For all the talk on this site, much of it frequently seems to come back to this topic: How do we “fix” downtown and make it better? Everyone thinks they know what needs to be done, or people make kneejerk reactions that just mask the problems. So, how do we really make the changes that need to be made in order for San Jose to become a cross between the 24-hour city and the nice place to live that it already is?
The best quote I have seen on this topic lately is from Chuck Reed, who said that our nightlife downtown is “too narrow,” and I couldn’t agree more. Though many readers think I walk around in an alcohol-induced haze most of the time, or I shun others for not putting alcohol straight into their veins for a night out, I do agree that our nightlife shouldn’t need alcohol to work. It has to offer something for everyone: twenty-somethings who want to party and dance, 30-year-olds who want fun restaurants with good food and good wine, families with children to entertain, and baby boomers who want a nice place to relax and listen to jazz or live music without feeling out of place. There should be an emphasis on arts and culture and all-age events and entertainment.
The problem is that those worlds do not coexist in our downtown. One always gives way to another, and bars, nightclub owners and promoters, always cater to the twenty-somethings to make a quick buck, resulting in a drunken crowd. That doesn’t work as it is totally at odds with what the rest of the city— including the city council, mayor, store owners and developers—wants: an older crowd that will buy their condos, pay their rent, spend money in their nice restaurants and shop in their stores. So why are we catering to the crowd that can’t give us that?
There is talk that street vendors and outdoor seating should be stopped at midnight because there is too much partying. Shutting down at that early hour would be against making San Jose vibrant. The problem is that existing outdoor seating isn’t for restaurants and jazz clubs, but for bars where people are getting drunk. Instead of making an across-the-board mandate to shut things down, we should look at what needs to be shut down first. Restaurants that are not restaurants and loud bars and clubs are causing all the trouble. I worry that we will discourage bistros and nice restaurants from opening if we treat them the same as a club.
There aren’t any easy answers to this, which is why we debate, talk and write about it so much. I do hope that City Hall will take into consideration what we are trying to create in San Jose, and they will crack down on the real problem: the excessive number of bars and clubs and not enough variety in things to do. If we give people more to do that doesn’t rely solely on drinking, I think we will see improvements in the clientele that frequents downtown.
Let’s not put band-aids on the problems. Let’s get right at the root.
They need to stop altering the existing downtown. We need to expand it southward into the industrial area south of 280 (replace business with business). Everyone can’t keep fighting over the same space.
Though I love areas like Los Gatos, Campbell, Santana Row – nothing beats a walkable, vibrant downtown. Downtowns can give you more than those small towns can – if done right.
I don’t think we should give up because we have sprawl – San Diego does it!
If you want to fix downtown you need to move the airport to Hollister. Sticking your head in the sand, and pretending that an airport downtown is a good thing will not help downtown. In fact, it will only make downtown worse over time, irrespective of how much money is pumped into downtown.
Remember, people come here because they need to accomplish something. Not because there is an airport. These travelers will still come here whether the airport is in San Francisco or Hollister.
Use the 1000 acres wasted on the airport in a manner that will improve downtown (and all of North Santa Clara county), and increase both business economic output and tax revenue.
Say what? How can you guys keep asking the same questions over and over? Read the San Jose promotor ordinance blog previously published if you really need another detailed explanation of why downtown does not and will not work. The powers that be have a love hate relationship with downtime nightlife. Its just not going to happen without major change and thats just not going to happen either. I gave up long ago.
See ya at Santana Row or Campbell or downtown Sunnyvale.
Good Luck!
Density. Building/converting areas into denser housing is the first step to creating a vibrant downtown. A planning committee with for sight is second. Here in SF, neighborhoods have formed strong associations that have had huge impacts on what goes into their neighborhoods. The neighborhood I live in is a perfect example of this. What used to be ‘hood full of mostly auto related business and rundown buildings has sprung to life with bars, cafes, and galleries. This was massaged in part by the local neighborhood groups who, after considering their options, decided to take things in their own hands. They created a list a business they wanted, and another of ones they did not. The championed issues like the widening of sidewalks so cafe’s could add more seating, and maintenance projects to keep streets clean and attractive. I’m a firm believe in the idea that urban development needs to taken up by the people that will be effected most. Left to the government, you liable to get a 20 screen AMC and a Starbucks.
The problem with Downtown is that it’s a larger project than can be “fixed” in one mayor’s term. Each mayor takes office and tweaks the plan to their so-called vision. The vision is substantially changed. The plan is subverted. Nothing ever gets completed.
There needs to be a comprehensive plan for downtown that is not subverted by quick-buck promoters and counter culture politics.
But that will never happen in San Jose, because there are too many who believe that their little fiefdom comes first. It is precicely that “sprawl” that will derail any substantial Downtown “fix” plans. It is our strong neighborhoods that are the antithesis of a Downtown “fix”. Until we sell the entire city that a Downtown “fix” serves the greater City good in the long term, Downtown will never be fixed because there’s a pothole somewhere in someone’s neighborhood that needs fixing and one little pothole fixed now is more important than a vibrant complete city with a cohesive Downtown.
I give up.
Folks, Santa Row, Campbell and Sunnyvale are way too small and boring to get satisfied with nightlife options provided there! The clubs in downtown will provide entertainment for and gear toward 30’s and 50’s crowd as soon as the condos fill up. The same clubs there will change their format as soon there’s a market for it, but are these 4 condo towers enough? I don’t think so. Therefore, the clubs there will continue to cater to the 20’s crowd. Get over it.
