San Jose Metro unemployment is holding below 4%

For the second straight month, unemployment in Silicon Valley has stayed under that magical 4% threshold. It did tick up a tenth of a point from 3.8% in September to 3.9% in October. California is at 5.3% unemployment while the nation is averaging 4.7%. So the net of it is that the nation as a whole is doing quite well, but San Jose is in an exceptional position when it comes to jobs. The rate is even more impressive when you consider we have the highest paying jobs for any large city in the country, if not the world. Now let's find a way to fix those potholes.

Source: SVBJ

#12DaysofArts Social Media Scavenger Hunt (Dec 1 - 12)

#12DaysofArts takes over San Jose
San Jose Art Partners Gifting the City with Holiday Cheer Through Social Media Scavenger Hunt

SAN JOSE, Calif. (Nov. 22, 2016) – For the second consecutive year, San Jose arts partners will give away mystery prizes through a citywide scavenger hunt. From Dec. 1 through Dec. 12, participants can utilize #12DaysOfArts during this social media campaign, to create awareness for the arts in San Jose.

Each day will start anew with a social media clue. Check the Downtown Associations social media daily for directions on where to go; seek out museums, theaters and galleries – search high and low. Go online Dec. 1 to take part and spread the word with, #12DaysofArts. Off you go in search of a mystery prize, to see the arts through a new set of eyes. The first ten players at each location will win, and the next day the hunt starts again.

“We all enjoyed the 12 Days of Arts so much last year that we had to do it again.” Says Sherrill Ingalls, Director of Marketing and Communications at the San Jose Museum of Art. “It’s a fun way for the arts organizations to give back to the people who support the arts downtown year-round and to spread the word about the variety of offerings in San Jose. We hope that people familiar with the San Jose Museum of Art will discover new experiences in theater and music, and vice versa.”

Don’t worry, there will be two grand prizes during this scavenger hunt flurry. Use Twitter and Instagram to post #12DaysofArts, and discover what San Jose holds dear to its heart.

"#12DaysofArts provides everyone with the opportunity to take a timeout from the usual holiday craziness, be inspired and pique our own creative instincts," said Rick Jensen, Communications Director, San Jose Downtown Association. "Enjoy the thrill of the hunt."

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About San Jose Downtown Association
The SJDA is a non-profit, membership-based organization founded in 1986 to represent business and property owners. We make downtown a better place for business, residents and visitors through events, advocacy, marketing and more.

About San Jose Museum of Art
The San Jose Museum of Art celebrates new ideas, stimulates creativity, and inspires connection with every visit. Welcoming and thought provoking, the Museum delights visitors with it’s surprising and playful perspective on the art and artists of our time.

About Team San Jose
Team San Jose (TSJ) is an innovative partnership unifying the San Jose Convention and Visitors Bureau, hotels, arts, labor and venues to deliver an exceptional visitor experience. TSJ manages the San Jose McEnery Convention Center, California Theatre, Center for the Performing Arts, City National Civic, Montgomery Theater, Parkside Hall, and South Hall. For more information, visit www.sanjose.org.

San Jose's NextEV launches fastest electric car in the world

North San Jose is quickly becoming a mecca for electric car companies and the history goes back far. Tesla originally wanted to build their factory in Alviso. Only after they were rejected by the state, did they choose the Fremont location. NextEV and LeEco on the other hand setup their US Headquarters in North San Jose. Access to high-end engineering talent in Silicon Valley and industrial space were no doubt major factors in those decisions.

Last week, NextEV finally pulled back the curtain on their first car. Like Tesla, they are starting with limited-production expensive cars and then creating mass-market vehicles. The NIO EP9 will be the fastest electric car in the world. It can hit 124 MPH in 7.1 seconds and has a top speed of 194 MPH. Range is about 265 miles. The EP9 just set a world record on the Nurburgring, video below. Unfortunately, those specs won't come cheap... the car costs about $1,000,000 (correct number of zeros).

We'll have to see how the less expensive cars in their lineup compete with both traditional car companies and Tesla, but for now you can take some pride in the fact that this is a San Jose company. NextEV is located at 3200 N 1st Street.

Source: Electrek

Why it’s better to work in San Jose than San Francisco

Guest Post by Fabianne Rico

As a professional working in tech in San Jose, something I hear too much from people is that San Jose isn’t considered as part of the “real bay area” compared to places like Oakland and San Francisco.

I even hear this from people I know personally that work in San Francisco who brag about their daily free food and all the cool company events they get to go to.

“Oh, who do you work for in San Jose again? Must be a pretty small company.”

For your information, I work for a mobile design and development agency called Impekable. Even if our company is on the smaller side, our work’s quality and the awards we’ve won speak for themselves. Not to mention we’ve worked with companies like Google, HP, Motorola, and Groupon,to name a few. This is a company I’m proud to work for, and what reinforces this sentiment is we are a San Jose-based company.

Don’t get it twisted. I love SF as much as the next guy. It’s a wonderful hub of culture and activity, and to add onto that, I’m a huge fan of cool breezes and fog. However, the smugness of some people I talk to from this supposed “real bay area” irks me because despite the nice parts, it can be argued that San Jose is actually a better place to work than San Francisco.

Let’s start with one of the more obvious reasons.

Unless you’re legitimately rich enough to afford the price of rent in SF, chances are you’re living somewhere outside the center. Even so, you’ll be looking at rooms for upwards of $1000/mo anywhere north of Santa Clara.

