Sunday, November 15, 2015

Do You Know the Way to San Jose? (From Brooklyn)

A couple years ago Glove and Boots--famous NYC puppeteers--did an epic twelve hour AMA on reddit. In a unique twist, they answered questions with videos produced on the spot. Below was their answer to "Do you know the way to San Jose?" Thanks to Kevin Zing for sending this in!

Saturday, November 14, 2015

Saturday Stats: San Jose has the Most Future-Ready Economy in the Nation

At the 2015 Strategic Innovation Summit held by Harvard University and Dell, San Jose was proclaimed as the most future-ready economy in the country. Their definition of a future-ready economy is one that has sustainable economic output and growth potential. There are three key attributes that the study looked for:

1.) Human capital, or people equipped with the right skills to drive meaningful social and economic change.
2.) Commerce from sustainable business opportunities to continue improving entire economies for year to come. This includes collaboration, such as the formation of public-private partnerships.
3.) Infrastructure prepared to support people, businesses, and technology needed to drive growth and change.

San Jose scored well above average when it comes to human capital, having strong salaries, educational achievements, and by far the highest number of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) occupations per capita. San Jose also nailed it on commerce, having a collaborative and innovation-driven economy. Where we lost some big points was with infrastructure, particularly traffic congestion and poor public transit. Despite that, we still took the top position in the study with San Francisco coming in second and Washington DC in 3rd place.

Source: Dell, SJ Economy Newsletter

Top 25 Future Ready Economies

  1. San Jose, CA
  2. San Francisco, CA
  3. Washington, DC
  4. Boston, MA
  5. Austin, TX
  6. Raleigh, NC
  7. Seattle, WA
  8. Denver, CO
  9. Portland, OR
  10. Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
  11. New York, NY
  12. Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN
  13. Houston, TX
  14. Atlanta, GA
  15. Charlotte, NC
  16. San Diego, CA
  17. Chicago, IL
  18. Louisville, KY
  19. Salt Lake City, UT
  20. Des Moines, IA
  21. Los Angeles, CA
  22. Pittsburgh, PA
  23. Kansas City, MO
  24. Columbus, OH
  25. Philadelphia, PA


Friday, November 13, 2015

Frontier Village Remnants Head to the New Museum of Los Gatos and Great America

Many years ago there was a theme park in San Jose called Frontier Village. It had a western theme and was inspired by Disneyland, but never gained enough traction to survive despite having a number of interesting attractions (including gunfights and a roller coaster). A San Jose resident named Shaughnessy McGehee has been collecting and recreating elements of Frontier Village over the years, but is now moving out of state. His vast collection was split among the New Museum of Los Gatos and Great America and the first showing of the collection is already on display in Los Gatos.

For more information, head over to this great write-up (with a lot more photos) at Searchlight San Jose.



Thursday, November 12, 2015

Bass Pro Shops Opens San Jose Store

There are very few retailers out there with fans that are willing to drive 50+ miles and plan their whole day around a store visit. Bass Pro Shops is on that short list. They officially opened their San Jose store on Almaden Expressway a couple weeks ago, which is the only one in the Bay Area and the fourth in all of California. About 10,000 people came for the grand opening.

The San Jose store is larger than an average Costco at 145,000 SQFT. It features a huge array of camping, hunting, fishing, boating, and general outdoor gear. If that wasn't enough, it has its own 12-lane underwater-themed bowling alley, a seafood restaurant, a full bar, an indoor archery range, and a 15,000 gallon aquarium worthy of a zoo. The store employs over 200 people.

Bass Pro Shops is located at 5160 Cherry Avenue and is open Monday through Saturday from 9am to 9pm and Sunday from 10am to 8pm.

Source: SVBJ










Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Wednesday Wishlist: Michelin Star Restaurants (2016 Edition)

Welcome to the 7th annual Wednesday Wishlist post where the topic is getting restaurants in San Jose worthy of Michelin starts. The Michelin guide is the most renowned rubric in the world for measuring culinary success. I think the foodie culture is continuing to build momentum in San Jose, especially Downtown. I'm optimistic it will only be a matter of time until we have some unique restaurants with national recognition.

Michelin has three different star categories:
  • One Star - A very good restaurant in its category with cuisine prepared to a consistently high standard. A good place to stop on your journey.
  • Two Stars - Excellent cuisine, skillfully and carefully crafted dishes of outstanding quality. Worth a detour.
  • Three Stars - Exceptional cuisine with distinctive dishes and superlative ingredients. Worth a special journey.

