No, I am not going to attempt to rewrite the famous novel (even I am not that full of myself), but rather, start a discussion on something that needs to be discussed: how two cities, San Jose and Los Gatos, can both hold the same type of event, but with drastically different outcomes.
Both cities hold Music in the Park festivals. In San Jose, there are two: Music in the Park in Plaza de Cesar Chavez, and Music in the Other Park held in St. James Park. Los Gatos holds their Jazz on the Plazz in the main park off Santa Cruz Avenue on Wednesdays, and Music in the Park on Sundays in the park on Main Street. Live jazz is played at the Wednesday events, and on Sundays they have low-key bands. People drink openly—they often bring their own bottles of wine (I have been known to do that myself)—but there is no real police presence at all. Kids are running around, people bring their babies and, all in all, it’s a great place to meet up with friends of all ages. San Jose’s events often feature R&B and Latin music and beer is sold in the park. There is a police presence, but it doesn’t seem to matter much.
Recently, San Jose’s Music in the Other Park concerts have been marred by rowdiness, severely intoxicated people and mayhem, requiring a very large police presence being called to the scene from all over the city. The Los Gatos concerts remain family oriented, low-key and incident free. Can we just blame these differences on the fact that San Jose’s events are held in the city core with a younger and more diverse crowd and Los Gatos’ events are attended by the local affluent enclave? While that may be true, is that the only difference? Or is the difference something people don’t want to talk about because they don’t think it’s politically correct to do so? It seems that when anyone brings this issue up, it’s an instant attack on the messenger: “You think one color is good and another is bad.” So what is the problem and how can it be fixed?
In pointing these things out, I realize that I am making generalizations, but this is not a question of race. You cannot ascribe a skin color to a genre of music. People of all colors like jazz, R&B and Latin music. The Jazz Festival and Mariachi Festival are enjoyed by all and are peaceful. By the same token, there are people of all skin colors who feel that downtown is a place they can go to, drink too much, get rowdy and not care about trashing the town because they probably don’t live there anyway. Those attending the Los Gatos events live in the community, so it’s not in their best interests to see their downtown parks trashed or their police challenged. These are facts we can’t ignore. It’s not about making downtown San Jose all one color or another, but it’s about presenting music and entertainment events that won’t attract people who keep perpetuating unacceptable behavior downtown.
Outdoor events should be more about bringing a blanket, having a glass of wine and a picnic and hanging out with friends. Keep the concerts in the indoor venues where the ushers and security guards can control rowdy patrons; leave the Music in the Parks to families and people who behave civilly. And it’s not a racial matter because people who fit these descriptions come in all skin colors and from all economic backgrounds.
Personally I would hate to see downtown become anything like Los Gatos. Its not even a goal to strive for because, if people want Los Gatos, the real thing is just a few miles away. Single Gal, you obviously don’t know how to party.
You can’t compare a city to a country club.
I love Los Gatos and enjoy its character. I also have to publicly admit that Tom McEnery does deserve the credit that Mark Purdy gave him and others for launching the HP Pavillon. Tom and I have a lot of political and literary feuds, but I do gladly acknowledge that without Tom and others, San Jose would not have gotten the benefits of the HP, nor would the rest of us. People with foresight and passion for making their community better, and Kathleen Flynn and others should be recognized for trying to make their community better, are much more respected than those of us that hack away. Did any of you see the yelping of the mean, little man of Santa Clara, Au Nguyen, who just could not miss an opportunity to moan about the effort of McEnery, because it might be used as an argument to justify the campaign to bring the 49ers to Santa Clara. How boring, and how typical of Mr. Nguyen, who works at Cisco, who receives many subsidies, to yelp and moan. We should take a page out of McEnery and his fellow dreamer’s book of how to make the community better. Sadly, we often have to pause to hear the yelping of bitter people like Nguyen who would have scowled at Benjamin Franklin and others who cheered about ballon flights, or Professor Montgomery at Santa Clara University who dreamed of air flight.
A major difference is that in LG, attendees for the most part tend to be well brought up, morally grounded, respectful, family-oriented folks.
To the thugs who come downtown, “respect” really means that you’re supposed to be sufficiently intimidated by them to get out of their way and not look directly at them. They tend to be poorly brought up, without moral grounding, disrespectful of others, and not family oriented in the traditional sense. If they have a family, their kids are likely to be as loosley wired as they are. Exceptions are few and far between.
Its all demographics, which is highly influenced by economics, SG. No downtown anywhere is like LG, nor is there ever likely to be a melding of the respective vibes of an LG and a downtown.
Great job SG. I think JMO is correct in that education, proper rearing, and understanding what real “fun and respect,” means has a lot to do with it. I also think that cities like Los Gatos, Campbell, etc. do events that cater to a certain crowd of a more affluent background too. (Just a side note, I don’t see a lot of housing directly around their DTs. That is not including the new designs of apartments and condos over businesses that have begun to spring up lately.)
I go to lots of events in Campbell, a few in Los Gatos, some in Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Santa Clara, even Milpitas. I never see the same elements, or kinds of violence, or destruction I see in DT San Jose. In all honesty I think that community members, homeowners, local businesses, rather than outsiders mainly attend these events and that is why I have never seen any or read about any violence there.
I have also followed the City Council’s practices in Campbell and Los Gatos. They are very diligent about who and what types of businesses, housing, and events they allow in their city. In my opinion, what I think is both vastly and sadly different about them and San Jose is they don’t work to be inclusive, they don’t allow a lot of affordable housing projects, or give much of a dam about catering to diversity. Because they keep themselves pure of outside influences, I think that is why they have fewer problems with violence than we do.
I don’t want San Jose to be Los Gatos. It is just interesting to see the dichotomy of two events and how very different they are.
San Jose’s events are much bigger and get top billing. Flogging Molly, Maroon Five, Eve Six. I think the comparison is a stretch.
Scott Kneis used fully half of the available space in the current SJDA newsletter to pat himself and SJDA on the back for 20 years of Music in the Park.
#6 You don’t see that type of housing because years ago no more single family permits were to be issued. I assume that is still in effect. The push has been to get the most bodies possible into the downtown area, that also ties in the Bart, I believe ridership needs to be guaranteed.
#5 – Glad you agree that demographics and affluence is the basic difference between downtown LG and SJ. If you want to see attitude try walking into a classroom in some schools. There was a time I tried that; as soon as I stepped into the classroom, I was greeted with “Habla Espanol?” My “Un poquito.” didn’t get me very far from avoiding surly looks and attitudes. I was never asked if I spoke Vietnamese. An interesting observation for me was that an Algebra teacher’s class used to show up before school to correct their homework so thay would have more classtime for new instruction, the majority of this class was Vietnamese in a school who’s demographics was pretty well split between Hispanics and Vietnamese and Cambodians. What really impressed me was the huge chain link gates that were closed in record time after dismissal. The school officials wanted the students off campus to avoid any trouble after school.
It really has more to do with the size of the crowds…..Wealthy people can get just as drunk and…nasty…..If you put a lot of the Paris Hilton crowd together I suspect there would be anarchy in a jiffy. A Prada riot….