A Tale of Two Sunnyvales

There are two versions of Sunnyvale unfolding at once.

In one, officials gather with oversized scissors and cameras to celebrate what is opening.

In the other, longtime business owners wonder whether redevelopment will erase livelihoods built over decades.

When North Sunnyvale residents ask what can be done, the answer has become painfully familiar:

“Our hands are tied.”

State housing laws, private property rights, existing development applications, market forces, and potential litigation are cited by the City as constraints. But explaining a constraint is not the same as developing a strategy.

Why WTF Advocacy Began

Where’s the Food (WTF) Advocacy began when residents asked for help protecting grocery access, restaurants, essential services, immigrant-owned businesses, and the families whose livelihoods depend on them.

Again and again, we heard what could not be done.

At one point, city officials told residents that an economic downturn might delay redevelopment. A recession had become our neighborhood’s best-case scenario. That was when we understood that waiting was not a plan.

So we organized. We attended meetings, wrote emails, met with local and state leaders, and shared the stories behind the storefronts. Nearly 4,000 people have signed our petition, and more continue to add their voices.

We also helped shape AB 1674, the Food Affordability Act, which proposed a Food Desert Elimination Grant Program to preserve and expand grocery access in communities facing or at risk of becoming food deserts. Although the bill did not advance this legislative session, the need remains.

WTF Advocacy did not begin out of hostility.

It began because our community was being asked to accept the loss of businesses, livelihoods, gathering places, and essential services without a meaningful plan to preserve or replace them.

Recognizing Inequity Is Only the Beginning

During the City’s recent Equity Assessment discussion, residents described commercial displacement, shrinking food access, and the loss of neighborhood-serving businesses.

The City’s own findings showed greater disparities in North Sunnyvale, particularly in the 94085 and 94089 ZIP codes.

An equity assessment should change priorities, not simply document disparities.

Yet the response returned to a “whole city approach” and investments such as a new branch library, a park, sidewalks, and citywide transit.

Those investments matter. But they do not address the same needs.

A library is not a grocery store.

A park is not food access.

Transit does not preserve a business built over decades.

A whole city approach becomes redirection when it replaces targeted action in the communities experiencing the greatest loss.

North Sunnyvale Needs a Strategy

Sunnyvale may not be able to prevent every redevelopment project. But it can decide how it responds to the people and businesses affected by them.

What assistance will be offered to businesses facing displacement?

What incentives will help essential businesses remain?

What measurable goals will protect food access and neighborhood-serving retail?

North Sunnyvale does not need another document confirming that a problem exists.

It needs a concrete strategy for business displacement, food access, and neighborhood retention.

There Cannot Be Two Standards of Urgency

Beloved businesses throughout Sunnyvale deserve support.

The concern is the unequal urgency.

Some businesses are publicly celebrated as essential to Sunnyvale’s identity.

Meanwhile, North Sunnyvale faces those same losses and too often receives only explanations for why they may be unavoidable.

There cannot be one Sunnyvale whose future is photographed and another whose losses are quietly documented.

North Sunnyvale is not asking the City to ignore the law.

We are asking it to stop treating the law as the endpoint of the conversation.

Lead within the authority you have.

Advocate where that authority falls short.

Help businesses facing displacement.

Protect food access.

Create a real strategy for the people and businesses bearing the consequences now.

The City says its hands are tied.

North Sunnyvale is asking it to show us everything those hands can still do.

And when we were told those hands were tied, we reached for one another.

That did not end our struggle.

It began our village.

In this together,

North Sunnyvale Community