Alaska Puts Four Daily 737s Back on the LAX–SJC Run in November

Alaska Airlines will restore San Jose–Los Angeles on November 1 after a ten-month gap. The airline first added the hop in 2017, then dropped it in January 2026 when new aircraft arrived later than planned. The replacement is not the old 76-seat Embraer E175. Four daily flights each way will use a 173-seat Boeing 737-900ER, 157 seats in economy and 16 in first, which more than doubles the metal on each departure.

Published times out of SJC start at 7:00 a.m., then 11:22 a.m., 5:15 p.m., and 7:55 p.m. LAX sends aircraft at 9:00 a.m., 2:55 p.m., 5:35 p.m., and 7:45 p.m. Block time sits a little over an hour. That schedule gives a same-day outbound and return without forcing a drive to SFO or a connection. Southwest and others already sell the corridor; another four frequencies still matter when a meeting in El Segundo or a late show at the Hollywood Bowl is the reason for the trip.

The same network shuffle cuts seven other Alaska routes. Santa Rosa loses Salt Lake City and Ontario. San Luis Obispo–Las Vegas and Sacramento–Los Cabos are gone. Seasonal Puerto Vallarta flying from Sacramento, St. Louis, and JFK already ended in April. Those markets are smaller. LAX–SJC is the one Alaska chose to put a mainline jet back on.

SJC Terminal B is where Alaska usually parks. Mileage Plan members get the first-class cabin and the usual elite perks that regional jets do not carry as comfortably. Fares will move with Southwest and the rest of the market, but more competition means downward pressure on prices. Bookings are already live on Alaska’s site for dates from November 1.

Alaska bookings: https://www.alaskaair.com/en/flights-from-los-angeles-to-san-jose

Source: Simply Flying

The Circle of Palms Lost Its Palms. Downtown Still Owns the Ground.

Contractors cut down all 32 palm trees at the Circle of Palms Plaza on Aug. 20 and finished the job by the next afternoon. The ring sat between the San Jose Museum of Art, Signia by Hilton San Jose and 50 West. City arborists found 15 trees dead or dying and the rest in decline. Some leaned. Lab samples went out to identify the cause. Removal ran about $45,000 and skipped the usual notice period because falling trunks posed an immediate risk.

The palms themselves dated to late-1980s downtown redevelopment. The ground under them is older. California Historical Landmark No. 461 marks the site of the first State Capitol, where the legislature met from 1849 to 1851. A state seal still sits in the pavement. For decades the circle hosted CityDance, holiday lights and Downtown Ice, the outdoor rink that wrapped around those trunks every winter.

Poppy & Claro opened last year on the ground floor of 50 West and built its name around the plaza. Neighbors who work or eat there now look at an open disk of concrete instead of a green ring. District 3 Councilmember Anthony Tordillos asked the city to pause, gather stakeholders and run a real public process before anyone plants the next idea. The San Jose Downtown Association called the empty plaza a chance to rethink what the space should do for people who live, work and visit the core.

That conversation belongs to anyone who has skated there in December, walked through after a museum show or grabbed lunch on the edge of the circle. New trees, different shade, a redesigned floor, or a layout that still holds an ice rink are all on the table once feedback starts. Tordillos hoped that work would begin before the year ends.

Downtown San Jose already proved it can turn a historic capitol site into a living room. The palms are gone. The landmark, the seal and the habit of gathering there remain. Readers who want a say should watch city and Downtown Association channels for the first workshop dates.

Additional information will come from the City of San Jose Transportation Department and the San Jose Downtown Association as the outreach calendar is set.

Source: Silicon Valley Business Journal

Playful People Puts the Year’s Fundraising Night in a 1915 Craftsman Clubhouse

Tickets opened today for “The Magic Is Us,” the annual gala that keeps Playful People Productions running classes, camps, and family casts at San Jose’s Historic Hoover Theater. The party lands Saturday, September 19, from 5 to 10 p.m. at Saratoga Foothill Club, 20399 Park Place, a 1915 American Craftsman hall on the National Register. Guests must be 21 or older. Cocktail clothes are welcome and not mandatory. Individual seats are $200, of which $50 is tax-deductible.

