The current system for evening validations is confusing and annoying. You can get validations but if you stay past the arbitrary time limit, you pay the full fee. When this happens as you are leaving the parking lot, it’s the last impression you have of downtown SJ and it’s likely to motivate you to go somewhere with free parking next time.
And you can’t combine them, either. If you go to Camera 12, they give you a validation ticket good for 2 1/2 hours. If you decide to go for a beer @ The Loft after, they would give you the green tickets. But, it’s EITHER/OR, so you are not encouraged to remain. Or, if you pub crawl, you can get validations from each place; but the most you can use is 2 hours worth.
I believe that if you are downtown for several hours and the merchant or club or restaurant wants to give you validations for the entire stay, the lots should accept them gratefully. The merchants do pay for the validations, but since it is at a highly discounted rate it seems the city parking folks don’t want to cut into revenue by making them unlimited.
I am deeply saddened by Walter Cronkite’s passing. What an incredible man, journalist, reporter, and human being. They just do not make em as beautiful, or as integrity ridden as him any more.
I grew up watching him report on integration, the first man on the moon, the Kennedy assignation, the Vietnam War, and every other historical, and major event in this country. God I will miss him. His passing is such a huge loss to us. May he rest in peace and know he was very much loved and respected by all~
I found some key facts and a stray email from a San Jose City Hall player that does not like SJR. So I sent it to Rowen over at the Lantern. Hopefully the guy will post it, even though it is not a You Tube clip.
Anyway, it is very possible that Labor writes the lead, Chavez former campaign manager in Florida puts it together, and Phil Bump writes it up. SJR is a gang of four, and Watch Dog and the Lantern are getting very close. I heard one of the four is about to break.
I wrote to him with a “hear, hear” because it’s been frustrating me. The Camera red ticket validation is the ONLY kind that hasn’t given me trouble in the last few months.
• My validation at Ballys works for the Pavilion lot, but if I cross 2nd street, they want 75 cents more with the same stickers, same time, same day of the week. Both are city lots!
• I parked at the Pavilion lot for a lunch meeting on a weekday at PF Changs. They gave me generous validation tickets because I was so close to a 20-min mark, but then I went to use them and found out validation tickets only work on the private surface lots now.
If they can’t get it together, we should be informed before we park which lots work with which validations. But that seems just ridiculously confusing… it should be fixed. When they switched to this $3 thing they said it was to dissuade people from coming to San Jose from elsewhere to go clubbing because of the free parking, but it’s really been much more of a hassle for people going downtown for restaurants and other events.
Sal said he was going to bring up the topic again in Sunday’s (tomorrows) paper. I’m thrilled- I’ve written 2 letters to the city on this topic, and not so much as a courtesy response in 3 months!
Caught the Ten O’Clock News last night on channel 2 and was surprised by, a few minutes after the Cronkite piece, another obituary, this one marking the passing of Edward “Deacon” Proudfoot, a longtime member of the Oakland chapter of the Hell’s Angels, who dropped dead after a 4th of July fireworks show. I guess the news editor thought the public should take note of the passing of someone they’d never heard of, someone whose only notable achievement was belonging to a notorious criminal organization for forty years. Oh, wait… I guess he was someone special, as, according to the story, “he served as chaplain for the group.”
“Group?” I haven’t checked their jacket colors lately, but when did the Hell’s Angels become a motorcycle group? And what exactly is a biker chaplain? Is he the guy that blesses the meth lab? Or imparts absolution after a gang-bang (or has it become a group-bang)? Perhaps he’s there to perform last rites whenever someone from his “group” murders someone from the Mongols “group.”
This is news? This is journalism? No, this is an outrage. The news media is every bit as aware as the rest of us of the horrible damage that gangs have done to our communities, and they damn well know that by making this guy out to be something special—which is exactly what television attention does, makes his particular “group” special, and constitutes one giant step towards legitimizing gang life. You’d think it be lesson enough that their news crews regularly race from a drug gang murder in Oakland, to a Norteño gang murder in San Jose, to a gang-related, mistaken identity murder in San Francisco. Gang members are a scourge on our society, not fodder for the society pages.
I just checked the KTVU website to find that this story (link below) is the second listing under “latest headlines.” What a disgrace. Thankfully, and to give credit where credit is due, no other news source saw fit to cover it.
Was anybody else as surprised as I was to see what a weak delivery the Dear Leader has?
