Five Casts of Shrek Jr. Take Over Hoover Theater from September 25

Playful People Productions will run Shrek the Musical Jr. at Historic Hoover Theater, 1635 Park Avenue, from September 25 through October 4. Two age bands share the stage across the ten days: performers five to twelve in one set of casts, twelve to seventeen in the other. Shannon Santandrea and Emily Pennington co-direct. The score is Jeanine Tesori’s, the book David Lindsay-Abaire’s, shortened for young companies but still built around an ogre who would rather stay in his swamp than rescue a princess for Lord Farquaad.

Five named casts split the calendar so families can pick a time that actually works. Castle Cast opens Friday the 25th at 7 p.m., then plays Saturday the 26th at 3 and Sunday the 27th at 11. Duloc Cast takes Saturday the 26th at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m., plus Sunday the 27th at 3. The second weekend belongs to Parfait, Swamp, and Onion, with Friday the 2nd starting at 5 and 8 p.m. and Sunday the 4th stretching from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Check the ticket page before buying; each listing names its cast.

Tickets sit at $20 for youth twelve and under, $23 for students thirteen to seventeen, and $28 for adults. The City of San José Cultural Affairs grant and SVCreates money, in partnership with Santa Clara County, help keep those prices in family range. Playful People has worked out of Hoover since the company formed in 2010 and became a 501(c)(3) in 2017. The same shop still runs adult classes and multi-generational shows when a script allows relatives on the same bill.

Tickets: https://www.playfulpeople.org/tickets

Company info: https://www.playfulpeople.org or (408) 878-5362

A Family Grocer and a New Gym Fill Cornerstone in Los Gatos

South and West San Jose shoppers will soon have two new reasons to pull into Cornerstone Shopping Center. Family-owned Gus’s Community Market signed on for the 18,125-square-foot space Whole Foods left behind at 15980 Los Gatos Blvd., with an opening targeted for April or May 2027. Club Studio Fitness is slated to open this September in the former Rite Aid at 15920 Los Gatos Blvd.

Gus’s will be the first store the Vardakastanis family has opened outside San Francisco, where five markets already serve neighborhoods from the Haight to Mission Bay. The Los Gatos shop will carry produce, full-service meat and seafood, sushi, specialty groceries, beer and wine, plus extras the SF stores do not yet have: house-baked breads, customizable prepared-food bowls, and a café with an indoor-outdoor patio. Landlord Cilker put about $2.5 million into the two spaces and now reports the center at full occupancy, with neighbors that include Hanna’s Noodle Bar, SkinSpirit and Shepherd & Sims.

The grocery map along that stretch keeps shifting. Whole Foods moved into a larger building a short drive away. Nob Hill Foods, a fixture less than a mile from Cornerstone, plans to close in June 2027 after its parent company declined to renew the lease. Lunardi’s remains nearby. Cilker’s team picked Gus’s for a smaller, service-heavy model rather than another big-box format, betting that shoppers from Almaden, Cambrian and Willow Glen will notice the difference in the aisle and at the counter.

Club Studio brings boutique classes, a full gym floor and wellness amenities under one membership. The Orange County-based chain signed a 10-year lease; Gus’s signed 15 years with options. Together the two leases turn a pair of empty boxes into a grocery-and-workout stop that sits a quick hop from southern San Jose neighborhoods.

Source: Silicon Valley Business Journal

San José Chamber Orchestra Opens Its 36th Season by Handing Off the Baton

Barbara Day Turner will leave the podium after 35 seasons as founder of the San José Chamber Orchestra. Concertmaster Liana Bérubé takes the title of Music Director for season 36. The handoff concert is Sunday, September 27, at 7 p.m. at St. Francis Episcopal Church, 1205 Pine Avenue in Willow Glen. The program is called “Brava, Maestra!” Street parking around the church is free and usually adequate on a Sunday night.

Turner’s ledger is the reason the evening exists. More than 260 commissions or premieres. Seven CDs of American music. Five ASCAP/League of American Orchestras Adventurous Programming Awards. The ensemble is a professional string group of twenty-plus players that still treats new work as normal rather than a special occasion. City Cultural Affairs money and SVCreates funds, with the County and the California Arts Council, help keep that habit alive.

Bérubé will conduct and play. The bill is Jeremy Cohen’s “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen,” Marc-Olivier Dupin’s Variations on La Traviata with Bérubé as violin soloist, Steven Mark Kohn’s Hymn for string orchestra, Michael Touchi’s Tango Barroco with David Cortez on soprano saxophone and Adrienne Malley on English horn, and Max Wolpert’s “Lid un Tantsn,” String Quartet No. 3. None of it is a greatest-hits night. It is the kind of program Turner spent three decades training this room to play.

