We seem to spend a lot of time on this site bemoaning the fact that San Jose is perceived as a second-class member of the “ten largest cities in the U.S.” club (we don’t get the big convention or we don’t get the big team). Why? In a blog earlier this week, some cynic even compared San Jose to Toledo and Omaha. The comparison might be apt if we were surrounded by the vacuum of the prairie, but we aren’t.
Instead of worrying about re-creating ourselves in the ideal image of a community in the Top Ten Club that we think we deserve, shouldn’t we be looking at our city in the context of its surroundings? When you stop to consider that we are the largest single part of one of the biggest, most important and most visited metropolitan areas of the world—one on a par with London, Paris, Tokyo and New York—then you will see how truly fortunate we are. We may be Queens to San Francisco’s Manhattan, but we still get all the same cultural and other benefits. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. As long as that big convention or big team goes somewhere in our greater metropolitan area, we win.
What does it matter if the 49ers are in Santa Clara or the A’s in Fremont? Without a map or prior knowledge, can any of us really tell where one city ends and another begins? They are still only minutes away. Isn’t that a lucky break? From Santa Rosa to Santa Cruz, from Walnut Creek to Mavericks, there is a huge amount of activity, culture and possibility that makes for a unique, highly satisfying and very privileged lifestyle. Toledo and Omaha be damned!
Each community in the Bay Area makes a valuable contribution to this arena. In the past couple of years I have seen jazz greats, a Midori recital and dancers from Bali in Santa Cruz; the Kabuki Theater of Japan at the Zellerbach in Berkeley; a Monet exhibition, the Ozu Festival at the Castro Theatre and the Giants play St. Louis in San Francisco; Radiohead, flamenco from Spain and Renaissance choral music performed in Mountain View; the San Francisco Symphony at the Flint Center in Cupertino; the A’s play Detroit in Oakland; the U.S. Track and Field Championships at Stanford; classic movies on the big screen in Palo Alto; and tasted great wine in Sonoma. In San Jose there has been Cinequest, plays at the Rep, a whole list of activities at the California Theatre, the Jazz Festival, the Who in the Arena, and the San Jose Museum of Art. When you add in restaurants, museums, parks, beaches and trails galore, destinations like the Lick Observatory, the Monterey Aquarium, the proximity to many other sites and locations within a day’s drive and back, and the weather, I challenge anyone to show me a better location anywhere in the world.
Having been at the center of the greatest technological revolution in the history of the world from the very beginning, San Jose is now part of a great economic engine. This fact will continue to assure our city’s success and importance in the region, the country and the world. However, just like all of our neighboring communities in this world-class metropolitan area, we will never have everything within our city limits—but, think of all that is within sixty minutes of our living rooms. Who cares if we are part of what’s called the “San Francisco Bay Area” by the rest of the world? That’s not going to change so let’s forget about it and rejoice in our good fortune.
Dear sir you really are reaching this morning
and you left out are claim to fame.
The WINCHESTER MYSTERY HOUSE.
come on who doesn’t what to go their over and over again?
Jack, Jack, Jack,
You fail utterly to understand the provincial values and nature of competing local governments.
You are actually looking at the forest, not the trees. And if we don’t have a myopic view of the individual tree, somebody will remove the entire forest—or so the logic goes.
Santa Clara, San Jose, Santa Cruz compete for resources. If you say something nice about Santa Clara, San Jose will suffer a loss of revenue.
If you praise San Francisco, you automatically dis San Jose. And if you live across the street in Cupertino, you are not qualified to opine on issues in San Jose—even if you were raised there from birth.
The key Jack is to limit your scope. Don’t go out on a limb, it might get get off. Instead pander to local, provincial prejudices of the masses. It is easier than thinking and sells better politically.
This type of attitude clearly shows you are not ready for public office.
One other note: If San Jose wants to be seen as a major City, they should act like it. Eliminate the City Manager form of government and allow Chuck Reed to speak on an equal basis with his fellow Mayors in smaller cities to the north as a strong Mayor.
Yeah Gil…
Enjoy eating those San Lorenzo River steelhead. Ever read those signs at the river mouth? San Lorenzo or any creek in the Bay Area for that fact hasn’t had world class fishing in 30 years. It is unfortunate that our great economic engine has produce more superfund sites than state of NJ.
