Oracle Claiming More Space Downtown

Not long ago, Oracle announced that they would be utilizing 66,000 sqft of the building it inherited from the BEA acquisition--the Sobrato Tower. Now, they are laying claim to another 51,000 sqft (2 floors) of space just in case they need it. This is great news. The sooner we can fill up this building, the better for Downtown.

For more info, click here.

New Santana Row Residential Development

Levare may have just been completed, but Santana Row is already gearing up for their next project. The plan is to build over 200 luxury rental homes by fall 2013. The construction area will be the lot behind Diesel and Pasta Pomodoro, also known as Parcel 8B. If you look at the image below, you can see after this there are still 3 other parcels to develop. I'm hoping that one of those will be used for at least a mid-rise and they'll add some more retail to the Row (as indicated on parcels 11 and 9/10).

Thanks to the guys from the San Jose development forum for this info. Also, here is a PDF of the information sent out to residents and employees.

Saturday Stats: San Jose is the Healthiest Metro

Great stat for you today. San Jose was ranked as having the healthiest metropolitan area in the nation. Santa Cruz was a close runner up and has a lower obesity rate, but a greater share of smokers (the two main metrics for this ranking).

The top 10
1. San Jose
2. Santa Cruz
3. Boulder, Colo.
4. Napa
5. Bend, Ore.
6. San Francisco
7. Stamford, Conn.
8. San Luis Obispo
9. Corvallis, Ore.
10. Los Angeles

Thanks to Dan for the tip. Fore more info, click here.

New Restaurant Opening Downtown: Hestia's

It looks like spot that used to house my favorite Yogurt shop (Penguin Froyo) has a new owner. The new restaurant is called Hestia's and is located at 30 E. Santa Clara Street. While I couldn't get much info online, based on the name and logo alone we can gather that it will be some type of Mediterranean/Greek restaurant. Thanks Arlene for the tip and the photo.

Artsopolis is Now LiveSV

The Arts Council Silicon Valley has launched a slick new site to replace Artsopolis and it adds all sorts of new social elements to it. To check it out, head over to www.LiveSV.com (there is also a permanent link on the right under San Jose Culture). They're billing it as "a dynamic new website platform and online community designed to help the public discover, experience, and share what's new and unique in the Silicon Valley arts, culture and entertainment scene." Sounds great to me, I wish them all the best.  Click here to read the full press release.

Also, have a look at some of the snazzy advertising they've been doing:

Wednesday Wishlist: Bring Hart's Back

This one may be a bit of a stretch, but how cool would it be to see Hart's department store return to Downtown San Jose? I would love to see a new retail anchor Downtown that is completely unique to San Jose and offers quality products with a high level of customer service. Hart's filled those shoes perfectly before Valley Fair and suburban sprawl started to come into play. 

A couple week ago, the Merc had a great article about the store that played such a large role in San Jose's history. It's well worth a read right over here.

People-Shaped Animals Exhibit at KALEID Gallery

from Phantom Galleries by Cherri Lakey

art work by Nicole Dornsife

People-Shaped Animals

Concurrent with the annual Further Confusion convention in downtown San Jose, KALEID Gallery hosts a collection of work from artists participating in the furry subculture coordinated by Brian Root.

The furry crowd's roots are in indie comics and scifi/fantasy illustration, with a huge volume of art produced that's rarely seen outside of the convention's doors.

The central theme of the show is anthropomorphism in animal illustration - whether that's in cartooning, folklore, wildlife illustration, or fantasy art, the unifying thread is that all of the contributors to this show find something in making pictures of animals that speaks to them.


art work by ZD

Participating Artists:
Ashalind
AC
Ginger Cooley
Kris Jaques
Mandi Tremblay
Zhivago
Marilyn Cole
Erin Middendorf
Christina Hanson
Miguel Angel Garcia
Roz Gibson
Jessica O'Black
Nicole Dornsife
Barbara Utzinger
Sarah Finnigan
Keovi
Brendan Cunningham
Claudya Schmidt
Growly Lobita
Laura Garabedian
Brian Root

Exhibition Dates: Thursday, January 12th through Sunday, January 15th.
Exhibition Hours: Thursday, Friday, Saturday Noon -7pm, Sunday Noon - 5pm


88 South Fourth Street (at San Fernando)
Downtown San Jose
(408) 947-1785 





SJ Autoshow 2012

It’s been a while since I’ve gone to the SJ Autoshow & so when a mate of mine phoned up it sounded like a good idea (Plus, I had been watching a lot of Top Gear).

There were a lot of cars, people & kids.  Even a giant 8ft DJ robot.

Most of the cars were pretty normal production cars, not has many concept or exotic cars.  But it was nice getting to see some cars up close.  Especially the Fiat 500 Cabrio, I chatted with the Fiat girl (technically Dodge) for a bit about it too.  I had always wanted to checkout the Fiat.  The convertible top is great fun.  The Mini Countryman is cool as well.

Saw a Coda, which I had never even heard of before.

Then we dropped by the exotic cars & I came upon a Fisker & a McLaren, both fantastic looking cars.  Unfortunately, they wouldn’t even let us near these cars since even a fingerprint would cause the car to depreciate by $1K.

We swung by Lexus as well to look for the IS F & the LFA.  The IS F was nice, but they didn’t have the LFA so we dropped by to chat with the Lexus girl.  Will he buy one?

Nope, he’s gone with the Dodge RAM.  And on that bombshell, we’ll see you guys next time.  You can see the other photos on the true2lifepix FB site.