October 2012 Downtown Dimension Highlights

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

• The Downtown Doors project was recognized by the International Downtown Association (IDA), where the president of the IDA even said that the program sets the standard for best practice in the industry.
• The next HER city event is Oct. 25 and features appetizers and drinks in the Hedley Club followed by the musical MEMPHIS (including a backstage tour). Tickets are available at sjdowntown.com/hercity.
• Hawaiian Airlines and KIristi Yamaguchi's Always Dream Foundation will be title sponsors for Downtown Ice, kicking off Nov 16th.
• The parking lot wall on Almaden and Woz has been adorned with new artwork, which extends across 33 sections of wall and 1,868 sqft. The project took 2 months to complete.
• The Poppy Farm at the San Pedro Square Market is now regularly open for buisiness, as is Loteria Taco Bar.
• AJ's Hot Dogs is now open in SoFA.
• The Earthquakes are breaking ground on their new soccer stadium with a public ceremony on Oct. 21. They are also trying to break the Guinness World Record for most people taking part in a ground-breaking ceremony.

To read the full newsletter, click here!

San Jose Trail Count 2012

In mid September the San Jose Trail Program took an annual count of trail usage during peak travel periods. The results are looking pretty good for 2012.

At the Guadalupe River/Coleman, there was a 3.4% increase in usage over last year despite a partial closure for paving. Guadalupe River and San Fernando showed a huge 34.5% increase in usage. Los Gatos Creek at Hamilton was up 13.9%. Los Gatos Creek at Auzerais stayed the same while Los Alamitos Creek at Camden was up 6.4%. They also counted 82 people in what will become a new future trail in the Five Wounds neighborhood.

Here is the trend for the total number of trail users:

• 2007 - 243 users
• 2008 - 420 users
• 2009 - 531 users
• 2010 - 561 users
• 2011 - 593 users
• 2012 - 613 users

For more information click here, or expand the image below. A big thank you to Yves Zsutty for submitting this information.

Wednesday Wishlist: Halloween in the Park! (Part V)

This is one of my favorite Wednesday Wishlists every year. To sum it up, think Christmas in the Park for Halloween! San Jose is gaining traction as a go-to place for Halloween events with events like the Winchester Mystery House Fright Nights and Deadtime Dreams. A Halloween in the Park month-long event would be inclusive to all ages and make Downtown San Jose the epicenter of October Halloween experiences.

Below is a working concept and there have been several additions and revisions over the last three years, so please have a look and provide your feedback and suggestions in the comments. Thanks!

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The largest draw to downtown San Jose for many years now has been Christmas in the Park. It has continued to grow year after year and brings in visitors from all over the Bay. It's economic impact I'm sure is substantial and helps keep many downtown businesses afloat.

What would you think about a similar event for Halloween? Picture downtown lit up in orange add purple with elaborate Halloween displays assembled by talented local artists. Perhaps a infrastructure could even be shared with Christmas in the Park (e.g. retail booths). A strong event in October would help maintain traffic between the summer months and Christmas in the Park. Here are the ideas we have so far:

• Animated Halloween Displays
• Created by local artists
• Analogous to the Christmas displays that attract many families during Christmas in the Park (almost half a million visitors)
• Family friendly so that everyone can enjoy it (PG/PG13, perhaps around the same level as Great America Halloween Haunt)
• Halloween Lighting
• Orange, purple, and green LED lighting on trees
• May be possible to use new controllable lighting that can go from Halloween colors to Christmas colors with the push of a button, allowing the lights to stay up for Christmas in the Park as well and reducing setup/takedown effort.
• Halloween Food
• Booths with candied apples, chocolates, candy, pumpkin seeds, etc.
• Food trucks
• Retail Booths selling Halloween items, for example:
• Artwork (paintings, glass pumpkins, etc.)
• Home decor/crafts like candles
• Light-up hats/necklaces/bracelets
• Costumes
• Zombie/Halloween make-up station 
• Halloween-themed Carnival Games
• Pirates of Emerson does a good job at this.
• Interactive Art
• ZERO1-style, but with a Halloween spin.
• Pumpkins
• Instead of the sponsored Christmas trees in Christmas in the Park, how about decorated Pumpkins (can even be Styrofoam so there is no mess/decay)?
• Pumpkin carving station for families. 
• Pumpkin carving contest.
• Costumed Entertainers
• Walking around the area, not necessarily scaring people but adding to the ambiance and providing photo opportunities for families
• Haunts
• Would be ideal if these were nearby, perhaps in vacant retails spaces, surface parking lots, the convention center, or at SJSU.
• Could partners with one of the established San Jose haunt providers such as Deadtime Dreams or The World's Largest Haunted House.
• Potential Events
• Zombie-O-Rama can be used to kick off Halloween in the Park (late Sep. / early Oct. timeframe)
• Zombie Crawl
• Dia De Los Muertes Bike Party
• Horror Movie Trivia Contest
• Weekly horror movie screening (perhaps in the Circle of Palms area?)

