2014 is Going to be an Epic Year for San Jose!

Happy New Year everyone! 2013 was a great year for San Jose and I think 2014 is going to be even better. Just a little warning, this is going to be a very long post.  First off, what do we have to look forward to in 2014:

• The 49ers Stadium - Not only will San Joseans have easy access to a world-class facility, but it will bring some big dollars into our economy. San Jose stands to gain as much as Santa Clara with this new project, and it may also lead to an inflection point with VTA Light Rail. You also have to love that the first major event there will be a San Jose Earthquakes game.
• 10 New Cranes in the Air Downtown - The development boom in Downtown San Jose has just begun. While we already have cranes up for One South and Centerra, expect to see a sky filled with them by the end of 2014.
• Major Events at the San Jose Convention Center - The remodeled convention center looks fantastic. The 2014 Silicon Valley International Auto Show will be the first event to take full advantage of the new space, and I'll look forward to many more events that use the new space.
• More Great Restaurants - In 2013 we saw a huge list of significant openings Downtown: SP2, Cafe Stritch, Orchestria Palm Court, The Farmer's Union, Blackbird Tavern, Nemea, Ike's Vyne, Konjoe, Bray, Bel Bacio, and Whispers. Expect the trend to continue in 2014. I'm especially looking forward to ISO: Beers, Da Kine Grill, CREAM, and of course the SoFA Market.
• More international flights at SJC - We got Tokyo in 2013 and I have a feeling we will land at least one other major international route in 2014.
• Construction on Transit Projects - Both BART and BRT construction will be in full swing this year. Even though those systems will not be operational in 2014, it will be 
• Seeing North First, Midtown, and Japantown Develop - These are the three areas of San Jose that are seeing major urbanization outside of Downtown. In 2014 North First will get millions of additional SQFT in office space, thousands of new homes, and improvements to Light Rail. Midtown will start seeing some new residential projects and retail as will Japantown.
• The Completion of Santana Row - The last major development projects to complete the original vision for Santana Row should be in place or nearing completion by the end of this year. 

Last year I also took the liberty of making a few 2013 predictions. Let's see how I did:

1.) More than two high-rise buildings will break ground in Downtown San Jose. We know about the Carlyle and One South Market, but I think we will see at least one more. Close, but no cigar. Those two projects did break ground but we will not get the 3rd "high-rise" project until 2014. Many people thought these two would not happen, so I still consider this an overall success.

2.) A major transportation project will be greenlit: be it a BRT line, a Lightrail Expansion, or funding for the subway portion of the BART expansion to San Jose. The number of transit riders and bicyclists will rise. Yes. BRT moving forward.

3.) San Jose will have a stronger brand and identity by the end of the year. Many new cultural and art projects will happen Downtown, helping San Jose feel and look like the Capital of Silicon Valley. I think as a brand there was movement in the right direction, especially with Downtown. Most of the art projects were pushed back, but we will see them in 2014 (underpass illumination, high-rise lighting, etc.)

4.) The Sharks will be back with a vengeance for the 2013-2014 Season. Yes. They are doing quite well ;)

5.) Downtown San Jose Office Vacancies will fall below 10%. Not even close, we are still around 20% but did score some big wins over the year.

6.) The number of restaurants in Downtown San Jose will break 250 for the first time in history. Oh, so so close... @248.

7.) We still have no decision on the A's stadium. However, you can expect a decision in 2014 before Bud Selig retires. This one will depend on how you look at it. Was there an official permanent decision on the A's or just that specific proposal? Still a bit grey here.

8.) San Jose will continue to dominate national rankings in salaries and quality of life. Yes, I think we nailed this one.

9.) We will maintain our status as the safest US city with over 500,000 residents. Yes, believe it or not. In terms of murders and violent crimes we were still far and away the safest city above 500,000 residents in the US.

