San Joseans need to take a look at how the federal government will manage to balance its financial & budget books after the current tremendous upsurge in borrowing.
GREAT GOLD CONFISCATION
To understand some of this, it may be necessary to review the history of the great gold confiscation of 1933. Here are two links that provide information about that event.
There are fundamentally only three ways to repay this huge indebtedness—I disregard massive inflation because it would take too long to be effective and, if it happened too quickly, we’d begin to understand the Weimar Republic (1919 – 1933) really well and up close.
1) The federal government could claim a partial ownership interest in the trillions of dollars locked up in tax-deferred accounts. It could make such a claim on either of two notions, an overriding interest in speeding up the velocity of money, or that it has a shared ownership of the money in a tax-deferred account based on the tax-deferral feature itself—something like the user of an easement claiming an interest in the entire property traversed by the easement user. It wouldn’t be hard to get bank compliance, they would just be required to transfer the electronic cash in your tax-deferred account to the Treasury and have an appropriately valued Treasury note electronically inserted in the place of the electronic cash. Thus your tax-deferred account would be converted from an asset of yours to a debt instrument masquerading as a new asset.
CONFISCATE VALUE OF ALL EXTRACTED MATERIALS
2) The federal government could claim a larger or total ownership interest in all natural resources and extracted materials like wood, water, minerals, oil, thermal energies, marble, sand, coal, and so on. A plausible case could be easily made that ownership of all extracted materials is the property of the federal government—that would be a flip of the power to tax or sell extractions in a big way.
CONFISCATE MORTGAGE VALUE OF ALL REAL PROPERTY
3) The federal government could claim a larger interest in all real property (land, houses, factories, malls, and so on) as something it could mortgage to foreign countries’ financial institutions (China, Japan, etc.) or huge domestic financial institutions. This could generate a lot of new cash if the promise was ownership free and clear of certain classes of American real property—a no-risk situation if there ever was one—in the event of default. In a sense, the Kelo decision by the USSC a couple of years ago paved the way for such a mortgaging project by marrying it to a species of eminent domain. Info on Kelo decision:
“One day a florist goes to a barber for a haircut. After the cut he asked about his bill and the barber replies, ‘I cannot accept money from you. I’m doing community service this week.’ The florist was pleased and left the shop.
When the barber goes to open his shop the next morning there is a ‘thank you’ card and a dozen roses waiting for him at his door.
Later, a cop comes in for a haircut, and when he tries to pay his bill, the barber again replies, ‘I cannot accept money from you. I’m doing community service this week.’ The cop is happy and leaves the shop.
The next morning when the barber goes to open up there is a ‘thank you’ card and a dozen donuts waiting for him at his door.
Later that day, a college professor comes in for a haircut, and when he tries to pay his bill, the barber again replies, ‘I cannot accept money from you. I’m doing community service this week.’ The professor is very happy and leaves the shop.
The next morning when the barber opens his shop, there is a ‘thank you’ card and a dozen different books, such as ‘How to Improve Your Business’ and ‘Becoming More Successful.’
Then a Member of Congress comes in for a haircut, and when he goes to pay his bill the barber again replies, ‘I cannot accept money from you. I’m doing community service this week.’ The Member of Congress is very happy and leaves the shop.
The next morning when the barber goes to open up, there are a dozen Members of Congress lined up waiting for a free haircut.
And that, my friends, illustrates the fundamental difference between the citizens of our country and the Members of Congress.”
I think it is high time and important that the current Federal Administration make two things perfectly clear to the international community: 1. The United States does not utilize or condone torture, and 2. There no exceptions to this basic moral principle, and we will punish its use within our ranks.
pgp3,
What you need to understand about SJI is that there are very few human beings participating on this website. Just a bunch of pods. “Youth Hostel” is not among the topics that is part of their programming. There’s no politically correct template with which to frame their opinion so silence is the only safe option.
