So I decided that instead of sitting around feeling sorry for myself, maybe I should come up with ideas for San Jose to make it better. It seems that it doesn’t matter if you are living in a married or single hell-of-your-own-making, we all generally want the same thing: a cool, hip city that gives us plenty to do and to be proud of. And let’s face it, just thinking about a cool idea would give me a leg up on most people at City Hall.
Let me preface my idea with a little story: I just walked around downtown on a weeknight. While in most cities you might find inappropriate inter-office mingling, public displays of affection and girlfriends talking over the guy that is “so into them,” instead, in San Jose, I saw a lot of nice restaurants and bars that were empty. It seems to be a popular opinion that there is nowhere cool to go, but I saw just the opposite: plenty of sidewalk tables, flat screen TVs, smoky glass, and drink specials. So maybe it’s not that there’s nothing to do; maybe it’s that there is no one to do it?
Single Gal stands here and says that there needs to be an effort made to let people know what we have and make downtown feel safer and become more accessible at the same time. The city should pay for a cable car shuttle system. Just get five cable cars, put them on wheels, and designate certain stops downtown where riders can hop on and off day or night for free. It could pick you up in SOFA or San Jose State and drop you off at San Pedro Square. It could take you from happy hour in Fountain Alley down to the Sharks game. It could pick you up from the train station and take you back downtown. Someone’s got to bring the horse to water because it sure ain’t gettin’ there on it’s own.
Until next time….I’m the Single Gal in the City.
I’m not entirely with you, Single Gal. The mobility of visitors to the downtown area isn’t the problem. SJ offers the VTA, train, easy freeway access, relatively cheap cabs and plenty of parking…in fact, getting around in downtown SJ is easier than most cities. The bigger problem is luring people to get on the train and VTA, to fill the parking spaces, and to need a cab at the end of the night.
I also don’t think SJ is lacking the bars and restaurants that all these bloggers claim it lacks. They are here. So are the Sharks, Performing Arts, Theater, comedy, music, movies…. But the people aren’t here to enjoy it. Sure, SJ could use more to do. But how should the establishments survive without patrons?
As a relative new-comer to the area, my initial impression of the City was mixed and now I fear that SJ is experiencing “L.A.-ization.” Let me explain.
During the weekdays, all is well. Crowds of professionals fill the sidewalks and restaurants, where you may wait for a table on occassion. Santa Clara is bustling, horns are blaring, sirens wailing and SJ is alive and kicking. It’s a great place to work. But when the whistle blows at 5..or 6…or 7, depending on the day, everyone runs for the hills, or rather the ‘burbs. With a few exceptions (like the nights the Tank is active), SJ’s crowds hit the bars abd restaurants in Los Gatos, Palo Alto, Santana Row, and even the likes of little Willow Glen and Campbell.
Just like L.A., where the smaller cities surrounding the big downtown LA metropolis are the dominant social playgrounds for LA’s social scene, the little cities surrounding SJ are where the people are. It’s where people are, and its where the people go. The biggest question is -Why?
Maybe it’s because like LA, the people of SJ don’t live in the city. Sure, fine, there are some, let’s not get technical, but the majority of people who work here don’t live here. They drive from their long-established residential communities; communities that were in place before SJ became a city. Those residential communities offer the residents local restaurants, shopping, bookstores, churches, schools and even the occassional bar.
SJ’s majority population is satisfied with that. That’s the problem.
Single Gal – Your preceptions are very accurate but your recommendations for remediation are less than satisfactory.
If there is one thing that San Jose downtown does NOT need to activate its commerce is more public transportation. What it does need is free parking (scrapping the automated pay machines and rehiring booth cashiers would be a huge step in the right direction). Until the parking is free the saloon/restaurant businesses will languish empty after hours in perpetuity. They may even languish after the parking is free, but at least it is worth a try.
Safe as San Jose is there is still a great human reluctance to entrust one’s safety and personal comfort to public transport after hours unless one is too drunk to drive and very responsible simultaneously. Also, if one might want to buy something that is too heavy or bulky to be slipped into a pocket or purse then staggering the load onto a bus-streetcar is untenable at any time of day.
