And the End of the Storied Santana Row Boycott
Fiascos always have precedents as well as postscripts. The mistake of land use in the Santana Row project was based on the same model that led to the destruction of downtown’s retail in the fifties and sixties. The postscript was written when Silicon Valley and Bay Area leaders challenged the absurd spending priorities of the California Transportation Commission last week. Chuck Reed, Carl Guardino and the others struck a blow for all of us when they got the state’s commission overseeing this spending to change their priorities. Feeding the economic engine of the world here, our valley, is crucially important to the US economy, and stands in stark contrast to some overpass in Tulare County or a “bridge to nowhere” in Modoc County. Every commuter in our valley should be grateful that Mayor Reed and the others were successful. It is the latest battle in the allocation of bond proceeds, but not the last.
The penultimate chapter of the Santana Row saga came in the staff report to the California Transportation Commission and comments about the crazy, unwarranted land use decision that left the 280-880 interchange in such a mess. Any casual observer and many courageous officials like Frank Taylor, the downtown czar, then-Councilman David Pandori, and restaurateur Steve Borgenhagen, knew and spoke out against the foolishness and short-term greed of such a move. They were ignored. Now, certain bottlenecks in other parts of San Jose will be unable to get funding because the dwindling dollars for our area will be gobbled up to take care of a mistake by those deluded leaders.
And we thought we had learned.
Any developer building a mini-mall in San Jose is made to improve intersections as much as a mile away. Federal Realty, the giant from the East who bullied and cajoled the Santana Row project, wasn’t made to do any such normal improvements; the fix was in, certainly. It was a precursor to the outrages of the next regime and, indeed, a sad day for our city.
Concerning the “great” Santana Row boycott, I can now report that the boycott was mine and it is now over. I knew that my refusal to patronize the new center wouldn’t inflict any economic harm, but I felt that it was something that I had to do. However, it’s tough not to go there! I know it’s faux, a bit overdone and elitist to some, but, damn it all, it’s so nice. There are many small businesses trying hard to succeed there and they are not guilty of anything. So, I decided to end the boycott and release my family and friends to patronize any shops, restaurants, or movies (the boycott was as porous as the US-Mexican border, incidentally). It is a new era in San Jose and I am trying, begrudgingly, to adapt. It’s not easy.
Surrendering is hard, so it does take a while before one can apppreciate it’s effect.
Which brings to mind that every wine, vegetable, fruit, preserves has been touched by a Mexican that braved the elements and ran the risks just to serve in the vast fields of our great valleys of our Nation.
Gil Hernandez
Very informative today.
Concerning the boycott, you know my Irish blood has always been able to hold a stand off longer than yours. I can still hear your Dad tell John IV not to get him mad, that was the time Johnny was stomping on his felt hat.
Yes SR is as faux as Las Vegas!
Hat’s off the Cotati, did you hear that they are not allowing chain restaurants into their town. At least that town is truly looking out for the small independent. I know San Jose is way past that, but it used to be great prior to all these chains, retail or restaurant. That charm is sadly forever gone.
Perhaps the blow struck by Reed and Guardino was partially motivated by the desire to build another 650,000 square feet of retail at Valley Fair (aka Westfield Mall) with GP approval to build up to 1,500,000 additional space total:
http://www.sanjoseca.gov/planning/eir/WestfieldVF/DeirVF/VFEIR.pdf
and help facilitate development of the state owned 17 acres on Winchester at BAREC:
http://www.savebarec.org/whatisbarec/index.html
As a resident of Evergreen, permit me to ask, isn’t Santanna Row one of these places that the anti car planning professor says has free parking?
Will San Jose State students be dispatched to confiscate all cars going to Santanna Row?
Thanks, Tom, for giving me cover to admit that I ended my Sta Row boycott last year, and I just have to admit it’s a great modern urban space for modern people. We bike or take the bus there with the kids so the driving/parking isn’t an issue for us, but the family-friendly quality of the Sunday Farmer’s Market with all the restaurants pouring out onto the street: jeez, puts the 3d St Promenade in Sta Monica to shame. Now, if we could just get vta to move its Valley Fair Terminal to the Stevens Creek side of Valley Fair, instead of the Forest Ave. side, we’d have an even more transit-friendly development.