And His handlers got Him out of the broadcast booth in the nick of time. They knew they’d pushed their luck letting Him blather on for half an inning without His teleprompters.
Why are you talking about Reagan? We know Reagan was the most clueless of all presidents this century. If he did not read the answer off a teleprompter he would not even know what city he was currently in. My favorite stupid Reagan trick was how he pretended to be deaf and not hear a question when a reporter caught him away from a teleprompter.
No wonder conservatives love him; he had no idea what he was talking about as he read from the teleprompter.
The problem w/ downtown. Last night I walked downtown to catch some jazz at the Hedley Room in the DeAnza. Coming home it hit me what the problem is w/ downtown. Weekends it’s just a party zone for young people. there is nothing wrong with that but other major cities have their club zones usually confined to one geographic area, the Gaslight district in San Diego and Pioneer Square in Seattle come to mind.
But this are not areas where one finds major retail and upscale housing.
After more that 30 years and billions of $ our RDA has way overspent to “build” a downtown that on weekends caters to punks, thugs and wannabes.
It was said to see the upscale eateries closed, Stumps, Blakes, et al but given the parking situation and the crusing riff raff who would want to invest in a nice place (including those high rises)to entertain or live in downtown.
I realize the downtown assoc wants to keep things status quo but my guess that is only because the hip hop culture is the only thing that exists on weekends.
Do you thing a Macy’s or other large retailer would locate in the middle of this?
It would be like putting a $10 haircut on a $2 head – – – it just doesn’t pencil out. Unless of course one wanted to open another DJ hip hop joint.
After all these years and RDA bucks there is not even a place to buy a pair of socks in the downtown of the 10th largest city in the US.
Why this obsession with downtown? There are plenty of places to buy socks in San Jose. People living downtown can use our wonderful public transportation system to get to them. Downtowns are overrated…and overfunded.
Ever walked in downtown Los Gatos on a weekend night? Mostly youth and 20 somethings roaming the streets drunk and disorderly. Wait… oh yeah, they are mostly white kids so that makes it ok….
#17: The color of the drunks and disorderlies isn’t the issue. None of the drunk/disorderly folks in LG stab or shoot other folks, as they do in DT SJ.
I would dare to day that race makes a big difference to you. I have read a lot of what you write and whether you want to admit to yourself or not, your bias is thinly veiled.
Yes, rampant shootings and stabbings are the norm in downtown. Also, smoking the reefer will make you play the piano at inhuman speed before killing everyone you know. Beware the Russians.
WHEN: TODAY at 6:00pm SHARP
WHERE: San Jose Diridion Station, 65 Cahill Street, San Jose. Our protest gathering will be at the bus stops for the Highway 17 Express and Amtrak California buses, in front of Track 1.
Details on what VTA is proposing to eliminate are here:
Many of VTA’s “Frequent 15” bus lines like the 66, 68, and 70 are proposed to have reduced frequencies from every 15 minutes to every 20 minutes. This will make it more difficult – if not impossible – to connect between buses and light rail.
In addition, VTA proposes to eliminate late-night service on the 22 bus line along El Camino Real. Combined with SamTrans’ proposal to reduce service on El Camino Real late at night, it means there may be no more late night service on El Camino Real between San Francisco and San Jose.
Our protest will call for folks to support a bill in Congress (H.R. 2746) which will increase federal funding for public transit operations. The protest will also call for folks to hold VTA accountable to ensure it not only supports the bill, but will spend money to keep fares down and service up.
Details on H.R. 2746 and how you can contact your representatives in Congress can be found here:
Anyone catch Sal Pizarro pointing out the stupidity of the current system for issuing parking validations downtown:
http://www.mercurynews.com/salpizarro/ci_12834963
The current system for evening validations is confusing and annoying. You can get validations but if you stay past the arbitrary time limit, you pay the full fee. When this happens as you are leaving the parking lot, it’s the last impression you have of downtown SJ and it’s likely to motivate you to go somewhere with free parking next time.
Thanks to Sal for pointing this out.
And you can’t combine them, either. If you go to Camera 12, they give you a validation ticket good for 2 1/2 hours. If you decide to go for a beer @ The Loft after, they would give you the green tickets. But, it’s EITHER/OR, so you are not encouraged to remain. Or, if you pub crawl, you can get validations from each place; but the most you can use is 2 hours worth.
