I was drinking coffee and reading my newspaper as usual. As I came across the real estate section, that one article (September 12, 1998), stirred my memory. These memories, "American Dreams," they are not. To others, Seven Trees is just a space in San Jose, but to me, Seven Trees was my home. Let me share with you the different faces of San Jose, particularly, that space in San Jose.
Upon receiving the assignment of space in San Jose, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I have always told myself that I would write an autobiography, and maybe this might be a prelude to one. When I was very young, I grew up in a poverty stricken neighborhood in Seven Trees Boulevard. With the poverty, there came high-crime, drugs, gangs, lack of educated, and lack of confidence. It seemed to me that the majority of us were not going anywhere. I knew this because I could see everyone just hanging around, claiming a certain sides of a gang. Growing up in the Seven Trees neighborhood, I never heard of anyone that got out of the "hood" and "made it." After my sixth-grade year at Seven Trees Elementary School, I moved in with my stepmother to Almaden. Even though my father and my stepmother were no longer together, they decided that the school in Almaden Valley was better for my sister and I. Although, I protested this decision, leaving behind all my friends and my comfort-zone became a reality. I loved that poor neighborhood. Almaden Valley was a culture shock! In here, I had no friends and no sense of belonging. I had never seen so many white people in my life! I also saw for the first time a "big" house, and so many expensive cars! The whole area seemed much nicer compared to Seven Trees. For my research project I went back to Seven Trees and visited my old elementary school Seven Trees Elementary School. It was only then that I realized that I have learned many valuable things from that place. I also realized then, that I am a product of this "hood."
Going back to Seven Trees was like a trip to a memory lane. The first-thing I decided to do was to drive around all the different apartment complexes that I had lived in. I even got out of my car and walked up to the front door of my old residence (I don't know why I did that, I guess I wanted reclaim my childhood just for a moment). All the fun little memories started to comeback. The most memorable recollection being the weekly softball games among the neighborhood children. When I stopped reminiscing, I realized that in general, the whole Seven Trees area hadn't changed all that much. This struck odd to me because somehow this part of town survived the Silicon Valley redevelopment boom! That's pretty impressive and pretty interesting. This is such a big contrast to the last nine years in Almaden Valley. Needless to say that Almaden Valley has changed a lot in the last nine-years. I remember seeing the dirt roads in the Rajkovich Way (my neighborhood street), then in matter of couple of years we had neighborhoods. We even had cows grazing on the hills and the deer's frequently visited our homes at night. Oh yes, and the price of real estate shot up too (if you haven't noticed). Despite all these changes around this town, Seven Trees stood test of time. When you look at newspaper for homes, you don't generally see advertisements for Seven Trees homes, but you can bet that you can find a section on Almaden Valley (if you can afford one) homes.
I also visited the Seven Trees Public Library and noticed a striking difference. Aside from being half the size of Almaden Valley Public Library branch (According to the Seven Trees librarian who also showed me the budget book for the City of San Jose, politics plays a role regarding how much money is divided among the library branches. Almaden Valley Public Library branch get more money than the Seven Trees because it is determined that Almaden Valley branch is much busier than Seven Trees.), the Seven Trees library has sections for Vietnamese and Spanish books, which are very appropriate for this area. I purposely visited the Seven Trees Elementary School last. I had to gather some courage to visit my old teacher. Hoping that she was still there, I knew exactly who I was going to visit. Her name is Mrs. Kan, she was my second-grade teacher. Although I don't exactly remember what I learned from her, she stuck out because I knew she cared about me.
I went to the school's main office and asked for Mrs. Kan, few minutes later Mrs. Kan. Mrs. Kan appeared, she did a double take of me and said "Hi Peter!" I was very relieved that she still remembered me. Once our greeting subsided, she took me by the arm and introduced me to everyone in the office as her former student. I think she felt really proud. When I told Mrs. Kan that I was in the neighborhood to conduct a research for my college essay, she was really glad that I had "made it." When she said "made it," it once again reminded me of where I was. Even though I was truly glad to see my old teacher again, I also wanted to conduct my research. I was shocked to find out that my old elementary school was now a year around school! What, no summer break? I thought to myself "That will never pass in Almaden Valley." The school was converted to year around school to accommodate the growing number of students, as opposed to building new schools. Mrs. Kan also told me that since Franklin-McKinley School District pays so low, that they have issues of teacher "turn-over" and concerns for the future of education itself. I also found it shocking that they recruited poor teachers from Spain to teach here at Seven Trees! I'm not joking. Mrs. Kan then whispered, "Some of these people are teaching on emergency teaching credentials." Talk about teacher shortage.