Tickets run $25 for students, $65 or $75 for seniors 62 and up, and $75 or $85 for adults, with no added fees. Buy online, call 408.295.4416, email the box office, or pay at the door. The rest of the season stays at St. Francis: November 15, New Year’s afternoon with Jon Nakamatsu, then dates in March, April, and May.

Tickets: https://sjco.org/

Phone: 408.295.4416

Candlelit Evening of Ennio Morricone Scores Arrives at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph

The unforgettable film music of Ennio Morricone will fill the Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph in Downtown San Jose on Thursday, October 29, when a candlelit piano and strings program makes its California premiere. Five musicians—a string quartet and pianist—will perform a 70-minute selection of the composer’s most iconic scores beneath the basilica’s great dome, with doors opening at 7:00 p.m. and the concert beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Listeners can expect themes that have stayed with audiences long after the credits rolled, including the haunting whistle and guitar of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, the soaring Ecstasy of Gold, the tender melodies from Cinema Paradiso, Gabriel’s Oboe from The Mission, and selections from Once Upon a Time in America, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Untouchables, and more. The intimate arrangement lets every phrase and silence register clearly inside the resonant space.

Candlelight, a specially designed lighting installation, and the basilica’s historic architecture will frame the music. The building, whose parish roots reach back to 1803 and whose present structure dates to 1877, offers stained-glass windows, a rare 1886 Odell organ, and acoustics that give the scores an added luminous quality. The production, which has already toured European cathedrals and concert halls, arrives in San Jose as a quiet, focused alternative to larger orchestral evenings.

Tickets start at $45 and are available through Eventbrite. Public parking sits in nearby Downtown garages, and early arrival is recommended. This single evening offers a chance to experience cinema’s most memorable melodies in one of the city’s most striking sacred spaces.

Tickets and further details are available on Eventbrite.

XL Bar Files In at the Old Renegades Address on Taylor Street

A tavern-style spot called XL Bar is slated for the 1,440-square-foot room at 501 W. Taylor St., the address Renegades occupied until May. California ABC records list Erika Dominguez as the applicant for a Type 48 on-sale liquor license. A window permit still shows the space is not yet licensed to pour. Management did not comment when reporters called.

The building sits across from San Jose Market Center, the busy cluster anchored by Target, Marshalls, Sprouts and Trader Joe’s, a short hop from Downtown San Jose’s core. Foot traffic from grocery runs and evening errands could feed a neighborhood tavern if the license clears and the doors open.

Renegades closed May 8 after the death of longtime owner Luis Sarmiento. Staff and regulars tried to keep the room going. A May post from the bar’s account said the landlords had chosen a different tenant. Whether XL Bar’s operators had any role in that decision remains unclear. Renegades had served as one of San Jose’s last dedicated gay bars, a home for karaoke, drag nights and softball teams since the 1970s.

The city’s queer nightlife map is thinner than it once was. San Jose counted about 14 gay bars in earlier decades. Splash and Mac’s Club still operate on Post Street inside the Qmunity District. Those two rooms now carry more of the late-night weight for LGBTQ+ residents and visitors. Anyone who misses the Taylor Street circle can still find drag, dancing and a patio a few blocks closer to City Hall.

A new tavern next to a grocery center is ordinary city news until the license posts and the lights go on. What matters for San Jose is whether the block stays lively and whether the Qmunity District keeps getting the crowds it earned. Stop by Post Street in the meantime.

Source: Silicon Valley Business Journal

Mid-Autumn Festival (Tết Trung Thu) Comes to Grand Century on September 26

Mid-Autumn Festival, Tết Trung Thu in Vietnamese, falls on Friday, September 25 this year. Story Road is marking it the next afternoon. Visit San Jose lists Mid-Autumn Festival Bay Area at Grand Century Mall, 1111 Story Road, starting at 4 p.m. on Saturday, September 26. The mall sits in Little Saigon, the stretch of East San Jose filled with delicious bánh mì shops and herbal stores.

The event features free lanterns for children, music, performances, games, food, and storytelling. There is a mooncake giveaway along with free gifts for the first 500 families along with live music and cultural performances.

Grand Century is indoor-outdoor and already crowded on weekends. Arrive after 4 if the goal is lanterns after the heat drops. Bring cash for mall vendors if you want the best deals.

The same Saturday also has a morning Moon Festival at Children’s Discovery Museum, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with Yun Yee Tong lion dance and playdough mooncakes. Andrew P. Hill High School will hold its large children’s Moon Festival on September 19.

Visit San Jose listing: https://www.sanjose.org/events/mid-autumn-festival-bay-area

Story Road events: https://www.visitstoryroad.org/events1

Five Wounds Plan Would Stack 8,000 Homes Around a Future BART Stop

The City published the draft Environmental Impact Report for the Five Wounds Urban Village Plan in mid-August. Comments on the draft plan itself are due Friday, October 2. The umbrella document folds four older village plans into one 427-acre map: Five Wounds, Little Portugal, Roosevelt Park, and 24th and William. The box runs from King Road to Coyote Creek and from Lower Silver Creek down to East San Fernando, East William, and East San Antonio. The reason for the rewrite is the planned 28th Street / Little Portugal BART station.