I believe that if you are downtown for several hours and the merchant or club or restaurant wants to give you validations for the entire stay, the lots should accept them gratefully. The merchants do pay for the validations, but since it is at a highly discounted rate it seems the city parking folks don’t want to cut into revenue by making them unlimited.
I am deeply saddened by Walter Cronkite’s passing. What an incredible man, journalist, reporter, and human being. They just do not make em as beautiful, or as integrity ridden as him any more.
I grew up watching him report on integration, the first man on the moon, the Kennedy assignation, the Vietnam War, and every other historical, and major event in this country. God I will miss him. His passing is such a huge loss to us. May he rest in peace and know he was very much loved and respected by all~
I found some key facts and a stray email from a San Jose City Hall player that does not like SJR. So I sent it to Rowen over at the Lantern. Hopefully the guy will post it, even though it is not a You Tube clip.
Anyway, it is very possible that Labor writes the lead, Chavez former campaign manager in Florida puts it together, and Phil Bump writes it up. SJR is a gang of four, and Watch Dog and the Lantern are getting very close. I heard one of the four is about to break.
I wrote to him with a “hear, hear” because it’s been frustrating me. The Camera red ticket validation is the ONLY kind that hasn’t given me trouble in the last few months.
• My validation at Ballys works for the Pavilion lot, but if I cross 2nd street, they want 75 cents more with the same stickers, same time, same day of the week. Both are city lots!
• I parked at the Pavilion lot for a lunch meeting on a weekday at PF Changs. They gave me generous validation tickets because I was so close to a 20-min mark, but then I went to use them and found out validation tickets only work on the private surface lots now.
If they can’t get it together, we should be informed before we park which lots work with which validations. But that seems just ridiculously confusing… it should be fixed. When they switched to this $3 thing they said it was to dissuade people from coming to San Jose from elsewhere to go clubbing because of the free parking, but it’s really been much more of a hassle for people going downtown for restaurants and other events.
Sal said he was going to bring up the topic again in Sunday’s (tomorrows) paper. I’m thrilled- I’ve written 2 letters to the city on this topic, and not so much as a courtesy response in 3 months!
Pamela:
Based on what you wrote, the situation actually sounds worse. I’m looking forward to Sal’s column tomorrow.
Anyone go to Starlight Cinemas – Casablanca last Wednesday? What was the name of the short that they showed first?
Caught the Ten O’Clock News last night on channel 2 and was surprised by, a few minutes after the Cronkite piece, another obituary, this one marking the passing of Edward “Deacon” Proudfoot, a longtime member of the Oakland chapter of the Hell’s Angels, who dropped dead after a 4th of July fireworks show. I guess the news editor thought the public should take note of the passing of someone they’d never heard of, someone whose only notable achievement was belonging to a notorious criminal organization for forty years. Oh, wait… I guess he was someone special, as, according to the story, “he served as chaplain for the group.”
“Group?” I haven’t checked their jacket colors lately, but when did the Hell’s Angels become a motorcycle group? And what exactly is a biker chaplain? Is he the guy that blesses the meth lab? Or imparts absolution after a gang-bang (or has it become a group-bang)? Perhaps he’s there to perform last rites whenever someone from his “group” murders someone from the Mongols “group.”
This is news? This is journalism? No, this is an outrage. The news media is every bit as aware as the rest of us of the horrible damage that gangs have done to our communities, and they damn well know that by making this guy out to be something special—which is exactly what television attention does, makes his particular “group” special, and constitutes one giant step towards legitimizing gang life. You’d think it be lesson enough that their news crews regularly race from a drug gang murder in Oakland, to a Norteño gang murder in San Jose, to a gang-related, mistaken identity murder in San Francisco. Gang members are a scourge on our society, not fodder for the society pages.
I just checked the KTVU website to find that this story (link below) is the second listing under “latest headlines.” What a disgrace. Thankfully, and to give credit where credit is due, no other news source saw fit to cover it.
http://www.ktvu.com/news/index.html
But I bet you fell to the floor in tears upon learning of MJ’s death…
Here’s Sal’s follow-up column on parking:
http://www.mercurynews.com/salpizarro/ci_12867555?nclick_check=1
Was anybody else as surprised as I was to see what a weak delivery the Dear Leader has?
And His handlers got Him out of the broadcast booth in the nick of time. They knew they’d pushed their luck letting Him blather on for half an inning without His teleprompters.
10 – Still can’t used to words strung together making a coherent sentence, can you?