But, be brave and take heart… Lively venues will always entice the venturesome out (those whom you appear to be seeking in any case) -in their cars with the exact amount preloaded in their wallets to put into the machines.
Bear in mind that Nirvana got its early thrust in a First Street night club – at least according to urban legend from the late 80s.
The closest thing to your proposal is the current DASH system (for parking) and the special VTA shuttle for the Sharks game.
The DASH goes from Diridon, SC / 1st, 4th / San Fernando and the Convention Center. I thought it stopped somewhere else on SF but not sure. It runs on the weekdays.
So, that’s your current infrastructure. I wonder if they could do a trial for this on Fridays, early enough for the Farmer’s Market crowd. This seems to be the best day for “movement” in downtown. That make sense for the downtown association.
Personally, I don’t get over to SOFA as much as I would want and if there was a shuttle from San Pedro Square I would (like to park in the garage there). I would even take it to go to the movies at the Camera.
For the evening shuttle, Imagine if it went from the SJSU dorms to the movies / restaurants. Or near Julian & First where the of the housing is. That could be good too.
I think it is important to look at your target market on this one. Who is single gal targeting? I am sure there is some survey on the patrons of downtown social/business establishments – who is frequenting these places, where are they from – you could go on and on. Is this available? It would be cool to know how many downtown residents there are at this point. I guess some research is necessary here.
By the way, is parking really a HUGE issue downtown? If you go out at night there is free parking nearly everywhere. I guess you need to know where you are going. The lots that do get bad are the San Fernando ones. But, there is always the 4th Street garage.
If there were an “inner-downtown” shuttle people wouldn’t care about parking as much. You find a place to park and take the shuttle to where you want to go.
I’m a neighborhood type who advocates for downtown, but aside from the Art museum, has run out of reasons to make a trip downtown.
It doesn’t take billions of dollars to make a place fun and irreverent.
Aside from the tech museum, how would a downtown visitor ever know that s/he’s in the “Capitol of Silicon Valley”?
– How about a factory outlet located downtown for IT company t-shirts and paraphenalia?
– How about a downtown restaurant that specializes in 99 cent cokes and hot dogs?
– How about closing off traffic to Chavez plaza and making it into a real plaza instead of a creepy narrow strip where you have to dodge unsavory characters.
– How about laying the the plaza out like a cpu with light racing around the plaza floor emulating chip signals. People that flew in over downtown SJ at night and saw that would get pretty excited and would make the effort to come downtown to check it out.
– We all love diversity above all else right? And we all love movies too, right? Then host free movies on a big screen at the expanded Chavez plaza. Bollywood movies, Chinese, Spanish, Vietnamese movies. Vintage Star Trek episodes and showings of Tron round out the fare.
– Invite more stuff like the “Art Cars” downtown.
– As mentioned here before – how about a high-tech version of the light tower?
Single Gal, do you know any other cities that have this?
They have this type of shuttling in Houston, Colorado Springs is where I have heard about it. Also, I have done this in London and Amsterdam, but that is apples and oranges.
I think you just have to make things easier for people and if you get them to and from the train station, they can get home!
Until a great many people live downtown San Jose will always have difficulty filling it’s restaurants and clubs after 5 PM.
After battling traffic to get home people are simply not going to want to get back into their cars and drive downtown from Almaden, Berryessa, Cambrian, etc. unless there’s a darn good reason. They are even less apt to take a bus, trolley or other public transit.
The Sharks bring people downtown as do other entertainment events but you can’t rely on events to fill the restaurants 7 nights a week.
However if you go to Max’s at Westgate on a Wednesday or any of the Willow Glen restaurants on weeknights they’re doing pretty good business with no events. The difference? The customers live nearby.
Build more housing downtown.
In some older compact European Cites, the old section of town is closed to all automobile traffic. People can walk, ride trolley’s, horse drawn carriages ect.
During the San Jose Grand Prix, an entire section of the City was unavailable by car. People parked in outlying parking lots and once inside the Grand Prix track area, walked.
The fair like atmosphere was terrific. Though pedestrian access was restricted, as the track took up many potential pathways, such a walkable downtown—without cars was extremely pleasant.
