South Bay (or America) divided (San Francisco, Sunnyvale: home, movie theaters, living in)

[otterprods]

Originally Posted by NoMoreSnowForMe

I don't like the reference to "true American." Really, the only true Americans are the native Americans. The rest of us are only so many generations from being an immigrant.

Native americans had to migrate to the Americas at some point too. Only the rocks are really native, but if you go back far enough, even they got pushed around the globe. All tax-paying citizens are true americans by definition.

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by otterprods

Only the rocks are really native, but if you go back far enough...

Protoplasm!

[nagleepark]

I don't condone the OP's neighbors behavior. But I see some of the same frustrations in myself: Even though I have the means to live the Silicon Valley, it is slowly turning into the kind of place that I don't want to live anymore.

Safeway and Save Mart give way to Lion and Ranch 99. Safeway and Save Mart can't survive by catering to that 1 white family in a neighborhood of 20 Asian families. Do you expect that white family to reinvent itself to love Asian food? Do you expect them to be happy about driving farther to buy the food that they used to have easy access to? Same for restaurants and other businesses?

What if, say, AMC in Vallco added Chinese/Korean/Vietnamese subtitles to all movies? What if some of the movies were dubbed into Chinese with English subtitles?

It's pretty easy to slip into a bunker mentality. To have your home start to feel like the American embassy in a foreign country. You can have McDonald's in the kitchen and American movies in the home theater. But, when you go "off base", you are in a foreign country, even though it is America in name only.

[bigdumbgod]

Change happens, even to the high degree being witnessed in Cupertino. But that's just one little city. There are many others that are destinations for the frustrated. One just has to get off the porch and seek the knowledge of like-minded folks, and set about changing one's situation.

[silverkris]

Originally Posted by nagleepark

I don't condone the OP's neighbors behavior. But I see some of the same frustrations in myself: Even though I have the means to live the Silicon Valley, it is slowly turning into the kind of place that I don't want to live anymore.

Safeway and Save Mart give way to Lion and Ranch 99. Safeway and Save Mart can't survive by catering to that 1 white family in a neighborhood of 20 Asian families. Do you expect that white family to reinvent itself to love Asian food? Do you expect them to be happy about driving farther to buy the food that they used to have easy access to? Same for restaurants and other businesses?

What if, say, AMC in Vallco added Chinese/Korean/Vietnamese subtitles to all movies? What if some of the movies were dubbed into Chinese with English subtitles?

It's pretty easy to slip into a bunker mentality. To have your home start to feel like the American embassy in a foreign country. You can have McDonald's in the kitchen and American movies in the home theater. But, when you go "off base", you are in a foreign country, even though it is America in name only.

This is exactly what I was afraid of here (and I wouldn't be surprised if sjnative chimes in with his usual small-minded ethnic resentment). I (of Asian descent) am just as "American" as you are, and I don't generally have a lot of patience for this. This isn't any different than when white ethnics moved into neighborhoods of big cities like New York and Boston. Assimilation is a two-way street - groups bring in their culture as well as adjusting to the new country.

Since we're talking about Cupertino, yes, there is a Ranch 99 (Wolfe and Homestead) but there is also a Safeway (big one less than a mile away) nearby, too, on El Camino near Wolfe. I shopped at both places regularly when I lived in the Birdland neighborhood of Sunnyvale. No need to flip out.

And so what if the Vallco adds Chinese subtitles to the movies? Are you going to drop dead if they do? In Hong Kong and Taiwan, Chinese-language movies have both Chinese and English subtitles. The locals don't get bent out of shape for that.

You have a choice - you can lighten up, adjust, or you can find other places more to your liking if you're so consumed by resentment.

[spicydreamt]

Would much rather watch Stephen Chow in Cantonese and Kim Jee-Woon in Korean than dubbed in English, even though it means spending half of the movie glancing down at the subtitles. Would be awesome if the AMC actually played more non-dubbed foreign movies, especially since they're often more fun and quirky than the predictable Hollywood fare.

[NickB1967]

Originally Posted by nagleepark

I don't condone the OP's neighbors behavior. But I see some of the same frustrations in myself: Even though I have the means to live the Silicon Valley, it is slowly turning into the kind of place that I don't want to live anymore.

