The intersection there, dubbed many years ago as the Crossroads, is where residents once gathered regularly for community at the Cupertino Store, mailed their letters or checked out books from a tiny library. And the five acres on the southeast corner was once the site of one of the city's powerful and successful family enterprises, the Cali Mill.

But, in recent years, that same five acres—where the Montebello and Verona apartment complexes and Cypress Hotel now stand almost completed—has become the focus of angry debate and a symbol for what some residents say is the kind of high density growth they don't want in Cupertino. City officials are hoping the new plaza and the eventual completion of the buildings surrounding it will once again create a gathering place at the Cross Roads and assuage some of the anger over the buildings there.

Ironically, the grassy plaza was named after a family that helped support many businesses and encouraged growth in the city.

That family's story is typical of the American dream.

The Cali brothers, Rosario and Joseph, were among the first wave of immigrants to the area. When they came from Italy to America in the early 1900s, Cupertino was far from the thriving residential and business area it is today. With one truck, the brothers began a small business, hauling fruit to the Shuckl canning company. Later, they purchased the now controversial five acres and in 1935 constructed their mill, which provided dairy and poultry feed to the area. The mill burned down on Nov. 17, 1944—in the largest fire in Cupertino history—but the Cali brothers rebuilt it within two years and formed the corporation R. Cali & Bro. that became a powerful Cupertino company that furthered the growth and development of the city.

However, as the area changed and local focus turned from agriculture to industrialization, the need for the mill dwindled. In the early 1980s, several years after the Cali brothers died, their sons sold the business, and since then, the corner has slowly taken on its new look.

On July 24, Mayor Sandy James christened the plaza with its new name. The festival atmosphere included tunes by the swing band Mark Russo and the Classy Cats and spectators looked over the plaza's new sculpture Perspectives and, for that day at least, the plaza was a gathering place.