January 2011 Downtown Dimension Highlights

Here are my notes from the latest edition of Downtown Dimension:

• The City Council asks the California High Speed Rail Authority to continue evaluating an underground option for High Speed Rail and approves a $200,000 visual guidelines study for the aerial bridge option.
• The San Pedro Square Market construction is preceding nicely (should be open late Spring, one of the key buildings is already up).
• To recruit more businesses to San Jose, the city and RDA have launched www.choosesanjose.com, a site filled with success stories and tips for business owners.
• Good Karma now serves Barefoot Coffee at the "Barefoot Karma Bar"
• Parking after 6pm is now $4 (up from $3 last year) for most city owned garages. The lot under 280 in SoFA continues to be the only city lot that is completely free after 6pm every night. It is also easy to get validation for any of the other lots.
• The second generation of downtown residential buildings is coming soon, starting with a 3 high-rise 736 unit project in North San Pedro.
• Downtown Doors is now open for competition and plans are to install new local art on 25 doors such as the ones on the Fairmont.
• Koalas are coming to Downtown San Jose =). To help beautify the area and surprise downtown patrons, 13 metal koala sculptures are being placed on eucalyptus trees. You can already see 4 of them on San Carlos between 2nd and 4th.

To read the full newsletter, click here!

New Incubator in Town: Semantic Seed

San Jose is one of the must entrepreneurial cities on the planet. We have an amazing ecosystem in place to help budding entrepreneurs shape their ideas, find capital, and launch companies that may one day change the world. Every time a new start-up incubator pops up, it strengthens our innovation/start-up community and helps increase our competitive advantage against other cities vying for the founders of tomorrow's Facebooks and Googles. When entrepreneurs are deciding where to launch their ideas, we want them to be here.

Semantic Seed is a new incubator right in the middle of downtown (12 South 1st, Suite 318) whose mission is to become a catalyst of early stage companies to graduate into venture capital-ready companies. The verticals they focus on are Social Media, Search and Discovery, Consumer Infrastructure, Platforms, and Evangelical. For more information on the incubator side of things, click here.

They also have coworking space available which is a really interesting concept. Professionals and entrepreneurs that typically work from home or coffee shops can instead work in an environment with like-minded individuals. You have the cost benefits of sharing office resources with others while being part of a community where innovation is embedded in the culture and you have startups launching all around you. For more information on coworking, click here.

Thanks to Peter Smith from el408.com for the info!

Guadalupe River Park Conservancy

I just wanted to give a quick plug to the Guadalupe River Park Conservancy, a non-profit group that provides community leadership for the development and active use of the park. They have many events going on for all ages and interest such as walks, garden tours, sustainability gardening, and environmental info sessions. I also imagine they will be the ones responsible for helping turn the Guadalupe River Park into our version of Central Park!

You can find their website right over here, and their blog over here (there is also a permanent link in the right sidebar of The San Jose Blog).

Bad News: No Art Walk Today :/ Good News: New Exhibits Launch Anyway

Dark Matter & Other Exhibits this Friday, Jan. 7th

There's no downtown San Jose art walk this month (January 7th) but there's still a couple of great art openings going on so you don't have to wait til First Friday February!

The Samurai, sculpture by Matthew Pugh

Surgery.Art presents Dark Matter a group study of the dark and immeasurable.

Opening reception: JAN 7 2011, 7-10PM

Fashion study: Mike Kemling

Auditory guidance: Dr. Stats, Femme Mystique, Kevorkian, Mixer Djammed

Featuring dark analytical work by: Matthew Pugh, Marie Dvorkin, Alla Viksne, Jay Ruland, Alex Yanushkevich, Kelly Nelson, Emily Feucht, Haley Goodlett, J. Marie Valdivia, Centa Schumacher, Mike Dvorkin, Genevieve Hastings, Shauna Mork + more

Curated by: Marie Dvorkin, Dora Lee

Exhibit dates: JAN 7 - JAN 21, 2011

Gallery hours: Tuesday - Friday noon - 7pm & Saturday noon - 5pm

KALEID Gallery
88 South 4th Street, San Jose, CA 95112
www.KALEIDgallery.com
(408) 947 1785

Over at Art Ark is Candy Coated Visions: recent works and site specific installation byGwen Mercado-Reyes and Kajmear Reyes

Opening Reception: Friday, January 7 · 7:00pm - 10:00pm

Art Ark Gallery
1035 S. 6th street
San Jose, CA

and WORKS Gallery will be having a closing reception for the Works’ Member Exhibition "Ring In the New" from 7 to 10pm.