Playful People started in 2010 and became a 501(c)(3) in 2017. Sixteen seasons later the company still takes beginners, stages kids and adults in the same seasons, and lets relatives share a bill when the script allows. The incoming slate already includes Shrek the Musical Jr. in late September and a homeschool Winnie the Pooh at the end of October. Tuition and ticket sales never cover the whole machine. The gala is the night that fills the gap for students across income levels.

The clubhouse evening will run heavy appetizers, desserts, a cash bar, short performances, and dancing. Auction lots include a home tea party with founders Barb Galiotto and Katie D’Arcey, a floral class for ten with Gal in the Glen and alum Jill Maggi, and a murder-mystery dinner for up to ten hosted by staff. Five VIP tables at $3,000 each come with two bottles of wine and a show-theme pick; a few were still listed when tickets went public. Smaller sponsorships start at $100. Cash matches run from $500 to $5,000. Anyone skipping the party can still buy into the online auction or sponsor a staff member.

A separate travel raffle is selling 150 tickets only in person at Hoover Theater: $100 each or six for $500, drawn at the gala, winner’s choice of a five-night trip to Hawaii, Huntington Beach, or the Greek Isles, cap of $4,550. Winners need not attend. Phone orders for the gala itself go through (408) 878-5362.

Gala tickets: https://bit.ly/4bYwUMc

Playful People season and Hoover box office: https://www.playfulpeople.org/

Salsa Fest Takes South First Street on September 12

San Jose Salsa Fest and Night Market is set for Saturday, September 12, from 2 to 9 p.m. in the SoFA District. Organizers are pointing people to 300–400 South First Street, the same stretch that holds First Fridays most months. Promo tickets are selling through a PayPal link from the Salsa Fest San Jose account. Below are all of the details:

"Get ready for an afternoon and evening filled with live Latin music, dancing, incredible food, and community celebration at Salsa Fest Street Festival in Downtown San Jose. Whether you’re coming to dance salsa and cumbia or simply enjoy delicious eats and live entertainment, this festival offers something for everyone. Hosted by Opening Doors Silicon Valley, this community festival also supports programs that serve low-income seniors, families, and people experiencing homelessness. Event Details • Saturday, September 12, 2026 • 2:00 PM – 9:00 PM • Parque de los Pobladores & South First Street • Downtown San Jose, CA • Admission: Check the official event page for current admission information. What to Expect • Live salsa, cumbia, and Latin music • Dancing throughout the day • Local food vendors • Foodie Extravaganza • Shopping from local vendors • Community celebration benefiting Opening Doors Silicon Valley Parking & Transit • Downtown San Jose offers several public parking garages within walking distance. • VTA Light Rail and Caltrain provide convenient access to downtown, making public transit a great option if you plan to stay for the evening. Pro Tips • Arrive early to enjoy the food vendors before peak dinner crowds. • Wear comfortable shoes—you’ll likely be dancing for hours. • Bring cash and a card, as different vendors may accept different payment methods. • September afternoons can still be warm, so stay hydrated and wear sunscreen. • Bring a light sweater for the evening once temperatures cool down. • Explore nearby restaurants, cafés, and bars after the festival if you want to continue your night in downtown San Jose. Spend your Saturday surrounded by music, dancing, amazing food, and one of Northern California’s liveliest Latin celebrations."

Promo tickets: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/RR8JDSPYTBKF6

Event listing: https://sabaki.dance/event/8b860015-c9e4-4bd8-9241-2a065365b72c

Instagram: @salsafestsanjose

Kristina Micotti Opens “Where’s Your Head At?” in Japantown on Saturday

Empire Seven Studios will hang a solo show by Bay Area illustrator Kristina Micotti from September 5 through September 27. The reception is Saturday, September 5, 6 to 9 p.m. at 525 North Seventh Street, Suite 10, a few blocks into Japantown. The title is “Where’s Your Head At?” The walls will carry animal heads, mostly tigers and gorillas, painted as stand-ins for the mood of a given day rather than as wildlife studies.

