you're up to date, but to stick it on mr. can is up next. the epicenter of trillions of dollars and you effectiveness is also home to low income residents. fighting to avoid being driven out that's on dolphins, the other side of silicon valley. after a short break number, such as well, thank you so much for watching the not just another day. so much is happening all at once. we take time to understand this is the day an in depth look, it's karen who use events, analyzed by experts and critical thinking is. this is the weekdays, on dw, the, the, the 1st time i went to silicon valley,

i was going, in order to write a book. i wanted to find out what kind of world google, facebook, apple, and amazon had in mind for us. while i was there, i happened upon east palo all to a small working class city. it's surrounded by tech giants who are buying up land and is actively resisting these goliath world. the amount of the v citizens struggle has global relevance. they are fighting all 3 d corporations and against the digital world, the swallowing us all the

that's actually my dog is this is basically a walking ma. are they want to set a new mission to do people a power to build the community to bring the world closer together and the different enough of us work to build the community and bring people together. we just might change the world, the changing the world. news fever for everyone. we own the promises made by the big tech bosses and we'd be only too happy to believe them. but for east palo alto, his residence, who's pledges ring hollow. when i go to fly a here, certainly you know me. i'm now are rubio, and this is antonio. he's on the city council. we'd like to talk to you today about

measure l get on was we've got to protect our city and prevent higher prices and grants from driving us out. so all the people can come and live here, they've got very different interests and we do this when measure hell comes into effect of funds will be set up for supporting residents paying rent, to ensure we can keep living here. the new gold rushes hit for a long time, nobody outside east palo alto was very interested in the city. but know the last bits of cheap real estate in the region are for sale. and that's drawing the tech companies and realtors a like the best areas of the city is what's going to be the ravens on business district. and this is such

a huge piece of the city. that's why it matters so much whatever they've built. they're going to have impacts for generations to come. so it's an i city council, east calls the city council. the folks we wrote it in to be through representatives are going to be talking about what, how much they want to build, what they want to build, how much of it they want to build in this area of a city. and it's going to be it again, whole lot office space so that none of us really use or visit just after my arrival maintainer at the youth organization, you can use united for community action in 2007. they managed to close down a factory that was during waste and polluting residential areas. the, the enemy isn't just one factory. instead, they're challenging multinational corporations with in exhaustible resources. we're up against truly up against giants like facebook,

like amazon. if we let these tech companies swallow up our community and swallow up our, our history and our legacy without having it towed, we run the risk of having a race. and we know we know what happens when, when that histories erased. it's like we were never here with love to welcome everybody to today's stay sessions, to see this one. so we can see very easily the direction that this is going, which is office is by the way, worried about how many square feet of new office space will be built on. because they put the 6th stream pressure on both the housing market and the environment that guide you in new offices. also really increase traffic. i mean, we need to build new housing and figuring out where this can be done through knowledge, out loud. thank you

. silicon valley success story hasn't help load or review that she isn't alone. but voices like hers usually go unheard. many workers here undocumented, so they remain silent just few or if getting fired or deported or booth. but laura says it's important to stand up to protect themselves of all means of samples that if i pay $1200.00 in rent by them, in the meantime, you come as paid 2200 for a studio for k, my wages, a just enough for rent and gas like i g, g, a n. i came to east palo alto with my children in 2002 meaning at the sign my door to was to and to my son was 8 years old. to begin with. i couldn't even afford to buy them up the for a dollar it to make it on the mike,

don't us of the is complex. i mean, did you say, didn't that useful? right. it's really different. here in east palo alto, we, the space to build every with us is part of it. so banks with of spent with so small, almost time it can you the, it's almost like a bad comedy sketch. these 2 worlds that are so close to each other. it doesn't make it in hollywood, it doesn't make it in tv shows, but in the matter of a couple exits, you can see completely different neighborhoods, different stories, the say hi. this is crazy. and the biggest struggle that we have as the people who grew up here, all their life is try and so forth to state the i never