The clubs in downtown will provide entertainment for and gear toward 30’s and 50’s crowd as soon as the condos fill up.
There appears to be this mistaken belief that people in their 30s, 40s, 50s, etc. like to go out at night as much as people in their 20s.
Sorry. That is not going to happen. After a few years of night life most people realize it is more fun to stay home than to go out. Of course, these people will go out once or twice a year, but that is not a big enough market to keep a club in business.
Hey RIPavilion, downtown SJ is already completely vibrant and very cohesive. The worker bees, students and conventiontier people bustle during the day, and the “artsy” types, theater patrons, entainment seekers and club goers at night. Families come downtown during the weekends for the museums and restaurants. Hey, what about the wine bars, comedy clubs and movie theater, RIPavilion? Are you stuttering?
What are current core needs is infill and awesome street landscaping. To many gaps between restaurants, bars, and cafe’s (parking lots, blank facades, vacant storefronts). Perhaps we should concentrate on filling up current areas of downtown that show signs of becoming vibrant: San Pedro Square, SoFa, and the Historic Core (Love E&O Trading Co.!). Once these area’s are complete and buzzing with life, fill in between with more retail, restaurants, and sidewalk cafe’s. And speaking of sidewalks, they should be a testament to our great weather and “Valley of Hearts Delight” past: Lush landscaping with colorful sidewalks in the likes of, gulp, Santana Row would be awesome. And as Nam Turk stated earlier, we should start expanding our definition of what constitutes the downtown. I for one can’t wait for the development west of the core at Diridon/Arena.
Single Gal,
You note, “… nothing beats a walkable, vibrant downtown.” Would you, or any of the blog readers, be interested in sounding out the citizenry in the form of an independent poll?
I’m willing to bet that the Mayor and City Council would lose their lunch if the subject of a poll arose.
And, my gosh, what would Harry M. and his RDA bureaucracy do without the pump and hype of spending hundreds of millions of our tax dollars on such a small area of the city?
Moreover, would developers and Downtown business owners have to find alternative means to stay afloat without the largess of RDA subsidies?
I’d suggest that a much larger portion of our tax dollars be dedicated to neighborhoods, making them “walkable and vibrant,” as they should be.
Good Morning Single Gal,
In your closing paragraph you note, “… what we are trying to create in San Jose…” Can you please tell me who the “we” might be?
Were you to take a city-wide poll of those who champion spending our limited resources in the downtown area, I doubt that you’d find more than five or ten percent who believe that’s an effective use of our tax dollars.
Face it, San Jose’s sprawl has resulted in a number of small and thriving business areas that provide for the needs of our residents – shopping, dining and entertainment.
Why not take that poll and be guided by the feedback of all, not just the very few who continue to believe that the lack of a vibrant downtown area is a crisis.
Greg Howe is right. Let’s cut off the suburban fat of his boring neighborhood so we have fewer obligations and more funds can go to making a great city without the mindless detractors.
I agree with our Major’s quote that the nightlife downtown is narrow…if he means by that, we have lost a balance of who we serve downtown, and after 10pm, downtown business is catering predominantly to 20 something’s crowd and a lot of police.
Single Gal, you are really on point about, how we must figure out as a city, a way to offer a mix of activity and the folks it will attract…but this is where you lose me. After you describing a diverse, vibrant and creative downtown, that includes a 20-something crowd, you start-hurling insults at a group of small business folk who cater to them.
Like most business sectors (bar/nightclubs/promoters) not everyone in it is an angel…but I was in that line of business and I worked with a lot of creative, passionate and solid people. Yes, I wanted to make a living, just like everyone else. But to say, that all bar/nightclub/music presenter care only for the quick buck is off base and just ridiculous. At that age (in my 20’s) I created a business out my interests (music) and served the group I knew best.
Also, having that age group be a part of a vibrant downtown should not be an “either or” style of discussion. It seems to me, If we are going to make downtown San Jose a vibrant success, we must fight for new audiences and add them to what we already have, to bring a balance in focus.
Building upon our existing audiences, is not at odds with a successful urban city, to the contrary, most vibrant cities do have all of those age groups coexisting together. If a real downtown only serves the storeowners, condo owners, developers and the political folks who only listen to them, we end up with a privately owned mall, not a vibrant city center!
You are right about not allowing knee jerk reactions, such as limited outdoor seating with weather like ours. And yes, those kinds of rules and leadership just make it less likely that we will grow and create the balance we need. I hope City Hall will spend less time and resource harming what we have now, but focus their role in creating an environment that brings the variety we need for San Jose.
The 20-somethings and the folks that serve them are not very organized, so if we can not get our act together and figure this issue out, the stakeholders that have the loudest voice and most power will continue to place blame and keep pushing a narrow vision of success. But, I see a lot of new signs in downtown that we are thriving and I have hope we will figure this balance issue out with our leadership and prosper together.
Nam Turk (#13),
I must have hit a sensitive nerve with you. Resorting to slams – “mindless detractors” – is a last-ditch effort when one’s reason is impaired. Lashing out at me only lessens your credibility with the blog readers.
I’ll tell you what downtown San Jose needs, a strip club. All of the other “major” cities have one, why not San Jose? A strip club will bring a diverse group of people downtown. These customers will cover all demographics mentioned and spill it to the various restaurants, movie and bars downtown. A strip club will give San Jose the big city appeal it needs and deserves!.