It is always a good thing to step back from the fray – and the madness of crowds or media – and look at the place where we live.
Soon there will be a race in full tilt for the most important job in the Northern California—Mayor of San Jose—and how that race is conducted has an importance of its own. Certainly, the winner of the contest counts, but all too often, the “how you got there” is also instructive. I like to think that, in San Jose, it is significant to know how you played the game. The major media, and even we citizens, seem to forget quickly the dirty campaigns, the damage to reputations and families, and the ultimate coarsening of our political discourse.
This would be a good time to look at the current Mayor and the few who would like to have the awesome responsibility of that office, and its promise, and ask a lot of them. Our city has been buffeted and assailed of late by controversy, scandal, and cronyism, but we can and must hope for better. In fact, we must demand it.
The candidates must give a firm commitment to speak straight, not in tongues, and run a good, issues- oriented election contest, smut-free and educational. It should include an end to independent expenditures and free campaign workers—whether paid for by Unions, the Chamber or Industry. A real attempt must be made to win the top job with a campaign worthy of the honor and responsibility of the office.
Archibald MacLeish once commented that the essence of America—its real greatness—was in its promise. I like to think the same of our city; San Jose has always been about promise. “To fulfill the promise of San Jose” would be a very nice slogan for a Mayor and for those who want to be.
“most important job in the Northern California—Mayor of San Jose”…..huh?
I do like San Jose, but after reading this blog I get the sense that people here are trying to convince themselves that San Jose is a major US city. It is not. In this country and even in this state, San Jose keeps company with cities like San Antonio, Irvine or Phoenix, not San Francisco, Los Angeles, or New York. San Jose has no downtown to speak of (including Santana Row), has not a single great university, very little in the way renowned cultural institutions and a public transportation system that is the envy of no one.
Still, it is a great place to raise a family and is close to San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland.
San Jose will be Great!!!
The public has not yet heard of the Great Revitalization Plan for San Jose—and by extension the county.
Starting at either the end of this year or the begining of next year, parts of the plan one-by-one will be unveiled so no one will misunderstand the whole goal.
P.S-I wish this site had spellchecker.
Dr. San Jose
You’ve made my point. San Jose is still a sleepy city and some people prefer that way. A great/important city is not made by professional teams; it involves much more than that.
San Jose, in my estimation, is somewhere between a bedroom community and the San Fernando Valley.
San Jose IS a major city but needs to start acting like one. (Though if LA is one – no public transportation either – then maybe we don’t want to be!) The center of tech innovation I think puts us on the map though I agree that some seem to want us to stay “sleepy” and many have sold out the downtown for $$ and misguided interest. Great university? San Jose State produces more engineers here then anywhere else and Santa Clara is considered a great university by most. I think that your comment on no cultural institutions puts down that the Rep, the Tech, and the Museum of Art have been doing and are currently doing. Yes, our downtown needs help and hopefully with the next administration, it will get it. And please do not compare us to Irvine!
Why does San Jose have to be a big league city? Because Ron Gonzalez and his ilk have “vision”?
Too much energy and resources have been/are being wasted trying to build a SF-esque downtown. Why do we have to have lightrail? Because SF does? It’s pathetic.
Why not focus instead on the neighborhoods, schools and parks and things that make a place a fun and good place to raise a family.
If I want big time downtown, big league teams, I can drive there.
I take back the Irvine comment. SJ is more like Santa Ana. And, San Jose’s self-decribed slogan: Capital of Silicon Valley is laughable. When I think of the Sillicon Valley Palo Alto, Cupertino and Mountain View come to mind.