Jack…
I completely agree. The issue that some of took us with Single Gals post was the suggestion that San Jose should build a bigger convention center to compete for MacWorld.
Most of us live in San Jose because of the sycamores in Willow Glen, not the conventions in downtown.
Regional wonderland that we may live in, I still say that if somebody in Iowa tells a friend that they are headed to San Jose for a convention, the response they will probably receive is “what’s there?” or “where’s that?” because SJ is famous for nothing other than being the world’s largest cow town. Regardless of the many attractions the entire region has to offer, San Jose still needs something associated with it that generates interest and excitement about visiting here, instead of apologetic resignation about having to come here as opposed to San Francisco. That’s right, the MAJOR city to our north, spelled out for everyone because it commands recognition, something SJ’s small time leadership can’t seem to generate. We’ll remain a 2nd class member of the top 10 as long as we continue with the lack of vision at CH, which it appears will still be in place for another 4 years minimum. City Hall. The bold and daring architecture belies the backwater operation inside.
Also, remember the Rosicrucian Museum, certainly a destination for many world travelers. Currently, we have sporadic offerings, but shouldn’t we all develop a positive mentality and support the fledging organizations that we do have? And, I don’t mean by giving endless bail outs to artistic groups, certainly there needs to be fiscal responsibility. But people like DM, #8 blogger in SG’s piece this week, can stay in Campbell with his opinion. One city he likened us to was Topeka, well after I thought about it, maybe the rainbow for us is not that far off, and we best be prepared if we one day become the prominent city in the area, just think of 1906, the Hayward fault and whatever fault could level LA. We’ve got a great new mayor and District 3 councilperson who exudes positive vibes, let’s get behind them and be supportive. Wouldn’t you prefer to say, “I helped,” rather than “I hindered?”
Jack—Good post. We do live in a remarkable place in the world, the SF Bay Area. Weather,
scenery, culture, history, wealth, ideas from an artesian intellectual well. However, I thought the focus of this blog was to come up with positive criticism of San Jose—to make it an exciting, rewarding place to live and to visit—to exorcise the curse that has hung over the place, at least from the advent of Valley Fair, or maybe as far back as the redneck lynch mob. San Jose has a knack for making mistakes that can’t be fixed: Macy’s booted, not welcomed, in small town protectionism in the ‘50’s goes to Valley Fair, destroys a vibrant downtown; it dies a slow death, even worse. But Valley Fair has no trouble reinventing itself into Santana Row, decades later. Airport in town, not on the Bay, means huge loss of housing and attendant taxes, after years of soot and noise, AND midget downtown because airliners flow low over it, limiting building height. Many, many opportunities for a big city park (like where the Hamilton/Bascom EBay campus is now) but houses, houses, houses instead, and a “let’s pretend” park, Guadalupe “River”, just a ditch that shelters street gangs. (Would you go down there even during the day?) The “new” library on San Carlos was discussed for demolition a year after it was built. Convention center too small to start. A city hall with its top on the bottom. Billion or so spent on manufacturing a downtown that refuses to rise, giving rise to neighborhood complaints about being neglected, creating a contest for “strongest” neighborhood when the obvious result is a collection of neighborhoods with no center. The list is endless, the fix is not obvious. Hope is what we’ve got—that a decent, honest guy from far away in the Midwest has the imagination as Mayor to see a really real, better, even magnificent San Jose. And is he too nice a guy to use the broom to clean the stables at City Hall? George Green (who has been certain for 30 years that San Jose could be great)
You see, I told you so! San Jose is a loser cowtow, finally giving in to small town mentality, and it loses everything from commerce to respect. You guys finally concede that I was right all along! San Jose will never be the big, respected city with a cool downtown. I’m glad that I jumped ship. San Diego is cool and independent, and it has a great downtown. Why don’t you guys, who like a real city with nice climate, come and join me and get pride restored! I’m a happy camper. San Jose is worst off than Toledo, and it’s more like Santa Ana with even more of a joke. San Jose is an embarrassment and a snufu! San Jose should never have had a pop. of 954,000. It’s more like pop. of 24,000. It’s a suburban cowtown with a lousy downtown the size of Peoria, Ill.. Fresno gets more respects than San Jose. Good luck and have a good day!
#6. Why should we care if some guy in Iowa knows where San Jose is? We seem to be doing just fine without the Iowa recognition.