San Jose State has become such an area. During College we could, literally, drive through the campus area. Now they closed down San Carlos, all parking is outside the campus and it is very accessible, walkable and far more beautiful.
If we had an internal transportation system within downtown, trolley etc., had an effective mass transit system to get people to downtown ie. BART and reasons for them to come, we could close down much of the area to traffic and get people out of their cars and let them walk.
Getting around town, without having to pay and park, could actually be faster.
We could redevelop all current parking areas, redesign the streets to be pedestrian friendly, create more shops and destination areas.
The question is, would anybody come to downtown? Therein lies the rub.
It seems unlikely right now, as there does not seem to be a reason to go downtown—except for business purposes, an occassional dinner, a Sharks game or some theatre—usually during the weekend.
And everybody likes their cars. But at 3 bucks a gallon, does anybody really want to drive?
Such a destination area,would take intricate planning. But if San Jose is intent on developing large scale, high density housing to accomodate BART, there might be enough people within walking distance to sustain such an pedestrian friendly area.
On a smaller scale, it seems to have worked for Santana Row. Just a thought.
Trying, you really sized it up.
The problem is that this place exploded into a sprawling suburb. That is the dominant culture here and always will be. Thanks to the out-of-control people in charge back in the 50’s.
Just entertained a friend yesterday who has been living here for 2 years (downtown, mind you) and his main complaint is that it’s just way too suburban. Boring, low intellect, narrow minded, simplistic, unadventurous, happy in their self-induced ignorance, these are the inhabitants of the suburbs that are at the leading edge of the SJ mindset and lifestyle. They’d rather sit home and watch sitcoms in safety instead of risk their lives dealing with all of the supposed dangers our squeaky clean downtown harbors. What a pathetic socialogical group they are.
Until we get people living downtown who are attracted to what an urban setting has to offer (and it will offer much more once they are there) it’s going to be the dead zone that Single Gal describes and no amount of shuttling around is going to help.
It’s sad to think that SJ’s downtown isn’t going to amount to anything in time for most of the bloggers on here to enjoy it, but the inept leadership and lack of vision that is the legacy of this town has done a fine job in making sure that the 10th largest city in the country has absolutely no claim to fame and offers no attraction. This newcomer friend of mine is absolutely dumbfounded by this reality.
There’s never going to be any successful cultural scene here if the majority of the population thinks culture is what you experience when you take a cork out of a wine bottle instead of unscrewing the cap.
Downtown is a great entertainment center, but the problem is the people of San Jose like to hang out in the suburbs, not downtown. They’re very happy with the suburban lifestyles and don’t want to be part of urban, city scene. I’ve been to Houston, where they have a shuttle, but the downtown stinks because there’s virtually no entertainment. It’s just bars and restaurants. It’s mostly office, hotels, conventions and sport stadium/arena. The only things I left out are light rail and a decent theater district, and that’s it. In San Jose, you have new city hall, library, new theaters, musuems, Guadelupe river park, improv, Camera 12 and a bonafide entertainment district as well as theater district. You, San Jose, should feel luck and blessed that we have a nice downtown whether you like it or not. Start patronizing it and have fun.
As one of the unclean masses that like the ‘burbs and the quiet they contain, give me something to do downtown that I can’t do close to home and I will come down. But if the best you can offer is a few cookie cutter clubs and some mediocre restaurants then I will pass.
Why does downtown need to be “alive”? Why try to change the social trends that have been going on for years? There is a lot going on, it may not be downtown but if you look around at the nearby communities and neighborhoods there are tons of things to do and great people to meet. You just can’t sit back buy a beer and wait for people to come.
I think we have to remember that there has been a huge amout of housing added in the last 5 years to Downtown San Jose. I think these people will eventually create the base for customers at Downtown business. Things do not happen overnight . . . . but I think they will happen. One thing that really hurt Downtown San Jose was the creation of Santana Row . . . . Downtown San Jose needs to recover from this and push forward . . .
I just spent 58 bucks to fill up my SUV, maybe this will be the push to move downtown…..and walk.
Blame Santana Row if you want, but if Downtown had done what Santana Row did, we might have a more vibrant downtown now. The developers of Santana Row came in with a plan not with their hand out asking for a subsidy. When is the last time that happened downtown? There is plenty of blame to go around for the state of downtown, but Santana Row should not be the recipient of any of it.