envisioned being a politician and part of cities leadership. i came back from studying abroad at oxford, 2 years. and i see the level of poverty, i see the level of displacement. i think it just woke me up at the age of 28 until new lopez was elected to the east palo alto city council. during the day he was studying at stanford university, a police popular with young people headed for the tech industry in the evening and tony opened on a suit and defended his neighbors against his fellow students. it's rare for someone to be familiar with both worlds because i'm a son of mexican americans, but also someone who has lived in breed the city for all my life. it is my job to defend the people who can advocate for themselves a as a say,

china and uh, and also grab drinks for fraser if you want. oh, i don't know if you have sold. okay. and then you know, some kids be tough because we've got lots of work ahead of us. i've come award from eco, who wants to be the city 0. me them here and you. what can you do? well, we need to hand out flyers to protect your neighborhood. the sooner then you'll be us to see hero to come up. so who knows how to glue paper together? we've done this before. so how do we really lucky to have you helping pressed tightly east palo alto has a long history of the kind of fighting spirit people like laura and then to when you are imbued with. in fact, it was thanks to the civil rights and black power movements. the city was incorporated in the 1st place in the black power and the black men in control of black a key

figure in the cities creation. bob hoover is still a pillar of the community and 89 years old. and i've been in east palo alto since 1959. when i got here at the old place, you could buy a property on the peninsula. was here in east menlo park. and so that created a community that was very much like the premier that i would raise and in the south where everybody black and they live in the same location as probably the only picks i have were needing to talk see to and a suit 5 or 6 months after i had moved here, a gentleman named ed backs was recruiting people to join him to try to fight the surrounding cities. the city of palo alto had to take his land belonged to east palo alto. so it backs realized that you were losing

a valuable land and it said we need to become a city so we can control our own destiny. not depend on somebody else to make decisions about what your quality of life was going to be. we've got to build a power so strong and so powerful that nobody will ever mess with a black man again and there where in the world. it took us 20 years from the time that we started until we actually became a city the even though we are a very small community, we did become an major player as far as the struggle of black people and those lessons that we learned in the sixty's are still applicable today. the new measuring baby here at east palo alto is protested cheat g t for raji too. as

a child, he felt alongside his mother to create the city of east palo alto. to day he and his daughter are fighting for autonomy from the big tech corporations. growing up here, this call to primarily was suburban, but also very rule. it was very common to see black and brown horse people riding through the streets of east palo alto. and it's still not density that we hold onto, but with justification, you see a lot less than you used to. remember, it was a different kind of relationship that we had with each other, even on the other side of the frame. it was much more of a community feeling. but now on the other side of the freeway, where mark zuckerberg live, i watched it go from a very chip,

b. s. love your neighbor, kind of a place to a place that was much more oppressive. you know, as silicon valley boomed, the racial disparities increased the wealth gaps increased. the tech industry doesn't hire a lot of black people. so it changed a lot. after my 1st visit to east palo alto, amazon moved into a large space here, genuinely traumatizing the residence residence chanted outside amazon's new office space in east co, all to j. t for raj. he is upset. amazon won't give locus a shot. why won't you let us come to the play and swing at the bar? even before us arrived, amazon rejected a municipal government order requiring the corporation to recruit 3rd of the

employees locally. the cities, administrators never the last, keep the project to green light. the company's neighbors felt betrayed. there is no question in my mind that amazon came in. and if i can be frank treated this almost like a colony. if you don't actually integrate and incorporate our perspectives, our voices are talent into these corporations to meet your colonial power. antonio was elected to see new but that turned out to be difficult or the city needs money. and building contractors are a primary source of it. could realistic projects, city planning, and protecting the citizens all worked together until you look for answers. as a kid, my mom, what i always say, oh let's go see the houses up here. those are something for us to look at,