10.) The Golden Triangle and North First Street developments will accelerate, and we will attract at least one massive tech company to relocate to San Jose to compliment what is the largest cluster of tech companies in the world by a huge margin. Yes, millions of SQFT in planned new developments... several major tech companies moved their HQs to San Jose and we will see a Fortune 100 company move into a million SQFT of North San Jose space in 2014.

Okay one last section here.

Now for some items related to The San Jose Blog. As some of you may have noticed, there was a slight
redesign to the layout of the site. The main panel is now much wider, allowing us to post substantially larger photos and videos. There is also a new ad-block on the right, which I tried to make as subtle as possible. I hope it is not too annoying, but if it is feel free to email me about it (josh@thesanjoseblog.com). Also, for 2014, you will likely see several more days with two posts instead of one. There is so much going on that it is difficult not to get behind with only one post per day.

That's a wrap, hope you all have an amazing first day of 2014!

From Lastlightbender's Instagram Page

Saturday Stats: 2013 META-Edition!

Every time I post a Saturday Stat, I also toss it in a Google Doc so we can look back on the year and see all of our top rankings listed in a single place. Since it is the last Saturday of 2013, the time to reflect is now.

The list is even longer than 2012. San Jose's achievements this year include #1 lowest housing vacancy, #1 in patent creation, #1 top job market, #1 happiest city for young professionals, #1 technical jobs per capita, #1 best city for STEM jobs, #1 best city to work in, #1 safest city above 500,000 residents, #1 richest city in America, and #1 happiest, healthiest city in the US. Pretty impressive, wouldn't you say?

Below you can find the full list of 2013 Saturday Stats, and if you want to check out 2012 the Google Doc is over here.

The San Jose Blog Hits 1 Million Page Views!

Over the weekend The San Jose Blog hit a major milestone. The homepage has now officially been viewed over 1,000,000 times! It took four and a half years to get to this point, but it looks like the next million views will happen by the end of 2014. I really want to thank of all of our readers. Without you guys this blog would have died long ago, along with the majority of San Jose blogs with similar goals that have come and gone over the years. I would also like to thank the other contributors to the blog: Jen, Jarrod, and Andy for their continued support.

Just like any other major milestone in life, it is a good time to look ahead at the future. One of my key hopes for this blog was always to have it contribute more to the community, especially Downtown San Jose. So I would like to work towards an annual event for readers and supporters, hosted at a new, hip Downtown eatery with free beer and snacks. I love how Content Magazine throws parties for their supporters, and would like to do the same thing. A longer term goal is contributing to major projects (Halloween in the Park and local art projects comes to mind).

In order to fund these plans, I'm planning to put up a single, unobtrusive ad block over on the right hand panel by the end of the year. It will not affect the posts in any way, either visually or from a content perspective. If you guys hate it, just let me know (josh@thesanjoseblog.com). If it doesn't work or annoys people, I have no problem rolling back the change.

Thank you again for all of the support, and here's to the future!

Casual One South Market Groundbreaking Party for The San Jose Blog Readers!

I promised that when the next Downtown High-Rise broke ground, I would have a little celebration for our readers and buy a round of beers. That is exactly what is happening this Saturday, June 1st at the Market Beer Co. (in the San Pedro Square Market) at 3 PM. 

Originally, I was going to get a keg, but I think I have a much better idea... craft beer tasting! I'm going to buy at least 10 bomber bottles of a wide variety of phenomenal craft beers (IPAs, Porters, Lambics, etc). All you need to do is grab a glass and sample as many as you'd like. Just look for the bench or table covered in bottles. Hope to see you guys there!

The San Jose Blog's 4 Year Anniversary!!!!

It's amazing how time goes by. The very first post on The San Jose Blog was four years ago today. That was over 1,500 posts ago. The original mission was simple, show the world that San Jose is a really cool city and deserves a lot more respect than it has been given in the past, both from outsiders and even residents themselves.