Micotti works from kitchen tables and her daughter’s art desk. She is known for merchandise as much as for gallery pieces: hats, stickers, apparel that let people take the drawings home. This body of work grew out of early motherhood, the identity shift, the anger, and the delight she did not want to journal. Googly eyes and offset features keep the pictures from turning into lectures. The animals are not gendered on purpose. Anyone who has had a week can recognize a yelling gorilla.

E7S has been one of the more reliable rooms in the North Seventh corridor for local painters and printmakers. A Saturday opening there usually means a packed suite, a drink in a plastic cup, and a chance to buy work before the good pieces leave. The show stays up three weeks after that, which is enough time to go back without the reception crowd.

Exhibition page: https://www.empiresevenstudios.com/blog-empiresevenstudios-e7s-artgallery/2026/7/31/wheres-your-head-at-a-solo-exhibition-by-kristina-micotti

Empire Seven Studios, 525 N. 7th St., Suite 10, San Jose

San Jose Metro Outpaced San Francisco on Apartment Permits This Year

Federal building-permit numbers through June put the San Jose metro area well ahead of the San Francisco metro on new apartment units, even though the San Francisco region holds more than twice the population. A Business Journals review of Census data found builders here secured a 350 percent jump in apartment units approved in the first half of 2026 versus the same stretch of 2025, a gain of more than 2,000 units. Compared with the first half of 2021, the San Jose area roughly doubled its apartment tally. Single-family permits locally stayed nearly flat.

The San Francisco metro, which includes Oakland, Berkeley, Hayward and parts of the North Bay, moved in the opposite direction on apartments. Through June those jurisdictions posted a 13.8 percent drop in apartment permits from the first half of 2025 and a 48 percent drop from 2021, equal to 2,135 fewer apartment units than five years earlier. Single-family permits there rose 12.2 percent year over year but still sat 35 percent below the 2021 midpoint.

Raw totals for all housing types stayed close: 3,729 permits in the San Jose metro against 3,854 in the much larger San Francisco metro. That near-tie on a smaller population base is the detail worth sitting with. Nationwide, builders received approval for 22 percent fewer units than in the first half of 2021, when construction ran at a post-pandemic peak. The South Bay’s apartment spike ran against that national slump.

Permits are not keys in the door. They do signal that lenders, cities and developers found projects worth stamping in a region that still needs tens of thousands of homes to meet state targets. Downtown San Jose towers, mid-rise blocks near transit and scattered multifamily sites all feed that count. Anyone watching whether Silicon Valley can house the people who work here now has a midyear scoreboard that favors the San Jose side of the bay.

Keep an eye on second-half numbers. A strong first six months only matters if the permits turn into occupied units.

Source: Silicon Valley Business Journal

BitterBuck Soft-Opens Today in Fountain Alley!

Cache Bouren and Tomoyo Yoshinaga will crack BitterBuck this Friday, September 4, on Fountain Alley between First and Second, next to Goodtime Bar. First Street is a construction mess, so the working entrance is on the Second Street side. The pair already run the exceptional Haberdasher and Cash Only. This room splits the day in two: pour-over coffee until 4 p.m., then amaro and spritz until 10.

There is no espresso machine. Five pour-overs and two Chromatic cold brews, beans roasted locally, can land as a boilermaker with a side of amaro. Andytown Shore Leave Hook with Sfumato Rabarbaro. Tico Huila with Cynar. Boast Mexico with Vecchio del Capo. Kenz Ethiopia with Pasubio. Chromatic decaf with Brucato Woodlands. Nitro cold brew with Tuve Fernet. Pastries come from The Midwife and the Baker. Sweet and savory pies come from Sweetdragon Baking Co.

