Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Golden Gate Bridge and AT&T Park Floats in the San Jose Holiday Parade

I Just saw this info below on the Daily Fetch:

"In a somewhat related note:  The (San Jose-hating) San Francisco Giants (or two of them at least) will be in the San Jose Holiday Parade this weekend.  Andres Torres and Sergio Romo (of bad-beard fame) will be the grand marshalls of the parade and sit on the NBC float.  That should make Lew Wolff plenty pissed… Not only that, the NBC float “will feature the Golden Gate Bridge, AT&T Park, sailing ships, and fog“… none of which have anything to do with the San Jose, which should make the City of San Jose pretty pissed off… Perhaps the new name of the parade should be, the San Francisco Holiday Parade at San Jose…"


This makes me furious. The Daily Fetch nails this one on the head... the NBC float HAS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH SAN JOSE. This isn't the first time that NBC has made a stupid, yes stupid, decision offending the South Bay. Most of you probably don't remember this from last year but I will never forget. Here is the text from a commercial NBC Bay Area ran to PROMOTE the innaugeral season of Broadway San Jose:

"Lawrence Scott, NBC Bay Area, here at the San Jose Center of the Performing Arts during Broadway San Jose's first ever Season. You know I've heard people in the city say that San Jose is limited in its culture and that it is basically like Fresno with money. Which I think is totally rude, I know plenty of people in Fresno with money. Fore more information... [blah blah]."


So what's the deal NBC Bay Area? Do you simply view us as culture-less money bags in San Francisco's armpit with no rights to having an autonomous city? I would really appreciate some clarification. Thanks.

5 comments:

  1. I hope they get pummeled with rotten fruit.

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  2. Ok, just to play devil's advocate here, KNTV is the NBC affiliate for the ENTIRE Bay Area, including both SF and SJ. So the GGB is not entirely out of place. Yes it'd be cool to be more Silicon Valley centered, but really it's just as appropriate as featuring Oakland or Berkeley or Palo Alto. We do all live in the same region after all.

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  3. That's completely understandable regarding the news coverage, but I think the float is unacceptable in a San Jose-oriented parade. BTW, KNTV offices are actually located in San Jose.

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  4. I wrote an Email to the coordinators of the parade and CC'd the Mayor and Sam Liccardo (since Downtown is his district) that you might enjoy:

    "To those in charge of the San Jose Holiday Parade:

    Perhaps you read today's article by Gary Peterson in the Mercury News: http://www.mercurynews.com/southbaybaseball/ci_16763888

    They're laughing at us. The cities of Oakland and San Francisco are laughing at us. In the middle of a battle with the Giants to bring the A's to San Jose, our own Holiday Parade is honoring Giants players. How does this make sense? Are you completely unaware of the proposed A's stadium downtown?

    San Jose is on the cusp of finally gaining some legitimacy as a city, something more than the giant suburb south of San Francisco. The Holiday Parade is an event that is supposed to help us get there. A baseball team will absolutely help us get there. To have such discordance between these two just shows ignorance on your part as parade planners.

    In the future, I hope you will use better judgment in choosing who you honor with this parade and how they reflect on the city of San Jose as a whole."

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  5. That's fantastic Jon! Thanks for taking the initiative to do this. I'm positive Sam Liccardo and Chuck Reed will also not be happy about the situation.

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