There are no “movers and shakers” in San Jose. Only slick-talking, concerned sounding charlatans and opportunists. I agree with you that a hostel in DT would be a great idea, but the truth is everything’s about money over here on this side of the summit. For all San Jose’s skiting about “diversity”, the truth is if some huckster can’t make a bunch of money off it then it’s probably not going to happen.
Stay human pgp3. Keep away from SJ. It’s not safe here.
Thank you for insight.
There are two reasons for us pushing a great urban San Jose Hostel.
We have many young college-educated international tourists staying at HI-Santa Cruz Hostel two blocks from the Main Beach.
I converse with many, some in German. I usually ask about their jobs or future jobs.
Many are engineers or computer-electronics related fields. Most are traveling up and down the Coast in rental cars. Because they don’t know where it’s at none are planning to visit Silicon Valley. No road map shows Silicon Valley.
Most often I suggest Henry Cowell Redwood Park then trip over 17, stop at Fry’s on Hamilton, Intel and CompHist off 101, perhaps the Tech Downtown (if they want to spend some money). Since there’s no place to stay in Silicon Valley I suggest detour to 280 for a beautiful ride to SF and its many hostels.
The second reason for a SV Hostel is to have volume of tourists to establish a bus/van shuttle service connecting the area hostels for those young (under 25) visitors that cannot rent cars. Some hostels have no public transport access, such as Sanborn Park, Hidden Villa, Pigeon Point Lighthouse, Cambria, or meager access such as Montara Lighthouse and Monterey (no Greyhound).
Yes, JMO, I’m a one trick pony. I live in Santa Cruz, why would I be interested in San Jose dirty politics? These politicians don’t listen to you anyhow, PO is just like the rest. And you, sir, are one big disappointment!
You stayed at several European hostels when you were young. How about providing the same travel opportunities for other young people in your community. Why not encourage young San Joseans to travel, learn about other places, keep them out of gangs? (The military draft provided the travel impetus to my generation). Isn’t it about time for you to pay back??
pgp3
Why would anyone travel to San Jose given all of the other choices in the world? Unless you had to come here for business or family, why would anyone choose to travel here?
The hostel concept is a great one and works in destinations—San Jose is not a destination.
San Jose is a fine place and I am not knocking it, I am just being realistic.
First, Why is there no “Search” button on this blog, to find people, subjects, or events that one is interested in??
Second, why am I, pgp3, pushing for a much needed large urban San Jose Hostel always the last entry of any subject where I make a comment??
Aren’t there any movers and shakers participating on this blog?
Are there no bloggers on SJI that have influence to get a minor project such as a San Jose Hostel off the ground?
Is no one proud of the City of San Jose and wants to show others what a great place it truly is? It’s the country’s 10th largest city with many museums, symphony housed in a wonderful building, State university, community colleges, Kelley Park, convenient airport, convention facilities, good bus system, interurban and long-distance trains, light rail, libraries, diverse ethnic neighborhoods, theme parks,
world class industry, great shopping, big flea market, lots of freeways, many historic buildings, etc. Soon to have high speed rail. But no hostel.
Yes, there are problems such as tons of empty vacant underutilized buildings that could easily be converted into a large urban hostel for very low cost. Many of these buildings formerly housed outfits that preferred cheap labor elsewhere and will never be occupied again. Why not donate them to a non-profit hostel organization? The City’s RDA would do well in developing a tourist hostel.
The problem of San Jose is district elections. Every City council member looks out solely for their district’s benefit. The overall well being of the City is completely ignored. Every council member is striving for a larger piece of the existing pie instead of creating a larger pie. Unless the subject of discussion affects the Council’s majority it is totally ignored.
PO knows about hostels, I’ve addressed his City planning task force twice, yet not one Hostel word in his SJI blog column.
Luckily, San Jose is not the only place in Silicon Valley that would benefit by visiting young international tourists that prefer staying at hostels. There’s Santa Clara, Campbell, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, even Palo Alto. Perhaps some people in those communities have clearer vision, see the benefit of international tourism and will actually do something.
