Joint Venture Index of Silicon Valley 2010

The latest Joint Venture report evaluating the current status of our region has been unleashed. Thankfully it's not all doom and gloom. Here are a few of my favorite statistics:

• 30% of ALL Venture Capital invested in the US, is invested in Silicon Valley (Pop: 2,900,000, less than 1% of the US population). 
• The proportion of VC funds we're receiving in relation to the rest of the country actually increased in 2009 (so we're getting an even larger piece of the funding pie).
• 12% of ALL US patents originated in Silicon Valley.
• In 2008 more patents were filed in San Jose than any other city in the US (and by a wide margin).
• 3% of vehicles registered in Silicon Valley are hybrids or electric (as opposed to 2% in the rest of California)

Click here to read the entire report (Warning: PDF link).

Old Little Italy Archway Concepts

It tuns out that I never posted the original archway concepts for San Jose's Little Italy. Sorry about that! Here they are:

To see the latest render click here!

Cinequest Kicks Off Today!

One of the 10 greatest film festivals in the world kicks off today in Downtown San Jose, and there is an excellent post on San Jose Metroblogs providing some great insight as to what Cinequest is, and is not. Have a look for yourself here!

San Jose 2010 State of the City Address

I would highly recommend that everyone reading this blog take a look at the transcript of the 2010 State of the City Address. It's long, but has a lot of important information on the current situation San Jose is facing as well as the future vision of our city. You can read Chuck Reed's speech in full here.

Some of the main topics are:

• Balancing the Budget
• Building a Strong Economy
• Safe Neighborhoods with Good Schools
• Protect and Preserve our Environment
• Creating a Vibrant City

Here's the link one last time!

New Potential Little Italy Arch Render

Below is another rendering of what the Little Italy arches could look like (this one was put together by Acadia Architecture). Also the first restaurant in little Italy, Paisano's Trattoria Italiana, is opening up within a couple months!

February 2010 Downtown Dimension Highlights

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

• Mayor Chuck Reed addresses the Redevelopment Agency
• Financial situation is not good, may be able to borrow $30M this year.
• The 2 highest RDA priorities right now are the downtown Baseball Stadium and the Convention Center expansion. These are the 2 with the biggest bang for our buck.
• Regarding building heights and the airport, he indicated that the airlines have choices and we can't just tell them to do it our way shove off. They can cut flights and move to other airports in the Bay Area, we don't want to give them any more reasons to not fly out of San Jose.
• The High-Speed Rail Authority is again reconsidering the potential of an underground HSR station in San Jose, although they made it clear it is not their preferred alternative.
• Some additional news regarding the San Pedro Square Market:
• They want to have a weekend farmer's market instead (or in addition to) the Friday one.
• The targeted tenant distribution is 80% food and beverage and 20% hard goods.
• A special area for kids is also in the works.
• The 20th annual Cinequest Film Festival kicks off Feb 23 and runs all the way through Mar 7. This year it will feature over 200 films from 40 countries.
• On March 5 from 5:00-7:30pm, there will be another high-rise condo open house. This will coincide with both Cinequest AND South First Fridays. Another great reason to spend March 5th downtown (you'll also get free pedicab rides between the high-rises and art venues).
• The 141 W Santa Clara building should be revealed any day now (building under renovation housing Starbucks and La Victoria).
• The Rental Market downtown has been booming. 90% of The Globe is leased, 80% of the Sainte Claire Apartments above Original Joe's are leased, and 94% of the Twohy Lofts are full.

To read the full newsletter, click here!

BuyBuyBaby Opening First West Coast Store in San Jose

BuyBuyBaby--a subsidiary of Bed, Bath, & Beyond--has decided to open their very first store on the west coast in San Jose. It's always nice to host a west coast premier! As you can probably tell by the name, this store specializes in baby products and this will be their 29th store. BuyBuyBaby will occupy a 38,000 sqft space formerly held by now-defunct Circuit City in Almaden Plaza (the center with Costco, Barnes & Noble, Trader Joe's, etc.).

Veggielution Farmstand Opening

Last weekend the Veggielution farmstand finally began selling to the public! Almost 56 pounds of fresh, organic, (very) locally grown produce was sold during the soft opening. Everything is sold on a sliding scale. Price 1 is $0.00 for those that are in true hardship, Price 2 is what you would pay at a typical grocery store for standard veggies, and Price 3 is what you would pay for organic produce at a specialized store (this is the support Veggielution pricing!).

The sheer fact that we now have an active farm in the middle of San Jose in 2010 is already mind-blowing... but the care and passion that goes into this production is what makes it truly special. I was fortunate enough to get a behind the scenes tour of "the acre" and everything is tended to by the hands of enthusiastic volunteers. Even the fertilizer is made on-site from scratch and is fed live to the crops (vs. pre-packaged dead fertilizer with fewer nutrients). Hopefully later this year their little acre will expand and they'll be able to offer an even wider variety of produce.

Please support the effort by visiting their farm stand at 647 S. King Road, Saturdays from 2:30pm-3pm! I picked up some broccoli and cilantro last weekend and can attest to the quality... amazing stuff. They're also looking for volunteers if you're interested in contributing to the healthy, local, organic foods movement!