The Usuals Grand Opening!

The Usuals is a brand new San Jose-centric clothing store on the Alameda, and it's everything I could ever want in a clothing store and then some!  Let me start this off by saying I know nothing about fashion... so I'm not even going to try to give an opinion on that topic here. SJFAM (San Jose Fashion Art Music) has a great article describing the product offering at The Usuals, so for that topic I'll direct you guys over there. I will only say that my wife described the clothing here as Diesel style at H&M prices.

Honestly, I wasn't quite sure to expect when I walked in late last Friday during their grand opening. In retrospect I should have brought the big cameras instead of a point and shoot because I really liked what I saw. The first thing I noticed were the I Heart SJ shirts. That scored some major points with me immediately (btw, you can get them online here). Add to that a shirt with an awesome throwback to San Jose's history... you'll actually have to visit to see this, I'm not going to spoil it for you! Unfortunately, the 250+ visitors that came before me cleaned house on all the SJ shirts in my size!

Next, gratuitous amounts of local art. Josh Marcotte's work from Lost San Jose was all over one wall. Another wall was essentially a huge dry-erase board combined with framed art by talented local artist Dion Bello (the dry erase allows for some very dynamic art since it can be changed on the fly). Music from San Jose DJs. More points, lots of them. The Usuals clearly cares about San Jose's burgeoning art scene.

Lastly, I have never been a big fan of mall or chain stores, but I also don't want to break the bank with specialty Santana-Rowish boutiques. The Usuals carries a solid assortment of clothes that look stylish, are comfortable, AND are affordable. Add the information from the previous two paragraphs, and this is absolutely a store I will support with my dollars. Hopefully you guys will swing by and take a look as well--1020 The Alameda, across the street from Sushi Infinity and Chipotle.

Now for photos (sorry in advance for the point & shoot photos, should have brought a DSLR camera)!

Two Buck Tuesday

Great event I haven't promoted in a while. All of the details are below!

The Usuals Merc Article

I have a blog post coming up next week about a great new "San Jose-centric" clothing retailer called The Usuals that launched last Friday on the Alameda. Until then, there is a great article about them in the Merc entitled: "The Usuals will carry a line of everyday clothing that appeals to those who consider San Jose 'the city'." One negative thing that caught my eye is that they claimed a retail space downtown would be much more expensive. Also when talking to them last Friday this was confirmed as they mentioned it would have cost thousands of dollars more per month in rent to have the store located Downtown. It's a shame because while they do have a very good location now, this type of store would have been perfect in SoFA, 1st St., or 2nd St.

San Pedro Square Market - SJ21 Blog Post

Great post in SJ21 about the San Pedro Square Market with a few photos of the current space.  Click here to view!

Saturday Stats - San Jose has the Highest Spending on Electronics out of ALL US Cities

I have a great stat for you guys this week. This one comes courtesy of my friends at Bundle.com. In 2009, San Jose had the highest per capita spending on electronics for all major cities in the country, and it led by a wide margin. This makes sense given San Jose is Silicon Valley's anchor city. So my question is... when are we going to see a flagship Fry's in Downtown San Jose? Come on Mr. William Fry & family, throw us a bone!

More realistically, what I would love to see are some boutique Tokyo Akihabara-style electronics shops somewhere Downtown or in Japantown. There is obviously a very strong market for electronics in San Jose, so someone should take advantage of this demographic and provide a more innovative and unique experience than your standard big-box retailer like Best Buy.

Friday Flowers - Part 3

This is the third part (of four) of a weekly Spring feature showing off Kathy's floral work at Santana Row. If you know anyone that needs a floral architect, her contact information is below. Time to kick back and enjoy the flowers.

Kathy Finley
Finley Landscape Design
(925) 785-5501
kathy@finleylandscape.com

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!

Two Key Downtown Blocks Sold to Sobrato

Last week the San Jose Business Journal released the news that the San Jose Redevelopment Agency is finalizing the deal to sell 2 key downtown blocks to Sobrato for $20M (known as Block 2 on San Fernando and Block 8 on Market St.). Block 2 was originally allocated for a mixed use museum/high-rise hotel/housing project between Living Tomorrow and Mesa Development. That deal unfortunately fell through a while ago. Block 8 was supposed to become 2 high-rise condo towers developed by Urban West... this deal went south a bit more recently.

Personally, I think Sobrato gaining ownership of these 2 blocks is the best thing to ever happen to them. Sobrato has a vested interest in Silicon Valley--especially downtown--and has the resources to actually build something even while the market is recovering. Block 2 and 8 are gaping holes downtown, creating incongruent retail in the downtown core. Those areas badly need to be developed in order in increase activity along the "anchor" corridors downtown east of Santa Clara St.

So far, there is no indication of what Sobrato plans to build in either Block 2 or Block 8, but there's a rumor that something better that what Urban West was planning is in the hopper for Block 8. As for Block 2, I'm really hoping for mixed-use development with retail along the ground floor. If anyone gets any news on either of these blocks, please send it in!