New Snowmen Sculptures for Christmas in the Park

Christmas in the Park has some new donation boxes this year. Five custom painted 5-foot tall snowmen / snow-woman created by different artists were be placed at each main entry point for San Jose's flagship holiday event. You can check them out right now as they were unveiled two days ago.

Source: Phantom Galleries

Saturday Stats: 18% of New California Jobs in October Went to the San Jose Metro

I'm sure you have been noticing a bit more traffic on the road over the last few months. The Bay Area economy is surging, and the San Jose Metro is leading the pack. There were a grand total of 41,200 jobs added to the California economy last month. 7,600 were in the Santa Clara County. Despite making up only 5% of California's population, San Jose landed 18% of the state's new jobs. San Francisco and San Mateo combined gained 4,600 jobs and the East Bay scored 3,400 jobs.

Of those new 7,600 jobs in the San Jose Metro, 2,300 were high-paying tech jobs. Now would be a good time to focus additional investment into infrastructure, we're going to need it.

Source: SVBJ 

Small Business Saturday - Downtown San Jose

12 Downtown San Jose small businesses will be open today as part of a new event to encourage supporting Downtown retail. Parking validation is included for patrons of any of these businesses and this is a great event to combine with Christmas in the Park, Ice Skating, or visiting one of the 250 restaurants Downtown. Below is the list of shops open today and you can find out more information at the Small Business Saturday Facebook Page.

• Seeing Things Gallery: 30 N. Third Street
• Underground Boutique: 15 N 2nd Street
• Cathedral Gift Shop: 80 S Market St
• Circle A Skateboards: 108 Paseo De San Antonio Walk
• Diaz Menswear: 70 E Santa Clara Street
• Hammer and Lewis: 19 S First Street
• Andy's Pet Shop:  51 Notre Dame Ave
• Museum of Art Gift Shop: 110 S Market Street
• Tech Museum Gift Shop: 201 S Market St
• Children's Discovery Museum Gift Shop (CDM): 180 Woz Way
• San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles: 520 S 1st Street
• Mosher's LTD: 170 S Market Street

Black Friday 2015 at Santana Row

Today is officially Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year since 2005. To ensure your shopping tax dollars stay in San Jose this year, head over to Santana Row. There is long list of promotions today, some of which you can find below. The best part is that you won't have to wake up super early!

San Jose, CA - The day-after-Thanksgiving shopping tradition at Santana Row begins early with deals and door busters and continues throughout the day with specials and holiday treats.

In addition, Santana Row will be the South Bay location for the annual One Warm Coat drive to provide new or gently used coats to those who are in need. You are invited to drop off coats all day on Black Friday in Santana Row Park (across from Left Bank brasserie). After Black Friday coats can be dropped off at the Santana Row Concierge or CineArts Theatre lobby through Dec. 31.

KTVU/Fox Channel 2 will broadcast live in front of the 40-foot Christmas tree during the evening of Black Friday. Santana Row merchants and eateries are offering one-day-only discounts, giveaways and samplings to shoppers. A few are listed below. Please visit www.SantanaRow.com for detailed information.

• Sephora – Open at 9 a.m.  Exclusive specialty items available for just $10! 
• H&M - Opens 9 a.m. Black Friday Scratch offs offering percentages off purchases!
• Drybar - Opens 7 a.m. Enjoy 20% off all products and hot tools.
• lululemon athletica – Opens 9 a.m. with markdowns and specials.
• Maido – Opens 9 a.m. 10% off purchases on Friday, Saturday and Sunday; 20% back (quadruple points) on Fivestars cards and $5 gift card for every $25 dollars spent, valid for December. 
• Icebreaker TouchLab - Black Friday door busters include “Buy 3, Get 4th item free. Includes of any combination of underwear, socks and accessories.
• W's Salon - Enjoy 20% off all hair care products and $45 blowouts all day.
• Beau Bijou - Opens 8 a.m. with 50% off the entire store.
• 100% Pure - “Buy More, Save More” deals mean getting 20 - 30% off.
• Kara's Cupcakes - Celebrates the season and take a break with samplings of hot cocoa and marshmallows all day.
• BoConcept – Scratch and save means savings of up to 30% on collections.
• Calypso St. Barth – 60% off of sale items and 30% off full price products; some exclusions apply.
• Donald J. Pliner – Opens 9 a.m. $100 off all boots, all day!
• The Counter - Happy hour with select starters and drinks from 11 a.m. to midnight.

General hours on Black Friday for Santana Row stores are 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. but many stores opening early or extending hours during the weekend. For a comprehensive listing of retail and restaurant events and offerings, visit SantanaRow.com.