As before, please post your suggestions below!

San Jose Halloween Attraction Guide 2012

Wondering which events to go to this Halloween season? The San Jose Blog has got you covered. This year we have more local haunt attractions then ever before, and the quality has also been taken to a new level. The full list is below, but I would like to highlight the Winchester Mystery House Fright Nights, Shadow Hills, and Pirates of Emerson for really being exceptional this year.

Winchester Mystery House Fright Nights  - San Jose
The single most impressive haunt attraction in the Bay Area, and it happens to take place in and around what may actually be a real haunted house. There are two components of this event, a self-guided flashlight tour of the mansion itself and an epic 40 minute haunt with props and design elements straight out of a Hollywood movie. If you just plan on doing just a single event this year, you can stop reading and buy your tickets for this one.

Dead Time Dreams - San Jose
New for 2012. Last year they were a part of the World's Largest Haunted House below, but this year they have created their own event just down the street from their former partners (next to a giant pumpkin patch). There are two really well done mazes here along with a midway containing props, a tarot card reader, some scare actors, and Halloween items for sale.

World's Largest Haunted House - San Jose
This one is another really long maze with seemingly never-ending black corridors that break up the scares. This year they also added a short haunt right before you get to the line of the maze, a pretty neat idea.

Shadow Hills - Los Gatos
This was the biggest surprise of the year and one of the best haunts I have ever done. The groups are limited to only 2 people, there is quite a bit of acting and storytelling, you have interactive elements like hidden doors, and finally there is one scare prop (think chain saws and air guns) that will blow you away.

Pirates of Emerson - Pleasanton
The preeminent Bay Area Halloween event for almost 2 decades is returning this year with an another great event. There are 5 haunted mazes this year, a Halloween Carnival, and several micro-attractions. This is MUCH MORE intense than Great America, so don't bring your young children to this one. You'll get scares from every angle, including above and below you. The haunts are extraordinarily well done, and they only let in small groups. 

Halloween Haunt @ California's Great America - Santa Clara
Still the largest Halloween event in Northern California. Now in its fifth year, the word has gotten out on Halloween Haunt and the park is packed even on day 1. There are now 7 haunted mazes, a single haunted ride, 3 scare zones, and various shows. Most rides worth going on are still open for this event and the roller coasters are being run with all the lights turned off. Only one of the mazes was new this year, Madam Marie's Massacre Manor, and it also happened to be the best one. The quality of the actors did not seem as good as in previous years with the exception of this new maze where they really excelled. I would say overall this is now the least scary of all the events and I'm hoping they can pick things up next year with a few new mazes. 

Swank Farms - Hollister
I didn't do this one this year, but I heard it was great. Instead of doing 2 haunts they have one very large maze. The haunt should take 15+ min and incorporates part of their cornfield maze.  

Scotts Valley Haunted House - Scotts Valley
A high school production may seem out of place on this list, but I assure you that this one is 100% worthwhile. As opposed to your typical maze where you have people randomly popping out at you, each year there is a unique story with hundreds of actors, making you truly feel like you're immersed in the script. You can also forget the saying "don't touch the actors and they won't touch you." Past events have included surprises like receiving fake shots, being completely separated from your party, and even wet hands touching the back of your neck while you are in pitch darkness. Insanely scary and much more interactive than any of the other events. Plus the money connected is donated to charity. One caveat, due to how awesome this haunt is there may be a 2-3 hour wait. At least you'll have the high school dance team dressed up as zombies entertaining you (and performing Thriller in its entirety every 15min). The cost is $8 per person. Oct 25-27 only, starting at 7pm. 555 Glenwood Dr., Scotts Valley.