and marvel and really be impressed by it makes you understand why we could, we were going to meet up with a counsel member named ray mueller. the counsel member for the city of menlo park has been there for quite some time. menlo park is next door to east palo alto mentos company headquarters are located here. the even call it facebook city. the company just keeps on growing. it buys up land and builds the necessary infrastructure, paying for it themselves. yeah, deep pockets for local infrastructure. antonio's interest was p like, i feel like i'm being reared in the, in a political environment that is so divided. and i think there's a way you can meet people in the middle, especially with the counseling needs to be honest, when i try to, i try to be like i like let me try to find my niche. and i'm sure miller park menu

have just because of the economic breath of the city like that by and they're buying it. so how do you have that buying from a community? and i know you guys had the, the, the, the meta, then i met a groundbreaking ceremony for the community center. and they'll haven, that was huge. couple. so a couple saturdays ago. huh. yeah. as awesome. it was really big. yeah. mid a. there are really fortunate to partner with meta, they're building with us, a new community campus there, and it's gonna have a full service aquatic center. right. and so, i mean, you can see that there are benefits to working, to working with. uh yeah, start talking to people about issues that matter to them. that's right. and how that and how this can actually affect that in a positive way. and then people will say, okay, this is something that's going to make sense for my family, for my kids. it's not that i'm advocating for an enormous development, but just to say, some sober frank, this is a new era and we've never dreamed of this and haven't met with medical

representatives, but to me they kind of give us these boomers the whole. yeah, yeah, absolutely. i have to get facebook credit. we told them that we needed a plan that really works for menlo park. you know what? they listened and now the plan is good. it's really good the the spook, the greek then that's not true of menlo park. that sounds nice, but of course there's also a dark side, one public institution after another is being privatized. sports fields, schools, libraries, like many other companies in the region. facebook, the lies, and it's non profit organizations to finance countless projects outside of any democratic decision making process. these big tank is now everywhere here

the, the bose premises teachers and the parents of systems. facebook is funding. menlo park, police department, which you know, a stones throw away our borders touch. and now it is very common to see. menlo park, police sliding through our neighborhood the, the cops racially profiling people, planning evidence on people falsely arresting people, abusing people. it's a strategy on gain control. over this, this area, the,

the tech companies need housing for their continually expanding staff. real estate companies are in a selling frenzy and waking in profits as quickly as they can. laura's neighborhood has been affected to an older complex with moderate rents is to be rebuilt, renovated and expanded. soon wealthy or tenants will be living there. good evening . our clear improvement park project. whether or not you go see you. good evening. my name is miguel hernandez. you want me to go by. what worries me is that the new apartment buildings will certainly be nice, but to live there, apparently, you will have to prove a certain income, the kindly because i'm a gardener. iron $20.00 to $22.00 an hour at most. nobody is telling us how high the rents will be. no, so i won't qualified to rent one of those apartments in a little while. i'll put them in and can't afford to rent one man. you'll know

where you're going to be caught on the way across the city should consider that when they make their decision, you know, can i see that domain when process? which is you, margaret? the fear just just haven't heard of the community. you know, i understand that there is a lot of grounds with, you know, by a developer and, and yet there, there's a dressing, trust act. and i think we can talk about the pros and cons all day. and i think there's pros here, it's antonio supports the project, the next a scandal even really has to get we think support said try. yeah. beginning pizza pro. yes. yep. the final plan here and building a bridge between that the building trust is easier said than done not least because the con demik showed the

tech giant's true colors in the month since my last meeting with laura coolant 19 struck, leaving residents in even greater need them previously junior, junior, you do number one, who will do to get their dream has never seemed more remote even take me just show up at the end of the don't working from home during the pandemic, wasn't an option for many east palo alto resident, many became ill or lost their jobs, were more and more resident spelled behind on their rents and risk losing their apartments. when the tech companies closed their offices during the long day, they promise not to eliminate the jobs of cleaners and cooks. but in the end, those workers were fired by the thousands this is the most dangerous neighborhood in america. at washington, d. c, or detroit. but