Safeway and Save Mart give way to Lion and Ranch 99. Safeway and Save Mart can't survive by catering to that 1 white family in a neighborhood of 20 Asian families. Do you expect that white family to reinvent itself to love Asian food? Do you expect them to be happy about driving farther to buy the food that they used to have easy access to? Same for restaurants and other businesses?

What if, say, AMC in Vallco added Chinese/Korean/Vietnamese subtitles to all movies? What if some of the movies were dubbed into Chinese with English subtitles?

It's pretty easy to slip into a bunker mentality. To have your home start to feel like the American embassy in a foreign country. You can have McDonald's in the kitchen and American movies in the home theater. But, when you go "off base", you are in a foreign country, even though it is America in name only.

While I understand this surprise at the massive change, you have to admit, it's NOT like the newcomers ghettoized Cupertino. Quite the opposite, they gentrified it, the Rancho Rinconada subdivision in particular, which, when I was a boy in the late 1970's and 1980's, was often quite white trashy.

And frankly, the produce deals at Ranch 99 are quite good, which is why I shop there, even though I am at least a foot taller than everyone else in there.

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Originally Posted by silverkris

Since we're talking about Cupertino, yes, there is a Ranch 99 (Wolfe and Homestead) but there is also a Safeway (big one less than a mile away) nearby, too, on El Camino near Wolfe. I shopped at both places regularly when I lived in the Birdland neighborhood of Sunnyvale. No need to flip out.

More importantly, adjacent to said 99 Ranch (BTW that is the proper name), is the collection of rather interesting restaurants. I am particularly fond of Taiwanese food and there are a handful of good ones there.

[Radical347]

Originally Posted by nagleepark

I don't condone the OP's neighbors behavior. But I see some of the same frustrations in myself: Even though I have the means to live the Silicon Valley, it is slowly turning into the kind of place that I don't want to live anymore.

Safeway and Save Mart give way to Lion and Ranch 99. Safeway and Save Mart can't survive by catering to that 1 white family in a neighborhood of 20 Asian families. Do you expect that white family to reinvent itself to love Asian food? Do you expect them to be happy about driving farther to buy the food that they used to have easy access to? Same for restaurants and other businesses?

Ok, this paragraph really bothers me. Someone who writes something like this probably hasn't bothered to set foot in Lion or 99 Ranch, because if they did, they would find carrots, cabbage, apples, turnips, broccoli, lettuce, cantaloupe, beef, chicken, pork, fish, and virtually every other kind of fresh produce and poultry and meat, usually fresher and at much lower prices too (at least for the produce), that you can get in Safeway or Lucky, and a ton of other kinds.

What if, say, AMC in Vallco added Chinese/Korean/Vietnamese subtitles to all movies? What if some of the movies were dubbed into Chinese with English subtitles?

Therefore allowing a larger amount of people to see the movies at the expense of...what exactly?

It's pretty easy to slip into a bunker mentality. To have your home start to feel like the American embassy in a foreign country. You can have McDonald's in the kitchen and American movies in the home theater. But, when you go "off base", you are in a foreign country, even though it is America in name only.

Things change. I recommend going with the flow and keeping yourself open to new experiences, even ones as simple as, oh, say trying a new pho joint sometime instead of a steakhouse.

[nagleepark]

The Silicon Valley isn't there yet but it has the potential to turn into a place that is for Asians and Asiaphiles only. That's not diversity; that's monoculture.

Look: I get where you (all) are coming from. Some whites are Asiaphiles. Some whites dream of living in Asia. Some whites want to learn Mandarin. Some whites would love to live in San Francisco Chinatown. Some whites love Asian food. But not every white person is an Asiaphile. Believe it or not: IT IS POSSIBLE TO EAT CHINESE FOOD AND NOT LIKE THE TASTE.

I know, I know, because I'm not an Asiaphile, then I must be a racist. I must never have tasted sushi, chinese food, indian food or pho because, if I had, I would love it and now be an Asiaphile. I must never have patronized Ranch 99 or Lion because, if I had, I'd now be a regular customer. I think that it is perfectly reasonable that I'm unhappy about movie theaters switching from a format that caters directly to me to one that doesn't cater to me.

I'm not defending white monoculture; white monoculture is unfair and bad. I'm not defending the Cupertino neighbors who say f'Asian this and that. But the Bay Area is moving towards having very little to offer non-Asians and non-Asiaphiles and it's not surprising that those people feel disenfranchised and act out.