Lori Gager was shocked when some people said she wasn't representative of the Garden Gate neighborhood.

Gager, 40, represented Garden Gate on the task force for redrawing the Cupertino Union School District's middle school boundaries last year. She has lived in the same house in the same neighborhood since she was 5. She attended Garden Gate Elementary School, Collins Middle School and Homestead High School. Her husband was her high school classmate. Her children go to Garden Gate Elementary, where two of her former teachers still work.

The fact that she is so well-established was exactly the reason some of her neighbors thought she wasn't representative of the neighborhood. About 50 percent of Garden Gate residents are newcomers from Asian countries and other parts of the world.

"The neighborhood has changed drastically since we first moved here," Gager says. "People are normally afraid of changes, but you can't be if you live here."

The changes and the challenges the neighborhood have experienced are similar to those the city of Cupertino has been through.

Garden Gate was developed 50 years ago, when Cupertino was still known as West Side. The 107-acre territory dotted with flat-top single-family houses was bounded by Stelling Road as well as Greenleaf, Beardon and Elenda drives. It was surrounded by acres of orchards and ranches. During harvest season, children helped remove pits from apricots to earn money. The only grocery was Cupertino General Store, located at the intersection of Stevens Creek and De Anza boulevards. Highway 85 had not yet been built, and Cupertino was not even a city.

Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer Children in the Garden Gate neighborhood play together, even though some of the adults who have trouble speaking English struggle to communicate with their next-door neighbors.

"There used to be many low-income families living here. Some were rental houses," says Frank Forencich, who has lived in his house on Deardon Drive for 24 years. "But as the population started growing, many original owners sold their houses and moved out of the area."

Although Garden Gate was one of the first housing tracts in Cupertino, it was not incorporated until December of 2001. A group of Garden Gate residents initiated the annexation in 2000.

"We wanted annexation because the city is more responsive than the county," says Frances Scheiman, 76. She and her husband are the original owners of their house and have lived there for 53 years. "We used the Cupertino Library. My nine children went to Cupertino schools. I wanted to vote."

Scheiman says she had to "wait forever" for the county to repair the roads and streetlights.

Although annexation would benefit Garden Gate, some residents preferred to be part of the county because the county's loose housing restrictions allowed people to build bigger homes. In November of 2001, 187 out of the neighborhood's 617 eligible voters voted in favor of the annexation, with 150 people against it.

"We used to be a pimple on the county's map," says Les Bowers, one of the active supporters of annexation. Bowers, 78, and his wife, Betty, have lived in the neighborhood for 13 years. "Now we are just so happy to be part of the city."

Photograph by Sarah Ruby The house on the right shows the original style of homes built in the Garden Gate neighborhood of Cupertino. The house on the left is an example of what some homeowners build after they tear down one of the older homes to rebuild a bigger house.

The newcomers have added new flavors to Garden Gate. During dinner hours, one can smell barbecue, curry or Chinese stew when walking around the neighborhood.

Old-timers sometimes feel they have trouble connecting with their new neighbors.

Communication is a big problem.

"I want to know more about my neighbors, but I don't speak English well," says Mikyoung Lee, 36. She moved to Garden Gate a year ago when her husband was transferred to work in Cupertino. Her husband's job brought them from Korea to Seattle in 1998. She doesn't know how long her husband's engineering job will keep them in Cupertino. Lee's life revolves around her children, who are students at Garden Gate Elementary School.

"My Indian and Chinese neighbors have been here for a long time and can speak English very well," Lee says. "The children play together, but we don't do things together."

But communication can be achieved without a shared language.

Irma Phelps, who has lived in her house on Dunbar Drive for 26 years, has established a friendship with her Chinese neighbor next door.

"The grandfather cannot speak English and is very shy," says Phelps, 72. "When he is outside in the front yard, I will point at his flower and say, 'Nice.' He knows what I mean. Now he waves at me and we use gestures to communicate with each other."

Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer Lori Gager shows off love notes she wrote on her garage walls when she was a teenager growing up on Pebble Lane. Gager is now raising her children in the same home she has lived in since she was 5.

"My Chinese and Korean neighbors get nervous when I speak to them," Gager says. "You can say we are divided. It is divided not because we want to be but because we don't know how not to be."

But Gager remains hopeful that the neighborhood can be truly integrated one day.

"It is hard and will be hard for me and my neighbors to overcome communication barriers," Gager says. "But it won't be hard for my children and their children. They go to the same school. They play together. And they speak English to each other. They will have a sense of community."