The San Jose City Council voted unanimously to end free downtown parking in city garages and impose a $5 charge after 10 p.m. Thursday through Saturday nights from July 1. This comes in the wake of the widespread use and abuse of the garages for partying and mayhem at night as we have been discussing here on SJI. The projected $400,000 of revenue raised by this fee will be used to pay for city parking garage policing and clean-up.
While this move may provide some relief of a sort, at least in the parking garages, it does nothing to address the underlying problem that the parking lot situation is a symptom of. The downtown nightclub scene (Vivid, Taste, Cuccini, Miami Beach, etc.) is largely responsible for creating the current problems at night. These clubs should be paying for policing and cleaning the garages out of their own pockets.
In passing the measure, the city council has shown that it is keenly aware of the troubling situation caused by downtown nightclubs. Councilmember Sam Liccardo, who visited the San Pedro Square parking garage one weekend night recently and didn’t like what he saw, assured me that he is keeping a close eye on the situation and believes that the $5 parking fee and soft closings will improve matters. I hope he is right. I have my doubts but will wait and see how things go over the next few weeks.
I spoke to San Jose Police Chief Rob Davis and he told me that the force already has 20-35 extra police officers (depending on the night) downtown on weekends just to deal with the club situation. The funds from the parking fee will allow him to deploy three 2-officer teams to monitor the city parking garages. He also informed me that the police are already making 13-15 arrests per weekend night in and around the San Pedro Square garage. However, because of the increase in activity lately caused by the clubs, police officers get pulled out of the immediate area at times to deal with an urgent situation elsewhere. If things don’t improve over the next few weeks, he will need additional funding to adequately police downtown at night. It has become a hugely complicated and difficult situation for the police force.
In a new development, many of the clubs are now opening on Tuesday and Wednesday nights for the summer, enticing customers with the offer of all-night $2 drinks and promises of such things as experiencing “the sexiest playhouse ever” with numerous “world-famous celebrities” in attendance. It seems that the weekend situation will now extend another two days a week. This obviously has Chief Davis concerned.
The club scene is already having a detrimental effect on restaurant, bar, music club, theater and other trade downtown on weekend nights. Anyone wanting to open a new business doesn’t want to be anywhere near them. It is not difficult to visualize a situation where non-club businesses that rely on nighttime customers to survive will be driven out of downtown. A $5 parking fee is not going to solve this much bigger problem.
What do our bloggers think of the new parking fee? Will it solve any of the problems? Will it keep anyone from visiting downtown at night? Should the nightclubs be held somewhat accountable for the costs of policing and cleaning the parking garages downtown? Is the police force responding adequately to the situation?
Don’t count on Sam Liccardo helping the situation. He is San Jose’s version of Supervisor Ed Jew. He conveniently rented a downtown apartment before the election so he could qualify as a resident. Sam Liccardo and Chuck Reed are in cahoots, they’re the bad guys. As for your previous derogatory statements about club owners, hip-hoppers, urinators and vomiteurs, they are the good guys in this case. The truth will be revealed shortly. Not just on the San Pedro Square parking situation, but the greater downtown conspiracy. You will be reading our story in San Jose Mercury News.
Todd and Dennis
Are Todd & Dennis the people who started that new blog speciallizing in old news? Is one the other’s evil twin?
Jack,
Ask Chief Davis how often police officers are now pulled from their regular beats in other parts of the city just to deal with the downtown crowd on the weekends. It happens on a regular basis. Many calls for police service go unanswered in other parts of the city due to the draining of resources for downtown nightclubs on Fridays and Saturdays, and taxpaying citizens of San Jose are cheated. Hopefully the money generated from the parking fee will help offset this somewhat. In my opinion, the $2 per drink proposal is going to be a disaster downtown, not to mention how many more drunk drivers will be on the road. Also, it won’t be long until Santana Row is going to feel it necessary for competions sake to do the same thing on those nights. Just my opinion, and hopefully I will be wrong.
Bars have been doing $2 tuesday promotions for the last 20 years downtown. so don’t run for the hills yet.
Oddly, the environment is so much nicer on tuesday and wednesday downtown that for the past recent years those are the busier nights for the bars. and this without the police presense at closing. And no has died or been hurt.
So really, is the police overtime needed on weekends? Is it pushing the “nicer” crowd out and or does the nicer crowd choose to come down on earlier days of the week instead of weekends?