a small california to this d east palo alto has a troubled reputation. the in the 1990s, the city had the highest murder rate in the us. it was faxed to the coverage of residents, late fall approver and bill vines. the cycle of violence stopped back then the men took to the front lines. it is not comforting to see a young man remained just lying in the street. yeah, the man that you spoke with the day before the

these children lived in a city so dangerous. the superintendent of schools made a shopping proposal by burial insurance for every child in town. it was like a funeral damn near every other week in those community. it was, it was just, it was killing us. and the police were not able to give us any really, but we were not going to be deterred from taking back our city. there was a group of us, there were about 20 men. and we decided we needed to do something. we call ourselves justice and we said, you know, and we're going to say, well, community is, it has to be a source, just us my number. and we started going out on the streets where these kids were selling drugs. so we see a drug sale and we call the police for us, it was

a matter of who runs this. a young person is at a misguided or the man of the city. by the end of the ninety's, we were beginning to get control. we learned that no matter how difficult situation is at the present time, so you can change it. the citizens of east palo alto to back their city. unfortunately, the dealers from back then were replaced by real estate agents. gentrification had begun. past lieutenant started pushing a lower income residence outside of the going for this year. is these $140.00 for the do in

this price you and for the $2.00 boys you enough. i got a letter in the 30 by then and then go this is when you go to the for the see up in the, the understood i'm doing, but i say barton the me whole if you new, thank you to on your, my son is $28.00 and he has 5 children, we be and he lived in palo alto too out of both. but as prizes rose, he had to move his family to another city. but i see that to be taken to the significance of that. i'm worried because he's barely making ends meet somebody with you and i'll be in and i need money for the rents you know by is located hi. hello. hi. would you be interested in supporting a quote was available. yeah. they'll send this to me that way. i know i've heard

stories like laura's sons, austin and just families and mothers who had to move away and lost their jobs or had to drive hundreds of miles to keep working here. that silicon valley too. for people who aren't the winters, the you said you moved from, what did you do is i went to a weekend and want to know. i know already. threes, i'm only pressing a little. i'm so setting up, i'm assuming tompkins of my good. i've got to deceive them, otherwise they don't loosen up like, oh man, somebody the a few days later antonio has a meeting with mark diamond. this name had been turning up a lot lately. santoria gonna say thanks for martin diamond is

a local tech entrepreneur. he's running for says he can, so it has big plans for east palo alto. you know, i'm, i invite folks to learn when i was 28. i was looking for a community where i could walk to a cafe. i could go out for a bar to be live music, a local establishment, and you have to leave, you just call to us to do all that stuff right now. that's not right. a lot of positives, perception. yeah. and part of the change making that we have to do is bringing people to understand the limited resources we have. i think one of the reasons why i'm running is we need leadership that's looking forward not looking backwards, trying to freeze these palo alto in time. and also, you know, working with developers to bring things that the community needs and wants into the city. that's how you meet the moment you know, on or the path, right. but also adapt to the new i, you know, change is hard but it's not changes happening anywhere. it's just as if, if we build more housing, we're going to have less displacement. because if you don't build housing for that facebook engineer, they're going to buy a house and the gardens and just place everybody there. yeah. a good mark to me as

somebody who understands the infrastructure. i do understand he cannot make developments but also with a heart for the city cannot yeah. everything. okay. cool. is the trade show isn't the yes, we helped him and he's betraying us. you know, as the, he says he believes we have 12 here, chat, but then he goes, enjoyed school system, people. he's only been living in east palo alto for sure. tons, a journal said look, let's click on okay again. and you just move to you and have a very different priority. and clearly that is the fed up exactly how come in they don't the i understand that as a politician, he wants to hear your thoughts successful as well. so what is his value? what a antonio lucas is priority or love is you don't end up walking a lot back here unless you live here and look at the conditions of the cell.

