The long lost question has been answered, finally! How do we get more families and women into our downtown to make it a place for everyone? The answer is clear: MORE COUNTRY CONCERTS. Who knew the answer was so simple?
Last Friday I had the chance to go see one of my absolute favorites, Keith Urban, in concert at the Shark Tank (HP Pavilion). For those who don’t know of him, Urban is married to Nicole Kidman and he is an Australian country music singer. (Yeah, I know: Australian?) Regardless, he is an amazing talent and for 60 bucks I got a great seat and two solid hours of great music. I definitely got my money’s worth and I can’t say that often.
Anyhow, as I ate at a restaurant before the concert and looked around, I saw the downtown bustling with the EXACT demographic of people they have been salivating after. I saw the yuppie couple, the single girl (or gals) and the middle- to upper-class family (all adorned in cowboy hats of course) in our downtown. The exact crowd you see at a country concert is what they want, and got, for a night. But why can’t it be more than for a night?
So, for purely selfish reasons, I would like to see a country concert at the Arena at least every weekend. The city council should write letters to the HP Pavilion management and to every bar in the downtown area weekly, encouraging them to bribe in any way shape or form, country acts to come and perform in our city. Then the “ideal” crowd would drown out the “undesirable” crowd on a Friday or Saturday night. There will be families walking the streets on a weekend, single and good looking girls will fill the bars and restaurants forcing us to shed our nickname “Man Jose,” and yuppie couples will spend their expendable income around town, causing new restaurants and bars to pop up by the dozens.
All will be right with the world if we just can say San Jose has “gone country.”
I like both kinds of music: Rock and Roll.
I’d rather have thugs than the country music crowd.
I prefer not to listen to country or western; but anything that brings a fun-loving, decent, respectful-of-others crowd to downtown needs to be encouraged.
We brought this upon ourselves in November, 2006. We had a choice. Cindy Chavez – Upbeat, wholesome, melodic, harmonic, vibrant mariachi music. Or Chuck Reed – Hillbilly, uneducated, backwater, low-income country music.
We made the wrong choice.
Todd and Dennis
It was reported over at ballparkwatch.com (“Line forms and sleeps here to live near Nats ballpark,” June 18) that people are actually camping out to get first dibs at purchasing new townhomes in SE Washington D.C. The reason…proximity to new ballpark for the Washington Nationals. If San Jose really wanted to move (as is move product) all those new high-rise condos and get people downtown…
Its difficult to say that just because yuppie couples, single girls, and middle to upper income families came for a Keith Urban concert that the solution to keep this demographic would be to have more country music concerts. Urban (no pun intended) is popular enough to cut across many music demographics. Therefore, it may be that the people you saw at the bar only listened to Urban, but the rest of their musical taste is more like Celine Dion and other similar artists. I think generally having a more diverse musical and entertainment scene will bring a generally more diverse crowd, including single women, yuppie couples, and middle/upper income families.
Mr. Dominguez, here’s a map documenting various proposed and under-construction sites for downtown living. There’s hope for the future, so don’t fret.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=107189668838923089280.000001127d6ff03df2c11&ll=37.338056,-121.88417&spn=0.021598,0.020771&t=h&z=15&om=1
With more people populating downtown on a regular basis, the demographics will inevitably shift towards balance.
T&D, you guys are into my kind of Reed-bashing! Keep up the good work! This guy’s such a fish out of water it’s a joke. Or is it rat out of the wheat field?
I’m no fan of Cindy. She ruined her chances with me by being Gonzo’s strongest ally. If she had distanced herself from him she might have had a chance, but she stuck by him until the end and she handed the election to a hayseed. We now have a city government of the hayseeds, by the hayseeds and for the hayseeds as a result.
When you think about it, over the years not a whole lot has changed about City Hall except the building.
I am not convinced that replacing our thugs of color with drunken hillbilly rednecks is a step in the right direction.
Rather, we need to integrate the cultures so that we have a diverse group of annoying types downtown.
Where’s Michael Jackson when you need him?
#11 Hee Haw – There is a diverse group of annoying types downtown already. Ever ride the light rail?
I rather have hillbillities and rednecks then thugs. Thugs are more likely to robb or assault innocent victims and they look more menacing.
I think that the problem with downtown is that it’s in such an enclosed area that two different worlds are clashing together. The Rich meeting the thugs and the “Rich, White, Yuppie” types don’t wanna share downtown with the lowlifes so they go back to Los Gatos, Los Altos, Palo Alto where it is predomnitly white.