#10
Why are you talking about Reagan? We know Reagan was the most clueless of all presidents this century. If he did not read the answer off a teleprompter he would not even know what city he was currently in. My favorite stupid Reagan trick was how he pretended to be deaf and not hear a question when a reporter caught him away from a teleprompter.
No wonder conservatives love him; he had no idea what he was talking about as he read from the teleprompter.
The problem w/ downtown. Last night I walked downtown to catch some jazz at the Hedley Room in the DeAnza. Coming home it hit me what the problem is w/ downtown. Weekends it’s just a party zone for young people. there is nothing wrong with that but other major cities have their club zones usually confined to one geographic area, the Gaslight district in San Diego and Pioneer Square in Seattle come to mind.
But this are not areas where one finds major retail and upscale housing.
After more that 30 years and billions of $ our RDA has way overspent to “build” a downtown that on weekends caters to punks, thugs and wannabes.
It was said to see the upscale eateries closed, Stumps, Blakes, et al but given the parking situation and the crusing riff raff who would want to invest in a nice place (including those high rises)to entertain or live in downtown.
I realize the downtown assoc wants to keep things status quo but my guess that is only because the hip hop culture is the only thing that exists on weekends.
Do you thing a Macy’s or other large retailer would locate in the middle of this?
It would be like putting a $10 haircut on a $2 head – – – it just doesn’t pencil out. Unless of course one wanted to open another DJ hip hop joint.
After all these years and RDA bucks there is not even a place to buy a pair of socks in the downtown of the 10th largest city in the US.
The Song of the Day today definitely belongs to Sting.
Will any of us who are old enough ever forget exactly where we were 40 years ago today?
Why this obsession with downtown? There are plenty of places to buy socks in San Jose. People living downtown can use our wonderful public transportation system to get to them. Downtowns are overrated…and overfunded.
#15
Who is overrating downtown? All I ever read on this board is constant bashing of DT.
#13
Ever walked in downtown Los Gatos on a weekend night? Mostly youth and 20 somethings roaming the streets drunk and disorderly. Wait… oh yeah, they are mostly white kids so that makes it ok….
#17: The color of the drunks and disorderlies isn’t the issue. None of the drunk/disorderly folks in LG stab or shoot other folks, as they do in DT SJ.
#17
I would dare to day that race makes a big difference to you. I have read a lot of what you write and whether you want to admit to yourself or not, your bias is thinly veiled.
flame away pal….
Yes, rampant shootings and stabbings are the norm in downtown. Also, smoking the reefer will make you play the piano at inhuman speed before killing everyone you know. Beware the Russians.
you can buy tube socks @ Walgreens on 1st & Santa Clara
#20, actually there are probably more stabbings & shootings on the Eastside than in DT.
#20 and #22
If you are interested in crimes in various locations of San Jose please visit
http://www.sjpd.org/CrimeStats/CrimeReports.html
and scroll around the neighborhoods to see what crimes have been reported in that area.
WHEN: TODAY at 6:00pm SHARP
WHERE: San Jose Diridion Station, 65 Cahill Street, San Jose. Our protest gathering will be at the bus stops for the Highway 17 Express and Amtrak California buses, in front of Track 1.
Details on what VTA is proposing to eliminate are here:
http://vtawatch.blogspot.com/2009/07/painful-cuts-on-way.html
Many of VTA’s “Frequent 15” bus lines like the 66, 68, and 70 are proposed to have reduced frequencies from every 15 minutes to every 20 minutes. This will make it more difficult – if not impossible – to connect between buses and light rail.
In addition, VTA proposes to eliminate late-night service on the 22 bus line along El Camino Real. Combined with SamTrans’ proposal to reduce service on El Camino Real late at night, it means there may be no more late night service on El Camino Real between San Francisco and San Jose.
Our protest will call for folks to support a bill in Congress (H.R. 2746) which will increase federal funding for public transit operations. The protest will also call for folks to hold VTA accountable to ensure it not only supports the bill, but will spend money to keep fares down and service up.
Details on H.R. 2746 and how you can contact your representatives in Congress can be found here:
http://urbanhabitat.org/tj/action/7-1
while a list of who represents you on the VTA’s Board of Directors can be found here:
http://www.vtaridersunion.org/DIY/vtaboard.html
Please bring friends and signs as needed, and be prepared to tell the press about how VTA’s proposed service cuts will affect you.
In responce to ‘frustrated finfan’ on July 18. If ignorance is bliss, you must be euphoric !!!