Improvements to The Alameda Kicking off Soon

The Alameda near Downtown San Jose is about to get $3.9M worth of renovations. There will be new median strips, LED lighting, and safer crosswalks. Most of this will be paid for by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission with about 20% coming from the city of San Jose. The renovations kick off in September and will be capped off with a repaving of the entire street from the HP Pavilion to 880.

If the business owners along the strip are willing to pay for maintenance in the future, they may at some point also add flowing plants, new benches, and extensive landscaping across the sidewalks. After all this is completed, the Alameda could become a very nice walkable district. It's already home to many great retails spots, including The Usuals, Crema, La Dolce Velo, Wine Affairs, and The Arsenal.

Source: The Merc

"A Day in the Park" Event Today @ St. James Park

There is a new grassroots organizations in town called IAMSANJOSE whose mission is to bring people together and revitalize San Jose. Their first focus area is St. James park, which has been a homeless refuge for years. They are planning on several events that will not only improve perception of the area, but raise money to clean up the park. All the proceeds from today's event are going to the Salvation Army in order to get the homeless around St. James park the help they need.

Today's event entitled "A Day in the Park" will feature 8 food trucks, live music, and raffles. For all the info keep on reading or have a peek at the IAMSANJOSE website over here.

DATE: May 27th, 2012
TIME: 12pm-5pm PT – 5 hours
LOCATION: St James Park, San Jose (2nd St and St James St, San Jose, CA 95113)

SAN JOSE, CA – New charitable organization, IAMSANJOSE, will launch
on Sunday, May 27th with a benefit event “A Day in the Park” at St. James Park.
IAMSANJOSE’s goal is to revitalize the City of San Jose, focusing first on the
city’s oldest park, St. James Park.

Sunday’s event will bring eight gourmet food trucks and live music to the park
and proceeds will benefit Salvation Army’s homeless services.

Our intent is to revitalize and reactivate the downtown area with initial
emphasis on St James Park. We plan to coordinate a series of events year round
that will bring not only an economic boost but a social rejuvenation to an area of
the city that has long needed it, said IAMSANJOSE co-founder Tin Le.

The estimated 2,000 attendees can expect a variety of food trucks to choose
from, live entertainment, vendors and raffles.

In recent months, we’ve worked with the community to see how we can revive
the park by suppressing criminality, addressing homelessness, and injecting
more family-friendly activity into the park. I’m thrilled that IAMSANJOSE co-
founders Tin Le, Sam Pak and Cary Inayoshi have brought their enthusiasm and
creativity to St. James Park, said Councilmember Sam Liccardo.

About IAMSANJOSE
IAMSANJOSE Mission Statement. IAMSANJOSE’s mission is a
community development movement that focuses in bringing people together
to benefit the city. Working together with various local business owners and
entrepreneurs, our goal is to revitalize the city of San Jose through large, fun,
social and creative fundraising events for local entities and charities.

About St. James Park
The City of San Jose’s St. James Park has a unique place in history as the city’s
oldest park. The park is surrounded by unique structures the Scottish Rite
Temple, the post office, state courthouse, and the St. Claire Club, all adjacent
to the oldest urban park in California’s oldest civil settlement. The park was
designed by America’s foremost landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmstead.
St. James Park is also home to many extraordinary events including marches and
rallies, Bobby Kennedy’s 1968 speech, the grisly lynchings, and performances
by presidents, poets and musicians.

Saturday Stats: Start-up Funding

Start-ups are the lifeblood of Silicon Valley, but historically start-up companies have not really flocked to San Jose. Usually they "graduate" to San Jose when they start needing substantial amounts of office space and resources. However, it looks like that is starting to change based on where the VC money is going.

In terms of Venture Capital invested in start-up companies regionally, San Jose did miserably in 2009. In the bay area they ranked 11th, behind Palo Alto and even San Carlos (!).

In 2011, San Jose clawed its way to 4th place with three quarters of a billion dollars invested between 43 companies:

1.) San Francisco - $2.87 billion
2.) Palo Alto - $1.3 billion
3.) Mountain View - $1.03 billion
4.) San Jose - $784.2 million

This is a trend that I think will continue for multiple reasons, but I think the top one is start-ups looking more for urbanized locations. That's why they are flocking to downtown Palo Alto, Mountain View, Campbell, SF, etc. Start-ups require a high-energy environment and employees working 80+ hour weeks expect instant access to the conveniences urban areas offer.