Housing capacity inside that box would rise from about 2,022 units to 8,022. Job capacity would fall from about 4,855 to 2,500. Commercial floor area is pegged at 750,000 square feet. Buildings could reach 270 feet near the station, with a public plaza and mobility hub on the BART site. Density is meant to sit on East Julian and McKee and inside the four old village cores, not on every bungalow lot.

That swap, more homes and fewer office jobs, matches what the city has been doing near Diridon and Downtown San Jose. East Santa Clara already has Five Wounds Portuguese National Church, small grocers, and a lot of one- and two-story commercial. The plan text talks about keeping existing neighborhoods, small businesses, and housing while new construction lands at the station. Whether 270-foot towers next to that church feel like preservation will be the argument at Planning Commission and Council later this year.

VTA is a partner. Berryessa / North San José BART already exists a few miles north. This station would put Little Portugal on the same line. If the EIR holds and Council adopts the plan in late 2026, the zoning change is the thing that lets those 6,000 extra units get entitled. The buildings themselves will take years after that.

Send comments to 5W@sanjoseca.gov by October 2. The draft plan and EIR live on the city’s Five Wounds Urban Village page.

City page: https://www.sanjoseca.gov/fivewoundsuvp

YIMBY summary: https://sfyimby.com/2026/09/draft-eir-published-for-five-wounds-urban-village-plan-san-jose.html

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

Levitt on Location Brings Free Music to Lake Cunningham on September 25

Lake Cunningham Park will host another free outdoor concert on Friday, September 25, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Cypress Pavilion. The evening forms part of the Fridays at the Lake series and features two sets centered on powerful female voices and Latin rhythms.

Conjunto Trujillo opens with a Selena tribute led by vocalist Melissa Garay, drawing on Afro-Caribbean and Latin dance styles. Discos Resaca follows with its women-fronted Cumbia collective, whose members represent roots across Mexico, Central America, Peru, Puerto Rico, and the United States.

Attendees can expect food trucks, beer and wine for purchase, kids’ activities, and a display of restored lowriders owned by women through the United Lowrider Council. Free parking is available, and the lakeside setting invites lawn chairs, blankets, and picnics.

The event is free and open to all ages, offering a relaxed way to spend a Friday evening outdoors before the series continues through early October.

For the full Fridays at the Lake schedule, visit the series Eventbrite page.

Pink Coolers on Wheels Already Cross Downtown. The 350-Pound Ones Want the Bike Lane.

Coco’s pink-and-red boxes have been rolling through Downtown San Jose since April, pausing at lights like any other pedestrian and dropping coded meals at stoops within about two miles. Serve Robotics joined later. Together they already feed Uber Eats and DoorDash orders from spots such as Punjab Cafe on East Santa Clara Street and Sixth Street Burger. Bobby Saini at Punjab now loads butter chicken and garlic naan into a compartment several times a night. The city never signed a formal contract with either firm. Staff waved the fleets through under older policies about fewer car trips and lower emissions, then called the stretch a learning period.

Council will likely vote this fall on actual rules: permits, insurance, $200 to $250 a year per robot, and the right to cap fleets or yank a permit if machines block curb ramps, bus zones, or bike lanes. Until then, the only speed cap on the sidewalk is an informal 5 mph, a number reporters have had to jog to match. Coco units weigh about 100 pounds empty. Serve’s weigh 161. DoorDash wants to put 350-pound Dot robots, roughly a tenth the size of a car, into bike lanes at speeds that can reach 20 mph. City staff decided those machines were too slow for car lanes. Cyclists get the experiment instead.

Disability advocates have already named the obvious collision: a stalled cooler on a curb cut, a walker forced into the street. Sheri Burns, formerly of the Silicon Valley Independent Living Center, also called grocery-by-robot a possible game changer for people who cannot easily leave home, and she praised Coco’s BlindSquare mapping of cracked sidewalks. At La Victoria Taqueria, staff found one unit flipped on its back. Arturo Litvin watched his Sixth Street Burger order arrive by robot, then noticed Uber Eats refunded the tip. Human couriers still do the bulk of the work. The companies will not say how many of those shifts they expect to erase.

San Francisco locked robots down in 2017 before they spread. Fremont is letting DoorDash run Dots under an encroachment permit that expires in March, with a 16 mph cap and a $1 million insurance floor. San Jose chose the opposite sequence: sidewalks first, ordinance later. Coco’s government lead says a frozen bot on a sidewalk would be rare and short-lived, and field techs are supposed to arrive within 30 minutes. Guadalupe River Trail stays off limits. Willow Glen is already on Coco’s near-term map as the next expansion opportunity.

Source: The Mercury News