I created a Google doc listing all of the star recipients for 2016, along with tabs for all previous years and some general statistics. Below is an image capture from the doc. This year there were a total of 50 restaurants that were awarded Michelin stars, which is up 10 from last year and an all-time high for the Bay Area. 62% of the restaurants are locating in SF, 20% in Wine Country, 16% in Silicon Valley (split evenly between the South Bay and the Peninsula), and 2% in the East Bay. There are 14 new restaurants on the list this year (see image below), as well as one significant upgrade. Manresa (Los Gatos) achieved the elusive three star rating. Manresa is not only the first restaurant in the South Bay to ever get this rating, but it is only the fifth restaurant ever to get a three star rating anywhere in the Bay Area. Several restaurants from 2015 did not make the cut, including Madera, Maruya, La Folie, Boulevard, and the All Spice in San Mateo.

There are also restaurants in the Michelin guide that do not get a star, but are considered "Michelin Recommended." This is already a significant honor. Within this category San Jose scored a total of 13 restaurants, an all-time high for our city. Here are the lucky restaurants:

  • Downtown
    • Vung Tau
    • Back A Yard
    • Swaad (NEW)
  • The Alameda
    • Zona Rosa
  • Midtown
    • Walia (NEW)
  • North San Jose
    • Smoking Pig BBQ
  • South San Jose
    • Bun Bo Hue An Nam
    • Thien Long
    • Lau Hai San (NEW)
  • Willow Glen
    • The Table
    • Fratello
  • Camden
    • Rangoli
    • Zeni

Swaad (Indian), Walia (Ethiopian), and Lau Mai San (Vietnamese) are all welcome additions and represent how amazing our ethnic cuisines are. All 10 San Jose restaurants that were Michelin recommended in the 2015 guide held on to that status in 2016. If you haven't been to the restaurants above, I can vouch that all of them are well worth visiting. 

Source: Michelin Guide


Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Broadcom Buys North San Jose Business Park

Broadcom is dropping $207 million for 26 acres in North San Jose that is already approved for up to 1.1 million SQFT in office space. They are purchasing the land from Boston Properties, which hopefully will reinvest those funds in San Jose (They have three proposed office towers in Downtown San Jose).

The location is a vacant business park at 3200 Zanker Road, next to Crescent Village. Apple now owns 80 acres of land not far away and supposedly other large deals are in the works. The North First district went from having the highest vacancy rate in San Jose to being in huge demand over the course of just five years!

Source: SVBJ


Monday, November 9, 2015

Apple Pondering San Jose Campus of up to 4.15 Million SQFT (!!!)

Apple has quietly been acquiring 86 acres of land in North San Jose stretching from Highway 101 all the way to North First Street. Finally, it sounds like their master plan is coming together. While Apple has not submitted a formal proposal for a project, they have come to a development agreement with the City of San Jose that would allow a staggering 4.15 million SQFT of development. This scale would surpass even the Apple Campus 2 project in Cupertino (the giant spaceship).

If even half of that gets built, it would have a dramatic impact on San Jose's tax base, the balance of housing/jobs in the city, and our overall brand. The only negative that stood out to me is the elimination of the height requirement on North First Street (105-feet). That means Apple will likely opt for 4-6 story buildings instead of pushing the limits of office campuses like Samsung did with their San Jose headquarters. I'm sure we'll be hearing a lot more about this one in the future.

Source: SVBJ

November 2015 Downtown Dimension Highlights

Here are my notes from the latest edition of Downtown Dimension:
  • Downtown San Jose has a new logo/brand, which you can see down below! The colors symbolize Downtown's diversity of culture, architecture, activities, and business. [Josh: love it!]
  • Hawaiian Airlines / Kristi Yamaguchi Downtown Ice is kicking off their extended season on November 13th. This year, the rink will be open through Superbowl Sunday (an extra 28 days). Kristi Yamaguchi will help open the rink during a celebration on November 16th at 5pm.
  • The TiVo Santa Run (5K Run/Walk) will take place on December 13th. Dressing up in a costume is highly encouraged, especially since this year there will be a costume contest. 
  • The Sobrato Organization revealed plans to develop "Block 3" (the surface lot next to The 88 and what used to be The Rep) with a 23-story, 399-unit apartment tower with retail on the ground floor.
  • The San Jose Downtown Association's end-of-year meeting will be on Dec. 11 at Camera Cinemas, 8am, and all are welcome.
  • Voltaire Coffee House is now open on the ground floor of 360 Residences. They serve coffee roasted on-site along with waffles and French pastries [Josh: the coffee here is amazing!]
  • Crewners Barbershop at the San Pedro Square Market is expanding from one chair to three and adding two more full-time barbers.
  • City zoning code has been modified to allow larger signage and new Downtown businesses.
To read the full newsletter, click here!