Dave, the money used to pay the officers overtime doesn’t drain services. The chief has made this clear over and over. The 25 officers are officer from the swing shift that are forced to stay on for 2 more hours. How could they be a drain on services if they would have clocked out?
Also, most of them look bored beyond belief. Since there isn’t much for them to do.
Purhaps we should give them mops and brooms so they can clean Jack’s garage!
There is nothing “Good” about urination in public, vomiting because of excess drinking, or breaking any of the standard social contract with your fellow citizens.
Most people would view this as “Bad” behavior. The great majority of us learned not to comport ourselves in this manner, as it greatly lessens our respectability.
Confrontational attitudes, a false sense righteousness, and shear ignorance of the consequences to their actions lead many into an “Ugly” situation with the police.
I feel fairly safe in assuming that Todd & Dennis wouldn’t look so fondly on such “Good” behavior happening on their property, or neighborhoods. A fee for the use of the parking garages at certain times makes sense and is not a “Bad” idea. Let’s hope that this will help to clean up the “Ugly” situation that we are faced with at the present.
I like the idea but think the $5 fee should have started later. If you go to the Rep or an AMT production, they regularly finish well after 10pm. Here’s hoping the council doesn’t have to bail them out next year following unintended consequences from this fee.
Good luck with this. I don’t think “it’s their fault” will hold up in court. You cannot simply say “nightclubs make people pee in public.” You probably need evidence or one of those other stupid hangups. I’m not saying you’re entirely wrong, but generalizations and childish rants will get you nowhere. Telling your mommy won’t make the clubs liable for their patrons.
Try formulating a real solution for your next blogging session. Bring us more than vaguery and bitterness. Leave the jokes for Friday.
I like the idea of the $5 dollar parking fee after 10 pm., however I think they should also make the club owners pay as well. They’re the ones providing the alcohol and proffiting from all this drunken revalry.
J. Walker,
On the whole, you are correct that it is primarily swing shift officers that are held over to go downtown. When this happens you are right that this does not impact the rest of the city. When there is an incident that is of a serious nature such an assault causing traumatic injuries or death, major car accident, very large crowd, etc, the midnight patrol officers from other parts of the city are made to go downtown to either relieve swing shift officers or participate in the investigation follow-up, crime scene protection, etc. That is what is a drain on city resources and basically in my opinion cheats residents in other parts of the city who don’t get calls for service answered. The midnight shift of the police department is already extremely thin. The city is comprised of 8 different districts broken down into beats of 5-6 areas. The midnight patrol officers often go to their districts with only 3-4 officers for 5-6 beats as it is. The districts are extremely large geographical areas that are left with 2-3 officers to answer all the citizen calls if there is an incident downtown. Although San Jose touts itself as the “Safest Big City in the United States”, it already has one of the lowest per capita ratios of officers to citizens for a large city. I think all of this can be easily verified by asking the Chief or the Police Officer Association President, Bobby Lopez.
Quick note to John S #6: The $5 after 10:00 pm fee is for cars entering after 10::00 pm. those attending restaurants and theatre can leave the garage after 10:00 and not be charged the premiujm rate.
Dave,
you seem to know so much about the police for not being a police officers.
Keep those kids safe in the big safe city!
Dave,
Major accidents and issues happen for many reasons. Large companies have major calls or service. Should we shut them down as well?
Our city has no measurable program for drug addicted and homeless people. They can have more issues and calls for service then the clubs and bars.
When there are no programs or even public restrooms; where do you think the druggies or bums are going to go to the bathroom; the Fairmont? Who gets the blame there? of course the clubs.
#10, Mr Bales,
Thanks for the clarification…
but this gets me thinking—so what about clubbers who show up before 10, get something to eat, and then stay until 3? Does this just mean to avoid a charge the clubbers will start their evenings earlier?
#13
God forbid the “clubbers” show up before 10 and spend their money at our downtown eateries! Wow, maybe with some food in their belly they may not get as intoxicated later in the night. But then again, more food and drink = more human waste in the San Pedro Garage.
No matter where you stand on the issues facing the downtown club scene, this much is clear:
—The city is making an honest effort to find solutions
—The clubs, even those that attract troublemakers, do not benefit from the troublemakers’ antics
—The police department, out of obligation, bases its tactical benchmark on the behavior of troublemakers
—Downtown businesses and property values are negatively impacted by troublemakers
If you put together a meeting between city officials, club owners, the cops, and downtown businessmen, the odds are that everyone participating would be open to ideas, willing to consider compromises, and eager for things to improve. That’s the good news. The bad news is that thus far these folks have demonstrated a limited capacity to improve things. There’s a reason for that, and that reason can be found not by examining who is at that table searching for solutions, but by identifying who isn’t.
