Snow Park in San Jose?

It is not everyday that you hear about an organization proposing to turn a former landfill site into an all-year-round snow park... in San Jose. This would be the first such synthetic snow park in California and even though I am not a skier or snowboarder, it sounds awesome! Depending on how well the fundraising goes, the slope cold be anywhere between 200ft long and 100ft wide and 800ft long and 220ft wide. You have to check out the 60 second video below.

The project would cost between $1 and $18 million to build and include retail and restaurants on-site. The snow park would be constructed near 101 and Capital in the Evergreen area of San Jose.

To contribute to the project, just head over to the Bay Area Snow Park Kickstarter page over here.

Source: Kickstarter, San Jose Forum

Hotel Valencia Makes the Conde Nast Gold List

The Conde Nast Traveler Hotel Gold List highlights the top hotels in the World. Only 29 hotels were selected in California (these are more rare than Michelin Stars at Restaurants), and Hotel Valencia was the sole Silicon Valley hotel on the list. To put that in perspective, of ALL the hotels in San Francisco only the St. Regis was included on the list.

Other Bay Area hotels that made it were the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay, Lavender and Vintage Inn in Yountville, Hotel Healdsburg in Sonoma and several in Napa (Auberge du Soleil, Bardessono, Calistoga Ranch, Solage Calistoga).

Source: SVBJ, Conde Nast

Earthquakes Stadium Construction Photo

Check out the latest progress on the Earthquakes stadium! The cement is starting to be poured and the steel is going up on the locker room and clubhouse building. Hat tip to Joseph Meduri for sending this in.