Me and My Baby Walkin’ the Row
Sure we‘ve heard the whispers
And yes, there has been scorn
But friends, there‘s no denying
What was, no one will mourn
Behold the made-made beauty
So inviting to the eye
A thoughtful, elegant design
All that money could buy
Friendly faces everywhere
Curiosity in their eyes
Not a one tonight will resist the urge
To gawk at the merchandise
Most look on approvingly
Authenticity be damned
But for a scowl from here or there
The reaction is as planned
Fake is but a judgement call
Employ it as you please
But behold the joy delivered tonight
By my baby‘s brand new D‘s
Wonder Woman, you’ve drawn a good comparison… Santana Row with Las Vegas. One must just squint a little, blurring the vision, to avoid seeing all the signs of Las Vegas fakedom. Hey, wait a minute, the same can be said for the new City Hall!
Check out what this week’s Economist has to say about downtown San Jose:
http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8784680
>>>Wonder Woman, you’ve drawn a good comparison… Santana Row with Las Vegas. One must just squint a little, blurring the vision, to avoid seeing all the signs of Las Vegas fakedom.
I coined that phrase three years ago:
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/05.12.04/biter-0420.html
Santana Row is annoyingly trendy. The restaurants are overpriced and the stores sell useless yuppie junk. The more useful stores are on Stevens Creek or in Valley Fair, which was a dumpy mall 25 years ago.
I went to a Bat Mitzvah dinner at the hotel in Santana Row. It’s way too trendy, the dark entrance could easily be mistaken for a service entrance with the lights shot out. It reminded me of the oh-so-trendy hotel in a recent episode of “Ugly Betty.” In fact, Santana Row seems populated by the trendoids from Mode magazine.
The latest proposed give away of $13 million to BEA Systems and Sobrato Development shows just how desperate the situation is for the RDA in Downtown SJ. Here we have a sweet deal revolving around BEA, a corporation that is mired in an SEC investigation because it’s leadership decided it was perfectly legal and ethical to defraud stockholders and taxpayers of nearly $400 million through stock option backdating, a corporation that is unloading 30 acres of prime land in North SJ at a reported $200 million loss, teaming up with Sobrato Development, a corporation that will write off not only $200 million in construction costs but the capital gains as well by donating the whole damn 385,000 sq. ft. class A building to it’s own family foundation! The deal stinks to high heaven, but what else can the City do but bend over? Desperation is running the City. It’s just a shame to have to get into bed with an unscrupulous outfit like BEA. We’ve been here before – remember NorCal?
Speaking of NorCal, anybody care that the Gonzo legacy will now cost us a 29% increase in our garbage rates starting July 1? The council doesn’t seem too concerned and the Merc hasn’t even reported on it. You’ll have a chance to register a protest soon, if you care.
Tom—You change your mind a lot, but you’re a good guy, so it always turns out alright. Back in the early 80’s, when Mama’s was a hot spot underground at Valley Fair, there you were with Jim Self, hangin’ out—though, as I recall, since downtown was a real mess, you were boycotting VF. Not ever without wit,
you told me you had left a trail of bread crumbs to find your way back to the Tower Saloon. Anyway, glad you’ve found Santana Row. Great spot to have a good time, WITH parking, WITHOUT punks, even though there are nightclubs. There’s always something to bitch about anywhere, even at The Place de Concorde or Trafalgar Sq. How faux is the Arc de Triomphe, now that there’s no triomphe anywhere near it? (Nothing more real than the peach blossoms on Saratoga-Sunnyvale Rd. when we were just boys, but not very real anymore.) And what’s with the constant bitching about Starbucks, though they make a million kinds of good coffee and pay their baristas well, even including health benefits and stock options—which I’ll bet Los Gatos Coffee Roasting Co. doesn’t. Faux and real may be a bit heavy duty for SJI, but we need to keep trying to figure it out. Downtown San Jose was real once. Today San Jose is just a million person suburb. Depending on imagination and leadership becoming available, now that we may see that billions doesn’t make a downtown, it could have a real downtown AND suburbs. George Green
I LOVE it! In speaking of the location of The Taj Gonzal, it was said: “San Jose’s council has moved downtown into a glass tower designed by Richard Meier. The building is striking, especially as it sits in a fundamentally low-rise area. A city official who needs spare parts for his car need walk only one block.” And the way they call our light rail, “trams”.
And then there’s: “Despite its anaemic
condition, most visitors to San Jose at least know where downtown is.”