On April 9th, you sarcastically wrote the following:
Mr. Hosseini was murdered last May, and our cops are just getting the fliers out now??? I guess they were all too busy busting drunks DT. (Can Chief Davis Survive? 4/8/09)
You followed up with:
I am afraid I’ll need a lot more information to change my view that taking 11 months to get a sketch out for public distribution fails to meet my test for effective investigation. Please prove me wrong. I can’t quite get why it took 11 months to locate a witness to provide info. to compile the sketch.
San Jose police have made an arrest in connection with the murder of a popular shopkeeper, 47-year-old Vahid Hosseini. I guess they proved you wrong.
Mr. O’Connor you can rest assure, that the very moment you wrote those words, San Jose Police were working tirelessly to solve this case and to take a murderer off the streets. Perhaps there was a reason why it took so long. Perhaps the public need not know. All we need to know is that these folks are doing a fine job. I’m sure it helps to have a community that wants to help them and support them.
For those who want more reductions in police staffing or to find a way to pay them less. Think again. The crooks and murderers aren’t just going to lock themselves up.
Thank you Pierluigi Oliverio, for hosting the I.O.U.S.A. movie screening this evening at City Hall. I was pleasantly surprised by the large crowd!
Thanks too, for arranging a representative from the Concord Coalition to be in attendance to answer attendee questions and respond to ideas.
The take-away for me this evening was how important it is to have this type of “in-your-face,” “cold shower” type of information where the (non-partisan) facts are laid bare before us and the hard question of “what can we do to solve the problem” presented. The candid,
thoughtful dialog that follows is helpful to get people to start thinking and hopefully taking some action.
Thanks too, for presenting us with some of our own local challenges and the reminder that on May 12th at 7:15 the Council will hear input from the community on the budget items. I sincerely hope Council Chambers that evening will be packed with intelligent, civic-minded citizens ready to give their response to the proposed operating budget for 2009-2010.
Worldwide the common human H1N1 influenza virus affects millions of people every year, according to WHO officials, and “these annual epidemics result in about three to five MILLION cases of SEVERE illness, and about 250,000 to 500,000 deaths” ANNUALLY.
In industrialized countries most of these annual deaths occur in people aged 65 or older.[per Wikipedia]
And the press is all atwitter about several HUNDRED deaths worldwide of the so-called swine flu??????
SJI,
Posted a response to this subjects, timewise between #14 and #15, but don’t see it posted? Did my note arrive or was it gleaned? If it was discarded please let meknow the reason.
Thanks,
pgp3
18 pgp3: That was my bad. We have been getting bombarded by spam for the past several days. I’m afraid that when I was purging the comments last night, I deleted a couple of genuine comments. Please accept my apologies.
A BIG heart-felt THANK YOU goes out to Mayor Reed, Councilmember Liccardo, and Chief Davis for their constant support of the Hosseini family. And THANK YOU Chief Davis, and SJPD for catching one of the guys who may have murdered my friend. I appreciate the way you’ve watched over my friends, and we citizens.
#19 Mr. Johnson,
Appology accepted, Thank you for clarification.
Just wanted to respond to #12 that San Jose was a destination long ago as the Center of “Valley of Heart’s Delight” and still has a lot going for it. There are many San Jose area attractions that can be considered a “Destination” all by themselves:
Winchester Mystery House
The Tech Museum,
Children’s Discovery Museum
Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum
Intel Museum
Computer History Museum
SJSU
Santa Clara Univ. and SC Mission
Mission San Jose
Great America Amusement Park
Raging Waters (although only seasonal)
Kelly Park (Japanese Garden, Old Town with Light Tower, Trolley Museum and zoo)
San Jose Airport (serving Santa Cruz, etc.)
McEnery (and Santa Clara) Convention Center.
Diridon Train Station with future High Speed Rail Service
Fry’s Electronics stores
Weird Stuff Warehouse
The Bufano Seal (for Bufano sculpture lovers)
Beethoven Museum
HP Pavilion, home of first round losers.
