Saturday Stats: San Jose Ranks as the 5th Hardest Working City in America

The Movoto real estate blog has taken a stab at determining which cities are the hardest working. They used seven different criteria in their research: average hours worked per week, unemployment rate, commute time, employed workers per household, hours volunteered per year, lack of sleep, and cost of living. After crunching all of the numbers, San Jose ranked as the 5th hardest working city in the US. SF was right behind us at #6, and NYC came in at #11. You can get more information regarding all of the criteria by going to the blog post, and the full list is below:


Top 10 Hardest Working Cities

1. Seattle, WA
2. Arlington, TX
3. Fort Worth, TX
4. Austin, TX
5. San Jose, CA
6. San Francisco, CA
7. Dallas, TX
8. Virginia Beach, VA
9. Washington, D.C.
10. Houston, TX

Click the image below to Enlarge:



Source: Movoto

San Jose Bike Share Installation Photos

We are getting closer and closer to having a bike share program in Downtown San Jose! The initial pilot will have 150 bikes at 15 different stations in the Downtown core. There will also be some stations close by, such as in Japantown. If the pilot is a success, we could see many more stations coming to San Jose and other Silicon Valley cities. Installation started a few weeks ago, and I grabbed some photos from John Brazil's Flickr page. For more information on the program and to sign up, just head over here. 

Source: John Brazil from the Bike & Pedestrian Program

Downtown San Jose Treasure Hunt on Aug 25th!

Are you looking for something really cool to do over the weekend? The Preservation Action Council of San Jose (PAC*SJ) is hosting a Downtown Treasure Hunt at 3pm this Sunday! This organization's goal is to preserve the architectural heritage in San Jose as well as promote development that keeps the city vibrant. Part of the proceeds from this event will help support PAC*SJ.

The hunt starts at Plaza de Cesar Chavez where participants will have to follow clues which will lead them to some of the most interesting historic buildings in the area. The hunt ends in Sonoma Chicken Coop and there will be small prizes for the winning teams. The Treasure Hunt is free for kids and teens and $10 for adults. For more information on PAC*SJ, head over to their website over here. More information on the event is below!

Content Magazine "Pick Up Party" Today!

It looks like Content Magazine's Pick Up Parties are getting better and better! Today's party is at the Montalvo Arts Center and includes a free glass of wine for subscribers, food trucks, and a guided tour of the grounds at 7:30pm. The event goes from 6-8pm. If you are not a subscriber, you can find more information over here.

Whole Foods Breaks Ground Tomorrow!

This has been a long time coming--Whole Foods is finally starting construction of their store on the Alameda a stones-throw away from Downtown San Jose! Shovels hit the ground tomorrow. The project consists of a 27,291 SQFT grocery store with a separate 5,6000 SQFT two-story brewery (the first in the Whole Foods chain).

A lot of people doubted that this would move forward, so it is nice to see this actually come to fruition. Everyone that lives near The Alameda or Downtown should be thrilled!

Source: SVBJ

EPIC NEWS: KT Properties Planning Two New Towers in San Pedro Area!!!

Downtown fans are about to have even more to look forward to! Nathan Donato-Weinstein from the Silicon Valley Business Journal broke a story last week that made my month. KT Properties--the developer behind Axis and One South Market--has acquired a huge 1.7-acre block of land between The San Pedro Square Market and City Heights. They are planning to build two high-rise residential towers with more than 600 units!

KT properties has not released any sort of architectural drawing yet, but based on how Axis and the final design of One South turned out... I have high hopes that the buildings will look impressive. They did mention that they could have done one giant building but opted to go with two to add more texture to the skyline. Thankfully the buildings will not be identical like many towers Downtown, but they will have similarities. Also both towers will be towards the north of the lot to minimize visual impact around the historic Fallon House.

There will also be a "significant" retail component extending along San Pedro Street! This is yet another organic expansion (in addition to Centerra) of the Downtown retail and entertainment epicenter started by the San Pedro Square Market.

The plans should be submitted to City Hall in the next few weeks and they are hoping to get all approvals by the first quarter of 2014. That will mean a groundbreaking could happen as soon as mid-2014, but we'll have to wait and see. Great way to start the week!

Source: SVBJ

America's Happiest Person is a 23-Year-Old, Coffee-Drinking Republican in San Jose

Okay, this is a fun article. It looks at various stats to determine who would be the happiest person in the US. After discovering that 23-year-olds are the happiest people, the writer went on to discover that the happiest 23-year-olds live in San Jose. The article mentions that part of this is likely due to the fact that that professionals in San Jose are genuinely nice, happy people who are kind to their coworkers. It's an interesting read, so check out the full article at the source link below.

Source: Yahoo News

Saturday Stats: San Jose Ranks as One of the Most "Saintly" Cities

Movato has created a list of the most "Saintly" cities in the US by looking at the statistics related to the 7 Deadly Sins. Specifically they looked at the following:

• Strip clubs per capita (Lust)
• Cosmetic surgeons per capita (Pride)
• Violent crime per year per 1,000 residents (Wrath)
• Theft per year per 1,000 residents (Envy)
• Percentage of disposable income given to charity each year (Greed)
• Percentage of obese residents (Gluttony)
• Percentage of physically inactive residents (Sloth)

After crunching the numbers, San Jose came in as the 9th most "Saintly." SF did not even rank in the top 50 and surprisingly NYC came in 1st (surprising to me at least). To check out the full article which goes deep into the logic of the metrics, click here. You can also find the lists below:

List of Most Saintly Cities:
1. New York, NY
2. Gilbert, AZ
3. Fremont, CA
4. Glendale, CA
5. Chula Vista, CA
6. Colorado Springs, CO
7. Chandler, AZ
8. Long Beach, CA
9. San Jose, CA
10. Irvine, CA

Click to enlarge the full list below:



Source: Movoto