And: “Both Las Vegas and San Jose have tried to jump-start redevelopment by building shopping malls in the urban core; both attempts failed utterly.”
#12—when and where will that opportunity be presented to us?
Due to multiple fiasco’s with my trash & recycles pick up, I found out I’m with Green Team. They’re no better, and the bill keeps escalating. Are they tied into NorCal on rate raises?
George #13: when are you and Tom McE and everyone else finally gonna get it—we ARE the ‘burbs, ‘cuz we WANNA BE THE “BURBS.
I have asked in several posts here for someone to tell me where is downtown San Francisco, or Manhattan, or Los Angeles, or New Orleans, or pretyy much any city? No-one ever answered, ‘cuz no-one knows.
Take SF—is it Union Square, near City Hall, the new Mall on Market, the financial district? No, it’s none of the above. SF has no downtwon. We’re so far back we are eagerly ($2B worth) trying to build one. Santana Row did it in a couple of years.
As the Economist article noted above stated:
“Downtowns are an American invention, says Joel Kotkin, an expert on cities. London, Paris and Tokyo all lack a single centre where commerce, entertainment, shopping and political power are concentrated. Such cores did emerge in early 20th-century American cities thanks to steel-frame architecture, which made it possible to build high, and because they had central railway stations. Fifty years later, almost all were gutted by the internal-combustion engine, which enabled people and jobs to move to the suburbs. They have been trying to revive themselves ever since.”
Tom says, “Any developer building a mini-mall in San Jose is made to improve intersections as much as a mile away.”
This was completely changed by the city council in June 2005 when the “level of service” required to be maintained was vastly reduced. The reason advanced by the planning department was that streets and intersections were already so spacious that to expand them further would be unacceptable.
Those of us to testified against the attack on “level of service” two years ago could have used some heavy-hitters to speak up.
The full impact citywide will probably not be apparent to everyone until the next boom is upon us when many will wonder aloud, “When did this happen?” June 2005 will be the date on the gravestone for “level of service” requirements.
#15 – As I understand it, notices will be mailed out in the next couple of weeks. Then the public as 45 days to file a written protest. The city needs to hear from a majority of rate payers to stop the increase.
Since Nor Cal finishes up at the end of June, most of us will have a new garbage collector.
Our choice will be to pay up or protest.
#9 – Gary Singh, as for my comparison of SR to LV, great minds must think alike. However, reread my comment #2, I did not use your coined phrase, refer to #7, that’s where the phrase began. Plus, I haven’t read a Metro since at least 2001, so didn’t even see your column.
I like #10’s “annoyingly trendy.” The main drag is like part of Disneyland or a movie set.
#13 – That was a good one about Mama’s and Tom in the 80’s with Self no less. For some reason the beginning of an Aretha song is going through my mind, “Chain, chain, chain, chain of fools………” May not completely apply, but hats off again to Cotati who was not foolish to let their town be overtaken by chains. Who recalls what our first chain was – Burger Pit, perhaps, at least that was locally owned, but probably opened the door for McDonald’s and then there was no turning back. Maybe it was Mel’s drive- in. If anyone knows the first chain in San Jose, I’d be curious.
Tom, I too boycotted Santana Row. Unfortunately, it was more a matter of economics than by choice. I’ve shopped and dined there but it’s something I can’t do on the regular basis. $40.00 dollar shoes are $80.00 and $12.00 dinners are $18.00.
The higher prices do keep away a certain element. Lets just hope they don’t force Santana Row the way of the Pavilion downtown.
C’mon JMO, San Fran does have downtown, actually several: Union Sq., Embarcadero, Fin-ancial, Civic Center, etc., AND neighborhoods: the Sunset, Richmond, Marina, Haight-Ashbury, Bayview, Columbus Av. The Mission has lots of “amenities”, but it’s a neighborhood. Fillmore, Pacific Heights. As for San Jose, when there was unarguably a downtown, and everyone agreed there was, there was still Willow Glen, Rose Garden, the Alameda, Shasta/Hanchett, William St. “Burbs way back then. Do SFers not go downtown be-cause it’s crowded and there’s no place to park—or even walk, on Montgomery St? Please! The semantics in this “debate” are all screwed up. The operative word is CITY, not downtown. Chuck Reed has it right: : “Not yet a great city; just a good city” (?) It’s never been a great city, but it’s in a position to be one with nearby enormous wealth and big ideas. If we could just learn that mere billions will not make a great city, that imagination, not mountains of Benjamins is the main force in building a great city. Janet Gray Haze years ago complained, when a rivet hooking 87 together downtown at a ceremonial opening wouldn’t line up, “Can’t we ever do anything right in SJ?” Not with the bureaucrac y embedded in City Hall that stays on and on as the politicians cycle in and out. George Green
JMO (#16), you hit the nail on the head. “… we ARE the ‘burbs, ‘cuz we WANNA BE THE “BURBS.” Not many of my friends or acquaintances get all that excited with the prospect of going Downtown.