Hiway 17, Gateway to Santa Cruz, morning fog, truly Surf City USA and home of the weird. ha ha
What’s left out??
A large urban “youth” hostel catering to travelers from all corners of the globe will be another great Silicon Valley destination.
I envision a super hi-tech facility featuring all the newest gizmos, games and toys this area can muster, that Geeks, Nerds and computer aficionados everywhere will want to visit and stay a few days.
There are millions of square feet of vacant buildings in the area that could easily be converted into one or more non-profit hostels.
Equipment and software (perhaps even the building) will be supplied as marketing collaboration by local hi-tech outfits such as Apple, HP, Intel, Sun, Adobe, Google, eBay, Yahoo, SAP Labs, Microsoft Labs, Sony, AMD, National, Lockheed, etc. or any outfit that wishes to market to the well-educated young international visitors that tend to stay only at hostels.
These sponsors might get first dibs on visiting young engineers, techs, programmers that might want to stay in the Valley to start their careers here. The Valley needs these people cause so many who’ve made it are going back home.
Overall, this hostel is small potatoes, what’s the hangup?? This project should have been done many years ago.
I nominate the http://www.mercurynews.com as the slowest, buggiest web site ever. Is this the best Silicon Valley’s newspaper can do?
LENDERS OF LAST RESORT TO THE USA
San Joseans need to take a look at how the federal government will manage to balance its financial & budget books after the current tremendous upsurge in borrowing.
GREAT GOLD CONFISCATION
To understand some of this, it may be necessary to review the history of the great gold confiscation of 1933. Here are two links that provide information about that event.
http://kzgold.com/sgt05.html
http://www.the-privateer.com/1933-gold-confiscation.html
RAPID INFLATION NOT SUITABLE
There are fundamentally only three ways to repay this huge indebtedness—I disregard massive inflation because it would take too long to be effective and, if it happened too quickly, we’d begin to understand the Weimar Republic (1919 – 1933) really well and up close.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weimar_Republic#Economic_problems
CONFISCATE VALUE OF TAX-DEFERRED ACCOUNTS
1) The federal government could claim a partial ownership interest in the trillions of dollars locked up in tax-deferred accounts. It could make such a claim on either of two notions, an overriding interest in speeding up the velocity of money, or that it has a shared ownership of the money in a tax-deferred account based on the tax-deferral feature itself—something like the user of an easement claiming an interest in the entire property traversed by the easement user. It wouldn’t be hard to get bank compliance, they would just be required to transfer the electronic cash in your tax-deferred account to the Treasury and have an appropriately valued Treasury note electronically inserted in the place of the electronic cash. Thus your tax-deferred account would be converted from an asset of yours to a debt instrument masquerading as a new asset.
CONFISCATE VALUE OF ALL EXTRACTED MATERIALS
2) The federal government could claim a larger or total ownership interest in all natural resources and extracted materials like wood, water, minerals, oil, thermal energies, marble, sand, coal, and so on. A plausible case could be easily made that ownership of all extracted materials is the property of the federal government—that would be a flip of the power to tax or sell extractions in a big way.
CONFISCATE MORTGAGE VALUE OF ALL REAL PROPERTY
3) The federal government could claim a larger interest in all real property (land, houses, factories, malls, and so on) as something it could mortgage to foreign countries’ financial institutions (China, Japan, etc.) or huge domestic financial institutions. This could generate a lot of new cash if the promise was ownership free and clear of certain classes of American real property—a no-risk situation if there ever was one—in the event of default. In a sense, the Kelo decision by the USSC a couple of years ago paved the way for such a mortgaging project by marrying it to a species of eminent domain. Info on Kelo decision:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelo_v._City_of_New_London
Pleasant dreams in our brave new world.
The third comment on the “Reed Demands That Campos Apologize” is one of the best comments that I have read on San Jose Inside this year.
