New San Jose Downtown Association Summer Event Site!

The Downtown Association is gearing up for a huge summer filled with a large variety of events. This includes 2 Music in the Park Concerts (English Beat 7/17 and Pete Escovedo 8/21); 8 free outdoor movie events (80's themed this year); 10 World Cup Soccer Viewing Events with the SJ Earthquakes partnering; 10 days of pre fixe menus during Dine Downtown Restaurant Week; the weekly Downtown Farmers' Market every Friday through Nov. 21, as well as helping with the SoFA SubZERO festival and South First Friday Street MRKTs.

To keep track of all these great events, please check out http://www.sjdowntown.com/summer. That site will be updated regularly all summer long as new events and updates come up.

Also for live music, you definitely have to bookmark http://www.liveandlocalsj.com.

Downtown Districts in 30 Seconds

San Jose Downtown Association End of Year Slideshow 2010

A nice recap of 2010 in Downtown San Jose, spread across 4 short videos!

SJDA October Board Meeting

I had a chance to attend the October SJDA Meeting and just wanted to share the list of new/re-elected directors as well as a few photos. Here's the list:

• Nancy Avila - Owner of Maceio Brazillian Steakhouse and SJSU alum
• Steve Borkenhagen - Market Manager of San Pedro Square Market, 35 year downtown resident
• Kymberli Brady - Photographer, owner of sanjosestock.com
• Chris Cabrera - CEO of Xactly Corporation, SCU alum
• Jay Essadki - Owner and Chef of Morocco's
• Paul Higgens - President of the SJDRA and SJSU alum
• Randy Knox - Senior Director at Adobe
• Pete Kolstad - Downtown Resident
• Kent Mather - Former Executive Director of the American Institute of Architects Santa Clara Valley
• Chris Neale - VP of Core Homes LLC
• Win Roney - President of ReelGrobman architecture and interior design
• Tore Saso - VP at Merrill Lynch, 4th generation SJ resident and SJSU alum
• Janis Schneider - Owner of R&J Jewelry and Loan
• Roger Springall - Owner of Caffe Trieste

Tons of Discounts Downtown

I have to share a little secret to getting the best deals downtown. The San Jose Downtown Association has an affinity card called "Discover Downtown San Jose." What are the benefits? Show the card to participating restaurants and you can receive free appetizers, desserts, a straight discount up to 20%, or even a buy one entree get one free offer. There are a large number of participants including 19 Market, Arcadia, Bella Mia, The Brit, E&O, Eulipia, Fahrenheit, all Fairmont restaurants and their lounge, Hawgs, Habana Cuba, Maceio, Morton's, Penguin Froyo, PF Chang's, Scott's, Silk Road Bistro, and many more. There are even some non-restaurant offers like 20% off FedEX and UPS, free drinks at Camera Cinemas, and Comedy Sportz discounts. For the full list of benefits click here!

You can pick up a card for free at the SJDA offices at 28 N. First (10th Floor) or at the Friday Farmer's Markets in San Pedro Square.

SJDA 2009 Annual Meeting

About a week and a half ago I attended the San Jose Downtown Association annual meeting at Camera 12, and was pretty impressed by the turnout. An entire movie theater was packed with people interested in what's happening Downtown. The speakers were passionate and entertaining, and the overall energy was surprisingly positive considering the state of the economy. I would highly recommend taking the time to make it out next year as I'm sure you'll be pleased to see the effort and dedication that goes into to running the SJDA.

My only suggestion for next year would be to have the entire meeting recorded and accessible online (I really would want to watch some of those speeches again). Below are a few quick snapshots I took.