Five years ago, Anthony Chang and his wife, Wendy Wong, decided to intentionally change the way they were living. Anthony, vice president of organizational development at Opportunity Fund, and Wendy, a scientist at a Sunnyvale biotech firm, Cepheid, moved to downtown Mountain View with their two children.
Shifting from two cars to one, Anthony now bicycles his daughter to daycare before catching Caltrain to work. The family sees that their children are benefiting from growing up in a community of neighbors who know and care about them.
“I understood the theory of the vibrant places vision but it wasn’t until we moved to downtown Mountain View that it was really highlighted for me,” he said. “I want more of this kind of community built and created, more of this and less suburban sprawl.”
Anthony is both a donor and a volunteer. A Greenbelt Guardian, Anthony says he believes “in the work that Greenbelt Alliance is doing, and I want to give my money and time.”
For many years, he served on the Compact Development Team, which endorses good growth within city limits. “I had a lot of fun, seeing new projects and helping support them so that new development is more smart growth oriented,” he said. Now he is involved in Greenbelt Alliance’s advocacy work in Mountain View and frequently speaks before city council.
“For me, giving to Greenbelt Alliance stems from a belief that we as individuals and as a society have choices about what the world looks like—one that protects open space and creates livable cities,” he said. “That’s the kind of world I want to live in, and the kind I want my children to live in.”
He adds, “I also know there are a lot of forces against that happening— and I’m compelled to balance that out, and to make the world the way it should be.”
