choice. Can you grow red or freeman maples there?

Logan, neither of those maples are drought tolerant. San Jose is pretty dry to my memory.

I like Jacarandas. But my main concern with them and maples is that their roots will get to my already slow and very old sewer pipe which is at most 25 ft away from the planting site.

The city does list red maples and jacaranda in it's official list.

I believe Jacaranda may be drought tolerant but not the maple.

Spanish Cork Oak would grow well in your climate, it's much smaller than other oaks and slow growing. I've seen one in a botanical garden with a sidewalk near it and there doesn't seem to be any root problems. The tree is at least 18 feet high and the sidewalk is within 5 feet of the trunk.

It's a beautiful tree with very interesting (and kind of squishy) bark.

Cork Oak is drought tolerant and, if not watered much, will remain small (or relatively small, maybe 15 feet, although it could easily get larger if you frequently water it during the summer).

Red Maple doesn't even like the comparatively tame summers up here - every year we get to enjoy the sight of thousands of stunted and flaccid ones in waterless parking lots and similar situations throughout the area.

One of its common names is Swamp Maple.

I haven't found Arbutus messy at all - the fruit tends to dry up rather than fall off.( I have about 75 unedo and perhaps 10-12 'Marina'.) I love Ginkgo, though - the fall color is a bonus but the leaf shape and color, the winter bark and buds are lovely. Their shape can be a bit awkward and gawky when young but they grow into magnificent trees.

Will this be in a little square cut into a sidewalk, or a lawn? Will it get watered? How reliably? (Realistically, will it have to survive a month or so of drought when you are on vacation?) Do you have overhead power lines? One of those entries on the chart says a certain tree doesn't tolerate alkaline soil...is your soil alkaline?

The major selling points of sycamore are the interesting peeling bark, the fact it grows fast, and the fact it tolerates growing in little squares in the sidewalk. Gingko is VERY tolerant of little squares in the sidewalk. It grows slowly so it will be a long time before it blocks your house. Also a bit overplanted.

I kind of like Zelkova. Zelkova are pretty tough trees. They were recommended to me for a windy area. You don't get snow...do you get a lot of wind? If not, I wouldn't worry as much abut bad crotch angles in Zelkova in your area.

Several trees on your list (ie pistache) don't grow in my area, so I'm not very familiar with them. I'd suggest you post in a state specific forum...the conditions in California are very different from the rest of the country.

I also like the idea of planting native trees, like California Bay Laurel or Velvet Ash.

California bay laurel completely inappropriate for a number of reasons (woodland tree, water-loving, enormous, poor architecture, SOD vector). Fraxinus velutina native to So Ca, not the SF Bay Area. Ginkgo is not overplanted around here - there are a few neighborhoods where it has been used as a street tree, but not that many. Most of the soils around here are fairly neutral. No snow here but wind might be an issue depending on microclimate. Ca Forum has very little on trees - the tree folks follow this one as well.

Cork oak is very nice. It gets large eventually. It is fast for an oak in CA. Ginko there are male and female trees. Make sure you get a male selection because the female fruit drop is messy and there is an odor. These are the two best I think on your list.

Thanks all.

The tree will be on a lawn 2-3 ft from the sidewalk. No overhead lines. As a young tree, I will try to water meticulously as directed but after that I prefer something that is somewhat tolerant of both drought and moist soil. The soil is heavy clay, maybe a slightly alkaline, and probably compacted, although I've never seen water standing in the lawn, even after a lot of rain. We probably get two high-wind storms a year.

I like Zelkovas too. I just don't want whoever lives there to worry about a limb splitting and crashing over the house. I can try to ask the city if they can find one with branches spaced along the trunk. I think I'm leaning towards Zelkova, Ginkgo, or Cork oak.

I like how the Cork oak looks. But it will be susceptible to oak diseases and is not the best on a lawn. To be fair I ought to change the lawn's watering (and hence planting) to suit the tree if I plant the oak. Zelkova and Ginkgo don't mind lawns I think.

Out of those I like zelkova. Look at 'Green Vase'

I think you overestimate the fragility of Zelkova limbs. Red maple and Sycamore are swamp trees and will probably need supplemental watering forever in California conditions, but will be fine with damp clay soil. Neither of these trees, nor gingko, will mind lawns in the least. Usually it is super-drought tolerant trees like Blue Oak that object to lawns...most other trees prefer them.

Well here's another highly unconventional idea. Why not plant a Royal Minnie cherry tree? Plant the graft union below the ground so the tree can root out from the scion (and make sure you buy it on standard rootstock). Sweet cherry grows really fast and can eventually get to be the size of a huge oak tree when grown on its own roots. Many people don't realize this because whenever you see a normal cherry tree in an orchard it's always grafted on rootstock to keep it small.

Ever see those people working high up on a tree or electric pole standing in a basket at the top of a crane? Well, it's called a "cherry picker" for a reason. Because a long time ago there were really tall cherry trees.

If there's no pollinator nearby (which I would imagine there likely isn't since no one plants cherry trees around there) you won't get any fruit. You'll still get white blossoms though. (and in any case, even if you did have a pollinator, a cherry tree grown on its own roots will take 10 to 15 years before it starts producing fruit, that's the other main reason cherry trees are always grafted)

It's true cherry trees can be susceptible to disease but in that climate—it's only wet during the part of year when temperatures are cool—I don't think that will be an issue.

Check out this black cherry tree in Wisconsin:

Or check out this Black Tartarian cherry tree in Oregon, it's growing in the Owen Rose Garden and is well over 150 years old. (unlike Black Cherry, Black Tartarian really is in the same species as regular sweet cherries that you would find in an orchard)

Now it's true cherry trees may not tend to grow that well where you are, but that's why I suggested the Royal Minnie variety. It has a very low chill requirement and from what I've seen behaves very prolifically. I suspect it was bred from the Spanish sweet cherry heirloom variety Cristobalina. We all know how similar the climate in Spain is to California.

Cherry trees require a lot of spraying here......... I don't think california would be a very good environment for them either. I remember Sara or somebody else familiar with theses growing conditions say that cherries didn't do very well there in a thread awhile back.

The West coast has a very different climate from the East coast. Mild winters but it tends to be hot and dry during the summer half of the year when deciduous plants still have their leaves. The rain doesn't start until the end of October to December (depending how far south along the coast you are). By then it's starting to get cold, so disease and insects are not as much of a problem.

The biggest difficulty growing cherry trees in California is probably that they need supplemental irrigation during the summer and the leaves can get baked and dry out.

Not necessarily disease. The best description I can give is that they live, but don't thrive. I spray mine every winter, whether they show signs of disease or not as a preventative measure.

Logan, what you're describing is absolutely true. But don't automatically make assumptions that your experience applies to other climates. Spraying fruit trees is much less common on the West coast.

I was referencing something another poster said about cherries growing in this climate. I pretty much knew that my experience was irrelevant and didn't apply to the area in question. Perhaps the wording of my above reply was a little too vague.

Most of the cherries around here look dry and tatty in summer and autumn, and there is no winter interest unless you get one of the cultivars with that satiny copper bark. You can certainly make them work aesthetically, but in most plantings they look really out of place.

Sara, The Chinese Pistache should mature into an symetrical rounded crown, although they may look weird on their way there......

Yeah I know they are all over the place here, one of the most common street trees. They really take a long time...the fall color, especially when backlit en masse, is jaw-dropping.

Chinese pistache is rarely planted here. I have thought about planting one, but I am saving room for other things.

I have only seen one in my town and it is GORGEOUS. I considered planting one myself. They are rare around here.