Of the 158 finalists named in the Knight Foundation's Cities Challenge, which divvies up $5 million among winning ideas, eight are from San Jose.

What would make San Jose a better city? A good answer could win a slice of $5 million as part of the Knight Cities Challenge.

San Pedro Squared, a proposal to liven up a downtown San Jose parking garage with pop-up shops, won a sizable grant from the Knight Cities Challenge. Tim McCormick's Houslets project—prototyping and deploying tiny, low-cost modular homes—also won seed money.