Polaroid Fotobars at Westfield Oakridge & Valley Fair

The other day I was contacted by a Polariod Fotobar rep wanting to let us know that they had opened “micro-stores” (giant interactive kiosks) at Westfield Oakridge (and now, Westfield Valley Fair.) During your holiday shopping you may have seen them or event sat down and you’ve already experienced them. But if not.. if the crowds were just too much, you have plenty of time to still check them out because they are PERMANENT additions to the malls.

So, I love photography. You may have seen some of my stuff here and there, maybe visited First to Market when I had my photography up (or even in the SPUR office window a few years ago!) so I felt pretty connected to this and wanted to check it out. Especially now that the holidays were over and the malls are back to being just moderately insane again.

I was set up with a meeting with “Fototender” Cory who was super helpful. He showed me all the products you can buy; trendy, colorful shadow  boxes, “rustic”-style or glass and metal prints for a snazzier upscale or even commercial use, and all the neato photo-related holders you could ever want.

The weekend I went, they were holding a promo for 6 free prints. Their standard prints (the size of a Polaroid!) are just $1. They’re printed on a thicker cardboard stock, which makes me feel like they will last for awhile.

Much to my surprise, Team Polaroid hooked me up with some complementary goods. So I sat down and Cory showed me the super easy process to get my photos printed.

First you create a quick account and immediately get the choice to upload from various sites (Flickr, Instagram, Facebook) or direct from your phone. I opted for my phone only as it would have taken me FOREVER to choose photos from my Flickr account. Plus my phone has all the most recent photos and a few favorite older ones saved on it.

After you create an account and provide your cell number to get a link texted to your phone. From there, I easily chose what photos I wanted to upload. The photos will appear in front of you on the computer you’re using. Magic.

From there you can adjust the placement and framing. Go old school with the square format with the thicker bottom border in either portrait or landscape. Or use all the available space and have an equal, thin border.

I noticed one of my photos was a little dark and while the screen said I could do effects/edit - Cory told me that the option had significantly slowed the computers so they had to remove that feature. Kind of a bummer, but at the same time I bet it cut down on how long people sat at the computers. So that said - adjust your photos before you upload!

Once you’ve uploaded and paid for your goods, you take your receipt and hit the mall! Go browse the stores, eat lunch, drink some coffee, whatever else you find fun at the mall to do - go do it. After your prints are done, you will get a text (or email) noting they are ready for pickup. I was told that on average, a small batch of about six photos took around 15 minutes to print. Obviously this would be if there are only a moderate amount of orders ahead of yours and not a super large amounts.

I decided to go with a couple of their black shadow boxes. Black goes with everything, right? These shadow boxes have a metal panel in the middle. All you do is adhere a Polaroid-shaped flat magnet to the back of your photo and plop that sucker into the frame. Voila!

Ok this is where I admit, I probably should have chosen a bunch of San Jose-themed photos for this post right? BUT, right now on my phone it’s full of either photos of my daughter and husband or food photos. So, you get to see those photos instead. But just imagine your own pics of awesome San Jose - easily printed out, slapped into these frames, and displayed.

Maybe you run a local coffee shop and want to include some photos of those super neato latte designs you’ve been creating? Here you go!

Or invite your customers to share their prints with you and you can create a little display. For $1 per print, that’s some really easy customer-love you could provide.

There’s a quote from the press release I was provided that I found interesting…

"Over one billion pictures are taken every day, and Polaroid Fotobar is a fun, easy way to take them from your Facebook timeline to your wall at home," said Warren Struhl, the company's founder and chief executive officer.  “Polaroid Fotobar is all about recapturing the magic and instant gratification of creating cherished pieces of art with your pictures."

It’s true. We’re in such an Instagrammy-Facebooky-world that most of our photos don’t make it off our phones/accounts as often, and thanks to the retro-fun that Polaroid is providing, we can do that for an affordable amount.

And you don’t *have* to go to the mall to print these, you can do it from home and have them shipped, of course. But that might take some of the fun out of it!

I think I might create a little San Jose-related project from this… the hamster is awake and the wheels are turning...

Hey look, it's ME!

Polaroid Fotobar Info:

Westfield Oakridge:

Located near the food court next to Jamba Juice

Monday-Thursday, 10am - 9pm

Friday & Saturday, 10am - 10pm

Sunday, 11am - 7:30pm

Westfield Valley Fair:

Located on Level Two next to The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

Monday-Friday, 10am - 9:30pm

Saturday 10am - 9pm

Sunday 11am - 7pm

Bloomingdales Confirmed for Valley Fair

In 2008 there was an epic expansion plan for Valley Fair mall that included 500,000 SQFT of additional retail, including two new anchors: Bloomingdales and Neiman Marcus. Unfortunately, the great recession postponed those plans indefinitely. Now it looks like the Valley Fair expansion is about to restart. Last week when Macy's announced that it was closing its Valco store, it also announced that a 150,000 SQFT Bloomingdales is coming to Valley Fair and would employ 250 people. They even provided an expected opening date of fall 2017.

I can't find the original map that showed where the new stores would be, but can tell you that the original plan called for a third concourse in the highlighted area below. If they go by the previous plan, the expansion will also include 50 new stores, outdoor Santana Row-like dining areas, and 3,000 new parking spaces.

Source: The Merc

23 Things People From San Jose Have to Explain to Out-of-Towners

Movoto Insider has put together a fun list of San Jose cultural references that locals needs to explain to visitors. Below I put a few of my favorites, but you should really head over to their site and check out the full list.

Let us know how accurate you think the list is as well as any additional San Jose references that should have been included!