TechXploration Meetup

TechXploration is continuing their speaker series tomorrow (October 9th) with the topic "Why Computers Will [Not] Take Over the World." While many people believe that computers with artificial intelligence will one day outperform people with real-world problems, the speaker in this event is taking the opposite stance. To boot there will be craft beer tasting and from now on TechXploration is going to support a local San Jose restaurant with each event. To sign up and for location information, just click here.

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Come Xplore the fundamental insight powering "Silicon Valley's Next Billion-Dollar Company" (TechCrunch) and "The War on Terror's Secret Weapon" (BusinessWeek): 

Computers Will [Not] Take Over the World: but will help us save it.

According to Palantir senior engineer & big data expert, Ari Gesher, the most powerful systems will be those that augment human intelligence, not attempt to recreate it.

Join us for a talk about:

1. How humans and computers working in collaboration can outperform any computer in existence
2. How artificial intelligence wrongfully hijacked the technology world for almost 15 years
3. A number of complex real-world problems where the only solution is human-computer symbiosis, because automation fails
4. How Peter Thiel-backed Palantir Technologies built a Java-based human-computer collaboration system that is being used by government agencies, large financial institutions and police departments around the globe

RSVP now to reserve your spot.

Craft beer by the cup + beer tasting + local cuisine* starting @ 7:08 PM

Presentation + Q&A @ 7:39 PM

About Palantir:

Palantir builds software that helps save lives, solve crimes, protect civil liberties, prevent disease and curb fraud by allowing organizations to make sense of massive amounts of disparate data.

* Now featuring Free local cuisine: supporting San Jose local restaurants!

At every TechXploration, we will support a San Jose-based restaurant (recommended by you!) for delicious event eats. What is your favorite local restaurant? Post it to the wall!

About Ari Gesher:

• Senior Engineer, responsible for developing Palantir's platform/operating system
• Currently working on: Palantir's developer APIs for backend services and the systems engineering that goes into Palantir's servers

Winchester Mystery House Featured in EveryDay with Rachel Ray

The Magazine "Every Day with Rachael Ray" is featuring various real-life haunted houses and the Winchester Mystery House is first on the list. To see the article, pick up the magazine or click here.

Keep Hydrated At The San Pedro Square Market!

Are you thirsty? Perhaps feeling a little dehydrated? Did you load up on yummy treats at the San Pedro Square Market and now you're just a little parched? While, yes, vendors sell various sodas, teas, or adult beverages - maybe you just want a little bit of water….

Hah, I know what you're thinking -- "Water?" This post is about WATER? Yes, yes it is.

You see, in the main building, if you mosey around, you'll notice that on pretty much every vendor's couner sits a water dispenser. 

I've seen pineapples, strawberries & lemon, oranges, and cucumbers as common flavors at Robee's Falafel, Loteria Taco Bar, Little Chef Counter, and CrepParis. Head over to On A Roll and you can sample their Jasmine Tea. 

Only one seems to stand out in the crowd... that is Pizza Bocca Lupo. They have a water spigot (with not very cold water.) Maybe someday they'll join the dispenser crowd? (No pressure guys!)

So next time you stop by the Market and are enjoying your lunch, dinner, snack or post-pub crawl munchies… keep hydrated with tasty water!

San Jose is the 2nd Happiest City for Young Professionals

We see a lot of stats on income in San Jose, but this one is focused around happiness of our younger workers. The results were compiled from 38,000 surveys and young professional was defined as an employee with less than 10 years of full-time work experience. San Jose ranked in second place for young professional happiness, with our neighbor Sunnyvale getting the bronze and LA taking the gold.

Also mentioned in the Business Journal article is that city officials are predicting 91,000 new residents between the ages of 20-34 by the year 2025. The influx of younger talent makes this a very important metric, especially considering that Silicon Valley companies and start-ups are aggressively seeking out this demographic at the moment.

Happiest Cities for Young Professionals
1.) Los Angeles
2.) San Jose
3.) Sunnyvale
9.) San Francisco

Source: SJBJ