2009 was not a great year. Financial markets were dry, real estate was depressed, unemployment was at a 26-year high, and just about every major project in San Jose was either on-hold or cancelled. If you looked at the very core of San Jose, the Downtown residential high-rises were selling at an abysmal rate, and there was little hope that any of the dozen or so planned towers would move forward. Yet, there was still reason to be optimistic.

San Jose has a unique history. 60 years ago, the economy was mostly agrarian and the population consisted of barely 100,000 residents. To put that in perspective San Francisco had 775,000 and Oakland was up to 365,000 people at that time. Over those 60 years, San Jose experienced unprecedented growth to become 10-fold larger and is now the base of one of the strongest if not the strongest economic engines in the world. That is quite a turn around for a little farming town. The one thing that did not grow as quickly as the population was culture and community pride. Even many San Jose residents felt like it was a second class city. Then something happened...

The masses slowly started caring. A culture based around innovation and constant improvement began emerging. Communities of people excited with every new potential San Jose project popped up. The Usuals opened up shop and started selling I "Heart" SJ shirts, and people actually put them on. San Jose started getting ranked on National Top 10 lists: #1 Top Job Market in the US, #1 Happiest City of Young Professionals, #1 City for Patent Creation, #1 Highest Median Household Income, #1 Top Cleantech City in the US, #1 Healthiest City for Women, #1 Safest Large City in the US, #1 Highest Salaries for [Fill in the Blank], etc., etc. etc. Of all the stats, perhaps the one I was most proud of was getting technically and objectively ranked as a "World Class" City for the first time ever.

Now, we are in an era where our culture is growing, our city is growing, and national recognition is growing. Here is a list of some of the things that either currently exist or are in progress today that seemed unfeasible and out of reach four years ago:

• Four completely full residential high-rises Downtown
• A brand new San Jose Earthquakes Stadium
• The San Pedro Square Market
• The South Bay 49ers
• A Downtown with 250 restaurants
• Premier Retail (i.e. launching here before SF and LA) in Santana Row and Valley Fair
• Little Italy
• Art projects of this calibur
• BART to San Jose
• One billion new miles of new bike lanes (don't quote me on the number)
• MUJI Downtown
• Office HQs that look like this
• Virgin and ANA flights at SJC
• A Shark's Stanley Cup Win (had to throw that one in)

And of course, the big news that I have been harassed about for taking so long to mention...

Thanks to David Cheung for the photo. Also read this and this.

ONE SOUTH MARKET BROKE GROUND!!! San Jose is getting a new tower! There will be some sort of TSJB celebration and I will be buying the first round of beers. More details on this soon.

In parting, I would just like to say a huge thanks to Jen, Jarrod, and Alvin for their contributions to this blog over the years; you guys area amazing! Also a heartfelt thanks to all the readers out there for stopping by, for believing in San Jose, and contributing to its future successes. Our city is a better place because of people that believe making a difference is possible. Even something as small as shopping at a local vendor can have a big impact. Happy Friday!

Die Hard Sharks Contest Winner

Thank you all for the amazing participation in our contest! We had a total of almost 800 entries, far more than what I was expecting. Please support Die Hard, the San Jose-based sponsor of the contest. They have a great assortment of Sharks and 49ers gear, not to mention your other Bay Area favorites.

Congratulations to Eric Anthony! You have a Sharks hoodie and tee coming your way.

As for everyone else, stay tuned. More contests are coming up, including one next week!

Saturday Stats: 2012 Meta Edition

I recently started a new Google doc to track Saturday Stats posts. I did not get all of them in there yet, but will be using this spreadsheet going forward. I thought it might be nice at the end of each year to look back and see what has been achieved. For 2012, I can tell you that reading all of the stats below back to back sounds pretty darn impressive.

You can either click on the image below to enlarge or access the Google doc directly over here.

MetroMarks Features The San Jose Blog

MetroMarks is a city-based bookmarking platform and travel companion featuring links to city guides, news, and local events. They have recently added a section for San Jose and lo and behold, The San Jose Blog is sitting in their very first slot! The icing on the cake is that my favorite local blogs are there as well. Have a look over here.