The good news is San Jose is urbanizing faster than any other city in Silicon Valley right now, and has ambitions plans to build future urban villages pretty much everywhere. Downtown is becoming a legitimate destination for incubators and startups, North First is going to explode over the next 2 decades, midtown is being built up, the area around the HP Pavilion is slated to become an "innovation district," and Santana Row is building mass amounts of office space. All of these areas have the potential to attract hot start-ups, especially as the perception of San Jose only being suburban dies off. To boot, we have the lowest housing costs (besides Gilroy) and best transportation infrastructure in the South Bay. I think we have a winning recipe and I'm really looking forward to seeing how the 2012 funding number stack up.

Source: SiliconBeat

San Jose Expands Smoking Ban

Today new smoking laws go into effect that will make it even more difficult to light up in San Jose. Already there is a ban on smoking inside restaurants, bars, public buildings, city parks, within 25 feet to the entrance of a city library or community center, and in outdoor seating areas of sports centers.

Today's expansion also bans smoking in outdoor areas of restaurants and bars (pretty much most of Santana Row), in outdoor areas where people wait for services (Bus stops, ticket lines, ATMs, Food Trucks, etc.), and in outdoor common areas of condos, apartments, and mobile home parks.

Usually, I am against the government over-reaching on people's right to choose how they live their lives, but the exception is when those choices hurt others. Every time someone lights up a cigarette around other people, they are taking away their right to breath in clear air and are instead forcing cancer-causing pollutants into their lungs whether they like it or not. I see nothing wrong with smoking at home or with your friends, but I never got smoking in public. When I went to London and Paris last year, I have to say the the crazy amount of cigarette smoke everywhere really killed the ambiance on some of the most beautiful streets and cafes I have seen.

I think it's a smart move for San Jose and will hopefully make Downtown more attractive to families by removing smoking from a huge chunk of the streets.

Sake San Jose Today!

A great event is happening tonight in Japantown for all the Sake lovers out there. The best part is that it's for a great cause! All the details are below:

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Sake San Jose combines sake tasting with a walk through Historic Japantown San Jose.

WHEN:	May 24, 2012 Registration – 4:30PM Opening Ceremony – 5:00PM Sake Tasting - 5:30PM-8:30PM
WHERE:	Japantown San Jose On Jackson Street Between 3rd and 7th Streets
TICKETS:	Early Bird – $40 General Admission (Day of Event) – $50

Join us for the 7th Annual Sake San Jose event on Thursday, May 24, 2012 from 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM. Meet up with friends and family as you leisurely walk through historic Japantown San Jose (on Jackson Street, between 3rd and 7th Streets) alive with music to visit the many shops and businesses for a tasting of an assortment of both domestic and international sakes, all for a great cause. Kampai!

Registration opens at 4:30 PM with Opening Ceremony beginning at 5:00 PM.

Proceeds from Sake San Jose benefit Yu-Ai Kai Senior Service, a nonprofit senior center, in Japantown.

Wednesday Wishlist: Guadalupe River Lit With LEDs

In central Tokyo, Panasonic kicked off the inaugural Tokyo Hataru (firefly) festival by sending 100,000 solar powered LED light spheres down the Sumida River. This is also pays homage to the tradition in Japan of floating candles on the water. After seeing this, I couldn't help to think of how cool it would be to see something like this in San Jose--perhaps along the Guadalupe river or one of the lakes in San Jose. After all, we are sister cities with Okayama and have one of the three remaining Japantowns in the US.

Source: Engadget

Sama Zama is Coming to the San Pedro Square Market!

Yet another innovative concept is coming to the San Pedro Square Market. Shawn Mckenna--who has worked at 5 different Michelin Star rated restaurants--is opening up an eatery focused on healthy salads, soups, and sandwiches on freshly baked bread. His real specialty is going to be the soups, which sound phenomenal in the video below. All of the vegetables and proteins in the soups will be cooked to order and any pasta used in the soup will be made from scratch daily.

For dinner, he's going to put those 12 years of michelin-rated experience to use with innovative tapas-style small plates that will change regularly.

Sama Zama will be located across from Pizza Bocca Lupo in the El Dorado building.  Along with Loteria Taco Bar, they will bring this building to full occupancy. The Lusardi building behind the Peralta Adobe has a lot of things coming as well, and i'll provide some more details about that in a separate post later on.

1 Million Square Foot Office Campus Coming to North First

Ellis Partners is planning to build a massive Class A office campus on Orchard Parkway called 101 Tech. Currently Atmel is headquartered here in a two story building, which they are vacating in June. The plan is the renovate that building and then build 3 new 6 story buildings and a 1500 space parking garage. The total size of usable space is 956,000 sqft, making it one of the largest office developments in the Bay Area.

This location has immediate access to Light-rail, SJC, 101, and 87 and is surrounded by flagship offices for some of the largest tech companies in the world.

Source: SJBJ