The troublemakers.
We need to invite them to the table, in a manner of speaking. What I mean is that we need to find a mechanism to help bridge the huge gap that exists between the intentions of those folks at the table and the intentions of the troublemakers. What can we do to make it in the best interest of troublemakers to keep the club scene safe but still alive with activity?
Here’s an idea: since the city has, in the interest of civility and attracting business, identified a soft-closing zone, how about it if they identify a harsh-penalty zone? Given that the entertainment zone is an area where even minor law-breaking (drunkenness, fighting, etc.) can result in disproportionate lawlessness (riots), why not protect it the same way the state treats traffic violations in construction zones (where fines are doubled), or school zones (where drug penalties are enhanced)? If some jerk wants to drink to excess, then go out and make himself noticed by the cops, why not tack on a $2000 (or 90 day) penalty to his fine? If he starts a fight, add another $5000 to his tab. If he wants to rock the scene with 140 decibels of bass, rock his world with a tow truck, a 30 day impound, and $2000 for the city’s trouble. To be fair, add enhanced penalties for weapons possession, probation and parole violations, etc., but do so with the recognition that some thugs are deterrent-proof.
Make the troublemakers do what the city, the clubs, the cops, and business owners have done for far too long: pay a big price for, and spend a lot of time fretting over the consequences of troublemakers. I would think that a few months under such a program would convince a lot of troublemakers that the downtown is no longer their exclusive playground. I have no idea what might be involved legally in creating such a zone, but I don’t see how it would be impossible. I also don’t see how such a program would negatively impact people interested in going downtown and having a good time. Hey, if it worked the cops could forego their herding tactics and, rather than impacting a lot of good people due to the idiocy of a few, they could ignore the good people and serve up a lot of impact on those few idiots.
I like the plan FinFan, as Clint once said “A man’s got to know his limitations”….
finfan
Great idea for 2-4x entertainment district bad behavior fines so troublemakers pay a big price for their bad behavior not everyone else
when you don‘t rant or insult people – you have great ideas, keep it up
HJ – stop shouting and pull your head out of ——-
Downtown businesses and people driven out of downtown are not receiving redevelopment millions only former politicians and politician’s friends which increases their profits and is waste taxes
finfan,
I think you have made excellent points and ideas to deal with the problems.
The other areas of the city are already being under staffed on weekends due to the downown issue. When disturbances occur at late hours on Friday and Saturday nights calls to the police get low priority and most times go unanswered. It seems like other areas of the city have to pay the price to keep downtown under control. If the Police can’t provide services to the whole city, the residents should get some type of break on their taxes or charge downtown residents more for the protection their getting. Obviously were getting cheated.
Editor:
The posts are becoming more interesting and may be candidates to share with others. How about a “email to a friend” and/or “printer friendly” feature that will allows your valued readers a chance to share with friends and neighbors?
I’ve noticed that all this discussion has focused on the staffing levels of SJPD – on its face correctly so, as downtown is SJPD’s jurisdiction.
Question: Is there the ability to bring in additional staffing from the Sheriff’s Office for “peacekeeping” downtown?
When the Department of Corrections was formed, a whole bunch of sworn deputies were seconded off to the DOC – are there any DOC officers who are still sworn deputies that can help out in this regard?
And does SJPD or the SCSO have a “mobile booking center” so that cops who make a pinch in the downtown area don’t have to schlep the miscreants up to 1st and Hedding or out to Elmwood?
As to the 140-decibel cars, I recommend fire hoses. Lots and lots of fire hoses.
When did a few night club owners capture our city council. Or could it be the building owners that collect the rent that are proifiting, and directing how the council is handling this.
OK so what! Profit is not the issue here!
This is my city! Right? Right!
My city is huge by San Fracisco’s standards, Right?
I knew 20 years ago that the knuckle head approach by the Redevelopment minions, to open bars , night life, etc was going to lead us to enabling the drug and alcohol set.
Our down town has become a war zone between the night club supporters and the cops. Is that a great idea?
I do not live downtown nor do I stay downtown after 6 pm. My business is downtown.
The way I see it, is, drunks, urinaters, deficaters, enablers ,John Wayne Cops, property owners, cynical villagers, really need to step aside and let the Village determine what we want in our Village.