I think this joke about sums it up:
“One day a florist goes to a barber for a haircut. After the cut he asked about his bill and the barber replies, ‘I cannot accept money from you. I’m doing community service this week.’ The florist was pleased and left the shop.
When the barber goes to open his shop the next morning there is a ‘thank you’ card and a dozen roses waiting for him at his door.
Later, a cop comes in for a haircut, and when he tries to pay his bill, the barber again replies, ‘I cannot accept money from you. I’m doing community service this week.’ The cop is happy and leaves the shop.
The next morning when the barber goes to open up there is a ‘thank you’ card and a dozen donuts waiting for him at his door.
Later that day, a college professor comes in for a haircut, and when he tries to pay his bill, the barber again replies, ‘I cannot accept money from you. I’m doing community service this week.’ The professor is very happy and leaves the shop.
The next morning when the barber opens his shop, there is a ‘thank you’ card and a dozen different books, such as ‘How to Improve Your Business’ and ‘Becoming More Successful.’
Then a Member of Congress comes in for a haircut, and when he goes to pay his bill the barber again replies, ‘I cannot accept money from you. I’m doing community service this week.’ The Member of Congress is very happy and leaves the shop.
The next morning when the barber goes to open up, there are a dozen Members of Congress lined up waiting for a free haircut.
And that, my friends, illustrates the fundamental difference between the citizens of our country and the Members of Congress.”
San Jose Sketches by Boz has been started to debunk the wild opiate of professional baseball stadium planners in our city.
http://www.sanjosesketchesbyboz.blogspot.com
Please come down to Earth.
The passing of a true hero last week.
http://community2.myfoxdfw.com/_Viet-Nam-Medal-of-Honor-Recipient-Remembered/BLOG/254120/78592.html
I think it is high time and important that the current Federal Administration make two things perfectly clear to the international community: 1. The United States does not utilize or condone torture, and 2. There no exceptions to this basic moral principle, and we will punish its use within our ranks.
You’re a one trick pony, pgp3.
pgp3,
What you need to understand about SJI is that there are very few human beings participating on this website. Just a bunch of pods. “Youth Hostel” is not among the topics that is part of their programming. There’s no politically correct template with which to frame their opinion so silence is the only safe option.
There are no “movers and shakers” in San Jose. Only slick-talking, concerned sounding charlatans and opportunists. I agree with you that a hostel in DT would be a great idea, but the truth is everything’s about money over here on this side of the summit. For all San Jose’s skiting about “diversity”, the truth is if some huckster can’t make a bunch of money off it then it’s probably not going to happen.
Stay human pgp3. Keep away from SJ. It’s not safe here.
Thank you for insight.
There are two reasons for us pushing a great urban San Jose Hostel.
We have many young college-educated international tourists staying at HI-Santa Cruz Hostel two blocks from the Main Beach.
I converse with many, some in German. I usually ask about their jobs or future jobs.
Many are engineers or computer-electronics related fields. Most are traveling up and down the Coast in rental cars. Because they don’t know where it’s at none are planning to visit Silicon Valley. No road map shows Silicon Valley.
Most often I suggest Henry Cowell Redwood Park then trip over 17, stop at Fry’s on Hamilton, Intel and CompHist off 101, perhaps the Tech Downtown (if they want to spend some money). Since there’s no place to stay in Silicon Valley I suggest detour to 280 for a beautiful ride to SF and its many hostels.
The second reason for a SV Hostel is to have volume of tourists to establish a bus/van shuttle service connecting the area hostels for those young (under 25) visitors that cannot rent cars. Some hostels have no public transport access, such as Sanborn Park, Hidden Villa, Pigeon Point Lighthouse, Cambria, or meager access such as Montara Lighthouse and Monterey (no Greyhound).
Yes, JMO, I’m a one trick pony. I live in Santa Cruz, why would I be interested in San Jose dirty politics? These politicians don’t listen to you anyhow, PO is just like the rest. And you, sir, are one big disappointment!
