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ASIAMS.NET |
ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
Is San Jose the Asian American Heartland?
he San Jose metro area is only fourth in the size of its Asian population, but it's a place of key firsts for Asian Americans. In 1971 its mostly white citizens elected Norman Mineta the first Asian mayor of a major mainland U.S. city. In 1974 the same voters made Mineta the first AA congressman from a mainland district. Three years later Roy Kusumoto helped kick off Santa Clara County's transformation into Silicon Valley by founding Solectron, a Milpitas company that would go on to become the first AA business to pass the $10 billion annual revenue mark. During the past two decades the Valley's Asian tech entrepreneurs and engineers spearheaded the nation's fastest AA population growth among major metro areas. Today Asians make up over 500,000 of the area's 1.7 million for a 29.4% share, tops among mainland metro areas.
Asian American Heartland?
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Santa Clara Valley wasn't always so hospitable to Asians. In 1887 its early Chinatown of about 2,700 was lost to a suspicious fire. Most locals wanted the Chinese out of San Jose, and were angered when John Heinlen built brick structures around Fifth and Jackson and leased the space to Chinese. "Heinlenville" became the city's Chinatown until 1931 when it fell into disuse due to a dwindling Chinese population. The only structure spared the wrecking ball was a quasi-religious hall. Ng Shing Gung was eventually restored in 1991 to serve as a historic landmark.
Japanese immigrants began settling in San Jose toward the end of the 19th century. They built their wooden shops and boarding houses alongside the Heinlenville Chinatown. Japantown's prospects brightened in 1907 when the bachelor field workers were allowed to bring over wives under the so-called Gentleman's Agreement. The Japanese population quickly surpassed the Chinese. But in 1921 all female Asian immigrants were again banned. The most devastating setback, however, came in 1943 when the area's 3,000 Japanese were evacuated to Heart Mountain in Wyoming. Japantown's 53 business owners lost 97% of their property value. Still, 40 businesses returned to Jackson Street after the evacuation order was rescinded in 1944.
Santa Clara County's Asian population saw little growth during the first two postwar decades. The big influx began in the 1970s when the nascent tech boom created a demand for math-literate Chinese and Vietnamese engineers as well as unskilled refugees willing to do minimum-wage assembly. Today the area's biggest population boom is among the Vietnamese population. It is now served by four newspapers, three radio stations and a TV station. A vibrant Little Saigon along Tully Road has surpassed the Jackson Street Japantown as San Jose's most visible Asian concentration. But the long history of the area's Chinese and Japanese settlers have left an indelible imprint on the area's culinary scene. The area claims 76 Chinese and 35 Japanese restaurants. But the number of Vietnamese restaurants is already approaching 20. There are also 11 Indian, 7 Thai, 5 Corean and 2 Filipino restaurants.
Today the most visible role played by the area's Asians is helping to keep Silicon Valley the center of global IT innovation. The likes of Pehong Chen, Bing Yeh and Jerry Yang have sweated through the tech downturn while repositioning companies like Broadvision, Silicon Storage Tech and Yahoo! for the long post-bubble runup into a wireless broadband world. In the process they are moving Asian Americans into a more central role in America's future, possibly in the way immigrant filmmakers ultimately moved Jews into the cozy center of the global mass media.
One measure of AA success may be the fact that they live in towns like Saratoga, Mountain View, Los Altos Hills where average home values rival Hollywood bedroom communities like Beverly Hills, Bel Air and Malibu. Another may be the fact that in recent years the names of Silicon Valley Asians have been popping up in the serious media as frequently as those of Hollywood Jews. No exact figures are available but inside estimates put Asians at 20% of Silicon Valley's upper management and 40% of its professional and technical work force.
So is Santa Clara Valley the closest thing we have to an Asian American heartland? Or is it just another fleeting boomtown with too many nouveau riche Asians?
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 05:56:47 PM)
East SJ = East LA, Southside = OC, Saratoga = Beverly Hills.
TSJ
HA HA!!!! I used to live in Southern Cali, and that is so true. San Jose doesn't have anything spectacular about it. And the ethnic make up in certain parts are very similar.
It would be nice if more of those computer geeks would leave. The bay area is too crowded and is turning into another LA!!!
As far as Santa Cruz goes, it is really nice. But they do not consider themselves to be a part of the bay area much less associate with SJ. They kind of have their own thing going on down there! So I wouldn't say that it is directly connected to SJ. The surfers laugh at people from silicon valley who want to surf down there!
A Cute Filipino Guy Who Knows!
Wednesday, June 19, 2002 at 17:38:48 (PDT)
"It will always be san francisco's ugly step-sister. it will always be in sf's shadow. san jose is nothing more than a joke of a town!!!!! ha ha"
Hahaha... you are right. SJ is nothing more than a giant suburb (even though this "suburb" has a larger population than the "city"). They don't have anything that resembles a real city, like skyscrapers, high rise apartments, vibrant financial district, etc. Actually, what it really is is a miniature LA. It's hot, sticky and smoggy, just like LA. The ethnic makeup and distribution are similar. East SJ = East LA, Southside = OC, Saratoga = Beverly Hills.
The beach isn't that far away. Santa Cruz, the finest beach resort in Cali (beats anything SoCal has to offer, including Santa Monica, Venice, and Belmont), is only 30 mins away.
Hey, it doesn't matter if the town has nothing to do because those computer geeks are working all day anyways!
TSJ
Eric@KristinKreuk.net
Wednesday, June 19, 2002 at 11:34:49 (PDT)
San Jose is so damn pathetic!!!!
San Jose used to be a great city for people to find work and make good money. But since the economy is so bad there is not much that the city has to offer. Its amazing that people from outside the area used to talk about moving to San Jose and living there. But it is nothing more than a boring town with tons of unemployed people. It was only great during the dot com boom.
But even then the city did not have a whole lot to offer. I mean what else can you do in San Jose other than going to work or looking for it if you are not employed. All the clubs are in San Francisco, all the popular sports teams are in San Francisco and Oakland. There is no scenery and there are no beaches there. They don't even have an active downtown area. I mean its not that busy during the day, and its completely dead at night. Nobody goes to the clubs there, or hangs out there at night. And the Japantown there is pathetic. Why are there more Mexican owned businesses in Japantown than there are Japanese owned businesses.
That's hella sad isn't it!!! HA HA
So for those of you who think that San Jose has something special to offer has got to be joking. There is nothing great or special about that town and it
SUCKS THERE!!!!!
It will always be san francisco's ugly step-sister. it will always be in sf's shadow. san jose is nothing more than a joke of a town!!!!! ha ha
A Cute Filipino Guy Who Knows!!!!
Friday, June 14, 2002 at 14:12:56 (PDT)
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