You want to piss in our garage stairwell? How about a $1000.00 fine? Soft closings need teeth. In construction zones for motorists the fine is double extreme, Right?
How many of us utilize the downtown after 11 pm? If I want to stay up past 12 midnight, I will stay in a hotel in San Francisco, cab whereever I want to go, hail a cab at any street corner, and feel safe in my evening.
No cops forming a gauntlet!
It hurts me to be so honest about my feeling, yet, those that are on the watch clearly have not been there for us for many years.
The All American Base Ball Team Rape!
The other was the All Amexican Mayor’s dismissal of charges.
The law is the DA’s law. The judicial system is the Judge’s rule. I accept that, without hesitation.
Yet, they do not have the last word on Morality, or Ethics , That is our call!
Our call carries a huge responsibility, if we choose to deal with it as Villagers.
This is our Village, Right?
All this Sunshine BS is now 3 am struting! The sunshine awakens with a hangover and parking garages filled with suringes and filth. What happened to Sunshine?
Last week end I invited my brother to visit the Little Fox in Redwood City. That was the best joy I have had in a long time. No Cops, lots of folks doing life, no herds of party animals.
Mayor Reed – get together with the Mayors of the surrounding cities, have them take some of the party animals they have created and not enabled. I want my city back.
I used to fold my papers on Market and Santa Clara, when it was the Mercury News, I delivered to all the hotels downtown. All this focus and enabling of our downtown is really starting to Piss me off. $1000.00 fine or not!
San Jose, we have a serious identity issue, intervention is neccessary. We have slipped into denial.
The Village Black Smith
Jack,
I couldn’t agree with you more. Business owners need to chip in and be held accountable for the element they attract. If they were controling the amount of booze and the behaviors of these undesirables, this would not have become an issue.
“One bad apple spoils the whole bunch.” These drunken trouble makers have now made the rest of us have to pay for cleaning, and Police involvement. How sad we all have to pay the price for a handful of idiots. I will still avoid downtown on the weekends and evenings because I’ve seen too much that makes me shutter.
Keep up the grat posts. These are vital issues affecting our community!
FinFan #15 proposes a harsh penalty zone. Great idea, but as soon as Sharpton & Jackson hear about it, they’ll join Rick Callender on the picket line protesting profiling. Chief Davis will respond by fasting for Juneteenth & Tapestry “n Talent. Maybe Gonzo could learn a few words in Spanish, like Orale!!! and represent the disenfranchised lowriders with big base speakers and hydraulics.
How about a requirement that club security take every patron’s drivers license when they enter a club, and require that to get it back when you leave you must pass a breathalyzer test? They have those small units the cops use when they believe you have failed field sobriety tests. Security staff would have to be trained in their operation. There would be heavy fines on the club if they failed to fully implement the system. Third fine in a year and you lose your license to operate.
To protect the non-thugs from having to endure the enhanced enforcement in the high penalty zone, we could adopt a Disneyland model—different “Lands”. we could have mini-districts like FratBoy Land, HipHop Land, LowriderLand, BikerLand, GangThug Land, Out of Town Troublemaker Land, and LawAbiding Never Get Pukey Drunk Land for the rest of us.
On another note, it has been proposed to ban the smoking of cigarettes and cigars in St. James Patk. DdeCinzo had a great cartoon on it in this weeks Metro. The place is an illegal drug emporium daily/nightly and a haven for the voluntarily homeless who are occasionally fed and given clothing by well-meaning but clueless religious groups. Thus, families and kids can’t really use the park. The cops do little about it. The signs declaring it a drug-free zone are a complete joke. We have lots of laws but no enforcement. Cigarette smoking is the least of our worries about St. James Park.
The SJDA Music in the Other Park ‘reclaims’ St. James Park four times a year, when we have the rung between the homeless and trailer trash , bikers, and groups of teen and pre teen wannabe gangbangers with their peach fuzz faces coming in from all parts of the bay area and loitering in groups trying to look ominous. To combat that, we have a lot of arms-folded cops and private security also trying to look ominous.
These are urban issues in a suburban town. Yet we still have the crowd that wants to urbanize San Jose. The more they succeed, the farther down the list of safest cities San Jose is destined to fall.