SJMADE Coming to Valley Fair

Finally we are getting some local flavor into Valley Fair! It sounds like SJMADE is about to open a popup shop in the mall that will feature local vendors and undoubtedly some San Jose-themed apparel. If you are a potential vendor, more info is below. For everyone else, the popup will be located across from White House Black Market and Zara (see map).

~~~

Dear Potential SJMADE Holiday Popup Vendor, It is with great excitement that we announce this fantastic popup opportunity with Westfield Valley Fair! Due to the nature of pop-ups and temporary spaces, we know this information may be coming to you later than expected, but we hope that you are able to join us in this very promising holiday retail venture!  During this 2013 holiday season from November 15th through December 31st, San Jose Made (SJMADE) is operating a Holiday Popup location at a prime retail shop location at Westfield Valley Fair on Stevens Creek Road in Santa Clara, CA. In order to maintain an operating storefront during normal mall hours, our programming at this holiday popup location is two-fold. The space will house a permanent "Best of San Jose MADE" retail store during all normal mall operating hours, while on weekends (Friday to Sunday) we have designated Weekend Vendor Spaces available for YOU to rent and be part of this exciting venture! Our retail affiliates, Showroom San Jose, who currently have a small local retail shop at San Pedro Square Market in downtown San Jose will operate the permanent "Best of San Jose Made" pop-up at this location. They are purchasing items at wholesale cost from SJMADE vendors and retailing solely SJMADE vendor products. If your best-selling product should be at this "Best of" shop, let us know! We will send you an application form. We look forward to seeing you in one of these Weekend Vendor Spaces. In this packet you will find information about Westfield Valley Fair and detailed logistics about your Weekend Vendor Space. If you have any questions, please contact us via email at: sanjosemade@gmail.com and we'll get a vendor packet to you ASAP.  For those of you who would like to talk to us in person, we are holding an open house at the SJMADE Holiday Pop-Up location at Westfield Valley Fair on Monday, November 11th from 7:00p to 9:00p. Come-by to take a look at the space and drop-off your application form! Looking forward to the holiday retail season, The team at SJMADE

Wednesday Wishlist: San Jose PRT

I have not done a Wednesday Wishlist in a while, but couldn't resist when I saw this article on Gizmodo. A small town in the UK is completely replacing it's bus system with 100 autonomous pods that go from the train station throughout the downtown area.

Forget Lightrail, forget BART, forget BRT, forget more congested freeways... this is the real future. The pods below are very much a first-generation product, but the vision is solid. I would love to see San Jose push to implement a more cutting edge version of this type of system that could perhaps connect SJC with existing mass transit systems and Downtown San Jose, and then eventually branch out to residential districts and corporate campuses across Silicon Valley. There is a company in Mountain View that is developing a magnetic PRT (Personal Rapid Transit) system that can go well above 80mph and can be supported by narrow monorail-like structures elevated above streets and walkways similar to the photo below.

What do you guys think? Does it make more sense to make a stronger push for a new innovative transit system or continue to extend the current systems we have today?

Source: Gizmodo

ADAM CLARK ESTES

SELF-DRIVING CARS

11/05/13 12:20pm

21,097g90L

A UK Town Is Replacing Its Buses With Driverless Pods

SEXPAND

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It's happening, folks. The self-driving car phenomenon is finally jumping from the test track onto public roads. And the revolution isn't just happening in the United States—it's happening in the UK, too.

The small town of Milton-Keynes, just north of London, will soon deploy 100 driverless pods to replace its noisy, pollution-blasting bus system. These so-called Ultra Pods can carry four people plus cargo at a neck-breaking speed of 12 miles-per-hour on a set track. The battery-powered vehicles are already safely in use on a closed track at London's Heathrow airport, where there hasn't been a single safety incident in over two years of use.

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The UK is ahead of the curve on this one, but not by much. Nissan says it'll start selling a self-driving car by 2020, and companies like Volvo and Mercedes aren't far behind. But will they look like a family-friendly amusement park ride crossed with a Stormtrooper? Highly doubtful. [PhysOrg]

Image via Ultra Global PRT

November 2013 Downtown Dimension Highlights

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

• Downtown Ice returned on Nov. 15th and half a million people are expected to visit Downtown during the Holidays.
• Apigee (a hot tech startup) has moved to a 41,000 SQFT space Downtown at 10 Almaden, leaving behind a 16,000 SQFT office in Palo Alto.
• Malwarebytes and Move.com also recently moved into 10 Almaden.
• Bridge Bank is adding 18,500 SQFT at its corporate headquarters at 55 Almaden.
• Smashburger is now serving up classic burgers at the San Jose Marketcenter [Josh: BJ's is now open as well]
• Thrive Therapy and Social Center is open at 25 Post and offers a full array of autism therapies for kids and young adults.
• Groundwerx spent October pruning overgrown limbs from trees Downtown [Josh: picking up some slack from city services that were cut due to budget cuts].
• On Dec. 15 thee TiVo Santa Run takes place, which is exactly what it sounds like... a run featuring people wearing Santa Costumes. Proceeds benefit Downtown Ice and Christmas in the Park.
• The SJDA maintained a balanced budget during its last fiscal year ($2.9 million budget)
• Aedis--an architectural firm--has moved into 9,000 SQFT of modern office space in SoFA and envisions a mini-San Pedro Square Market for their ground floor. The working title of the project is going to be the SoFA Market and it's scheduled to launch Spring 2014 [Josh: wohoo!!!]

To read the full newsletter, click here!

Apigee is Moving to Downtown San Jose!

Apigee is technology start-up that has become a major player in enterprise API (Application Programming Interface) management. APIs let companies open up their software so that other applications can communicate with them. Whenever you see a function on a website that lets you post to Facebook, Google+, Linkedin, or Twitter... that is all done using APIs.

Now to cut to the chase, Apigee is a hot Palo Alto company with IPO potential and they have decided to move to Downtown San Jose. They are upgrading from 16,000 SQFT at 260 Sheridan to 41,000 SQFT of office space that could house over 250 employees at 10 Almaden. This is the largest office lease for Downtown so far in 2013.

What is surprising is that 20% of Apigee workers live in San Francisco and take Caltrain to work. They found that most San Franciscans actually preferred the Downtown San Jose location since they can take a baby bullet train which does not service the California Avenue Caltrain stop. Hopefully, if Downtown continues on the current trajectory, we might be able to convert some of these San Franciscans to San Joseans.

Some other perks of moving to Downtown San Jose from Palo Alto is that the cost of the office space is far less expensive and there is plenty of room to grow. You also have access easy access to the SAP Center, the remodeled Convention Center, an international airport, Lightrail, and BART in the future. If we can get two or three more of these hot companies Downtown, I think it would have a strong positive impact on the brand of Downtown and put the area on the radar for a lot more hot growing companies in Silicon Valley. Already, the restaurant and residential markets are exploding and retail is improving at a steady pace, so it is just a matter of time before the office market catches up.

Source: SVBJ

TWO BUCK Tuesday Nov. 19th, 7pm

From Phantom Galleries

Join us at KALEID Gallery for this upcoming TWO BUCK Tuesday, November 19th, 7pm-10pm! Come enjoy an inspired evening of performances, live painting, $2 art, drop-in sketching table & quirky people get together! It’s open to all ages and free! Here are some of of the participating artists who will be joining us this time: Carolann Espino will help participants create a "Dream Collage". What if you could have the house, car, man, women, pet, garden, job you want?. Well you can through creating your own unique "Dream Collage" Visualizing your dreams is a powerful tool to create your goals and dreams. "Dream Collage" art feels you with a sense of excitement as you affirm your dreams through the power of art. Supplies will be provided except for canvas boards. (Those wishing to be part of the art can pick them up very reasonably at Michaels, 8x11 is a good size). She will provide stock paper if there are those who cannot afford canvas board. Al Preciado will sculpt large and amazing things out of common household foil. Come and get some sculpting tips from a pro! Nik Caesar will marvel you with his monsters! James Pollard will paint bold images in large strokes. Felipe Jimenez will brighten the day with his colorful artwork. Live performance from our friends Rebelskamp! TWO BUCK Tuesday is November 19th, 7pm-10pm! 88 South Fourth Street (@ San Fernando) San Jose, CA 95112 info@KALEIDGallery.com 408-947-1785 Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday, noon -7pm Free admission