Book by samantha chin by Freestyle Academy

North 40 Samantha Chin

I would like to dedicate this book to the Yuki Family who have helped me throughout this project.

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would like to thank Tom Yuki, Aiko Sato, and Amy Yamate for being my three interviewees and being so willing to answer all my questions. I would also like to thank my mom, Linda Chin for driving me and supporting me throughout this project. I would like to thank, Briana Lee, for proofreading my book, and her time giving me feedback whenever I needed it. Last but not least, I wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have been able to create this book without Mr. Greco and the rest of the Freestyle staff. They have provided endless support and always made time to help and talk through ideas with me.

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Table of Contents Preface

Introduction

Valley of Hearts Delight to Silicon Valley

North 40: Disadvantages

North 40: Benefits

Conclusion

Quote Page

Gallery

Work Cited

Biography

Preface My documentary project is on the Yuki Ranch turning into North 40 in Los Gatos. When I was a kid, I used to look forward to running around the open spaces of the ranch. I was excited to do this project because I got to learn more about how the land, where I used to play, will be developed. Some challenges that I faced while working on this project included a long research and writing process and really finding how the topic connects to my audience. I worked through these challenges by talking to my teacher and peers to help brainstorm. By doing a lot of research on how other people felt about what will be developing in the place of the ranch, it helped me conduct a better argument. The book was exciting to create because I had a personal connection to the topic, and it was a chance where I could be creative and make something that I could share with my family. I aimed to make the book as more of a reminder of what the ranch used to be, and what it will become soon. One of the most enjoyable parts of this project was laying out the book in Adobe InDesign and seeing it slowly come along. As a stylistic touch, I decided to hide walnuts, which are one of the original products of the ranch, in every picture in the book to make an otherwise serious book a little more fun for readers. I hope readers and their children will appreciate this playful aspect. How many walnuts can you find?

Previous Page: Yuki Barn

Introduction

he Silicon Valley used to be called Valley of Heart’s Delight, which was inspired by the valleys orchards filled with fruit. Then in the 1970’s, the name changed to Silicon Valley because of the silicon chip that was made, which was a crucial building block for the tech industries based in the valley.

Urbanization has vastly changed Silicon Valley while benefiting our community by making advance

improvements to technology. Although, it has polluted the valley with traffic and an increase in house costs. Urbanization is the process of taking away an open space of land that has been cherished for many years. For example, The Yuki Ranch in Los Gatos, which has been around since 1944, has housed many different families after their time in the internment camp during World War 2. The land represents one of the last pieces of open space in the Silicon Valley. It has been used as a place of business operated by the Yuki family where they harvest and sell many different crops, and over the years it has been a place for friends and families of the Yuki’s to gather. The family decided to turn their land into a place called North 40. The name North 40 was created because it is located in the north, and it’s about 40 acres. North 40 will be a place with homes, shops, senior homes, gardens, and more. Will the project only lead to more traffic and disadvantages or will it actually benefit the community?

Valley of Hearts Delight vs. Silicon Valley

he UFO has landed. The Silicon Valley is an alien land because of the rising technology that has been created, which is foreign to a regular human. Apple has created a new campus that resembles a UFO which in the 1950’s wouldn’t be ever imagined when the valley was only orchards. It’s ironic how Apple the company is named after the fruit which can resemble the fruit orchards that used to fill the Valley of Heart’s Delight or now known as the Silicon Valley. Urbanization is everywhere, but it has changed the Silicon Valley over the years to be a town that is known for technology. According to the article “ How Has Silicon Valley Change Since the 1990s,” written by Alex Cowan, Silicon Valley has changed from a town of hardware to software. To add, the article “A Silicon Valley Native Describes All The Ways The Valley Has Changed,” by Andrew Smith also describes the old valley as a place with “...pretty, straw hills and decent schools; a good, honest incubator for the aspirant lower middle class, benign spot for Hispanic incomers to land.” Aiko Sato, who has lived in Los Gatos for many years now and has seen the change in the valley stated, “ ...it has changed tremendously. When you go out the first street that used to be all orchard like the ranch and it would be miles and miles of orchards, and open land and ranches, and people growing flowers and vegetables. Now it’s all Silicon Valley buildings, buildings, buildings, buildings and cars, and cars, but everyone wants to come to California because the weather is nice.” Aside from the nice weather, people come from all over the world primarily to work for the companies in the Silicon Valley. Not only has the land and technology changed, but housing prices have skyrocketed as a result. In order to be able to afford to houses in the Silicon Valley, people have to either rent or work in a high paying job. According to the article, “ Silicon Valley Housing Prices Baffle Google, Facebook Engineers,” even some of the top engineers have trouble finding affordable homes in the Bay Area. The houses in San Francisco has increased by 76 percent in the last five years. Many people now have to set aside approximately 30 percent of their income to be able to afford a home. To retire most people have to go out of the state to retire comfortably because of the increased housing prices. The Silicon Valley has went from orchards, ranches, and open land to a alien invasion. A invasion of technology, people, buildings, and cars. Do they come in peace?