I agree in general with Ted. We are still the worlds biggest cow town and I believe that no matter what the politicians say, we will always be living in the shadow of SF. We’d really be someplace if we weren’t 50 miles from what is often rated as the number one tourist destination on the entire planet. How can we compete with that? But those are the geographic cards this town was dealt. Politicians who insist we can surpass SF in importance just based on population are delusional. Even LA has more reasons to live there and deal with the horrible traffic and smog than San Jose does. Do you think any project as daring and difficult to see through as the Disney Concert Hall in LA could ever have been built in San Jose? Forget it! Our leaders with their discriminating eye for art and architecture give us things like a pile of dog excrement on the Fairmont’s front lawn. We are a joke. The evidence of trying too hard is everywhere you look in this town. I still support pursuit of the downtown “experience” and making it a destination, but the leadership around here doesn’t have the “cajones” to get the job done and I don’t see that changing. Especially if we get some suburban housewife in the mayor’s seat championing the suburban “non experience” and perpetuating the bedroom community designation that this town currently does indeed deserve. This may be Frank Furter’s vision for a great place to live, but I’d rather see the best of what an urban environment can offer if I’m putting up with all the crowds and traffic that go along with living in one. That’s where LA can provide an excellent example. Doesn’t anybody else see that West San Carlos Street is a Melrose Avenue that is long overdue to manifest itself up here? That’s just one example. There are so many other missed opportunities that require true visionaries with a progressive agenda, and until we have a city government made up of those types, we all need to continue to cope with living in total suburbia.
How many more hundreds of millions of dollars of good money must be sunk into collossally bad projects like Bart, Lightrail, Downtown, new City Hall, ad nausea before people get it?
Make San Francisco out of San Jose?
Make Melrose Ave out of San Carlos Ave?
This are quintessential silk purses out of a sow’s ears.
San Jose is set up for worker bee’s with families. Trying to make SJ a big time city is an *enormous* waste of tax dollars and a testament to our city manager egos running amuk.
BTW, why don’t our elected officials in SJ ever ask it’s citizens what they would like to see happen in the city?
There are these super cool new things on the web called survey forms that our visionaries in city hall could use to gauge what the citizens think are important and which direction *they* want the city to go.
This would be a nice change of pace, city managers listening to constituents and governing accordingly.
Pretty radical stuff, huh?
We need a strong Mayor form of government. We also need to reduce the City Council for 10 to 5 (the County only has five districts and they represent a larger geographic area).
Then Mayor of San Jose might be the best job. God help anyone who seeks it now.
As for election reform, good luck. All these ethics laws are best used during a campaign. Since the sheer number of laws insure not a singe candidate will be able to abide by them, they are sure to become cannon fodder for consultants.
Want fair elections, get rid of the ethics laws and replace them with immediate online reporting of all campaign contributions and expenditures. A simple but effective way of insuring cleaner campaigns.
Get a clue people. Downtown San Jose will never be SF because we don’t have a beautiful ocean, and great hills to build uponl. San Jose had a chance a number of years ago with Valley Fair or
Estfield I think they call it now. It still had a chance before Hammer allowed Santana Row. We have great things downtown but still need shops, both named ones and small mom and pop shops but there isn’t a market. There may be one starting with all the residental properties starting. Eventually when my grandchildren are in the 50’s or in 50 or 60 years it may happen. But one thing is for certain we have to keep working on it or it will never happen.
I think it’s a mistake to compare San Jose with other cities. Why? Because San Jose is San Jose…and that’s just fine. For several years I lived in San Francisco while working in San Jose. This “reverse-commute” made me really appreciate the South Bay. The weather is better here, the neighborhoods are much more livable, you can go shopping and find a place to park (paid parking downtown is IMHO a HUGE mistake that drives people to the malls) and you can walk the streets at night feeling safe. That’s got to be worth its weight in ballparks and transit systems. When it comes to culture and innovation I’ve always enjoyed the close proximity to the big thinkers of Silicon Valley, the outrageously great Celebrity Speakers series at Flint Center and a few of the other perks that exist in this perceived backwater. SJ politics? It’s been bumpy but SJ will never be as corrupt as SF, NY, Chicago or any of the “Great” cities. So if some view San Jose as a sleepy little cowtown that suffers the curse of being a great place to live…well, let’s just say that I don’t see too many San Joseans moving to San Fransisco!
This is like teaching again, and just as I had to remind the Stanford students to remember the topic, take note: “the promise of San Jose.” That’s the topic. Let’s focus on what is so remarkable in our City and refrain from covetous glances to SF – this place has it all. The next Mayor must focus on that simple fact. We need to work and improve it. TMcE
Tom:
Your comments that “this place has it all” and the mayor of SJ is the most important job in Northern California remind me of the babblings of my aunt with Alzheimers. People will make comparisons between San Jose and other cities because that’s often how evaluations are made.
