The San Jose Blog Housekeeping

Today I started a long overdue cleanup of the links to other San Jose blogs and sites over on the right-hand side. Unfortunately, so many of them are now long gone. In fact, here's a list:

• Live & Local SJ: Music Spotlight
• What Up! Silicon Valley
• San Jose Silicon Valley Tours
• DTSJ.Events
• LiveSV
• San Jose Metblogs
• SoFASloane
• San Jose Food Blog
• Think Bigger San Jose

Rest in peace old friends🪦 

I did add a few new links and am looking for more. SJ Today has excellent content, especially around food. The San Jose History FB page is frequently updated and has many unique photos of Silicon Valley's past (including the one below). For Pro Sports, I added the San Jose Barracuda. 

If you can think of any others that should be added, please email me or post in the comments. Thanks to spammers I have to manually approve each comment, so it may take some time for comments to show up. Thanks for your patience as we get this blog rolling again.

Blum's Dept Store.
South First Street. San Jose.
Posted by Bob Emerson on the San Jose History Facebook Group

Orchestria Palm Court

Jordan from Searchlight San Jose has written about one of my favorite hidden gems in Downtown San Jose -- Orchestria Palm Court. This is undoubtedly one of the most unique restaurants in the Bay Area and is well worth a visit. It's part museum, part entertainment, part time-capsule (all the way down to the restrooms), and in-and-of-itself a solid restaurant. They even have a soda jerk bar!

Click here to read the post.

Searchlight San Jose: A bet, a beating, and a basket

Losing is never easy, especially when the prize is the Stanley Cup you and have to send the mayor of the winning city a basket of gifts. Long story short, Mayor Sam Liccardo had a friendly bet with Pittsburg Mayor, Bill Peduto. The mayor of the losing team would have to send over a basket of treats representing his city.

So what was in San Jose's basket? Schurra's Fine Confections, La Vic's Orange Sause, Greenlee's Bakery Best Cinnamon Bread, Gordon Biersch beer, Fruit cocktail (invented in San Jose), J. Lohr wine, and Chiaramonte's Sausage. These are all items made locally here in San Jose with the exception of the fruit cocktail. To see a full breakdown of each item, head over to Searchlight San Jose.

What do you think? Is there anything missing from the basket that would better represent San Jose?

Think Bigger San Jose Launches New Site!

One of our favorite San Jose blogs has completely revamped their website. Think Bigger San Jose focuses on exploring Downtown San Jose from an urbanist's perspective. The redesign brings a slick navigation and tons of resources for residents and visitors alike.

Think Bigger San Jose has just posted an in depth guide to visiting Downtown San Jose during the Super Bowl that contains recommended restaurants, craft cocktail joints, events, and links to interactive maps. Check it out over here!

Thinkbiggersanjose is Expanding Content!

Mark from Thinkbiggersanjose--my favorite San Jose blog besides this one--has recently moved to One South Market in the heart of Downtown San Jose. He and his wife are coming from a traditional house with a back yard, and he's going to chronicle his transition from suburban living to full on urban-ness in San Jose. You can read his first post over here.

While we are talking about Thinkbiggersanjose, Mark also has a new post welcoming the "Awesome Foundation." This is a grassroots foundation that funds one awesome project a month (examples he gives are a 40 person hammock or creating an outdoor courtyard learning space for kids). Check out his post over here. To submit ideas and learn more about the San Jose Chapter of the Awesome Foundation, head here.

Searchlight San Jose: Setting Sail on the Mighty Guadalupe

Brown water adventures in San Jose... what?? Searchlight San Jose has discovered that you can do urban kayaking runs up the Guadalupe River! Head over here for all the details and check out the video below of the Stanford Kayak Club pulling off some impressive tricks near 880.

Oh, and while you are at Searchlight San Jose, you might as well "Dress Up Quetzy." Quetzy is the nickname for the statue in the middle of Plaza de Cesar Chavez that looks like a giant turd. Not a bad idea considering that any changes you make can only be an improvement over what it looks like today. This reminds me of the famous Manneken-Pis statue in Brussels that gets dressed up regularly for special events.

Searchlight San Jose

I'm not sure how I missed this site, but there is a really cool blog about San Jose oddities, urban legends, and interesting stories. It's called Searchlight San Jose and you can access it right over here or by using the blogroll to the right.  I love the writing style and there are quite a few tidbits in there that were completely new to me. As a teaser, below is what Downtown San Jose would look like today if the Electric Light Tower was still here.

Click here to read Searchlight San Jose!

Think Bigger San Jose: Are Lawyers the Key to Lowering Office Vacancy in Downtown?

I'm a big fan of "Think Bigger San Jose," a great blog with a mission very similar to this one. In Mark's latest post, he explores the potential for lawyers and legal services to help reduce the office vacancy rate in Downtown San Jose. The two big drivers for this are the new Family Justice Center that is currently under construction (render below) and the new US Patent Office in City Hall. It's a great post, go check it out over here.

