Process Paper

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          I first visited Alviso, a town in Silicon Valley, in January 2024. As a key city in the development of the West Coast, Alviso was once a thriving and prosperous community. But what I encountered was a small and obscure neighborhood in disrepair. How did this happen?

         When I saw the theme for this year’s National History Day, I immediately decided to choose Alviso as my topic for several reasons: First, I wanted to study a local issue, and Alviso’s current situation compelled me to conduct in-depth research. Second, there are many well-preserved sources spanning from the 1950s to the present day, which could help me better understand how the situation has evolved over time. My historical argument is that although San Jose gained the right to govern Alviso following the 1968 annexation election, it has not fully fulfilled its responsibility to help and develop Alviso.

 

          I began by collecting sources. I visited the Martin Luther King Jr. Library at San Jose State University and the community room in the Alviso Public Library, where I found various journal articles, photographs, newspapers, and letters. I also obtained many newspaper articles from the San Jose Mercury News archives. To learn more about the history of Alviso and the nationwide trend of annexations in the 20th century, I collected several books and journal articles from peer-reviewed websites such as www.jstor.org. Lastly, I interviewed a few longtime residents of Alviso and listened to their stories and experiences over the decades.

 

          To present my research, I started with an overview of the trend of annexation in the mid-20th century to revitalize urban centers. Following this, I outlined the history of Alviso, tracing its origin from a prosperous port town to its economic decline in the late 19th century, which set the stage for the annexation. Next, I introduced San Jose city planner Dutch Hamann, who was determined to create a sewage treatment plant for San Jose, leading to his desire to annex Alviso. I then wrote about the controversies arising from the annexation, including the case Canales vs. Alviso, which alleged that San Jose engaged in voter malpractice by bribing Alviso residents with false promises. Following this, I presented the major disputes between Alviso and San Jose from 1968 to the present day, analyzing different examples of San Jose’s promises to Alviso and how they were kept or broken. In my conclusion, I presented a few potential solutions for Alviso.

          This topic is historically significant because annexations tend to be viewed as a mutually beneficial process, with smaller communities receiving support from the large cities and large cities benefiting from the expanded territory and increased population. However, the case of Alviso demonstrates that the right of cities to annex smaller communities can lead to disastrous results if the corresponding responsibilities are not upheld. Nowadays, Alviso continues to be one of the poorest communities in San Jose, and I hope my research can bring awareness of this tragic situation to more people.

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Introduction

 

           In the mid-20th century, many cities in the United States faced a crisis. Various factors contributed to the rapid growth of suburbanization, leading to the decline of urban areas. In response, cities began using the process of annexation to increase their size and stimulate commercial development, which resulted in the growth of several prominent US cities, such as San Jose, Los Angeles, and Houston. However, if we zoom in on these annexed communities, more complicated patterns emerge. While some of these communities benefited from annexations and became more prosperous, others declined due to unfulfilled responsibilities.

 

            In this paper, I use the community of Alviso, now part of San Jose, California, as a case study to explore what an annexed community has experienced when neglected. Although San Jose gained the right to govern Alviso following the 1968 annexation election, it has not fully fulfilled its responsibility to help and develop Alviso. As a result, Alviso has suffered from poor economic and environmental conditions compared to other parts of San Jose. I demonstrate that when responsibilities are not upheld after a city assumes the right to govern a community through annexation, disastrous consequences will occur.

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