San Jose is a great sleepy town and I think people come here because of that. If they wanted excitement they’d move to a cosmopolitan city.
Ted – WHY ARE YOU HERE IF YOU HATE IT SO MUCH?
SJDowntownGal: I think you should re-read my comments: “San Jose is a great sleepy town and I think people come here because of that. If they wanted excitement they’d move to a cosmopolitan city.”
There is no hate implied in my comments. I’m here because it is a great place to raise a family. Enough said.
Ted
Eight yrs. as Mayor did kill a few brain cells, but one salient fact is not to be disputed: People come from all over the world – always have – to be a part of San Jose and this Valley. I love it, warts and all, and do not want to be any other place. I’ve been in the “Arena” as Teddy R would say. Jump in, the waters fine. Help build a better City not just a nice place. TMcE
The last time Ted was in downtown San jose was in 1982. That’s when San Jose didn’t have a downtown and was sleepy. Ted needs to go to downtown now because downtown has SoFa district and San pedro Square that are filled with restaurants and nightclubs. Downtown is a real downtown. It has the arena, new library, Tech musuem, new city hall and a bunch of housing with alot of office buildings and hotels. What else it would take to make it a real downtown? Don’t forget cultural institutions such as California theater, Camera 12 and the Rep.. The downtown area is so lively that I have to leave area because of no parking. You bozos don’t have a clue. The downtown has all the pieces!
Hi Tom,
Thanks for starting these excellent discussions.
I think SJ is a fine place and offers a lot. I just wish SJ would focus and build on it’s strengths and not be so preoccupied with trying to get out of San Francisco’s shadow and be “big league”.
My frustration with SJ is that I feel the city managers are totally disconnected with what the people want.
From personal experience dealing with my councilmember I feel that there is absolutely no 2 way communication.
What can be done to make city managers more responsive to what people really want SJ to be like.
I’ve said it before, I think these mega projects like BART, lightrail, new city hall, etc are more about monuments to city manager egos than helping the community at large.
If money from these projects would instead be used to shore up our schools and build up our neighborhoods SJ would indeed be a *great* place to live.
At the end of the day it’s about raising a family and educating your kids.
Lightrail, BART, new city hall are nothing but diverting precious resources from these primary needs.
Thanks.
Oh come on. San Jose is a lot of ha-bunk-a-dunk surrounded by the silent minority where the real power lies——Palo Alto, Los Altos Hills, Los Altos, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, etc.
I think what a lot of people posting here would like to see would be a downtown San Jose kinda like… it was in the 50’s; a school system as efficient and stable as…it was in the 50’s.
What happened? The answer is, for the most part, government. A failure of government that can claim as a victory one thing: it didn’t botch it as bad as has San Francisco. SF took a jewell and turned it to coal. We didn’t have a jewell here, just a little charm; a charm that has been converted into embarrassment.
Next time we hear a local politician offering his vision for San Jose I suggest we celebrate his vision with a necktie party in St. James Park. Same thing for the next coddle and caress ‘em school superintendent.
We just dumped another fortune of tax dollars downtown, this time for a new city hall. Okay, it’s done. Now let’s see if the politicians can get out of the way and see if this new anchor can attract some private investment in the area. If our elected officials can’t resist being a part of the redevelopment, let them work on making the area bum-free. Maybe even get rid of the crack dealers from the transit mall.
Well Tom, I think one thing you can draw from this discussion is that people want a city they can be proud of. Getting the dog dropping out of Plaza de Cesar Chavez would be a great starting point. Now that’s an embarrassment that is hard to top. And you know the “artist” still hasn’t stopped laughing.
San Jose is what it is – a western town, with a colorful western history that continues to evolve steadily as the years go by. I’ve seen holes in the ground in downtown Santa Cruz, nearly 16 years after the ‘89 earthquake and have seen the devestation in NYC after 9/11. We should be more accepting of the fact that our downtown growth is not built on re-building after tragedy, but designed on sensible long term planning and design. The missing ingredient in the downtowen recipe is not only a mjor league baseball team, but a commitment from SJ Stae to D1 football.