#13. I am glad for the housing that’s been added. It’s a good start, but San Jose still does not have a livable downtown that can sustain it’s residents with a variety of grocery stores, some places to buy socks, neighborhood parks with playgrounds for kids, a few 24 hour cafes, etc.
The single biggest anchor to a livable downtown could be San Jose State’s new housing complex which adds hundreds of new residents. It’s too bad the University seems to be having trouble filling it up and the students tend to stay on campus. Perhaps it’s because the types of businesses backed by the RDA are not a good fit for the student population. Didn’t anyone see that coming?
Still for all it’s faults downtown has come a long way from the 60’s and 70’s when it was so godawful. Maybe all of the newness needs time to mature, and the city needs to figure out what to do with it’s emerging downtown. San Jose does seem to be somewhat distracted these days.
Where are all the ‘singles’?
They’ve married and moved to Salinas, Gilroy, Hollister, Merced and the like and commute in to work and back home everyday because can’t afford the prices of anything in San Jose anymore. They’re the smart ones.
Many of the 18 – 40 are professional college students and are just trying to survive for now. The rest are too busy working 3 – 4 jobs to get that dollar the ‘dot-com’ bust took away. More than one may realize, many now divorced and/or are single parents! Who has time to date, or the money it takes to pay the exorbitant prices charged for a soft drink let alone try to buy a mixed drink or food even?
I’ve lived in San Jose for 35 years and have been down town probably as many times. Pretty, but too expensive to shop. Lots of restaurants but again, expensive. The night-life in may ways leave a lot to be desired in any location.
City Hall? Well there is a romantic and fun place to hold hands and walk through, although free, I’m guessing.
And the library! But of course. Lots of future fun dates are waiting at the library. What is a good pick-up line?
See one movie theater, seen them all.
The theatre (arts), the shark tank, and maybe one or two other areas of interest are available at night during the week. How many times can one afford or stand to go to these?
Other than that there are just the restaurants but a person can only go out so much to eat and then it isn’t special any longer.
Then there are the good ‘ol bars if a person likes the ‘bar-scene’. I don’t drink and do not like a bar environment. Nah, I’ll stick to my backyard patio, church, friends, and family, and single life.
Just an FYI – I am back on the market…As long as “husky” men aren’t a turnoff…Just remember, as an overweight guy, I am harder to kidnap.
Peace out.
Wu Tang
Bland, according to the Merc’s Style section, big guys are “in” so you should do fine out there.
SW, the out of towners’ comments about empty buildings and only finding a Walgreens should be required reading for RDA and SJ Council.
They can’t get those condos built and people living in them fast enough. Downtown doesn’t have a chance until that happens.
To #15 – The powers that be should have pushed to put Santana Row Downtown; they should have made a shopping district out of buildings already there and spruced them up. Anyone ever heard of Union Square and the surrounding streets in San Francisco? The shopping there is great. Santana Row should have been Downtown – the subsidies have nothing to do with it . . . .
There were other sites contempated for the Arena and other notable sites currently in the Downtown . . . but these were placed Dowtown because people pushed to place these Downtown . . .
To #15 – The powers that be should have pushed to put Santana Row Downtown. Old buildings Downtown should have been refurbished to create a shopping district. Anyone ever hear of Union Square and the surrounding streets in San Francsico? The shopping there is great. Subsidies have nothing to do with it . . . There were other sites for several key spots in the Downtown today, such as the Arena, . . . But the Arena ended up Downtown . . . Why didn’t Santana Row? Hmmmmm . . . .
Other comments heard last night…while watching numerous couples jaywalking and holding hands walking down the street…
From SF transplant: I have learned to like San Jose during the weeknights but leave during the weekend because of the frat party crowd.
From SJ frequents: Just saw a great show at the downtown theatre.
From Petaluma visitor: How do you get your wireless downtown? We are going to get that in our downtown soon.
Thank God we are one step ahead of Petaluma!