I’d rather live in an unfamous livable city than an infamous urban jungle. Judging from San Jose’s population others agree.
There’s something to be said for being a Best Kept Secret.
I think our friend Smurf is a pretty good indicator that there may indeed be something interesting about SJ. He left for San Diego with a lot of his own fanfare but he still seems to check in with SJI even though he says he couldn’t care less about this place anymore.
I also just today received an e-mail with a nice Adobe set of 59 shots of various before & after views of downtown streets and intersections from 1975 and from the present. I will admit here for all to read that I was stunned by some of the changes and it made me realize that quite a lot has been accomplished over the past 30 years. Really more like 20, since not a whole lot got accomplished between 1975 and 1985. I had forgotten how bad things looked downtown 30 years ago. In comparison, our modern day downtown is indeed something to be proud of, although many parts of the streetscape are obscured by mature trees. I’d upload this set of pictures here if there was a way to do it. I think it would make many SJI bloggers feel better about how far the downtown has come. Now if we can just get enough people living there to support retail, I see all the potential in the world for downtown to become a destination. Amazing what a trip back in time will do to change a person’s outlook, huh?
Richard, Richard, Richard
Eliminate the City Manager position? The City has just gone through 8 years of a Mayor calling the shots and a City Manager neglecting his professional responsibilities and just doing the Mayor’s bidding. And look what it got us. Get real, Man!
Jack this posting was great. Most people don’t know where you have lived in this world. You are commenting on our Bay Area as a true world citizen. I thought that we were finished with Richard Robinson and his ideas after the election but we see that this citizen from “across the street” in Cupertino is still at it.
Thanks Jack for a great post. I almost thought that Tom had written it for the Chanber of Commerce.
After 8 years of San Jose last Strong Mayor – Good Riddance to scandals, ethical lapses, back room deals, indictments, vindictiveness, political campaign paybacks, lobbyist contribution bundling and special interest control of city government – San Jose’s worst Strong Mayor run city government – and you want a return to a Strong Mayor – Priceless
Only fools, idiots, career politicians and political consultants would suggest San Jose needs a Strong Mayor
Jack,
I love it when you blog like that.
My sentiments completely!
This very morning, Ray Bold, Joe Rodriguez and a few other DIMWITS are headed up to the Smith River to Fish for World Class Steelhead.
We have our own World Class Steelhead streams right here in our Play Area. San Lorenzo River, Soquel Creek, Carmel River, Pajaro. We simply need some rain. We have so much that we are blessed with. We simply have to enjoy the moment.
The Redwood Forests that cradle us, filled with hiking trails streams and solitude. Now that is the plus after the go go life style we all live in.
“Enjoy the Moment and Change the World”.
GONE FISHING!!
The Village Black Smith & Sons
Great post Jack, think regional and act local.
Mark T #11 please upload the photos. I would like to see them. If you can’t do it on SJI then open up a free photobucked account and do it there. Then post the link here.
Kudos to Aline. Rich has got to be kidding when he says dump our City Manager form of government. If we had actually had a real city manager the past 7 years (prior to Les White’s arrival) the disastrous Gonzales years would have been thwarted. Can you imagine the wreckage that would have occurred if we had a strong mayor form of government (although it is hard to imagine it being even worse than it was)?
I don’t know what Rich is thinking unless he sees possible contracts to undue the damage that would occur under a strong mayor. Without a professional manager (a real manager) and staff it’s like letting the inmates run the institution. Thanks again to Aline for pointing this out.
Hugh #15
You can see the 1975-2006 photos online here:
http://www.sjdowntown.com/eve_20_anni.html
#19 – Look at today’s front page, we may be getting closer to a port by 2100!
Jack & Smurf,
San Jose doesn’t have anything to be ashamed of!!! As a transplant from San Diego, I can tell you that my family’s quality of life in the last dozen years has been far better here than in my native San Diego. We still have family in SD and I can tell you that the mesas and hillsides of my youth have been bulldozed to create pink stucco subdivisions and miles of gridlocked freeways. The only thing keeping it from merging with LA LA land is Camp Pendelton.