As the conversations went on, I noticed that the entire school was protected with barbwire fences. The fences again reminded me of what kind of area I grew up in. When I told Mrs. Kan that I lived in Almaden Valley, she told me about a junior-high school by where I lived. She told me that she had visited that junior-high school and was jealous that the music room had a microphone for every one of their students. She told me that since property tax has involvement in education funding, "They can afford to have a music program." It's sad that one educational institution can so better be funded verses another educational institution less than ten miles away. Heck the whole dynamic of the area is different ten miles away. Mrs. Kan asked me what I wanted to do with my life, and I told her that I wanted to be a police officer. "Oh-no", she replied. They'll make you come out "here" and there are lots of gangs "here." She went on, "Even our janitors are pushed around by the gangs that are trying to break in." At that moment I felt like her student again. Sadly, Mrs. Kan had to go to staff meeting, so we said our goodbye and promised to keep in touch. After she had left, I started to walk back to my car and noticed seven tall trees in the yard. I had never noticed that before, how appropriate that the school be called Seven Trees. I felt like I solved a riddle or maybe that I had just forgotten.
A couple of days after my reunion, I noticed something interesting in the Mercury News. In the Saturday 12, 98, Real Estate section, it read "What your zip code says about you." The article classifies you into categories based on your zip code. For example if you have the zip code of 95030 (Los Gatos) your nickname is "Winners Circle." You are also "Wealthy, a College grad, and a professional. Not to mention that you are "White/Asian" and you are part of the "Executive suburban families." Zip code 94306 (Palo Alto) is nicknamed "Executive Suites", belong to "Upscale white-collar couples", and you are "White." Scotts Valley zip code gets the billing of "God's Country". The thing that it strikes me that most is that any zip code that has "Hispanic" or "Mix" as the race category has an overachieving nickname to it. Rose Garden area is nicknamed "Urban-Achievers" and Alum Rock area is nicknamed "American Dreams".
Okay, I have nothing against wealth or capitalism but shouldn't tax funded institution such as schools, be equal? The governor-elect Gray Davis used "better education for children" in his campaign and so did the two San Jose Mayors elect hopefuls (Ron Gonzales and Pat Dando). Writing this part, made me realize that the children who attend schools in the areas like the Seven Trees, are not being exposed to all the educational tools out there. What I mean by educational tools are; computers, computer training, music programs, art programs and so on. Having attended schools in both Almaden Valley and in Seven Trees, it no secret that Almaden Valley is funded better. There is more opportunity for the children of Almaden Valley, then there are for the children of Seven Trees. Isn't that a shame? We pity the under-educated and yet we are letting this discriminating system stay intact. Yes, people do know that areas like Almaden Valley supply their school with more educational tools. Remember that I was separated from my father for the sole sake of my education. Even the differences in the public library are so evident. When the Seven Trees librarian showed me "The City of San Jose Budget 1998/1999" I thought it would show me how the city's money was being spent. However, the book was useless to me or to anyone really trying to find out where their tax dollars are going. The budget book does not disclose which library receives how much but rather it gives the total added dollars for all libraries. Of course, then some panel decides how much of that "lump-sum" goes to one place verses another. The result of where the most amount of money id going is very obvious, I dare you to visit them! Once again politics foil "equal opportunity."
I also did some additional research on the light-rail system. As you already know, traffic can get pretty bad. Conveniently, I take the light-rail to San Jose State University, so I wondered if the Seven Trees people had the same luxury. Guess what, they don't. In Almaden Valley, they just built new luxury apartment with it's own light-rail station built on the premises! If you don't believe me, it's right across the street from Almaden Lake Park! Less then a mile away there is another light-rail station (Oakridge Mall) and less then a quarter of mile there is another light-rail station (Ohlone-Chynowth). In fact according the Santa Clara County Bus & Rail Map, between Almaden Valley and the Santa Teresa area, there are eight light-rail stations. The only light-rail service anywhere near Seven Trees is good half mile away from the neighborhood. I not even going to mention the road conditions in Monterey highway verses Almaden Express Way. No I'm not!