That God-awful downtown is disasterous disgrace! It is packed with all those empty buildings that make downtown look like a war-zone, and you know what? It is a war- zone! It’s such a mediocre downtown that’s too small and dirt. It is very ugly! It’s so deserted and so boring with nothing to show for. Mr. McEnery’s political machine produced incompletions for the city. His political might could have yielded pride for this city, but his policy caused the redevelopment project to remain unfinished. He could have lauded the Kimball Small development to finish the rest of Silicon Financial Center project that would have infused the Pavillion center with more workers from nearby 2,3 and 4 phase of office buildings extending all the way to SJ State and get several condo towers underway, too. Tom might say, “hey, by 1989 , the money has dried up!” My respond is when Kimball Small received long term financing, Tom could have pressured him to complete atleast phase 2 which would have placed the office bldg next to retail pavillion, and the shopping center could have been saved; also, Tom could have found a way to subsidize a highrise condo at that time, albeit pressuring Small to do it, but no, he didn’t! Just that alone, we would have a downtown to be proud of. We would have had a lot of momentum to work on, and downtown would have been finished by 1995! Now, we have a downtown that’s moribound and uncompleted. It no place to take a single gal to at all. She should just go to Santana Row or just move San Francisco. San Francisco is the capital of Silicon Valley, not the little old failed San Jose. Mc Enery, the quality of live really stinks in San Jose! You shouldn’t have tried to revitalize downtown if you’re leave glass only a third full. We probably would have better quality of life with all the money not being wasted! Believe it or not, I’m the most realistic person around. Your political power ultimately mess us up because your effort is a failure, and the arena is not that so spectacular because so many other big and small cities have them. The river park is a sham! Downtown is a failure, and no single gals will ever want to go there. There’s nothing to show for. The only places I can think of are the Tech and Children Museums. They’re both failing and nothing special. The convention center is struggling, and “what, the Fairmont?” “C’mon!” They all would have been good if you have the whole complete package. You really need completion and alot of density with no big, ugly huge surface parking lot in the middle of downtown core! What a disaster! You guys left alot of gaps, and no one wants to go there. I’m sorry if I appear that I’m living in my nightmarish world, which I wish I was, but unfortunately, it’s a reality. It’s a place for all the whinos, not single gals or men. San Jose is nothing more than town that wants to be a big city but only has alot of people living in it-no big city delights. Single Gal, if you’re still reading, you should just go San Francisco, Seattle, Boston or Chicago. There are alot to do over there. Even Los Angeles is fine. The San Diego is probably your favorite choice, and I agree with you on that. Go and have fun!
MalContent #8 is correct.
SanHozay is the ‘burbs. Very few people who work downtown live downtown. I would suspect fewer than 2%. So, wahhappen @ 5:00? They all go home, either to the SanHozay ‘burbs, or satellite cities. Why would they come back dowtown? Sharks, yeah; AMTSJ, yeah; SJ Opera, yeah. But just to pub crawl or go to a restuarant downtown, unlikely.
They get stuck with either the college crowd, or the vatos locos cruisin’ down Santa Clara Street with the kicker bass set up loud, both of which scare away the money crowd and also bring out the boys in blue as the night wears on. Who needs it?
I started partying in what is now SoFA in 1976, I think. I do remember that Eulipia was then more of a college hangout called The Eulipia Crepe Cafe or something like that, with sandwiches and sprouts and lots of great music on the weekends. You couldn’t get a “respectable woman” to join you though, since it was Hooker Town. But it was safe—massive police presence just like today on Santa Clara Street/San Pedro/Square/SoFA.
Eulipia went white table cloth in 1977 or so, to attract a different crowd, but could not get enough dinner business due to all the hookers—male, female, in between, transgender, whatever. So, it was lunch only after a while. Eventually they cleaned that street sex trade up, or got it off the streets. So now Eulipia is open for dinner only, since they can’t draw a lunch crowd.
So, it’s about thirty years later now, a billion or so dollars later, or more, in public subsidies, and not much has changed. It’s time to try something new, but what? So, how do we take back the dowtown streets and convince others to join us? One thing I am sure of—until we have lots of folks living downtown who can walk to and from their partying, not much will change. Then it becomes their neighborhood someone is stinking up, and they’ll work to change it. But for us that don’t live there, we either party there and put up with the nonsense, or we go elsewhere.