North 40: Disadvantage

he ranch has been a home, gathering place, and childhood playground. I remember when I was a little kid and every time I went to the ranch I got to run around in the open space with my cousins. We would get to build things like forts, with extra wood or rocks that we would find. On the ranch, it would be a time to forget all of our problems, and to just be kids. We got to play, to laugh, and to run freely without supervision. It was a danger free zone. No cars, no strangers, just family and friends. However, now the ranch is going to be turned into North 40, which means that are old childhood playground would be gone and we won’t get to play in the vast open space that we played on before. The ranch is filled with memories that were created over the years. Aiko Sato, who grew up on the ranch, shared her own stories and grief with me during our interview, “I am a bit sad about it because there is so much history there and so many memories, wonderful memories growing up there and all the families living together and going to each other houses. New Years everyone is visiting each other a lot and good memories going down to the creek with lunch pails...open space there aren’t very many, there isn’t any more open space.” Slowly the open space in the valley is being boiled down to nothing because of all the housing and businesses polluting it. The only open space there is around the valley is parks, but even parks are not as vast as the ranch. Amy Yamate describes what she did for entertainment, “ We played “hide and seek”, “ cops and robbers”, and “tag” and all the children.. Games… there’s no television.. So we played a lot outdoors… mostly outdoors.” The ranch sourced their entertainment as children.

In the article “North 40: The fight continues over the fate of last walnut orchard in town,” describes how urbanization has been taking over the Bay Area, leaving barely any orchards or open land. The author believes that, “If the project proceeds, it would mark the end of an era in what was once an agricultural stronghold for the state.” Other people in the community have argued that since the property of the ranch is near the Good Samaritan hospital there would be a lot of cars in that area which will lead to bumper to bumper traffic. Furthermore, some citizens of Los Gatos believe that North 40 would be stealing business from small town business owners. These small town business owners are based on customer service and providing individual focus to their consumers. They have been working for years to actually get a reputation and to be successful as small business owners. Unfortunately, more and more people are falling to bigger businesses that provide cheaper and faster service. If North 40 is developed, the bigger businesses will be more convenient since they are so close to the homes in the piece of land, less people will find the urge to drive out to the local small businesses.

Previous Page: Samantha, Brayden and Meredith pounding mochi. Current Page: Kids scootering on the ranch.

North 40: Benefits

he ranch has been around for many years and many years it’s been a way to provide the family with a substantial income. What if this piece of land could not just help the Yuki family, but it could help many other families as well? Tom Yuki, the owner of the ranch, has expressed that he believes that North 40 would be beneficial because it will let more people occupy the ranch, providing a bigger revenue for the city. This will provide a bigger purpose for the ranch than just being a gathering place for family. For example, developers have said that all the housing built on North 40 will help with the housing crisis. Furthermore, the elderly homes cost below market value which would help low-income seniors. In the article, “ Silicon Valley’s housing problem: Local teacher forced to sleep in her car,” Ellen James-Penney’s is a teacher at San Jose State and can’t afford a house, so she lives in her car with her husband. This article states that government officials had counted more than 300 RVs on the streets of Mountain View too. There aren’t enough houses to actually house all of these people who live in cars or RVs in the Bay Area. The problem is with supply and demand, so by building North 40 it will provide more homes for the community. In addition, the North 40 developers will pay the school district of Los Gatos $23,500 for each market rate home that’s built on the land. In the article, “ Silicon Valley Commutes Are Hell. Time for Companies to Fix That” states that in San Jose there is approximately 144 hours worth of delay because of traffic. Three-fourths of the Bay Area commute solo, which leads to more traffic. The developers of North 40 have proposed to send more than $5 million on transportation improvements which will solve many of the Los Gatos traffic deficiencies. They are also expecting to generate more than $12 million in traffic impact fees. Which will help can benefit the traffic problem in the Bay Area. As citizens of the Bay Area, we can also change ourselves and carpool more often to lead to less congestion. North 40 has the potential to help many different problems that affect people’s life, like traffic or housing.