To complete the research I visited the Almaden Valley surrounding. Once again, boy was the real estate nice and the cars too. Remember these are not bad-things but rather a luxury, and luxury is nice. Hey there is even Safeway, Starbux, BlockBuster Videos, and several private medical practices. How convenient? Everywhere I went, there was signs of real estate agents trying to sell a half a million dollar homes. As a result, I honestly tried to look at homes for sale in the newspaper for Seven Trees area home. None were listed. Almaden Valley even hosts a Nike Golf Tournament in which San Jose Police Officer stand and guards the entranceway. There is even talk about building another golf course in Almaden Valley. Thoughts of all this luxury made me realize how lucky I am. Hey, don't get me wrong, I work and pay for everything including school, but I am grateful for getting exposed to quality education and got to "see" quality life. I think I was also very fortunate to have lived in both of the neighborhoods. This helped me to realize the perspectives of both sides. I now see the advantages of living in Almaden Valley, and I am thankful of it. I see lots of children of Almaden Valley that does not know all parts of our society and take luxury for granted. I think that for the "unexposed" children of Almaden Valley, the real world will be a great culture shock to them. On my way to Leland High (Almaden Valley high school), I tried to remember a nice teacher whom I felt comfortable talking to. Again, only one name stood out.
Once again, I found myself to a little nervous about revisiting with an old teacher. I walked up to the Spanish Language Department and looked in first room of the building. I saw about forty uninterested high school kids, pretending to pay attention to Mrs. Lucurroti. Mrs. Lucurroti was my high school Spanish teacher, and like Mrs. Kan, she cared for her students. When she saw me, she just smiled and continued on with class. I just sat back and watched her try to help Almaden Valley kids, how to speak Spanish. Shortly after my arrival, the lunch bell rang, and it was a mad dash to the door! Boy, the kids knew how to run out of the classroom. Her first words were, "How did you get past the police officers?" I replied, "Well you know me." We shared some good times of the past and got caught-up on our current lives. I told Mrs. Lucurroti of my research project and she agreed to do an interview at her house (She's so awesome!). Two days later, I drove to her house in Almaden Valley. Once inside the house, Mrs. Lucurroti made me comfortable and immediately started to feed me information. She told me that twenty-years ago, Almaden Valley was nicknamed the "white ghetto," because of the predominantly white population. I found this to be amusing. When I asked "Is it still the 'white ghetto'?" "No, she replied. Mrs. Lucurroti told me that during the early nineties, the San Jose Unified District got sued for segregation, and because of that lawsuit, the district mandated the "bussing-policy." This meant that the schools had a quota on racial diversity. As the result, children from all around the city were "bussed" in to Almaden Valley. By the time I was a sophomore in high school, you can really see the dynamics of the neighborhood change. The first-thing I noticed was the music. Now the kids were listening to "hip-pop, rap, and techno-music" as opposes to just rock music. Of course, the baggy-pants thing wasn't far behind, followed by the "tough-guy" attitude. What amused me the most was the use of street slang. Almaden Valley kids were taking this new "fad" by the storm. Needless to say, they were being exposed to a new sub-culture.
Later on, on that conversation, Mrs. Lucurroti and I agreed that the kids in Almaden Valley had no ideal what the real world was like. To us, it just seemed like that they lived in land of their own. Partly, this is true because only the rich can afford to live in the Almaden Valley. At that moment I thought to myself, "I just wished that people can appreciate all the good-things in life, because some people never get the opportunity of others."
Mrs. Lucurroti and I said our goodbye, and I headed home to write. When I got home, I pondered, "How can 9 miles away be so different?" Talk about the "have" and the "have not." I wished that I had the solutions to all of our societal problems, but I don't. The only thing that I do know is that, we need more educators like Mrs. Kan and Mrs. Lucurroti. We need teachers of life! You can say that, I was very lucky to have the perspective of both of the faces of San Jose. I think this unique perspective has made me have better appreciation for life. Like anything else, I think that you need to see the both sides of perspectives to truly understand the view. Seven Trees and Almaden Valley are different faces of San Jose.
Return to Projects