Ed Shikada is our New City Manager

Most major/large American cities use a strong-mayor system where the elected mayor is given administrative authority and can appoint/dismiss department heads with little or no red tape. San Jose actually uses a "weak-major" system that is more commonly used in small towns where the mayor has no formal authority outside of the city council. That means that we have a city manager that works very closely with the city council and you can think of as being the CEO of the city. This role is responsible for managing day-to-day operations across 15 departments and our $2.9 billion annual operating and capital budgets.

Debra Figone was our previous city manager since 2007 and is now retiring. Ed Shikada is going to be her replacement. Ed is the current Assistant City Manager and has been working for San Jose since 2003. He's also a Willow Glen Resident and has been active in the Japanese community. Ed has been here through some tough times and stuck it out, so hopefully he will be a key contributor to San Jose's future success. He is going to take the reigns on December 21st.

Sources: The Merc, SVBJ, Wiki

Downtown San Jose Restaurant List Updates! (Q4 2013 Edition)

I have done the latest round of updates to the Downtown San Jose Restaurants database (it has been a while, sorry about that). We are up to a grand total of 249 eateries! This is yet another record-breaking number for Downtown San Jose! To put it in perspective we were at 206 eateries just two years ago and we were at 234 last December.

We did have some closures such as Pop's & Sons at the San Pedro Square Market and Rokko Japanese near Cesar Chavez Park, but the new restaurants opening up more than counterbalance what little bad news there was this past quarter. It's a good time to be a foodie Downtown! Here are some of the newcomers:

• Bel Bacio Imported Italian Coffee - Little Italy finally gets a second Eatery to compliment Paesano's, one of the best Italian restaurants Downtown. Bel Bacio's specialty is high-quality imported coffee from one of the most famous coffee regions in the world.
• Ike's Place - The most famous sandwich chain in the Bay Area has finally come to Downtown San Jose (located at 60 E. Santa Clara)! Their sandwiches are amazing and they have a large selection of vegetarian options that even meat-lovers will appreciate. 
• Thirst Tea - Great boba milk tea shop in the heart of Downtown across from Camera 12 (in the former Sandella's spot). They also have a great honey-toast dessert that will easily feed 4 people.
• SP2 - Trendy new restaurant next to the San Pedro Square Market with locally sourced ingredients and a mixology-style bar menu.
• BJ's Brewhouse - Now open at the San Jose Market Center.  
• Other Places Coming Soon
• ISO: Beers
• C.R.E.A.M.
• Da Kine Island Grill
• San Jose Pizza Co.
• Nomikai
• Take One Pizza
• SoFA Market

Below is the changelog from the Downtown San Jose Restaurants Database:

• 7/25/2013 Added SP2, which replaced Sabor
• 7/27/2013 Added Amor Cafe & Tea, which replaces Cafe Bon Terre
• 7/28/2013 Noted that Sante Grill closed
• 7/28/2013 Noted that The Mmoon closed
• 7/29/2013 San Jose Pizza Co. is coming to the former Sante Grill Space
• 9/15/2013 Take One Pizza will be opening in space formerly occupied by The Mmoon
• 9/15/2013 Pops & Sons closed at the San Pedro Square Market
• 9/15/2013 Added Da Kine Island Grill on Market (formerly Thepthai)
• 12/1/2013 Koji Sake Lounge replaced with Nomikai
• 12/1/2013 Added Bel Bacio Imported Italian Coffee in Little Italy
• 12/1/2013 Added Thirst Tea on First Street

If you haven't bookmarked it yet, here's the link to the spreadsheet! There is also a permanent link over to the right entitled Downtown San Jose Restaurants.

VTA's Holly Trolley

The free Holly Trolly is back! You can ride a historic Trolley throughout Downtown San Jose between Diridon and Civic Center. The trains run from 2:30 PM to 10 PM on weekends and 6 PM to 10 PM on Fridays. The trolly will be operational until December 29th (I really wish this was a year-round sort of thing, it's a great idea)!

New Alchemy Museum Coming to San Jose in 2015!

One of my Wednesday Wishlists ages ago was to see more museums in San Jose. They contribute to tourism, the economy, and provide new educational opportunities for local residents. In 2013 not one, but two major museums were announced. The first was the Italian Heritage Museum in the burgeoning Little Italy neighborhood Downtown. The second is going to be the largest Alchemy Museum in the world!

The RoseCroix University building next to the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum will be converted to a full-blown Alchemy Museum in 2015. Since alchemy is thought to have originated in ancient Egypt, this seems like an ideal location.

The museum will have seven different rooms with exhibits, one for each of the seven phases of alchemical transformation:

• Calcination
• Dissolution
• Separation
• Conjunction
• Fermentation [Josh: my favorite]
• Distillation
• Coagulation

To top it off, there will be interactive exhibits, lectures, a working alchemy lab, and an auditorium for events. Apparently this will be the only facility of its kind in the US.

You will be able to get a sneak preview of this new project at the Egyptian Museum next summer. The Rosicrucians are planning a special alchemy exhibit to promote the new museum, which is again due out in 2015.

Source: MetroActive

The Ohlone Project in Midtown is Put on Hold

Developer Green Republic--which is a combination of Barry Swenson Builder and Republic Urban Properties--has withdrawn plans for a 3-tower high-rise project in the Midtown area of San Jose (between Downtown and Santana Row). The point of contention seems to be the density and height of the project and a new park the developer would be required to build to service the neighborhood.

It doesn't seem that Green Republic could get this project financed as a hi-rise project, and instead would like to lower the density of the first phase and make it a mid-rise. The city reluctantly agreed and also conceded on retail and financing requirements, but would not budge on the requirement to build a four-acre park. That seems to be what is blocking the scaled down version of this project from moving forward.

This is still some hope. The developer and city both seem to want this project to happen, and this is more of a negotiation on terms than anything else.

Source: SVBJ

The San Jose Blog Hits 1 Million Page Views!

Over the weekend The San Jose Blog hit a major milestone. The homepage has now officially been viewed over 1,000,000 times! It took four and a half years to get to this point, but it looks like the next million views will happen by the end of 2014. I really want to thank of all of our readers. Without you guys this blog would have died long ago, along with the majority of San Jose blogs with similar goals that have come and gone over the years. I would also like to thank the other contributors to the blog: Jen, Jarrod, and Andy for their continued support.

Just like any other major milestone in life, it is a good time to look ahead at the future. One of my key hopes for this blog was always to have it contribute more to the community, especially Downtown San Jose. So I would like to work towards an annual event for readers and supporters, hosted at a new, hip Downtown eatery with free beer and snacks. I love how Content Magazine throws parties for their supporters, and would like to do the same thing. A longer term goal is contributing to major projects (Halloween in the Park and local art projects comes to mind).

In order to fund these plans, I'm planning to put up a single, unobtrusive ad block over on the right hand panel by the end of the year. It will not affect the posts in any way, either visually or from a content perspective. If you guys hate it, just let me know (josh@thesanjoseblog.com). If it doesn't work or annoys people, I have no problem rolling back the change.

Thank you again for all of the support, and here's to the future!

San Jose History Program #1 Video - San Jose Once Erected the World's Largest Mailbox?

Here is a neat, one-minute history lesson on San Jose from our friends at WMS:


San Jose History Pgm #01 from WMS media Inc. on Vimeo.

Quick Samsung Campus Pic

Downtown isn't the only place in San Jose where multiple cranes are going up. Below is a pic that Jaime Pelayo sent in last week of the Samsung Headquarters in North San Jose. It looks like the flagship campus is now growing above ground. Looking forward to seeing this project at full height!