Think Bigger San Jose Moved + Mixed-Use Hotel Condo Proposal

One of my favorite blogs is getting a face-lift and a new URL. Think Bigger San Jose is moving from http://thinkbiggersanjose.blog.com to http://thinkbiggersanjose.com.

The first post on the new site is a suggestion for Sobrato to build a mixed-use hotel condo on the giant parking lot he owns at the corner of Market and San Carlos. This is a high-potential Downtown development space across the street from the Convention Center, Plaza de Cesar Chavez, and the burgeoning SoFA district.

A hotel condo allows people to purchase rooms and suites, and rent them out as hotel rooms when not in use. It's an ownership models that simply does not exist in Silicon Valley, but is popular in tourist destinations such as Las Vegas. These are often used as vacation homes or secondary homes, which would make a lot of sense for business travelers that live in tech centers around the globe but have to spend quite a bit of time in Silicon Valley each year. Typically these are built by luxury hotel operators--and having another Fairmont-caliber hotel would go a long way Downtown.

Anyway, its a great blog post and you should check it out right over here.

Eating San Jose - New Local Blog!

The San Jose Blogosphere grew a little bit larger this month with the addition of Eating San Jose. I'm sure you can guess what most of the posts will be about based on the name. The creator of the new blog, Dale Federighi, moved from the East Bay to Willow Glen in 2009 and calls it one of the best decisions he's made so far. He's a software developer, family man, skateboarder, food enthusiast, and now of course a blogger.

The first post on Eating San Jose is about KANSUI, a new pop-up Ramen restaurant in the Willow Glen Hay Market. Dale raved about their Tonkatsu Ramen, Spicy Red Miso Ramen, Okonomiyaki (photo below), and Pickled Salmon. Check out the detailed post right over here. I also added a permanent link to Eating San Jose on our blogroll over to the right.

Welcome to the community Dale, looking forward to your future posts!

San Jose Creatives Blog

I stumbled upon this blog recently where creative folks from San Jose are interviewed. Each week they feature a different artist, designer, musician, craftsman, etc. They ask the same 13 questions to each interviewee in order to see what makes each "creative" unique.

Check out the San Jose Creatives Blog over here.

Wednesday Wishlist: More SJ Rooftop Patios/Restaurants/Bars

Okay, so today's Wednesday Wishlist isn't actually mine. This one is by Mark from the Think Bigger San Jose Blog (it's back!!!). So to read this one please head over there and while you're at it, you might as well check out Mark's latest posts and polls!

Again, here's the link.

thinkbiggersanjose.blog.com

If you haven't done so already, I would highly recommend adding Think Bigger San Jose to your list of blogs to read each day. They have only been around for a month, yet the content they're pushing out is consistently outstanding. One more time, here's the link!

Think Bigger San Jose!

I have some great news! Yesterday a new blog was launched to help promote our city called Think Bigger San Jose. The focus is on new ideas that will help improve San Jose with a historical context. An added bonus, the proprietor is a long time reader of this blog (Mark). Best of luck and thank you for joining the San Jose blogging community!

Here is a direct link to Think Bigger San Jose, and I've also added a handy link to the right in the San Jose Blogs section.

South Bay Blog Roundup

Matt Bruensteiner from San Jose Metblogs posted a list of over two dozen south bay blogs, a slight increase over last year. I share his pain about San Jose Revealed, a great blog that went dark sometime in 2009. Head on over to check out his list!

The San Jose Blog "Semi-anniversary"

It's been exactly 6 months since The San Jose Blog launched last May! I think I've finally gotten into a good rhythm for posting and plan to continue doing this indefinitely (and hopefully post more frequently). We have had some success in changing the perceptions of at least a few people regarding San Jose culture--particularly downtown--and I'm certain this blog will continue to gain traction as the economy picks up and San Jose continues to expand at a faster rate. Think of all the exciting projects on the table right now: downtown A's stadium, high-speed rail + BART, new downtown residential towers, Earthquakes stadium, massive airport expansion... the list goes on and on. Expect many interesting topics ahead.

Now to balance the positives with a little bit of bad news. Since launching I have been linking blogs about San Jose in the menu to the right. Today I decided to go through all of them to see how things are going and here is a little summary:

San Jose Revealed - Mysteriously vanished
San Jose Has A Blog - Taken down due to "Lack of Interest"
Going San Jose - No posts for 6 months
SJ21 - Still in suspended animation 

Thankfully San Jose Metblogs, San Jose Inside, Baseball San Jose, and San Jose Day-by-Day are still kicking, but it's time to replenish the blog list. If you know of a blog directly related to San Jose that I should link to please post the URL in the comments below. Speaking of comments, you can now post anonymously. Thank you again for reading!