SJ can’t compete with SD in terms of beaches, MLB or the NFL, but we don’t have a depressed housing market and our employment is leading the state. We are both the Garden City and Silicon Valley. We are cutting edge innovation with a humanist awarness. We also have relatively safe walkable neighborhoods, improving parks, improving schools, and a more diverse and civicly minded populace than SD. We have green hillsides, relatively close open space areas, and street trees. San Diego on the otherhand has a bankrupt City Hall that can’t even start an audit process because its Finance Department doesn’t know what it owns or how much revenue is coming in to pay for City services. It’s employee pension program is empty and the Mayor had to fire almost all of the City department heads just to clean house. I would also rather commute on any SJ freeway than sit in the horrendous traffic jams commonly found on SD’s Interstate 5, 8, 805, 15 or Hwys 94 and 125. Additionally, SD has 3 Council Members convicted of felonies tied to blantant corruption that makes the NorCal scandal principals look like rank amateurs. San Diego is also the hometown of Tom Metzker and his son, has active KKK and white power groups, and open blatant racism such as the recent Minutemen and light up the border efforts. San Jose has the human relations commission, community policing, and in a few weeks sunshine and ethics ordinances.
Rather than having a perpetual inferiority complex, I’d like to dump the “10th largest City motto” that the Gonchavez administration plastered on everything, and replace it with a new motto and a real City committment to become “America’s most liveable city”. I cringe everytime I hear a Council Member bragging about being 10th largest City. It has about the same air and appearance to the general public as a less endowed man trying to measure up to the rest of the guys in a locker room after taking his dose of viagra or cialis.
The true measure of a City should be “Does anyone want to live there and what is the quality of the experience”. Focusing on the City’s size won’t matter if it is impotent or falls short of its residents’ expectations. Let’s work on creating true civic pride by improving our quality of life folks so we can bragg about that, instead of measuring size!
Increase our tax base to support a livable city
#4 – You fail utterly to understand the provincial values and nature of competing local governments.
#6 – Regardless of the many attractions the entire region has to offer, San Jose still needs something associated with it that generates interest and excitement about visiting here, instead of apologetic resignation about having to come here as opposed to San Francisco.
#10 – I’d rather live in an unfamous livable city than an infamous urban jungle. Judging from San Jose’s population others agree.
Even with our provincial valves we still have a city council and planning department that allows us to be the “bedroom to Silicon Valley”. And we can’t and don’t have enough tax base to support our libraries, parks and public safety. And according to preliminary budget projections from the city managers’ office we again will have a short fall of approximately $12-19 million this coming fiscal year with no end in site for the next 4 years. The RDA has a poor history of generating revenue through their atrocious spending. How do we build a bigger revenue pie? The office of Economic Development needs better leadership; unfortunately, the director Paul Krutko is still at the helm.
City government should build a livable city by attracting businesses and grand destination sites that add to our tax base. For example: further our world class notoriety as an incubator for emerging businesses; or how about 50 meter competitive pool, leisure pool, group pavilion, bathhouse, additional play features that could be used for among other things competitive swim meets, Olympic competitions or NCAA featured meets.
A livable city should be able to build, support and recognize parks; open space and community and teen centers that are the foundation to a world-class city. It’s business districts should each have an identity that builds on the surrounding neighborhoods. It should have a grand park, market districts, financial district and a port.
Hugh, I hope you got to those pictures. I’m lame when it comes to anything more than typing on a PC.
El Matador, I really appreciate your comparison. When I have visited San Diego I got the feeling that nobody there is capitalizing on its setting or climate (well, maybe a little more in Hillcrest but that goes with the territory), and the barren hills are an ugly backdrop for anyone who is used to having the lush Santa Cruz range to view. Major streets like University reminded me of San Carlos St. through Burbank. Why do they limit the lush beauty to Balboa Park? The whole town could be an oasis if there was a program that encouraged it.
Your analogy about the 10th largest BS all over everything also is right-on. Surfing onto channel 26 last night I noticed it’s back to “Capital of Silicon Valley” on the screen in the council chambers. Things could be looking up for this town’s image.
A more comprehensive set of San Jose 1975-2006 photos can be seen here:
http://www.bvnasj.org/SanJose19752006.htm
The entire .pdf file of all the photos is on the RDA’s website:
http://www.sjredevelopment.org/
If you want to download it. You can go through each photo, one by one.
Great photos, thank you, I just don’t remember everything looking so bleak. Surely my Dad wouldn’t recognize the place, except the De Anza that he once managed.