The San Jose Blog Turns 3!

After 3 years, over 1100 posts, and half a million visits... I'm going to take a moment to go back to the original premise of this blog--to show that San Jose is a world-class city. But how the heck do you measure world-class? It seems like something that is completely subjective.

Well, it turns out that there is an organization called GaWC that objectively defines, categorizes, and ranks "global cities" based on multiple criteria. They are also based out of the UK, further increasing objectivity when it comes to US cities. Their criteria for global cities includes:

• Economic characteristics: corporate headquarters, financial output, number of financial services companies, cost of living, etc.
• Political characteristics: influence on and participation in international events and world affairs, hosting headquarters for international organizations, demographic diversity, etc.
• Cultural characteristics: museums, galleries, film festivals, professional sports teams, educational institutions, tourism, historic features, etc.
• Infrastructural characteristics: advanced transportation systems, mass transit, major international airports, communications, hospitals, prominent skylines, etc.

Their research is legitimate and well respected internationally. They have 4 different levels of global cities:

1. Alpha Cities - very important world cities that link major economic regions and states into the  global economy
2. Beta Cities - important world cities that link their region or state into the world economy
3. Gamma Cities - world cities linking smaller regions or states into the world economy
4. Sufficiency Cities - There are NOT considered world cities, but have sufficient services so as to not be overtly dependent on world cities

Each "global city" category is further subdivided into normal, plus, or minus... similar to letter grades in school. Sufficient cities can either have a "sufficiency" or "high sufficiency" ranking.

Okay, now the real question... how has San Jose done based upon the research?


2000 Rankings: High Sufficiency


2004 Rankings: High Sufficiency  


2008 Rankings: Sufficiency  


2010 Rankings: Gamma+  

There you have it folks. In the latest rankings, San Jose is now objectively considered to be a world-class city for the first time. I've said many times before that we're on a great trajectory, and now there is even scientific data to back it up. The future is only going to get brighter and there is so much to look forward to. Soon we'll have new teams to root for (Earthquakes, A's, and the South Bay 49ers), more transit options (BART, BRT, Zipcar), and tons of development projects Downtown, Midtown, and on North First.

Thanks for reading and for any and all contributions you make towards making our city a better place!

1,000th Post!

The San Jose Blog hits a huge milestone today. This is our one thousandth post! This is also a special number because it represents roughly the number of page views we get every day. Not too shabby for a niche blog devoted to people that love San Jose. This is certainly more than ever expected when the blog launched mid-2009 and proves there are a lot of people out there that are as excited about this city as we are.

To celebrate, today we're launching our new logo. This was designed by the talented Brian Jensen, who also does work for Content Magazine. You can check out his site over here. Please give him a call if you ever need design work, he's fantastic! We're also going with a cleaner template that dramatically increases the speed of the site (especially on Chrome).

Thanks for reading and continuing to make this blog a success. If you ever feel like contributing posts please don't hesitate to reach out. We're looking for more bloggers, especially someone interested in covering local music. 

San Jose is hitting an inflection point, and you're going to see a lot of great things happening over the next 20 years in terms of development, culture, arts, sports, and transportation. We'll look forward to documenting these changes and contributing any way we can to make the city a better place. Cheers, and hope you'll stick around for the next 1,000 posts!

Coming Soon: 1,000th Post!

Just a quick heads up that 2 weeks from today -- January 4th -- will be our 1,000th post! In honor of this momentous occasion, we'll be unveiling a proper logo (which looks stunning by the way). Below is a tiny preview. We'll also be switching to a much simpler blog template to compliment the logo and improve scrolling speeds. Hope you'll like the new look and we'll be looking forward to feedback!

Thank You!

