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How a Ford Plant Changed Milpitas; AstraLogik's Music For Healing

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An entryway to the Great Mall in Milpitas on April 29, 2025. The mall now occupies the site of the former Ford Motor Company’s San Jose Assembly Plant, which closed in 1983. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)

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A Ford Factory Changed Milpitas, Then It Bacame a Mall 

The Great Mall of Milpitas, in Santa Clara County, wasn’t always a mall; it used to be a massive Ford auto factory. The San Jose Assembly Plant opened in 1955, after relocating from Ford’s outdated Richmond location. The new factory put Milpitas on the map, transforming a sleepy agricultural town into a thriving city. The factory’s opening also sparked historic social change: the construction of one of the first planned racially integrated neighborhoods in the U.S.. Gabriela Glueck brings us this story from KQED’s Bay Curious podcast. 

In Song and Self: How Queer Pinay Duo AstraLogik Finds Belonging Through Music

Charito Soriano and Chen Conlu were solo artists before they came together as AstraLogik. The queer Filipina duo creates music about healing and acceptance, something they found  as they created a relationship that went beyond performing together. Reporter I-Yun Chan tells us how they found community and belonging through music, and each other.

 

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