After 4 the menu flips. The house Garibaldi is a shaken, foamy mix of orange, grapefruit, Select, and Campari. Three things sit on tap: a cold-brew martini, Chromatic nitro, and Guinness. Citrus juice stays off almost every other drink; acidity comes from verjus, the juice of unripe grapes. Small plates come out of their own kitchen. Notch Gonzalez, who did Dr. Funk, designed the interior.

Fountain Alley already holds Goodtime, Scratch Cookery, and Fox Tale. Another 7 a.m. room on that brick strip is useful if the day starts before the rest of Downtown San Jose wakes up, and useful again if the night wants bitter rather than sweet. Soft openings fill fast in a space this small. Walk in from Second, order the Garibaldi or a pour-over with Cynar, and decide which half of the day belongs there.

Instagram: @bitterbucksj

Source: Scott Firestone from San José: Downtown Dwellers ESTD. 2009

Downtown Parking Lot Beside Hammer Theatre Gets a Final Yes for 168 Affordable Homes

City planning staff signed off September 2 on a seven-story building at 143 South Third Street that will replace a surface lot next to Hammer Theatre Center. Sobrato Organization owns the land. Pacific West Communities will build it. The approved plan calls for 168 apartments: 133 for low-income households, 33 for very-low-income households, and two market-rate manager units. In Santa Clara County this year that means roughly $113,700 for a single low-income renter and $71,950 for a very-low-income one, with higher caps for a family of four.

Five floors of housing will sit on a five-story garage, a block from the San Antonio light-rail station and a short walk from SJSU, restaurants, and the Paseo de San Antonio. Sobrato bought the parcel in 2010 with denser housing in mind. An earlier luxury-office idea never left the paper. This version uses Density Bonus Law and SB 330 streamlining, which is why the director-level hearing, not a long council fight, closed the file.

Neighbors at the hearing pushed back on Saturday construction starting at 7 a.m. The same voices asked for a living edge along the Paseo instead of a blank garage wall. Pacific West’s Lauren Alexander told the room the team is looking at artwork and a rotating gallery on that side. Groundbreaking has no public date yet. The developers want a two-year build if extended hours hold.

San Jose still has a state assignment north of 62,000 housing units to plan through 2031.

City planning agendas: https://www.sanjoseca.gov/your-government/departments-offices/planning-building-code-enforcement/planning-division

Source: The Mercury News

SoFA’s First Friday of September Puts Art in the Street From 5-10

South First Fridays returns Friday, September 4, from 5 to 10 p.m. across the SoFA District and a few rooms beyond it. Galleries stay open late with free entry. Street Mrkt sets up on South First Street in front of Anno Domini and KALEID, which is the outdoor spine of the night: painters, glass, ceramics, zines, henna, a music bus, and three food trucks. 3 Brothers Kitchen, 3 Hermanos Mexican Grill, and Me Oi Vietnamese Kitchen will feed the block. Street parking is free after 6. City garages at South Third and San Carlos still offer the usual 90-minute window.

Anno Domini at 366 South First will hang Brandan Styles’s “Blissful Rituals for a Mad World.” KALEID at 320 South First opens Judy Rookstool’s “Bring It” with a reception from 5 to 9. MACLA shows Viviana Paredes. Phantom Galleries at the Pierce apartments gives Force129 a solo called “Reimagined.” The San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles has Samantha Saldaña in “A Mi Manera / My Own Way.” Chopsticks Alley Gallery pairs Charlene Tan’s “Pearls Remember” with a 7 p.m. ekphrastic poetry set. Works/San José opens “Overtime: the Work of Living,” a 38-artist look at what people do when nobody is clocking them. Art Ark on South Sixth and Machu Picchu Gallery at the Citadel extend the walk into Martha Gardens.

For live music, San Jose Jazz runs the SJZ Break Room from 6 p.m., with the Michael Webster Quartet at 6:15 and an open jam from 7 to 9 for anyone who brought an instrument. Opera San José will put Nicole Koh, Courtney Miller, Micah Perry, and Ethan Chu on First Street in two short sets, plus lemonade, popcorn, and a scavenger hunt that can turn into free Don Giovanni tickets. A few blocks north, the San José Museum of Art’s own First Friday, “Rhinestone Skies,” runs 6 to 9 with drag, poetry, and kids’ tables if the walk needs a second destination.