Drop off a letter to Santa at SantanaRow and you’ll get a letter back!
Every child who leaves a letter for Santa in the mailbox outside of the Santana Row concierge office will receive a reply from the red-clad, jolly fellow! Each letter must include the child’s name and a mailing address. The letters must be dropped in the box by Dec. 10. Concierge is located near the garage between Sino restaurant and Left Bank Brasserie.

Santana Row holiday hours:
Thanksgiving: Closed, some restaurants open
Christmas Eve: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Christmas: Closed, some restaurants open
New Year’s Eve & New Year’s Day: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

~~~

About Santana Row
Santana Row, a 647,000 square foot mixed-use development in San Jose, CA, is Silicon Valley’s premier destination for shopping, dining, living and working. Santana Row features over 70 shops, 20 restaurants, a boutique hotel and movie theatre. In addition to the dynamic retail & restaurant collection, Santana Row offers 615 luxury rental homes, 219 privately owned condos and 65,000 square feet of Class A office space. Santana Row is a property of www.federalrealty.com (NYSE:FRT), headquartered in Rockville, Maryland. For more information, please visit www.santanarow.com.

About Federal Realty
Federal Realty is a recognized leader in the ownership, operation and redevelopment of high-quality retail based properties located primarily in major coastal markets from Washington, D.C. to Boston as well as San Francisco and Los Angeles.  Founded in 1962, our mission is to deliver long term, sustainable growth through investing in densely populated, affluent communities where retail demand exceeds supply.  Our expertise includes creating urban, mixed-use neighborhoods like Santana Row in San Jose, California, Pike & Rose in North Bethesda, Maryland and Assembly Row in Somerville, Massachusetts. These unique and vibrant environments that combine shopping, dining, living and working provide a destination experience valued by their respective communities.  Federal Realty’s 90 properties include over 2,600 tenants, in approximately 21 million square feet, and 1500 residential units.

Federal Realty has paid quarterly dividends to its shareholders continuously since its founding in 1962, and has increased its dividend rate for 48 consecutive years, the longest record in the REIT industry. Federal Realty shares are traded on the NYSE under the symbol FRT. For additional information about Federal Realty and its properties, visit www.FederalRealty.com.

Happy Thanksgiving 2015!

Hope you all have a wonderful time and lots of good eats today. Warm wishes to you and your family from your friends at The San Jose Blog!

Future Downtown San Jose Towers in One Photo

Fellow San Jose enthusiast Dan De La O created a killer image showing where future towers will fit into the San Jose skyline. If even half of these break ground, Downtown will look quite a bit different in just a few years time.

We have already made quite a bit of progress over the last 15 years. Below is a second photo that DarkEconomist posted in the San Jose Development Forum that shows Downtown San Jose in the year 2000. Since then the towers have expanded in every direction and the new proposed towers will continue to push out the Downtown core to the North, East, West, and South.

Current Downtown San Jose Skyline with Proposed Towers

Downtown San Jose Circa 2000

Sourisseau News: Let's Go To The Movies!

In the latest installment of Sourisseau News, learn about the history of theaters in San Jose in under three minutes (embedded video below). It is unfortunate that many of these no longer exist today. SoFA used to be packed with theaters as you can see from the photo.


Sourisseau News November 2015 - Let's Go To The Movies! from WMS media Inc. on Vimeo.

Air Canada is Returning to San Jose!!!

SJC is on a tear when it comes to landing new international routes this year. Five years ago, San Jose International Airport was barely earning the right to use the word "International." The only routes outside the US were to Mexico. Then in 2012, ANA announced their nonstop to Tokyo. While that was a significant milestone, 2013 and 2014 came and went without any additional big news. Then the floodgates opened this January when Hainan announced a nonstop to Beijing. That was followed by British Airways announcing a direct flight to London in September. If that wasn't enough, SJC scored a surprise hat trick the following month when Lufthansa revealed a flight to Frankfurt. What a year for the airport, how could it get any better? Well it just has.

Air Canada just announced they are returning to San Jose with a twice-daily nonstop flight to Vancouver! The airline ceased operations at SJC shortly after 9/11 fourteen years ago. It's great to have them back.

The route will use a Bombardier CRJ705 regional jet. It is a smaller plane than what is used on San Jose's other international routes, but the flight is only two hours and 15 minutes long. It also means there are no middle seats (see second image below). The plane will have 65 coach seats and 10 business class seats. Every single one of them will have a personal video screen and a USB port. 

Air Canada flights will leave San Jose at 7:30am and 1:25pm seven days a week starting on May 9th. Flights will return home from Vancouver at 10:35am and 5:15pm. You can already book flights today.

This will become San Jose's 7th international route (Guadalajara, Cabo San Lucas, Tokyo, Beijing, London, and Frankfurt are the others). 

Source: SVBJ