Charging for parking will reduce the prevalence of some parts of society from the use of the city-owned garages. Using the charge to raise money to clean up the mess those people make is a good idea. A better idea is to require the people who make the mess to clean it up. The best idea is no mess at all, but that’s way too wishful a thought. Besides being the (alleged) Capital of Silicon Valley, we are also the Litter Capital of the Civilized World.
Using the charge to beef up law enforcement is a good idea, as well. But we wouldn’t need that money for that purpose if we took a cleaver to our budget to get rid of fat we cannot afford in lean tax times.
Latest example: I read in Wednesday’s Murky News that at the request of Forrest Williams the council voted “…to restore a deputy director of cultural affairs position for another year. The $152,000.00 salary [!!!!!]…” We have third world streets. Chief Davis says we need a lot more cops to keep us safe. And we pay a DEPUTY Director of CULTURAL Affairs $152k!!! And that doesn’t count benefits, like health care and pension, I’m sure. So if there is a Deputy Director, there must be a Director. What does she/he make??? Is there more than one Deputy Director? Are there Assistant Directors, or Assistant Deputy Directors?? Are there plain old Cultural Affairs Specialists, I, II, III…etc?
Nice stuff to have, AFTER you have adequate police & fire protection, good roads, clean, well-lighted parks, open swimming pools, etc.
Sorry, but with the state our Village is in, we cannot AFFORD one or more Deputy Director of Cultural Affairs.
Any guess as to how many sinecure jobs like that are on our municipal payroll. Tom McE, Jack VZ, can you help us out there?
#28 – “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
John Michael O’Connor isn’t an American. He is an elitist who goes to Club Cuccini every saturday night and cavorts with scantily-clad twenty-one year old vixens.
Dennis
Last night, on Thursday the 14th my 20 year old son went downtown to hang out.
He said that it was great. There were all kinds of people around and it made for a great scene. He mentioned that they were walking in the garage and passed a puddle of piss but that him and his friends really didn’t care. They just walked over it. It’s unfortunate that this is the mentality of our young people.
Anyways, this has gotten me to thinking. Going to the bathroom is a natural function that we all have. Because people are drinking all night at these club, they are going to need a place to relieve themselves and I’m sure that the club bathrooms are crowded, maybe they don’t want to wait.
Anyways, maybe they should strategically place bathrooms around the city and make the clubs fork the bill to keep them clean. The only problem with that would be security and the homeless making it their home.
#30, and so what if he does? I don’t mind as long as he doesn’t puke on my shoes, or leave other bodily fluids scattered about. I also doubt that fisticuffs would be in his game plan.
As for your American comment, it doesn’t mean we have to accept dregs, it means if a person has a desire to better themselves, there is a chance in this world that a person can come here and achieve it.
‘Nuf Said
Did nobody notice the other part of this proposal? Starting next year, parking charges will begin at 6 PM.
Surely there must be some old-timers who remember when San Jose put parking meters downtown, causing the customers to head for Valley Fair and killing downtown retail?
There isn’t much retail left downtown, but there are quite a few restaurants. But there are plenty of restaurants elsewhere with free parking. The same goes for theater and what other entertainment there is.
Furthermore, the proposal is unlikely to have any effect whatever on the problems people are complaining about. Young people out for a good time are going to go where the action is, and $10 isn’t going to change that. The only positive effect it would have is to collect money that could be spent on more police officers.
Both I and some friends of ours have had occasion to call the police in the last couple of weeks, and in all cases they showed up in less than 5 minutes. So I don’t see that downtown is hurting police response in other neighborhoods.
We spent all this money to rebuild downtown and now it has been handed over to a lot of, mainly, out-of-towners who come here to drink, puke and make our whole city more unsafe. WHY? How many San Jose residents , who vote and pay taxes, would care if the clubs had their licenses yanked? I sure care that I have to now pay for parking when I go to San Jose Rep—bye bye season ticket!
Easy fix—LIGHT and MUSIC. Put spotlights on the corners in the club district downtown at night. The buildings are empty and it would stop the stroll. Actually more like a night crawl. And put sound systems on the street blasting Mozart. Hybrids with sunroofs would work. . That way the “kids” will either be in the clubs or quickly scoot out of the downtown. Having dark dark streets turned over to the mob is the problem. Until this mess is cleaned up the city council should be forced to walk the line after night. ”
Hello Downtown San Jose,
After reading the many comments in “Parking in SJ after 10PM” I can’t figure out who’s Good and who’s Bad.
Since I reside outside your fair city and only occasionally visit your International Airport I’m not familiar with local politics.