You stayed at several European hostels when you were young. How about providing the same travel opportunities for other young people in your community. Why not encourage young San Joseans to travel, learn about other places, keep them out of gangs? (The military draft provided the travel impetus to my generation). Isn’t it about time for you to pay back??
pgp3
Why would anyone travel to San Jose given all of the other choices in the world? Unless you had to come here for business or family, why would anyone choose to travel here?
The hostel concept is a great one and works in destinations—San Jose is not a destination.
San Jose is a fine place and I am not knocking it, I am just being realistic.
First, Why is there no “Search” button on this blog, to find people, subjects, or events that one is interested in??
Second, why am I, pgp3, pushing for a much needed large urban San Jose Hostel always the last entry of any subject where I make a comment??
Aren’t there any movers and shakers participating on this blog?
Are there no bloggers on SJI that have influence to get a minor project such as a San Jose Hostel off the ground?
Is no one proud of the City of San Jose and wants to show others what a great place it truly is? It’s the country’s 10th largest city with many museums, symphony housed in a wonderful building, State university, community colleges, Kelley Park, convenient airport, convention facilities, good bus system, interurban and long-distance trains, light rail, libraries, diverse ethnic neighborhoods, theme parks,
world class industry, great shopping, big flea market, lots of freeways, many historic buildings, etc. Soon to have high speed rail. But no hostel.
Yes, there are problems such as tons of empty vacant underutilized buildings that could easily be converted into a large urban hostel for very low cost. Many of these buildings formerly housed outfits that preferred cheap labor elsewhere and will never be occupied again. Why not donate them to a non-profit hostel organization? The City’s RDA would do well in developing a tourist hostel.
The problem of San Jose is district elections. Every City council member looks out solely for their district’s benefit. The overall well being of the City is completely ignored. Every council member is striving for a larger piece of the existing pie instead of creating a larger pie. Unless the subject of discussion affects the Council’s majority it is totally ignored.
PO knows about hostels, I’ve addressed his City planning task force twice, yet not one Hostel word in his SJI blog column.
Luckily, San Jose is not the only place in Silicon Valley that would benefit by visiting young international tourists that prefer staying at hostels. There’s Santa Clara, Campbell, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, even Palo Alto. Perhaps some people in those communities have clearer vision, see the benefit of international tourism and will actually do something.
pgp3
MR. J.M. O’Connor:
On April 9th, you sarcastically wrote the following:
Mr. Hosseini was murdered last May, and our cops are just getting the fliers out now??? I guess they were all too busy busting drunks DT. (Can Chief Davis Survive? 4/8/09)
You followed up with:
I am afraid I’ll need a lot more information to change my view that taking 11 months to get a sketch out for public distribution fails to meet my test for effective investigation. Please prove me wrong. I can’t quite get why it took 11 months to locate a witness to provide info. to compile the sketch.
San Jose police have made an arrest in connection with the murder of a popular shopkeeper, 47-year-old Vahid Hosseini. I guess they proved you wrong.
Mr. O’Connor you can rest assure, that the very moment you wrote those words, San Jose Police were working tirelessly to solve this case and to take a murderer off the streets. Perhaps there was a reason why it took so long. Perhaps the public need not know. All we need to know is that these folks are doing a fine job. I’m sure it helps to have a community that wants to help them and support them.
For those who want more reductions in police staffing or to find a way to pay them less. Think again. The crooks and murderers aren’t just going to lock themselves up.
Thank you Pierluigi Oliverio, for hosting the I.O.U.S.A. movie screening this evening at City Hall. I was pleasantly surprised by the large crowd!
Thanks too, for arranging a representative from the Concord Coalition to be in attendance to answer attendee questions and respond to ideas.
The take-away for me this evening was how important it is to have this type of “in-your-face,” “cold shower” type of information where the (non-partisan) facts are laid bare before us and the hard question of “what can we do to solve the problem” presented. The candid,
thoughtful dialog that follows is helpful to get people to start thinking and hopefully taking some action.