obviously, this hasn't been re paved sophie, that's why it was repaid. what about the level of chaos, and he's called those impressive so you might have some of that. i'm in as mark diamond's that it was gonna have to spend the money. so ok. see, and those are some i'm currently running for city council. i started getting involved when there was a homeless and coming over my back fence is pretty outragious what was going on because we weren't enforcing the law. and so the campaign is working to bring positive change these positive. so there is a flyer for us. there's a lot of road safe for streets, parks, all the quality of life issues. didn't you have an election was coming up in a few weeks in east palo alto. mark diamond's name is on everyone's lips. having an entrepreneur on the city council would be a for,

for this stance is clear. he wants to open the city to big corporations. i definitely represent a threat to a lot of the people who live here. i think we need to work with developers, make sure that they check all the boxes of not just placing people, but if i do that, let's get out of the way i want to build. and you have readers in east palo alto that are lying to the people and making them scared. that's all they have. and antonio is a very, very smart guy. i mean, we see things similarly. you know, i'm, i'm thrilled to have his endorsement. we can actually get stuff done to move the community forward. within a pre k, i see things differently. he's been defending residents for 30 years. now. let's go to the parents. pub city council. i think on enough i started counsel see whether it will died or for no sir him to come up and say ok,

that's you reuben, a break is over 70. on the opposite. a big tech. he doesn't use social media and there's only budgeted some $2000.00 for his campaign. he's one of the last people in the region defending the values of democracy in the publicly elected administration, against the power of the tech giants. i run a lot of campaigns, maybe about 10 the biggest change that i've seen is the fact that so much money has been put into campaigns recently. it means that is going to be that people with big money that will control the city when we were looking at development size, $1.00 of the candidates who said, do it all 5000000 square feet, like 6 big towers, 10 floors in for a small community. that's monster development,

i call it without any thinking about the impact they would have in how even if they gave a lot of benefits they would display. so a lot of people, they would be like another facebook anyway, the victory for mark dining would be a wind for big tech. i would push the city onto the same path taken by the rest of the region. companies as far as the, i can see, the computer specialist moving into offices and apartments and the divide between the haves and the have nots screwing ever wider. the, that's what the silicon valley system brings. fractured society of hyper individualists who no longer have a sense of community the

getting the use of living. i'm sure i take care of people with develop mental disability, mental disability, some physical disabilities i'm blessed to still be out is to be in a still be alive. i grew up in a time where we wouldn't even expect it to make 21 years old. you know, the beside poverty died of great childhood, you know, say i have friends, i have part of the, you know, i was able to live my life. i was able to run the streets and learn, you know, check it and go potter lab or raising this too deep. because they, you know,

this is about the debt policy of the world test. a deep blast deal with a 2 bedroom to call up ex todd to coon is a legend is banned totally insane. started making music about the daily life in east palo alto decades ago. and you missing the know my last words for all you all then i'll be back. i came back with you a take the invited to use the created energy of the city. an energy that today is threatening to disappear. ok. we offer on a small scale cemetery board is not for black and avenue, know enough to be $2.00 and thousands of us out here. to do that, you're going to say, nowadays everything is designed to keep you in the house video games. you got 200 channels, they designed the world for people to get off the street. back in it was glass cycle. do so. right now, mild work. we're looking at. we go out the way. we're getting

a little france control while your whole environment change, you know, city change once a facebook in, in amazon moved in city council was the facebook was on his way. they just popped up like a grey. oh yeah. by the way, they lived on the goodbye these are 2 biggest companies in the world. when they come, they bring in the whole, the way of life. the mart laura and people in her neighborhood are outraged and tony was political shift. real estate companies are paying the pressure, they could lose everything. woodland woodlands driven away minutes. families already with its 372 families have left hope because they wanted to know because