We’lll discuss the arts, music and events on another day.
Ps – Let’s have more bloggers give their real name.
MTA—Subway Ban—Cost
http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~2731143,00.html
SJ Leadership has demonstrated that it cannot run anything responsibly or cost effectively. Pick any large project you want.
And now we’re expected to spend trust *billions* of dollars with the same “team”?
Yes, I would definitely say “delusional” applies here.
“Operating at an average speed under 15 miles an hour, Silicon Valley’s light-rail network is the slowest among comparable urban systems in the nation.
It is also the most costly to operate per passenger mile. And, it’s one of the most heavily subsidized transit operations in the country.”
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/5734269.htm
“BART would chew up the biggest chunk of money, with an estimated cost of $4.2 billion to build the 16.3-mile extension from Fremont through downtown San Jose.
Extending light rail through East San Jose and upgrading Caltrain would cost $1.2 billion in local money.”
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/bart/10960255.htm
Tom, thank you for the positive outlook and a call for promise and hope.
It seems that the vast majority of posters here are only interested in discontentment, closedmindedness, and blame, blame, blame.
This is a great city to live in. Everyone who lives here does so for a reason… and it’s not the abundance of affordable housing.
I have always found that the best way to improve things for yourself and your fellow citizens is to work WITH your elected officials, against them… the power of suggestion is much greater than the power of criticism.
I hope the next mayor will take a positive outlook and run a positive campaign, as you prescribe – and I hope the community will work together to accomplish good things for the city. I may be delusional, as some will likely call me, but I’m holding out hope.
And what is the deal with lightrail? Is it ever going to connect in any meaningful way?
Tom, I’m looking “at the place where we live” and I’m seeing way more bad decisions that have been made by the various mayors and councils—going back decades—than good ones so it’s hard to find any promise going forward. I’m trying to “focus on what is so remarkable” about SJ but the viewfinder is just a big black hole. Climate and topography aren’t anything the people at City Hall can claim as an accomplishment so what else is there that has been done right, that is TRULY remarkable about this city, that the people in charge, past and present can be credited with? I can’t come up with ANYTHING. You did great with the arena, but considering many cities, smaller ones, also have them, I can’t consider it “remarkable.”
Let’s remember: the Arena came at a great price. The displacement of a community that to the surprise of no one was largely mexican.
Ted sounds like all my friends in the ‘burbs – totally jaded, and without perspective. If you really want to know what San Jose’s about (sadly), ask a tourist. Just stop anyone you happen to see walking though the lobby of a downtown hotel and wearing a convention badge. They love San Jose for it’s weather, low crime rate, walkable downtown, unique attractions, and multi-culturalism.
I beelieve that San Joseans have a self-imposed inferiority complex that stems from living a short 45 minutes away from one of the world’s most fabulous cities. I see our proximity to SF as just one more asset, not cause for embarassment.
I have visited most of the nation’s top 25 cities. San Jose is right up there with the best.
Ralph may be right when he suggests the leaders have not created some sort of signature project to create a remarkable city. But somehow it’s happened anyway. How so? Maybe SJ is remarkable by what it is NOT. SJ could have become an industrial war zone like Oakland…but it didn’t happen. SJ could have, and nearly did, choked on urban sprawl…but we seem to have caught it just in time. The quality of life here is already very good, even without all of the whiz-bang public works projects that may or may not eventually happen. If the city’s leaders, past and present, don’t get credit for any of this then who does? We’ve had some good ones…and a few that we’d like to forget.
The only fault I can find with Tom’s post is his focus on the “Promise” of San Jose. It seems to me much of that promise has already been fulfilled. Anyone who can compare the downtown San Jose of 1975 to the downtown of 2005 will know exactly what I mean. (Although I DO miss the old Tower Saloon!)
Kevin
No, not delusional, but simply imbued with MacLeish’s hope for the “promise” of our world. San Jose provides such a hope. There may be other places for those from Minnesota or Mexico to bring their dreams and build a better life – but none better. Let’s continue to live ‘that’ dream. TMcE
Ted – the Arena project took out 2 homes, repeat 2. I learned from the Convention Center fiasco. Do your homework. And Ed, we “all” miss the old Tower Saloon – and the Tower. TMcE
Tom: If you could bring back the Tower Saloon somewhere around San Pedro Square I’ll buy you a beer!