Thanks too, for presenting us with some of our own local challenges and the reminder that on May 12th at 7:15 the Council will hear input from the community on the budget items. I sincerely hope Council Chambers that evening will be packed with intelligent, civic-minded citizens ready to give their response to the proposed operating budget for 2009-2010.
Tina
Worldwide the common human H1N1 influenza virus affects millions of people every year, according to WHO officials, and “these annual epidemics result in about three to five MILLION cases of SEVERE illness, and about 250,000 to 500,000 deaths” ANNUALLY.
In industrialized countries most of these annual deaths occur in people aged 65 or older.[per Wikipedia]
And the press is all atwitter about several HUNDRED deaths worldwide of the so-called swine flu??????
Swine flu, 2009—the first press-borne virus in history. The pandemic that didn’t pan out.
Tuesday night in Santa Clara
Joe Kornder, a member of the Santa Clara City Council, tonight attempted to get Santa Clara County’s first big box ordinance reconsidered.
The good labor members of the city council defeated the motion but the consent adoption of the ordinance was also pulled for discussion.
It was a surprise move by Kordner.
Well, 2010 is coming up.
Mission City Lantern
SJI,
Posted a response to this subjects, timewise between #14 and #15, but don’t see it posted? Did my note arrive or was it gleaned? If it was discarded please let meknow the reason.
Thanks,
pgp3
18 pgp3: That was my bad. We have been getting bombarded by spam for the past several days. I’m afraid that when I was purging the comments last night, I deleted a couple of genuine comments. Please accept my apologies.
A BIG heart-felt THANK YOU goes out to Mayor Reed, Councilmember Liccardo, and Chief Davis for their constant support of the Hosseini family. And THANK YOU Chief Davis, and SJPD for catching one of the guys who may have murdered my friend. I appreciate the way you’ve watched over my friends, and we citizens.
Stay Safe!
#19 Mr. Johnson,
Appology accepted, Thank you for clarification.
Just wanted to respond to #12 that San Jose was a destination long ago as the Center of “Valley of Heart’s Delight” and still has a lot going for it. There are many San Jose area attractions that can be considered a “Destination” all by themselves:
Winchester Mystery House
The Tech Museum,
Children’s Discovery Museum
Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum
Intel Museum
Computer History Museum
SJSU
Santa Clara Univ. and SC Mission
Mission San Jose
Great America Amusement Park
Raging Waters (although only seasonal)
Kelly Park (Japanese Garden, Old Town with Light Tower, Trolley Museum and zoo)
San Jose Airport (serving Santa Cruz, etc.)
McEnery (and Santa Clara) Convention Center.
Diridon Train Station with future High Speed Rail Service
Fry’s Electronics stores
Weird Stuff Warehouse
The Bufano Seal (for Bufano sculpture lovers)
Beethoven Museum
HP Pavilion, home of first round losers.
Hiway 17, Gateway to Santa Cruz, morning fog, truly Surf City USA and home of the weird. ha ha
What’s left out??
A large urban “youth” hostel catering to travelers from all corners of the globe will be another great Silicon Valley destination.
I envision a super hi-tech facility featuring all the newest gizmos, games and toys this area can muster, that Geeks, Nerds and computer aficionados everywhere will want to visit and stay a few days.
There are millions of square feet of vacant buildings in the area that could easily be converted into one or more non-profit hostels.
Equipment and software (perhaps even the building) will be supplied as marketing collaboration by local hi-tech outfits such as Apple, HP, Intel, Sun, Adobe, Google, eBay, Yahoo, SAP Labs, Microsoft Labs, Sony, AMD, National, Lockheed, etc. or any outfit that wishes to market to the well-educated young international visitors that tend to stay only at hostels.
These sponsors might get first dibs on visiting young engineers, techs, programmers that might want to stay in the Valley to start their careers here. The Valley needs these people cause so many who’ve made it are going back home.
Overall, this hostel is small potatoes, what’s the hangup?? This project should have been done many years ago.
pgp3