Although a graduate of SJSU a long time ago, I usually get lost whenever I drive through San Jose,
Earlier tried to convince readers that San Jose really needs a large urban “youth hostel” to attract young well-educated budget conscious international tourist to downtown San Jose. Currently there’s not a single URBAN hostel in Silicon Valley.
San Jose, a good transportation hub with several museums such as Tech, Children’s Discovery, Rosicrucian, nearby Winchester Mystery, Intel, Computer History, and Old Town, would be the logical choice to develop such a hostel. SJSU and nearby Santa Clara University could assign student interns to help run such a non-profit hostel. It’ll be a great forum to practice and improve foreign language skills.
Unlike common perception, tourist hostels do no attract junkies, alcoholics and low-lifes. Overnight fees for a dorm bed run about $20/member/night. Private family rooms cost a bit more. Self-help kitchens, laundry facilities, Internet kiosks, secure bicycle storage is provided.
The most common guests are young international college grads visiting the States, families, groups such as schools, scouts, Elderhostelers, athletic teams, convention attendees, returning college students seeking permanent housing, seniors (no more age restrictions) and families of reservists training here. Most of our international guests are in their mid-twenties and nearly all college or university grads. Some who visit might like to live in this area, will easily find employment in the hi-tech sector that is always seeking talented people, and start their careers here.
There’s a lack of affordable overnight accommodations here in the Valley. The less expensive hotels and motels and boarding houses usually rent out by the week or month to lower paid service workers. Most hotels and motels cater to business people and charge over $100/night, especially if there are special events happening.
This also might make San Jose a truly “world class city”, unthinkable without at least one decent hostel. San Francisco has dozens of independent tourist hostel, including 3 HI-affiliated non-profits. Same in the LA area, with two HI hostels each in San Diego, Portland and Vancouver, BC. New York City boasts the largest domestic HI hostel with over 500 beds.
Germany has about 580, Japan over 400 HI affiliated hostels. New HI hostels are now opening up all over China.
Who would supply the funds to open such a hostel? I envision a collaboration with a large locally-headquartered consumer products company such as Apple, HP, Sun, Intel, AMD, Cisco, Google, yahoo, eBay, Adobe, Oracle etc. The lucky company that invests in the hostel would get preferential access to market to the young (demographically preferred) travelers from all over the globe. In the case of Apple there would be lots of Mac PCs, beta test, and future product designs to be tested and evaluated by the guests. Apple i-pods could be checked out (or purchased) by hostel guests, already programmed with bus schedules and tourist information as well as songs such as “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?”. Checking out future GPS enabled i-pods might prevent tourists like me from getting lost.
With so many negative comments about the San Jose Downtown ugly bar scene, crimes, public drunkenness, garages being used as toilets, loud noise, perhaps locating the Silicon Valley Hostel in the middle of San Jose might not be a good idea. Many visiting school groups composed of teenagers stay at hostels and locating this facility in more sedate neighborhoods such as Santa Clara, Campbell, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, or Mountain View might be better.
With over 8 Million square feet of vacant industrial, commercial buildings available in Silicon Valley, surely some company could donate an unused building close to public transit, near some restaurants, shopping and entertainment and take a tax break on donated appreciated property and for naming rights. It’ll be interesting to see which city has the foresight and vision by inviting the hostel and modifying zoning restrictions that might hinder this project.
Wherever the hostel is opened “they will come” and provide a substantial positive economic impact far into the future.
JMOC: Move to Morgan Hill if you want a small town. Actually, move to northern Idaho since you also hate every demographic there is.
Actually, Eastside #33, I hate no-one. I do, however, disagree with a lot of folks, especially people who supposedly know better who keep making excuses for the bad behavior of others.
We have become accustomed to free parking here in SJ. Today I had lunch with a friend in JapanTwon, and was upset that they have meters in the business district there. But they are a bit cheaper than dowtown—a quarter gets you 20 minutes there vs 15 downtown.
#26 says:
>>And put sound systems on the street blasting Mozart.
Obviously you haven’t walked by the laundrymat on Santa Clara Street between 7th & 8th.
Put Mr. San Jose Dan Fenton incharge of the parking fee situation, He could use that area around that blue tent or park people in that blue tent so he can build / steal money to expand the Convention Center with! Downtown San Jose offers nothing anyway, so putting a $5 fee on parking will just drive me and all of the other old people away from Downtown. Good luck Chuck and Council members~! another Gonzales mess you got us into….