Civility is without a racial component. How we can ‘enforce’ this concept is the matter of debate. Thugs come in all ethnicities, and until we can impress upon them the virtue of not behaving in such a manner, areas that combine these two camps will be problematic.
I’m not so sure that is possible in San Jose because it is a very diverse place. I don’t really care if downtown is “rich, white, or yuppie”. I just don’t want to share it with the thuggish lookin east oakland types.
In 1492, the United Nations created America so that other countries would have a place to send their troublemakers. The founding fathers (Thomas Edison, George Gershswin, Betsy Ross and Harriet Tubman) wanted America to be a place where freedom and liberty were guaranteed. Bottom line, we need to respect crooked politicians, gangbangers, crackheads, corporate crooks and trailer trash.
Something has gone seriously wrong with this web site. We see all kinds of racialist and classist coded labels today:
#1 was the first to spill racist bile with “thuggish lookin east oakland types.”
#6, #11, and #14 spill some more racist and classist hate with “hillbilly,” and #10 chimes in with another racist and classist hate label, “hayseed.”
#11 and #14 cement their reputation for name-calling instead of reason by using another racist and classist slur, “redneck.”
The only other San Jose institution given over to these kinds of hate labels is the Mercury News which also likes the Spanish-language epithet “Anglo” as well as “goober,” “WASP,” and “gringo.”
Hint: True class is not demonstrated by the use of tawdry, denigrating, and anti-diversity labels.
Actually, true class is demonstrated by not blaming everything on the Mercury News. Blaming the press is an old trick and it is getting pretty old on this site.
If you want single, good looking women patronizing bars and restaurants, I should probably stay home. It seems every time I approach women, I make their skin crawl.
For once, I agree with Dale Warner (#17)…….
Oh my god!?! I agree with Dale Warner!
I miss the days of the Mayoral elections where at least the petty arguments were from educated people.
#6 Chuck Reed = uneducated… compared to Chavez??? I don’t know… I am an SJSU alum like Chavez, but the Air Force Academy, Princeton, and Stanford are fairly well regarded for being backwater institutions.
#17 – We apologize for using the denigrating, disparaging and derogatory term “hillbilly”. You are absolutely correct, we were wrong. We are deeply sorry if we offended anyone reading our post.
Todd and Dennis
It must be nice to be able to afford to pay $60 for a two hour concert. Maybe the solution to the parking garage problem discussed previously is to offer free parking only to people driving a BMW or a Lexus.
Do we really want to have a Santana Row-like downtown (unlikely to actually happen since there already is a Santana Row)? Or perhaps downtown should be targeted more toward ordinary working families who make up the bulk of the population?
Hi, girlfromthenet:
We live in a multicultural, multi-racial, and multi-ethnic area, and each of us has to decide whether we want to live in a slur-free and stereotype-free society, or to simply perpetuate tired and divisive hate language. I’m for a slur-free society.
#20 – You are absolutely correct. Chuck Reed is a very intelligent man. He graduated number one is his class at the Air Force Academy. He has a master’s degree from Princeton and a law degree from Stanford. All three of these schools are top-notch institutions. We are profoundly sorry if we offended anyone reading our post. Chuck Reed truly has the skills and determination to lead our city.
Todd and Dennis
Dale,
I am not going to stand for that. First of all, I don’t appreciate being called a racist. I take offense to that. I’m not a racist. I don’t meet the criteria.
Definition of racist
1. a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one’s own race is superior and has the right to rule others.
2. a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such a doctrine; discrimination.
3. hatred or intolerance of another race or other
Second of all, I stick to my guns, I hate thugs no matter what race and I’m not gonna appologize for that. If you made the connection between a certain race and the word thug, that’s your fault. Maybe your the one with issues. I never mentioned race. As far as using “Redneck and Hillbillies”, I was commenting on someone elses comment.
3rd of all, I am hispanic and I have over a 50 black relatives,<oh excuse me, african americans for those of you who might be offended> and I’m married to a chinese man so, don’t give me that crap.
A downtown ball park is what I have always wanted and we know what the Arena has done for downtown and a ballpark would do more…..its simple but it just seems like fantasy to want some things to happen in SJ….
