Downtown San Jose Treasure Hunt on Aug 25th!

Are you looking for something really cool to do over the weekend? The Preservation Action Council of San Jose (PAC*SJ) is hosting a Downtown Treasure Hunt at 3pm this Sunday! This organization's goal is to preserve the architectural heritage in San Jose as well as promote development that keeps the city vibrant. Part of the proceeds from this event will help support PAC*SJ.

The hunt starts at Plaza de Cesar Chavez where participants will have to follow clues which will lead them to some of the most interesting historic buildings in the area. The hunt ends in Sonoma Chicken Coop and there will be small prizes for the winning teams. The Treasure Hunt is free for kids and teens and $10 for adults. For more information on PAC*SJ, head over to their website over here. More information on the event is below!

Content Magazine "Pick Up Party" Today!

It looks like Content Magazine's Pick Up Parties are getting better and better! Today's party is at the Montalvo Arts Center and includes a free glass of wine for subscribers, food trucks, and a guided tour of the grounds at 7:30pm. The event goes from 6-8pm. If you are not a subscriber, you can find more information over here.

Whole Foods Breaks Ground Tomorrow!

This has been a long time coming--Whole Foods is finally starting construction of their store on the Alameda a stones-throw away from Downtown San Jose! Shovels hit the ground tomorrow. The project consists of a 27,291 SQFT grocery store with a separate 5,6000 SQFT two-story brewery (the first in the Whole Foods chain).

A lot of people doubted that this would move forward, so it is nice to see this actually come to fruition. Everyone that lives near The Alameda or Downtown should be thrilled!

Source: SVBJ

EPIC NEWS: KT Properties Planning Two New Towers in San Pedro Area!!!

Downtown fans are about to have even more to look forward to! Nathan Donato-Weinstein from the Silicon Valley Business Journal broke a story last week that made my month. KT Properties--the developer behind Axis and One South Market--has acquired a huge 1.7-acre block of land between The San Pedro Square Market and City Heights. They are planning to build two high-rise residential towers with more than 600 units!

KT properties has not released any sort of architectural drawing yet, but based on how Axis and the final design of One South turned out... I have high hopes that the buildings will look impressive. They did mention that they could have done one giant building but opted to go with two to add more texture to the skyline. Thankfully the buildings will not be identical like many towers Downtown, but they will have similarities. Also both towers will be towards the north of the lot to minimize visual impact around the historic Fallon House.

There will also be a "significant" retail component extending along San Pedro Street! This is yet another organic expansion (in addition to Centerra) of the Downtown retail and entertainment epicenter started by the San Pedro Square Market.

The plans should be submitted to City Hall in the next few weeks and they are hoping to get all approvals by the first quarter of 2014. That will mean a groundbreaking could happen as soon as mid-2014, but we'll have to wait and see. Great way to start the week!

Source: SVBJ

America's Happiest Person is a 23-Year-Old, Coffee-Drinking Republican in San Jose

Okay, this is a fun article. It looks at various stats to determine who would be the happiest person in the US. After discovering that 23-year-olds are the happiest people, the writer went on to discover that the happiest 23-year-olds live in San Jose. The article mentions that part of this is likely due to the fact that that professionals in San Jose are genuinely nice, happy people who are kind to their coworkers. It's an interesting read, so check out the full article at the source link below.

Source: Yahoo News

Saturday Stats: San Jose Ranks as One of the Most "Saintly" Cities

Movato has created a list of the most "Saintly" cities in the US by looking at the statistics related to the 7 Deadly Sins. Specifically they looked at the following:

• Strip clubs per capita (Lust)
• Cosmetic surgeons per capita (Pride)
• Violent crime per year per 1,000 residents (Wrath)
• Theft per year per 1,000 residents (Envy)
• Percentage of disposable income given to charity each year (Greed)
• Percentage of obese residents (Gluttony)
• Percentage of physically inactive residents (Sloth)

After crunching the numbers, San Jose came in as the 9th most "Saintly." SF did not even rank in the top 50 and surprisingly NYC came in 1st (surprising to me at least). To check out the full article which goes deep into the logic of the metrics, click here. You can also find the lists below:

