Demographics – Page 5 – Silicon Valley One World

4Nov

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Demographics, The Web

Census Bureau: English Not Required

More than half of the San Jose metro doesn't speak English at home; 370,000 residents aged 5 and older don't speak English By Sharon Simonson More than 2.5 million residents of the San Francisco Bay Area speak a language other than English at home, a vastly greater proportion of the region’s 5.9 million residents than in the nation at large, according to new U.S. Census Bureau research. More than a million Bay Area residents also say they don’t speak English very well. The data, which encompasses the U.S. population age 5 and older, is among the most comprehensive the Census Bureau has ever published on languages spoken in the United States. The research found that 60.4 million U.S. residents, or 21 percent of the 291 million people age 5 and older, speak one of at least 350 langu...

28Oct

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Demographics, Events

Deconstructing Dia de los Muertos

Lara Medina, an expert on Chicano and indigenous American religious practices and spirituality, explains the history of Mesoamerica’s Dia de los Muertos and talks about living the nepantla life and the creativity that blurry boundaries produce. By Sharon Simonson Don’t call Dia de los Muertos the Mexican Halloween, begs Lara Medina. The 62-year-old autora y professora of Chicano and Chicana religious history at California State University, Northridge, has watched and studied the holiday and its U.S. incarnation since the early 1970s when visiting Mexican artists traveling in Los Angeles and San Francisco staged small-scale celebrations as a solace to the deaths of the Vietnam War. What began as a sacred pre-Colombian familial observance by Mesoamericans has evolved into its c...

Judge Grants Hao Zhang Additional Freedoms with Prosecutors’ Consent

26Oct

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Demographics

Judge Grants Hao Zhang Additional Freedoms with Prosecutors’ Consent

By Sharon Simonson A federal magistrate judge has agreed to allow Chinese Professor Hao Zhang the right to leave his Mountain View apartment from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily to permit him to buy food and complete other household errands and chores. Zhang’s wife, Fan Liping, a Chinese citizen, has been with him since his May 16 arrest at the Los Angeles International Airport and has lived with him in Mountain View since he was released from federal custody July 29. Now she must return to China no later than Nov. 15 by the terms of her temporary U.S.-visitor visa. It is the second time Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins has agreed to loosen the conditions of Zhang’s house arrest. The judge previously gave permission for Zhang to leave his apartment and to use amenities on the cam...

Bay Area Professors’ Latin American Cookbook Tops Amazon Sales

24Oct

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Culture, Demographics

Bay Area Professors’ Latin American Cookbook Tops Amazon Sales

Luz Calvo, Catriona Rueda Esquibel to readers: '(R)esist the acculturation that tells us white bread is food.' By Sharon Simonson A cookbook written by two San Francisco Bay Area academics that presents food and health as instruments of social change has climbed to Amazon’s top slot as the best-selling new Latin American food cookbook. “Decolonize Your Diet” by Cal State East Bay Associate Professor Luz Calvo and San Francisco State University Associate Professor Catriona Rueda Esquibel counsels Mexican-Americans to return to the foods and preparations favored by the Americas indigenous peoples before the Spanish conquest, more particularly to their consumption of native legumes, fruits, herbs and vegetables. The book was published Oct. 13. The change in diet is part of disga...

Hatching Future Hipsters: Millennials A Tough Act to Follow

20Oct

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Demographics

Hatching Future Hipsters: Millennials A Tough Act to Follow

U.S. metros vie for a smaller youth population; will millennials ever marry and have kids? The post-millennial generation — the nation's youngest — is smaller than its predecessor, leaving most of the nation's large metros with a shrinking population under age 20. The Bay Area's youngest cohort is growing but not fast. By Sharon Simonson The post-millennial generation is less numerous than the millennials. Even with immigration, in coming years, U.S. metropolitan areas will share a smaller youth-pie, according to research by demographer William Frey of the Brookings Institute: "There are places that will have growth in younger populations, but they will be not the norm," Frey said. Fifty-nine of the country's100 largest metropolitan areas saw a shrinking number of children fr...

African Filmmakers, Silicon Valley Bedazzle One Another

17Oct

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Culture, Demographics

African Filmmakers, Silicon Valley Bedazzle One Another

By Sharon Simonson MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Late afternoon autumn squalls lift the long red carpet in front of Mountain View’s Community School of Music and Arts, creating fun havoc in the opening moments of the Silicon Valley African Film Festival. Organizers rush to find heavy — but aesthetically pleasing! — objects to weight the sides. The rug rises again before they succeed. Everyone laughs and scrambles to pull it back into place. Really, it seems nothing can suppress the joy that the gathering exudes, the uplift from another perfect Northern California evening—soft light, warm sun, cool air—and the young African and African-diaspora filmmakers arriving from points near (Oakland) and far (Egypt, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Rwanda). Bonginhlanhla Ncube has traveled from Sout...

ULI: Housing Costs, Poor Amenities Souring Bay Area Residents on Region

9Oct

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Demographics

ULI: Housing Costs, Poor Amenities Souring Bay Area Residents on Region

By Sharon Simonson SAN FRANCISCO — The Bay Area’s high housing costs, limited housing diversity and inadequate amenities are reducing life satisfaction for all residents but especially the millennial-generation of young adults whose labors are helping to fuel the technology industry boom. According to a new report from the Urban Land Institute, the disquiet is most acute in Santa Clara County, where residents of all ages are the least satisfied with their current living choices and the least confident of their ability to buy a home or rent an apartment they want. Santa Clara County has the highest concentration of technology companies in the region and the highest proportion of millennials. South Bay residents are also the most likely to feel that they lack desirable, nearby o...

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky: Anyone Can Do It!

6Oct

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Demographics

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky: Anyone Can Do It!

By Sharon Simonson SAN FRANCISCO—Thirty-four-year-old Brian Chesky, the millennial-generation business leader who co-founded Airbnb Inc., articulated neatly an early theme for the Urban Land Institute’s 2015 annual Fall Meeting in San Francisco: The rising public expectation as his generation’s influence supplants the baby boomers’ that urban landscapes be not just spaces, but environments for people to spend memorable time. His rapidly growing home-sharing company wants to offer its travelers more than a room with a view, too, Chief Executive Chesky said. A home or a room—even a current inventory of 60,000 homes in Paris—is still “the limit of Airbnb today.” “What I am really interested in is Airbnb 2.0. I want to continue to shift Airbnb toward experiences. We are redefining...