CURATUS still produces the night as a spend-it-with-the-artists event, not a ticketed festival. Buy a print. Tip the trucks. Sit through the jam. September 4 is the first First Friday of the fall season, which means the weather usually cooperates and the sidewalks fill early. Start at First and San Carlos and walk south until the galleries thin out.

Full lineup and map: https://www.southfirstfridays.com/2026/09/september-4-2026-south-first-fridays-artwalksj-street-mrkt-indie-urban-art-faire/

SJMA First Fridays that same night: https://sjmusart.org/event/first-fridays-rhinestone-skies

Fugetsu Packs Another Japanese Market Into the South Bay, and San Jose Already Has a Seat at the Table

Fugetsu Japanese Market & Goods has settled into a roughly 1,600-square-foot shop at 3409 El Camino Real in Santa Clara, giving the Osaka-born brand a third South Bay foothold after its takeout counter on Moorpark Avenue in San Jose and its okonomiyaki kitchen inside Rokko in Sunnyvale. Westsiders who already duck into the Suite 20 shop at 4342 Moorpark Avenue for boxed lunches now have a second grab-and-go stop a short drive north. The Santa Clara store soft-opened in March, then spent weeks selling only snacks and collectibles while the city sorted a permit issue. Fresh bento, onigiri, sushi, and desserts returned in mid-July, and the shop has kept daily hours around 11:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.

The new room sits in Nobili Plaza, a Biagini Properties strip with frontage on El Camino Real and parking right at the door. Mapo BBQ already shares the center, and ChaHalo tea, jeweler Joyalukkas, and Indo-Chinese restaurant Garam Mirchi have posted coming-soon signs. Inside Fugetsu, the mix feels less like a full supermarket and more like a Japanese department-store food hall shrunk to neighborhood size: premade plates from local kitchens, packaged snacks and drinks, plus shelves of anime goods, toys, and trading cards. That hybrid grew out of a pandemic rewrite. The company had planned a traditional sit-down restaurant for its second U.S. site, then rebuilt the idea around takeout meals and packaged favorites once dining rooms shut down.

The Santa Clara opening arrives in the middle of a wider South Bay run of Japanese market concepts. In April, restaurateur Lily Peng and the Taro San team opened Yutori at 3375 El Camino Real in Palo Alto, taking over the old Corner Bakery Cafe with matcha and coffee drinks, house-made pastries, and a convenience-store aisle of imported snacks, produce, and bento. Farther south, Downtown San Jose finally got a true grocer again when Sakura Market opened at 184 South Market Street, next to Spartan Village on the Paseo. The Osaka Marketplace team filled a long-empty storefront with imported groceries, cosmetics, a matcha counter, a self-serve ramen station, a sushi buffet sold by weight, and plans for a sake and beer bar.

That Downtown location matters as much as the food. San Jose’s core lost its last conventional grocery when Safeway closed in 2019, and residents, hotel guests, and SJSU students had to leave the neighborhood for everyday staples. Sakura will not replace a full supermarket, but it puts rice balls, sashimi, snacks, and household goods within walking distance of the Signia hotel and the Paseo. Pair that with Fugetsu’s existing West San Jose market and the brand’s Sunnyvale dining room, and the city now sits inside a tighter web of Japanese retail instead of watching it collect only on the Peninsula.

A grand opening stretch at the Santa Clara Fugetsu runs Friday, September 5 through Monday, September 7, with samples and giveaways. After that, keep both local addresses in the rotation: 4342 Moorpark Avenue in San Jose for a quick Westside pickup, and 3409 El Camino Real when the drive up El Camino makes more sense. Downtown shoppers can walk into Sakura at 184 South Market Street, Suite 120, most days from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Source: Silicon Valley Business Journal