Ed.
I think some of the City Hall planning could be better done by some Tower Saloon graduates. TMcE
I am a Tower Saloon graduate and your right… Also, the City Hall fiasco would never have taken place if the Mayor would have chosen Deb Figone for City Manager (she was the other finalist). Our City, the staff and our public projects would have been much better managed.
Have been a life long resident and have seen gradual improvement over time but it is taking sooo looong. The city has a lot to offer for families. Would like to see more residential high rise(over 15 stories) development immediately downtown. 10 of these by 2007 would be ideal.This will help drive the retail and put more bodies on the street. I have enjoyed new places opening up every 6 months and seeing something positive but then we also lose stores along the way. The city needs to make the permit process easier then it is today. My friends that own bars and restaurants downtown consistently complain of how long the process takes to open a new business. I am commited to SJ as a homeowner but want more for SJ in my lifetime.
Oh, the agony of wanting San Jose to join the ranks of the great American cities. No sports team from the 3 major leagues (NFL, MLB or NBA), our hockey team remains dormant indefinetely, a two-lane farm road as our major connector to I-5 and Southern California, a proposed high-speed rail line that may bipass us in favor of the Altamont pass, a BART line that may never reach us, a downtown that is a haven to the homeless and drunken thugs…but at least our airport will be first-class by 2012, right? WRONG! Read todays Merc and you will find that our Mickey Mouse airport might well remain Mickey Mouse for the foreseeable future. You know, maybe it’s time to just give in to the fact that we live in a large bedroom community that is a great place to raise a family, and leave it at that!
What I see happening downtown is that the chain restaurants do well, and the city should bring more recognizable things to downtown, but they can’t forget the mom and pop shops, boutiques and restaurants that can give the city so much flavor. I think the huge subsidies that are paid to large companies are fine as long as you give subsidies to the people who have been trying to make downtown better long before PF Changs rolls into town.
Also, the downtown has some gems but there is no cohesiveness. The downtown needs to be connected by walking streets, gas lamps, etc….SOFA to Fountain Alley to Cesar Chaves Park to San Pedro Square to the Arena…it all needs to be connected by cobblestone roads, the same street signs and they need to fill in retail and restaurants to connect those spots….think Gas Lamp in San Diego
It can be done. Its not a bedroom community. I am not going to accept that!
If Deb Figone had become City Manager there would have been a nuclear meltdown between her and Ron Gonzales. City Hall doesn’t have room for two Czars.
It is difficult to imagine a nuclear meltdown between a City Manager with years and years of San Jose experience and a strong minded Mayor. They are all professionals and San Jose (as well as all government institutions) are better off with conflict rather than simple compliance. Now we have an apparently incompetent and/or illegally acting City Manager who has cost us millions and is under investigation. We are always better off with distributed power:
“It is not by consolidation, or concentration of powers, but by thier distribution, that good government is effected. ” Thomas Jefferson
Give me a stong, smart and even powerful City Manager any day of the week.
SJDowntownGal,
I agree with you. I believe that we have turned the corner from being a bedroom community to being a destination. The events hosted at the convention center are testimony to that. We will never have the tourism appeal that our neighbor to the north has, and as some have said here, it’s silly for us to compare the two cities. As for the connectivity you desire, there is some planning in the works along those lines: http://www.cimgroup.com/cimgroup/news/pr_20020621.asp
And for those of you who believe that San Jose has been built on a series of bad decisions, I invite you to spend a week in Fresno. It would give you some perspective.
I agree with Ted, there is no good colleges here, no ivy leagues,law schools nothing. But i do believe that San Jose is beautiful city, and that it has its ups and downs. As a incoming freshman to Norte Dame High School,I believe that San Jose has a very nice downtown, and is very well built. One thing that I dont agree with Ted is that San Jose is a sleepy city, it is not at all. LIFE is not sleepy, neverthe less a city such as San Jose. I also agree with Gary. Gary has a point that Ted has not been downtown since 1982. Now lets see what else Mr.Ted has to say about San Jose.