List of Most Saintly Cities:
1. New York, NY
2. Gilbert, AZ
3. Fremont, CA
4. Glendale, CA
5. Chula Vista, CA
6. Colorado Springs, CO
7. Chandler, AZ
8. Long Beach, CA
9. San Jose, CA
10. Irvine, CA

Click to enlarge the full list below:



Source: Movoto

Walmart is Replacing Circuit City on Stevens Creek

The former Circuit City at 4080 Stevens Creek in San Jose is about to get a radical makeover. Walmart is planning to turn it into a 45,000 SQFT Neighborhood Market (not a full-blown Walmart). The store will offer groceries, some home items, prepared food, a deli, and a pharmacy. However, this store is not without controversy. Below is a letter sent in from one of our readers:

"Hello Josh,
I wanted to alert you and others to what's been going on with plans for a Walmart Neighborhood Market to take over an old Circuit City at 4080 Stevens Creek Boulevard and an upcoming Planning Commission hearing on the matter Wednesday, August 14th. Here is a link to a recent story in the Silicon Valley Business Journal about the proposed Market. http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/news/2013/08/06/walmart-grocery-store-confirmed-for.html
My family and several of my neighbors are very concerned about Walmart moving into the neighborhood and are just as troubled by the way the City of San Jose has essentially steamrolled this project over the public.
We have submitted a petition with over 100 signatures to the City asking them to deny Walmart their request for a permit for off-site alcohol sales at the proposed site on Stevens Creek Boulevard as we have been told that the City has little discretion over anything else. Right now, there are approximately 50 liquor licenses within a 2 mile radius of the proposed site; Walmart's would be number 51! We also have a fair amount of crime in the area and are concerned about attracting more crime to the area and jeopardizing public safety with off-site sales of alcohol until 12am.
Planning staff for the City has been anything but helpful with requests for information. Most recently, the City “accidentally”sent out the public notice for the upcoming Planning Commission and City Council hearings regarding Walmart’s permit requests with the wrong day of the week next to the City Council hearing date on the notice. When we asked planning staff to correct the mistake and resend out the notice so that residents aren’t confused and try to attend the City Council meeting on Wednesday instead of the correct day, Tuesday, August 20th, staff said that because the date was right, they did not have to resend it. When pressed further on it, they agreed only to resend it to people who attended and commented at the initial community meeting that they had quickly noticed about a month ago. Finally, when being told that what they were doing was not legal, staff recanted and said that they would resend a revised Notice out to everyone in a 1,000 foot radius after all.
Staff also recently stated that the public request for a traffic study analysis was determined unnecessary because the City determined that the former use of a Circuit City was similar to the proposed traffic that a major grocery store like the proposed Walmart Neighborhood Market would generate. Comparing traffic generated from a failed store selling electronics and desktop computers is a far cry from traffic that will be generated by a major grocery store at the same site, yet the City will not conduct a proper traffic analysis.
Overall, we just want to get the word out about this project and the upcoming public hearings as the City seems to have already made up their mind about giving Walmart the off-site alcohol sales permit regardless of what the residents who will have to live with the impacts have to think. We appreciate anything you can do to bring light to this project and on what the City is doing. Thank you for your time and consideration."

Source: SVBJ, Anonymous

August 2013 Downtown Dimension Highlights

Here are my notes from the latest edition of Downtown Dimension:

• The SJ Storefronts Initiative will help small businesses lease vacant spaces up to 20,000 SQFT by providing as much as a $16k grant (in the form of reduced or eliminated building and occupancy permits). Note this is targeted directly at retail, restaurants and service-oriented businesses do not qualify.
• Bike sharing goes live this month with a fleet of 200 bicycles across 20 different stations located Downtown (and one in Japantown).
• SP2 is now open in the San Pedro Square area.
• Konjoe Burger Bar is now open at the San Pedro Square Market [Josh: and it is awesome, Bray Butcher Shop is also open].
• The Fairmont is doing a $5M renovation, including mirror TVs in the bathrooms, new beds, and decor.
• The Gold Club bikini bar had its grand opening Aug 8-10th.
• BJ's is replacing Chevy's at the San Jose MarketCenter on Coleman.
• Cisco has decided to invest $50,000 each year in ZER01.
• The Hackworth IMAX Dome Theater at The Tech is one of the top 10 attended IMAX's in the US.

To read the full newsletter, click here!