In the past several decades, the neighborhoods have morphed into independent and sustainable mini-cities where one can both live and shop for all manner of necessities.
It wasn’t so much that residents wanted it that way; rather, as I indicated to Tom McE in a prior column, our then-City Manager paved the way for developers to build in the burbs via zoning changes, lining developers’ pockets as well as his own. What’s done is done, and it works for me.
What of the Knight Ridder sign? Is that a permanent graffiti on our land scape.
D.O.A.
Refugio # 20—Where can you find shoes for $80.00 @ Santana Row? Eccos start @ $160.00 or so. Women’s shoes are undoubtedly higher. That place will be restaurants and clubs in a few years. San Jose doesn’t have the demographic to support so many high end small shops.
Santana Row was not designed for San Jose customers only but to attract high end regional customers from surrounding cities – Los Gatos, Cupertino, Saratoga, and other high end demographic areas plus 20-40 singles with disposable income
Santana Row would NEVER have been built in downtown San Jose since SR target customers would not go downtown and not enough high disposable income customers in downtown or will be for at least 10-15 years or more after SR was planned
Unbiased review will show SR was not land use mistake but one of few smart SJ Council decisions except for poor transit / transportation planning but what do you except from decades of economic development City Council mistakes
To paraphrase Yogi Berra, “No one goes there nowadays, it’s too crowded.”
Or should I say, “we don’t go there nowadays…”
John Michael – I certainly do understand that we are a suburban city. Our citizens have voted and hoped for a revitalized center city for 50 yrs. The con men, crooks, and imcompetents stood in the way and dictated sprawl. Some of us, didn’t just talk, we fought them. The Convention Center, Tech, HP Pavilon, Children’s Dis. Mus., and the arts groups like the TECH and REP & City Lights and many, many more give a vibrance and heart to San Jose. Santana Row was a big effort, but to think it was a tough, ‘against the odds’ success, and gee, Downtown failed bec. the Pavilon shops, all 60,000 sq. ft. or so (Valley Fair is 2.5 mil,! ) tanked, is a total misunderstanding of the last 25 yrs.. But you’re a lawyer, John, issue a statement, make a mistake and then bill someone else for it – or just move on. Nice. TMcE
#24 JmO’C
Perhaps I should have been a little more specific. About a year ago my brother and I were looking for some New Balance tennis shoes. The pair we liked cost $80.00. We decided against the purchase and found the same pair about a week later for $40.00.
Last October some friends and family gathered at the Italian restaurant (who’s name escapes me) to celebrate my wife and her sister’s birthday. I remember eating a simple meal, as did most of the group of l9; the tab was $500.00 We did order a couple of bottles of wine and several beers; but $500.00?
Tom #27: SOME of our citizens want an urban environment; but I stick t the opinion that MOST residents of San Jose could not care less about downtown revitilization, redevelopment, urban core, or any of that stuff. Most who don’t work downtown come downtown only when forced, or occasionally to see a play.
Urban flight from urban blight doomed downtowns for decades, and most poeple in this area will never choose to live in an urban environment.
But it’s not just here. Who LIVES in “downtown” San FRancisco, for instance? The Tenderloin is the closest thing to downtown where people live, and most folks don’t want that.
I remain hopeful that there will be enough residential density here in the near future to entice more retail downtown. But don’t kid yourself Tom that your dream for downtown San Jose is shared by the majority of San Jose residents.
ONE-TANK WONDER: Silicon Valley / The amazing two-day trip abroad / Santana Row inspires comparisons to anywhere but San Jose [sfgate.com]
Tom the Palm Tree`s on San Carlos street should be pulled up and moved somewhere else. We should have a lightrail down the center of San Carlos connecting Santana Row and Downtown. It would only help downtown, especially by attracting more convention goers. Downtown merchants are getting the base they need now. A lightrail connection would be a win win.