As we close out the night, I just wanted to say thank you immensely for reading. The fact that so many people in San Jose read this blog and are enthusiastic about the success of our city means that we have a very bright future ahead of us. We have the rare opportunity to be in a city that is on the rise and be a part of its success!

I would also like to thank everyone that has contributed to The San Jose Blog over the past two years, especially Jarrod Wells for all of the great Sharks posts (Go Sharks!). We have some new writers that will be contributing very soon, so I'll thank them in advance as well =).

May you all have a great night!!!

500 Followers on Twitter!

The San Jose Blog has just broken the 500 follower mark on Twitter! Only 3.8 million more to go to catch up to Charlie Sheen =)

Click here to follow us on Twitter.

The San Jose Blog Turns Two!!!

Today is our second year anniversary! What started out as a humble personal blog has become one of the largest online communities for people who love San Jose.

The original goal of this blog was to show people that San Jose is an amazing place to live, and I think we've achieved that. The goal for the next year will be to go beyond just showcasing and promoting what makes SJ great, and also try to highlight what makes San Jose unique from other cosmopolitan cities around the world. There is a unique culture here, and I don't think it gets enough recognition.

As for what is in store today, we have a lot of great content coming soon and that includes some exclusive info! So sit back, have a slice of cake, and enjoy the posts coming every 2 hours or so all day long.

The San Jose Blog's 2 Year Anniversary is Tomorrow!

We have a lot of content headed your way tomorrow, including some exclusive news.  Please stay tuned throughout Tuesday as we'll have posts coming to you morning through night!

The San Jose Blog Anniversary This Tuesday

Next week is The San Jose Blog's 2 year anniversary! This is just a quick heads up that you can expect many posts coming your way on Tuesday, May 10th as well as a few upgrades to the site itself!

Facebook Page for The San Jose Blog!

The San Jose Blog finally has a Facebook page, about time right? It's going to work much like our Twitter page where we'll have links to all posts as well as occasional news bits that don't make it to the blog. To check it out, just click here.

Our 300th Post!

After 15 months, we're still alive and kicking and on our 300th post! Thank you to all of the SJ enthusiasts out there that make updating this blog worthwhile.

I would also like to extend an invitation out there to anyone that is interested in putting up their own San Jose-related blog posts here OR syndicating their posts from other blogs. If you look to the left or right, you'll notice no ads. This blog's primary goal is advancing San Jose's many attractions, culture, and international visibility--all are welcome to contribute to that goal. Just shoot me an email at josh@thesanjoseblog.com and I'll get you all set up!

The San Jose Blog's 1 Year Anniversary!!!

Exactly one year ago today The San Jose Blog launched with a simple premise, and that's to incubate enthusiasm for San Jose. 200+ blog posts later, I have to say I'm extremely satisfied with how things have turned out and it's crystal clear there are people out there that feel just as passionately about San Jose as I do. In fact, over 22,000 individuals have visited this blog since launch. We have even been able to add a second writer to cover the Shark's amazing run this playoff season!

While many San Jose blogs and sites have come and gone over the past year, the overall trend is a positive one. Never has there been such an active community of people that love San Jose. Over the past year, we've seen the launch of I Heart SJ, San Jose 2030, and the resurrection of SJ21. We have some outstanding projects in the hopper like the San Pedro Square Market, Little Italy, the Earthquakes Stadium, HSR, BART, SJC Terminal B, @First, Guadalupe River Park revitalization, the A's Stadium, and at least half dozen high-rises waiting in the wings when the economy improves. Downtown San Jose--the very heart of our city--is the most active it's been in half a century and its potential has never been greater than it is today.

I think this next year will be the one where San Jose is finally recognized as a true world-class city, and we'll be here to blog about it! Thanks so much for reading and supporting San Jose, and stay tuned for a whole lot of posts today in celebration of our 1st Anniversary!

-Josh

Tomorrow is our One Year Anniversary!

One last reminder that tomorrow will be our one year anniversary, expect lots of posts! Be sure to check back throughout the day.