Jack-
Those photos make a strong point. Thanks for sharing.
If only we could see the same transformation along West San Carlos Street…
Half of what those photos show is that faded colors and a red/brown tint make a photograph less appealing.
Look at the sky in each picture. because of aging, none of the 1975 photographs show a blue sky. Naturally, it looks bleak.
Take the same 2006 pictures, mute the colors, and add a reddish brown tint. It will look dreary, too.
This isn’t an argument for the RDA. It’s an argument for photoshop.
(Or is the RDA responsible for the color of the sky?)
#20 Compare the Merc’s crap with an actual both sides of the issue piece – http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4487421.html
Any chance we can convince Lew Wolff to buy the Merc and trade it for a decent newspaper to be named later?
27 – Thanks for inspiring San Jose’s new slogan – “At Least We’re Not San Diego.” If that’s the best you can do to feed your fantasy about downtown SJ, you need to try harder. Downtown is what it is—a sad place that is empty most nights and weekends and is embarrassing for a city of our size. You can delude yourself all you want but most do not share your rose-colored vision of downtown.
28 – Thanks for sharing again. We know you live in a similar fantasy world where talk about climate change is just voodoo meteorology. The rest of us will remain very concerned and do what we can do reverse the devastating impacts that others are inflicting on our planet. You keep searching for the occasional article that allows you to find a shred of support for your “scientific” point of view. Good luck in your search.
Gary, #27,
Like yourself, I’m all for our downtown being a vibrant, destination place. But at the present time, I’m going to have to agree with Smurf (to a certain degree) in regards to DSJ vs. DSD. The very items you mentioned (Horton Plaza, Petco Park/ballpark village, The Gaslamp District and condos) are what downtown San Jose would kill for! Major (succesfull!) retail development, 40, 000 seat-81 games a year Major League ballpark, Lively entertainment district and high-rise condos…our city center is not quite there yet. The high-rise condos are coming. The rest? We’ll just have to wait and see.
Hey, Mark and other silly bloggers, I told you so that downtown is pretty cool and vibrant all along! Next time, you should take advice from what I preach about San Jose’s downtown because I know the new/old downtown very well. Smurf, get a life and stay in San Diego! I was just in downtown SD, and it’s more rundown and less interesting, other than Horton Plaza, ballpark, Gasamp and condos.
Anthony, remember we have the new city hall the city of San Diego is craving for, likewise for the new public library we have. They don’t have them in SD. We should not forget the HP Pavilion and the new California theater as well as the Tech. We have several condo tower in downtown and don’t forget that we have 6,000 condos and apt. in downtown already. You’re forgetting the San Jose State university that’s in downtown, and San Diego doesn’t have one downtown. Oh by the way, check the 1975 pictures of downtown comparing it with last year’s pictures. Just click on Jack’s #17 blog (downtown sj web site) above for impressive pictures!
Given the enormous schools of true believer fishies and their propensity for swallowing Al Gore’s global warming truthiness hook, line, and sinker – I smell major money to be made on this one.
Me? I’m starting some businesses.
– Hip Hip Wader World – where you can buy the latest fashions in waterproof wear.
– Stilt’s ‘R Us – give us a call and we’ll jack you and your house up – on stilts
I’ve also got a skunkworks project going – all I can say at this time is that it involves a Prius and hydrofoils.
Oh I almost forgot…
Hey Traveling, one thing that’s been bugging me, why is Greenland called Greenland?
#5 Yummy
To begin with , the Steelhead in the San Lorenzo can not be taken. They should be released. Why do we fish for them? Because we are gatherers. He hunt , we fish. More importantly we protect!!
This weekend on the Smith we released many wild Steelhead. I have caught and released larger Steelhead on the San Lorenzo.
As a Director of http://www.Sempervirens.org my lifes work is to save habitat for the wild things that make our lives in tune with the species. Yummy, if you want to change yourself, send a contribution to Sempervirens Fund. I promise you, you will walk in the forest with a new sprit and a new hope. Wild Steelhead trout need head waters.
Our Gazos Creek, like theSmith River has no dams. It is a natural fish hatchery.
I know where you are comming from. You like many on this blog site have given up on life. Know that you can make the difference by simply changing your selves.
Jacks post is such a wonderfull image of hope. Grasp it and use it to change your lives.
Join Us!!
The Village Black Smith