Anybody want to talk about downtown San Jose? An article in the July/August VIA Magazine has a good article on the resurgence of Denvers downtown: “LoDo (Denver’s Lower Downtown) was a ghostly district (sound familiar?), its buildings largely abandoned and in disrepair. But in 1995, Coors Field (ballpark for Co. Rockies) opened on LoDo’s edge and a number of new businesses began to bloom around it. Now the district is a vibrant 26-block grid of restaurants, retail shops, and brewpubs…recent years have brought more infusions of investments. Condominium complexes rise along LoDo’s edges, and free buses run on 16th Street, its mile-long, pedestrian friendly spine.” If only our downtown could be so lucky. In closing, Country music is nice SG, but it’s going to take a lot more to get the “right” people downtown in masses.
Dale,
You are right, we live in a multicultural, multi-racial, and multi-ethnic area, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Do I take it, then, that SG would like a new “Saddle Rack” somewhere downtown? Perhaps in the old America Live location, perhaps?
You folks have to admit – a downtown combination of bubbas and bangers would be much fun to watch on a Friday night.
Oh god no.
Hypsensitive society. Euphenisms. Let’s just all be politically correct cause we all love the sugarcoated stuff.
Country is music okay; I wish our city can attract independent music somehow. Something like The Strokes or the likes. Heck, we managed to get Modest Mouse at the event center.
Eh….
Moving the SaddleRack was a travesty! You are right! I actually went to the Club Rodeo on Coleman after the concert and it was far from bumpkins, it was other people like me…..a pretty good crowd. I think country music has a bad reputation. It’s so mainstream now….
#29 JD, Did you get permission from Dale Warner to use the terms “bubbas” and “bangers”?
#1, #22 girlfromthenet
I will quote what you said in the very first post to this inherently classist promotion of yuppies, middle and upper class drawing entertainment:
“…I just don’t want to share it with the thuggish lookin east okalnd types.”
Then, to say Dale Warner made an assumption about race with your use of the word thuggish is ridiculous. You forgot that you said East Oakland. If that is not a direct inference to African-Americans, I don’t know what is. And, I don’t care if you are a minority or if you have 1000 African-American relatives, that was racist and your defensiveness speaks volumes.
Dale, you are right on again!
Great idea to have a weekly country music concert at the Shark Tank. One suggestion to make the concerts have more of the “country feel”. Lets replace all the normal seats with horse saddles for the concerts. Anybody know where we can get 18,000 horse saddles? Of course, if this was implemented San Jose would have an epidemic of saddle sores of biblical proportions.
If the city is going to spend money to bring businesses downtown, I’d actually be in favor of them bringing back the Saddlerack. Not that I was ever a regular, but I did go there from time to time and it was very enjoyable. And you could hear some good music for a lot less than $60.
Downtown needs some more quirky businesses like the Saddlerack, not more expanses of blandness.
Granted it might spill out a few drunks at closing time, but at least they’d be wearing cowboy hats in honor of our city’s agricultural past.
#31,
think country music has a bad reputation. It’s so mainstream now….
That is because country music is now where Rock and Roll was 20 years ago.
Maybe, if the fans weren’t so slow, it would have a better reputation.
@#33
Who in the hell thinks of African Americans when they think of thuggish east oakland types? I immediately thought of mexicans at first thought. It’s obvious that you associated East Oakland Types with African-Americans, I guess that makes you racist.
You must be white.
This discussion only serves to show why Downtown San Jose is a failure. Each post in this thread has an underlying theme of “DO ONLY WHAT I WANT, ONLY WHAT I WANT IS IMPORTANT, WHAT YOU WANT DOESN’T MATTER AND, BY THE WAY, WHAT YOU WANT IS STUPID AND WRONG”.
And then we start arguing with labels and epithets and personal prejudices and start slinging mud at each other while all the while our Downtown sinks further in the muck.
#34 said:“not more expanses of blandness. “
I went to the movies last Thursday @ Santana Row—Mr. Brooks—good film.
When I got out about 7:00 p.m. all the restaurants were packed, inside and out, with clean, multi-racial, not-puking, respectful folks having fun. No thugs, lowriders, vatos locos, car stereo-blasting idiots, or ridiculous college types combining too much alcohol with too much trapped testosterone.
Frankly, this grumpy old man prefers the blandness to the alternative of downtown “diversity”.
But I’m off to Costa Rica for 15 days, so no more acerbic posts from me for a while.
#38 jmoc, When you go to Costa Rica make sure you visit San Jose. In downtown San Jose, Costa Rica, there is a place you might like. It is called Club Cuccini.
Downtown San jose is awesome. You wouldnt know or understand that unless you move away for a ahwile and see what other cities have to offer. It really all about culture and class. I love the rich and yuppy and I love the diversity. What I don’t love is a city that doesnt control its homeless and its grundge… or thuggish!