Congrats, Single Gal—you have elicited more comments than any other blogger here in such a short period of time. Obviously, you have struck a chord that resonates with lots of us.
SW in SJ # 4 won’t walk from San Pedro Square to SoFA. Four-five blocks. Perhaps there are many others like her; and if so that’s a big problem for any dowtown when someone won’t walk half a mile, with places to stop in between. It’s about the same distance from San Pedro Sq. to the Shark Tank, and lots of folks walk that.
Lack of desire to hoof it a little bit is a suburban characteristic. Bet she walks father than than @ Valley Fair on a shopping day.
Dave # @:
You’re right about no need for more public transit. Hell, it’s empty already, so why would we need more empty buses. In fact, we could scrap the big deisel behemoths for twenty-person vans and save a lot on fuel.
Cabs aren’t viable. SanHozay is not a cab town. Other than the airport, the only taxi stand I have ever seen is in front of the Fairmont.
Free parking is a good idea; but if we get it free as you suggest, why would we need to scrap the automatic pay machines and hire back the cashiers?
We are the’burbs, and downtown is a dream for a few who live there, and a pipe dream for the RDA types who spent a billion dollars for stuff where no people are.
Seattle has had free buses 24/7 in its entire central busines/entertainment district, with park and ride lots at the perimeter, for a couple of decades. It solves the parking problem. But, residents there are willing to walk quite a ways, which, except for going to the Shark Tank, people here are unwilling to do. So, why the difference in attitude re walking a half mile or so?
I sent an earlier message that may not have made it…..at O’Flaherty’s on a Monday night. ALL of the restaurants are PACKED. It was suprised until I found out there is an Eagles concert tonight. Met people from Petaluma, Austin (here for the IBM convention), San Jose and San Francisco. Who said San Jose can’t have that magic touch?
Best comment of the night (from Austin-natives)…why does your downtown have so many empty buildings? Followed up by: I walked all around downtown and only found a Walgreens.
To #24 – You act like McEnery is currently the Mayor or just left office. Hmmmmmmm – Let me think – we have had two Mayors since then . . . . what have they done in comparison to McEnery . . . what have they done period . . .
Hey JMOC:
Tell me something….when is the last time you wore a pair of heels on a night out (with dancing) till 2 a.m.? Or have you walked to the arena – in a pair of heels – ran up and down the stairs inside and walked back a few times in a night? If sneakers were trendy I would wear ‘em!
Maybe Single Gal in the City can explain that one to you!
I enjoy your comments BTW!
SW
Yes, SW, men don’t know the syndrome I like to call “Bloody Stumps Syndrome”. Where you pick out the cutest pair of pointy toed, high heeled shoes and wear those for a night out. But yet, you end up walking long distances from bar to bar, and your feet feel like the foot has worn right off and you are walking on a stump. Gross, I know, but I can’t think of a better way to describe the sheer pain!
The last two mayors also screwed up, too, but McEnery started with failed vision only to have next successive mayors taking the tax-paying money from there. What a wasted tax money that could have gone to helping build affordable housing and taking care of the poor. Hence, we might have had a better downtown that’s successful and at mininal cost to the public. It would have been done without subsidy! If you’re going to use tax, then do it right and pressure the developers to carry out their end of the agreement and complete the projects. McEnery was very complacent, and that wasn’t good.
JMOC #28
People are willing to walk to the Shark Tank on game days because there are seventeen thousand other people walking with you. Try walking downtown by yourself on non game days, along the boarded up store fronts, and see why you’d rather be somewhere else.
I’m probably one of the few who actually enjoys going downtown. I was born and bred in San Jose and have lived here all of my 37 years. When ever I feel like I want a dose of the urban lifestyle, I head to downtown for dinner, theatre, a movie or even a nice liezurly stroll. Its kinda of ironic, but, the burbs have gotten so overcrowded that it’s nice to go downtown on weekends where there is peace and quiet. I say be careful what you ask for, you just might get it.
See ya later San Jose, I have moved to San Francisco. Where Giants play and the fun never ends on Union/Fillmore/North Beach/SOMA on the weekends.