1. This Is Sharks Territory

Source: San Jose Sharks Facebook

And if you don’t think so, you might as well just leave San Jose.

11. Yes, The Weather Is Actually That Perfect

Source: Flickr user jganderson

When your average summer high is 80 degrees, and a January day is 60, it’s hard to complain about the weather.

12. But Somehow They Manage To Find Something To Complain About

Source: Tumblr user imabitloony

It doesn’t matter how perfect the weather is, a 60-degree day will still have everyone pulling out their winter coats.

14. The Single Barrel Is The Best Way To Get Drinks In Style

Source: singlebarrel Facebook/Chris Loves Photo

Ever wanted to drink at a speakeasy-style saloon where all the bartenders have on their best 1920s garb? So does everyone from San Jose.

15. The Winchester Mystery House Is Actually As Awesome As Everyone Says

Source: Flickr user nerdcoregirl

If you’ve ever wondered what the most haphazard construction in the world looked like, you’ll find the answer in this historic house. The still unfinished mansion is full of strange hallways, hidden rooms, and supposedly various ghosts.

23. Don’t You Dare Call It A Suburb

Source: giphy.com

Unless you really really want to annoy a San Jose local. Come on! It’s the third largest city in California!

Check out the rest of the list here: Movoto Insider

Two New Midtown Projects in the Works!

Robertee from the San Jose Development Forum discovered a couple new Midtown San Jose infill projects that are in the planning stages. Both are by the same developer which explains the similarities in design and are quite dense for the area. Check out the drawings below:

740 W San Carlos - 6-story residential building with 63 units and 3,130 SQFT of retail on the ground floor. Looks like there is a small park and hot tub on the podium as well as a terrace on the top floor.

777 W San Carlos (270 Sunol St.) - 5-story building with 148 residential units and 2,000 SQFT of retail on the ground floor. There is a swimming pool off to the side and terraces on the top floor and plenty of units with balconies.

UByAN Baby & Kid's Thrift Store Closing

After 17 years in business, a thrift shop for kids on Bascom is closing down since their building is about to be torn down. Below is the note that we received from UByAN. Best of luck to to them and hopefully they will find a new home elsewhere in San Jose.

UByAN - New & Used Baby and Kids' Stuff is closing it's doors this week after 17 years of providing the San Jose community
with gently used & recycled baby and kids' clothing, furniture and equipment.

UByAN wants to thank the San Jose and surrounding communities for their patronage all these years.

A very sincere and heartfelt thank you.
Lilian Flores
UByAN - New & Used Baby and Kids' Stuff
www.ubyan.com

San Jose Stats: Silicon Valley Cities Topped NYC for Spending

When you think of heavy consumer spending, New York is likely one of the first cities that comes to min. However, it looks like Silicon Valley is quickly pulling ahead with this metric... whether that is a good or bad thing I'm not so sure.

In New York, the average spend per shopping transaction is a hefty $239.85. However, it is $345.09 in Palo Alto, $314.50 in Mountain View, $278.30 in Sunnyvale, and $266.46 in Fremont. That make four Silicon Valley cities that now surpass New York in consumer spending per transaction. Not far behind New York is SF at $235.90 and San Jose at $216.86. So of the top 10 cities with the highest consumer spending, five were in Silicon Valley.

Source: SVBJ

Downtown with a Capital D

Some people noticed that when I refer to Downtown San Jose, I write the word downtown with a capital "D" instead of a lowercase letter. I started doing this years ago and it is entirely intentional.

When you write it as "downtown" you are referring to a type of place... such as a street, a block, or an alley. It's a generic descriptor to can refer to a downtown anywhere. It's nothing more than a common noun.

However, when you write "Downtown" it becomes a proper noun and means a place in and of itself. It's a destination or district, such as Willow Glen, Japantown or Santana Row and it gives our urban core some respect. Instead of "a" downtown it becomes "the" Downtown, our Downtown.

It may seem like a small difference, but I feel like it changes the context of the word entirely. Its just something to keep an eye out for when reading what other people write about Downtown San Jose. How the word is written will already give you a lot of information on what their opinions are. I hope to see more people using the capital D in the future!

January 2015 Downtown Dimension Highlights

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

• Raul Peralez became the new City Council representative for District 3 (Downtown San Jose), replacing Sam Liccardo who is now our Mayor. He has served as a San Jose police officer for 8 years and has 10 years of experience as a teacher. His top priorities are improving public safety, economic vitality, rebuilding relations between the city and unions, public transit, ending homelessness, and affordable housing. If he could change one thing about Downtown it would be to see taller buildings and having a "skyscraper" downtown [Josh: I'm starting to like this guy].
• The San Pedro Square Market and SJSU earn Golden Nail awards which are given to projects that add character and delight to Downtown.
• The City is offering a construction tax waiver to the first developer to build a non-hotel commercial high-rise more than 150 feet tall (this incentive can be valued between $800,000 to $1.5 million). Office vacancy Downtown plummeted from 23% to 13% in 2014.
• The City Council has banned bikes on sidewalks in order to make Downtown safer for pedestrians.
• Broadway San Jose is enjoying a record-breaking season. The final week of "WICKED" in San Jose brought in $1.7 million, which was the highest grossing Broadway show in the country that week. More records are expected to be broken this summer with "Book of Mormon."
• Dice.com is going to move its headquarters from Santa Clara to 16,000 SQFT at 225 W. Santa Clara Street, accommodating up to 100 employees.
• Groundwerx is going to trim 874 sycamore trees lining First and Second streets over the next month.

To read the full newsletter, click here!