Conclusion

verall, I believe that the North 40 can benefit the community of Los Gatos, and sooner or later the Yuki Ranch will be turned into residential or more buildings. Urbanization is always creeping into our lives, and the ranch wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be able to make the substantial funds to maintain it. Therefore, I support the decision to develop it, so it can help the community with housing, financially, and many other ways. The Silicon Valley is changing rapidly, and there will be lots of change to come. As citizens of the Bay Area, we could take steps to decrease traffic and to adapt more to this change. For example, more people can carpool to work, school, or any events. North 40 will provide more houses for many people which will led to less homeless on the street. There will be benefits and disadvantages to the North 40, but at the same time every change has pros and cons.

Old Abe House

â&#x20AC;&#x153;It will let more people occupy the ranch..... It will provide bigger revenue for the city.â&#x20AC;?

-Tom Yuki

“The Mochitsuki and the Christmas Eve parties where the families all got together the 4 families that started there and now its grown to 90 people we don’t know everybody, but if we didn’t have these occasional get togethers we would never see each other. Cause its too busy, the streets are too busy, and you know you don’t want to get out there and fight traffic. And growing up we were each other friends we didn’t have any playmates because people lived too far away. But our 4 families we all played together in the summer time and played games outdoors and we go like I said pack a picnic lunch and go down to the creek and pick watercress and crayfish when the water was cleaner and we picked cherries off the cherry tree and went up to the road and uh sold it off of our little red wagon at 10 cents a bag of cherries that was our spending money.”

-Aiko Sato 19

From top left: Lloyd Matsumoto pounding rice, pounding rice on mochitsuk

From top left: Lloyd, Linda, and Bryan Matsumoto watching the pounding, Grandpa Sato pounding

Mr. and Mrs. Yuki

Works Cited Quora. “How Has Silicon Valley Changed Since the 1990s?” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 17 Apr. 2017, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/how-hassilicon-valley-changed-since-the-1990s_us_58ed6809e4b0145a227cb97e. Peterson, Judy. “Los Gatos: North 40 Controversy Addressed by Overflow Crowd.” The Mercury News, The Mercury News, 3 Aug. 2017, www.mercurynews.com/2016/08/10/ los-gatos-north-40-controversy-addressed-by-overflow-crowd/. Marshall, Aarian. “Silicon Valley Commutes Are Hell. And It’s Time for Companies to Fix the Problem.” Wired, Conde Nast, 3 June 2017, www.wired.com/2017/04/siliconvalley-commutes-hell-time-companies-fix/. Peterson, Judy. “North 40: The Fight Continues over Fate of Last Walnut Orchard in Town.”The Mercury News, The Mercury News, 21 July 2017, www.mercurynews. com/2017/07/20/north-40-the-fight-continues-over-fate-of-last-walnut-orchard-intown/. Guardian, The. “A Silicon Valley Native Describes All The Ways The Valley Has Changed.”Business Insider, Business Insider, 12 May 2014, www.businessinsider. com/a-silicon-valley-native-describes-all-the-ways-the-valley-has-changed-over-threedecades-2014-5. Bernard, Zoë. “Here’s the Story behind How Silicon Valley Got Its Name.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 9 Dec. 2017, www.businessinsider.com/how-silicon-valley-got-itsname-2017-12. CBS News. “Silicon Valley’s Housing Problem: Local Teacher Forced to Sleep in Her Car.”CBS News, CBS Interactive, 7 Dec. 2017, www.cbsnews.com/news/siliconvalleys-housing-boom-is-creating-a-homeless-crisis/. Cao, Sissi. “Study: Silicon Valley Housing Prices Baffle Google, Facebook Engineers.”Observer, Observer, 26 Feb. 2018, http://observer.com/2018/02/google-facebook-engineerscannot-afford-silicon-valley-houses/. Yuki, Tom. Personal Interview. 23 February 2018. Sato, Aiko. Personal Interview. 9 March 2018. Yamate, Amy. Personal Interview. 23 February 2018.

amantha Chin is a 16 year old and a junior who attends Mountain View High School and Freestyle Academy. She was born in Taipei Taiwan, but grew up in Taipei, Taiwan. She lives with her parents, Stan and Linda, and her dog, Elsa. She enjoys listening to music, hanging out with friends, and traveling. In the upcoming years, she aspires to major in business and minor in psychology.

North 40 Samantha Chin