they lied to the book. and they were told that the project had loan be a dumb deal movie somebody, philip or drank maricella, says so for families were driven out. and so we have to show solidarity with the media to find them and get them to come back to that big of a sudden the america ended up doing fun for me. i was the 1st of my family to come here. my wife and i have 4 children. fortunately, all of them are going to school in college. but we've been living here in this apartment for 35 years now. they want to build a 7 story building here. ridiculous. they want to tear down all the buildings and move us off someplace else, and then nobody knows where the series got to stop that a big nowadays. before i should make it clear guys, i don't set the agendas like i just get what i received from from, from their vice mayor. i don't, i don't call the shots in terms of i want this to be on that date. uh yeah,

i get to vote. it's hard to see whether antonio understands his support of mark diamond fuels like a betrayal to his voters, the a machine model. also, that is very nice. thoughts about living someplace else a few times and also be able to meet with each wouldn't be the same. and people in other cities don't stick together like we do have next. you know, the community that a list of it. but as they were not going, but if you sent too low in front of a screen, you grow dell with time people lose the connections to each other feeling for no money that the, as the election approaches, it looks possible that reuben,

up because for to on the city kind so it will be replaced by mark diamond's 7 candidates for the city would say strange, available sidewalks should not take for years to approve. strongly conduct the notion that development on the display. so i, i'd ask you this november vote for a battery. so also marked on it for city council. thank you so much. i think i went back time is up in the details and concern. a and just sell just the building here part of the building. they are at amazon building that itself and a good building on another one across the street. okay. uh, moving from, do you have something to say on this?

uh, i want to remind all of us of some statistics. 60 percent of our residents are renters . 20 percent are protected as a result of the rest of the sessions, all which protects people from being arbitrarily evicted and from increases of rent . it is a 20 percent or so that i think need are compassionate and constructive approach to protect them. thank you. laura. and then to and you haven't seen each other for months. they've drifted apart. this is their 1st meeting in a long time. it's somewhat simple, so let's assume we are a bit disappointed because you're supporting people who we don't agree with. best on us. give us some of the difficult other ideas and have described us as criminals, and treat us like not to look up what i supposed to do in your campaign. or it hurts me that you're working together with these people. i'm telling you because i

want to be on this, so they see less goal savvy. is that okay? there are always differences of opinion and politics survive. yeah. so what we must defend ourselves now i've been b o n a. yes, of course, i'll always respect the people here, above all the tenants, most of the them of can to get the and we want you and the city council so you can represent the reality. we are experiencing a daily that people are already being driven out, get it, the injustices already being done. you have to understand how bad it is and stand by as soon as they realize who is he looking. thank you very much that you're taking the time to come and share your feelings and lived realities with me. there was so many reports i could read, but this concrete feedback from citizens like you is a 1000 times more valuable and looking at it, you know, i feel the fear of these projects bringing how much it's affecting you. you can count on my help really within the plan. i thank. thank you. no, no,

no, i'm keeping my eye on you. i'm telling you that you can step on my food. if i say something wrong or from your rope. the yellow police think of you. i used to view politicians differently before some of the companies when i sold the candidates back, then i thought, wow, what personalities we'd like to have my picture taken with them. but since i've been committed to helping the city and i've learned to really wants to help us societies disadvantage to ask into dozens festival in the yeah, yeah, i got is one. yeah. when i see the list of candidates today, i think hell do it myself next to the fridge for the

florida review. ears, east palo alto. it'd be nice. i have to admit that as i shot the documentary, i'd had the same thought myself. when i left the city, the threats hadn't been eliminated for the time being the residents at the cheap several goals. measure l design to support the media's renters came into effect reuben of rica was once again booted into city hall and continues to fight for the less fortunate. december 2023. antonio lopez was named mirror of east palo alto, and in november 2024. mark damon was elected to the city council on his 2nd attempt, the east palo alto is still the exception in silicon valley. is the last best in the last time to defy the tech giants. the,

the, the, a lot of my name is on the, the actual tree built. i mean, what those me, by the obvious, i have seen the off to the day, the staging site hawkins of the people who were affected get their lives back under control. focus on europe in 30 minutes on the w, looking for the cheapest traveling option with why fi access included. show you

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president.