This exhibition is the most eclectic, startlingly open, unjuried annual regional exhibition of art. Work from the stars of the South Bay scene are brought together with first time exhibitors. Come celebrate and support your community art and performance center with the artists who do the same: including Tony May, Carmela Rizzuto, Catherine and Tim Thompson, Myrrh, James Morgan, Irene Suber, and 100 more!

There will be member announcements at 9pm. Artists in the exhibition can claim their work to take home at 10pm.

Works
451 South First Street
San José, CA 95113
http://www.workssanjose.org/

San Jose Crime Drops Precipitously

Earlier in the week the Merc had an article about San Jose's Homicide Rate (click here). It turns out that in 2010 there were only 20 homicides in San Jose. Until proven wrong, I'm going to assume that is the lowest homicide count of any city in the world with a population over 1 million.

To put it in perspective, San Francisco had more than double the number of homicides in the same time frame with a population 200k smaller than San Jose. Oakland--with only 400k residents--had 94 homicides. Detroit, which is now smaller than San Jose, had 308 homicides.

As an added bonus, out of the 20 San Jose homicides in 2010, NONE were in Downtown San Jose.

Just for fun I'm also reposting an old blog post below:


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From 2008: San Jose Crime Rate

Just how safe is our city? Well let's take a look at some official crime statistics that I stumbled upon from the SJPD website. Between 1989 and 2008, our population grew from 757,964 to 989,496 yet homicides fell from 40 to 31, rape cases fell from 399 to 220, and aggravated assaults fell from 2,939 to 2,268. Let's put this in perspective. In 2008 San Francisco had a population nearly 200k LESS than San Jose and had 99 homicides, more than triple the San Jose rate. Oakland with a population of 420,183 in 2008 had a staggering 124 homicides. Detroit, the city closest to San Jose's population in 2008, had a mind-blowing 368 homicides. You often hear that San Jose is one of the safest large cities anywhere, but the proof is in the numbers.

Okay, one more fun statistic. Does anyone want to venture a guess as to how many 2008 homicides were in Downtown San Jose? Zero.

Wednesday Wishlist: Light Rail Tunnel

The Achilles heel of the VTA system is unfortunately the Downtown segment where trains slow to a 5mph crawl. My wishlist item for the week is to move all of the light rail track in the Downtown area underground. Some benefits:

• It would cut ~5min from most light rail commute times
• Downtown would be safer as patrons wouldn't have to look over their shoulder for trains
• It would open up key spaces along 1st and 2nd St. (perhaps for kiosks)
• Less noise (wheel squeaking and bells)
• Traffic flow could be improved for cars, bicyclists, and pedicabs
• Easier to keep homeless people from using it as a free transit system

A project like this would have massive costs, but perhaps some of those could be shared with the BART tunneling project. What do you think? Would you miss seeing/hearing the trains?

SJC Lends Helping Hand to SFO

Last week there a ground hold at SFO due to "inclement weather" (i.e. fog). Flights ended up getting diverted to SJC, an airport that stares at you confoundedly when asked about severe weather conditions. Every single flight I've taken out of SJC over the past few years has either left on time or early, and the 3 flights I've had out of the new terminal have been extremely convenient. Dec 26th is one of the busiest travel days of the year and I was able to park, check bags, go through security, and get to the gate in less than 30min. On the flip-side, every flight I have taken out of SFO over the past few years but one has been either delayed or cancelled. The convenience and consistency are why I always try to book out of SJC even if it ends up costing a little bit more.

Thanks Tom for the tip and for the photos below of SFO flights sitting in SJC waiting for the fog to clear up north. I would love to see Virgin planes land here all the time!

Time Lapse Video of Driving in San Jose

Mt. Umunhum Access Coming in 2012

A mountain peak in South San Jose that use to house the Almaden Air Force Station will be open for limited public access starting in 2012. A few years later in 2016, it should be fully open to the public who can come an enjoy panoramic views of Silicon Valley and the Monterey Bay. Check out the videos below for more information:

Happy New Year San Jose! Best Wishes For 2011!