Mainstreaming the Asian Mall

This chapter investigates Asian American-oriented shopping centers. It shows that these malls are central in the lives of Asian American suburbanites. For many, the malls serve their practical needs, support vital social networks, and foster their sense of place, community, and connection to the larger Asian diaspora. But these vibrant pseudopublic spaces are also deeply contested. In Fremont, many non-Asian American residents, policy makers, and planners have charged that these malls are socially exclusionary and questioned their deviance in form and norm from the conventions of suburban retail. The chapter shows how these debates have framed ethnic shopping malls as “problem spaces” that required greater regulation and scrutiny. Yet planners and city officials have also used their power to regulate and control these shopping centers to promote particular visions of multiculturalism that are more aligned with their projected image of a middle-class suburb.

A Quality Education for Whom?

This chapter considers how migrants' educational priorities and practices reshaped Silicon Valley neighborhoods and schools. For many Asian American families, high-performing schools have been among the most important factors drawing them to particular communities around the region and to their imagined geography of “good” suburban neighborhoods. The academic culture and practices that Asian Americans introduced in Fremont schools, however, has been met with considerable resistance. A case study of the Mission San Jose neighborhood in Fremont shows that as large numbers of Asian American families moved into the community, primarily for access to its highly ranked schools, many established White families moved out. This pattern of so-called White flight was driven in part by tensions between Asian American and White students and parents over educational values, school culture, and academic competition.

That “Monster House” Is My Home

This chapter examines controversies over the building of large homes, or what some derisively call “McMansions” or “monster homes,” in established neighborhoods. Fremont's large-home debates reveal the different norms and values for single-family suburban homes and neighborhoods held by many Asian American and White residents in Silicon Valley. The chapter shows that the planning processes, development standards, and design guidelines adopted to deal with these conflicts largely reflected the interests of established White residents while marginalizing those expressed by Asian Americans. The debate highlights how planning processes and seemingly neutral regulations often employ dominant social and cultural norms about “good” and “appropriate” design that reinforce suburbia's established racial and class order.

The New Gold Mountain

This chapter explores why the valley became such an important hub of racial and ethnic diversity, especially among recently arrived Asian immigrants in the latter half of the 20th century and the early 21st century. Beginning with a brief look back at the pathways forged by early Asian American pioneers, the chapter focuses on the sweeping changes that occurred in the region economically, spatially, and socially after World War II. The chapter shows how Asian Americans navigated their new terrain and put down roots in working- and middle-class neighborhoods, in particular underscoring how the Fremont suburb's rapid growth and development were prefaced on the valley's booming innovation economy and Asian Americans' own suburban dreams.

Introduction

This introductory chapter discusses how landscapes are shaped by the many meanings, values, and ideas of their users, and how these can change as new groups arrive with their own ideas and patterns of work, home, and play. Inherit within such processes of place making is a politics of landscape change, creating tensions as to whom the space belongs to. To illustrate, the chapter introduces the Asian American urban landscapes situated within Silicon Valley as a case example of the processes and tensions in place making, which will be expanded upon in later chapters. Finally, this chapter also chronicles the author's own engagement with urban space, and the research undergone for the sake of this study.

Afterword

This concluding chapter discusses the immigration debates which are still ongoing in the United States. It discusses the beginnings of Donald Trump's presidency, particularly the rising number of hate crimes directed toward minorities as well as a series of executive orders which many have criticized as being anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim. The chapter also describes the efforts at protesting such anti-minority stances, as well as concerted efforts by communities as well as top officials and executives of high-tech giants such as Google, Apple, and so on to maintain their commitment to diversity and inclusion. The chapter closes with some final insights into these circumstances, drawing out the lessons discussed in the rest of this book.

Charting New Suburban Storylines

This chapter examines the lessons from this volume's exploration of social and spatial change in Silicon Valley for suburban development, design, and community building. This case study challenges communities to examine the ways in which they are making space for minorities, immigrants, and other suburban newcomers. In an era characterized by global metropolitan diversity, the conditions that gave rise to development contests in Fremont are not unique. To welcome new suburban migrants, communities must wrestle with the standards and tools of regulation that govern their landscapes. They must shift their spatial norms from those that celebrate conformity, consensus, and stability to those that respect difference, contestation, and change. If the 21st-century migrant metropolis is to become more sustainable and more just, these principles must be central to efforts to regenerate and redesign suburbia.