With that, you’ll be living pretty far from your company’s top floor office in the city. Studies show that longer commutes contribute to higher levels of anxiety and a decline in life satisfaction, so make sure you have your favorite podcast prepared because the commute is gonna be looooooong.

Oh, and once you arrive, good luck finding parking. Expect to spend 15-30 minutes on average circling the block to find a space that isn’t occupied by the red and white signs on otherwise usable parking meters. Believe it or not, your SF employer might not even provide parking, so you might be on your own there.

If you have to resort to the lengthy commutes, you’re probably someone who lives closer to Downtown San Jose than San Francisco. Even if you’re more in the north, it’s faster to go against rush hour traffic anyway.

There is more parking in San Jose as well with a good amount of car parks nearby, at a reasonable price. In addition, local employers and work spaces in Downtown San Jose simply buy their employees monthly parking passes to the city’s car parks.

At this point, it’s a given that employees in San Jose have better commutes than San Francisco, but what about the locations they work at?

Unless you work for one of the larger tech companies downtown like Adobe, Oracle, EY, or Accenture, you probably can’t afford a giant SF office. However, another benefit to being based in downtown San Jose is access to the many options for coworking spaces nearby, for every budget.

Whether you’re an up and coming start up or a self-employed individual, it’s always nice to have friends.

NextSpace is the coworking space where our office is located and we enjoy being a part of the community by interacting with other companies in the space during weekly happy hours or walkabout lunch. Being a member of a coworking space provides us with the opportunity to network with other NextSpace companies and even created new business connections for us.

Founders Floor is just down the street from our office, so sometimes we’ll host speaking events and we take some time to appreciate that sweet downtown view! Another coworking space is WeWork that recently opened up on the 6th floor of the nearby Valley Towers in downtown. They have a pretty awesome setup with beer on tap and their trendy interior design, similar to the aesthetic you would see in San Francisco offices, but without any of the hassle.

WeWork San Jose has been an awesome place for us to host our design workshops, so our students interested in starting a career in app design can have a taste of the Silicon Valley dreamer lifestyle. I mean does YOUR classroom have a view like this?

Downtown San Jose is lucky to have so many options as far as where to work, but what options do they have for lunch?

Another huge perk of working downtown is the food! If you have a certain food craving, it’s very likely that it’s very close by with options to choose from like Thai food, Malaysian, Indian, Greek, delicious sandwiches, Halal, Mexican, pizza, Vietnamese, sushi, even Carribean! YOU NAME IT!

All these food options can definitely be credited to the diversity San Jose has to offer. Diversity should be one of the critical reasons why the 7th most diverse city in the United States, San Jose is better to work than San Francisco, which was ranked at 20. For being the so-called capital of Silicon Valley, San Jose is aware that innovation is not a vacuum. It requires exposure to different backgrounds and collaborating with those who come from different walks of life.

As a San Jose based company, we can’t help but take pride in the city we’re in. However, people who work anywhere in the Bay Area are blessed to operate in such a progressive region with a strong sense of community that welcomes innovation and diversity with open arms.

And yes, just in case it wasn’t clear enough, South Bay still counts Bay Area. Cheers.

About the author:

Fabianne Rico is a Marketing Manager for Impekable, a design and development agency that specializes in using the latest technology and trends to create apps that are both useful and usable. Go to Impekable.com for more info.

Shop Small Saturday

Instead of supporting giant chain stores this "Black Friday weekend," why not support local Downtown San Jose businesses?

9 Downtown shops are participating in Shop Small Saturday tomorrow, Nov. 26. All are colorful, offering an eclectic assortment of merchandise perfect for holiday gift-giving.

They’re a collection of museum shops and true moms-and-pops. These unique shops are one-of-a kind.

San Jose has more than 56,000 small businesses that have fewer than 35 employees.

The day is dedicated to supporting small businesses, getting shoppers to do their holiday shopping at local retailers, and boosting the local economy. These small businesses constitute a significant proportion of the San Jose economy and are a vital factor in creating local jobs.

These are the participating shops:

• KALEID Gallery, 88 S., Fourth St. (1)
• Tabard Theatre Co, 28 N. San Pedro St. (2)
• Children's Discovery Museum Gift Shop (CDM): 180 Woz Way (3)
• Museum of Art Gift Shop: 110 S Market Street (4)
• Tech Museum Gift Shop: 201 S Market St (5)
• San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles: 520 S 1st Street (6)
• Joan Philips, Executive Director or Lousie Horkey, Volunteer, Events and Retail Coordinator
• Cathedral Gift Shop: 80 S Market St (7)
• Hammer and Lewis: 19 S First Street (8)
• Diaz Menswear: 70 E Santa Clara Street (9)

This event has been put together by the San Jose Downtown Association and you can find more information as well as an interactive map over here.

Happy Thanksgiving 2016!

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!

Silicon Valley Turkey Trot

The Turkey Trot is a San Jose Thanksgiving Day tradition! Events include a 5k run/walk, a 10k run, a Celebrity/CEO 5k, and a wheelchair 10k.

The event starts at 8:30am in Downtown San Jose and goes until noon. Registration typically runs around $45. Even if you are not walking, running, or rolling, there is a festival area and kid zone with plenty of fun things to do.

For more info and to register, head over here.

Uncle Buck's Fish Bowl & Grill @ San Jose Bass Pro Shops

Bass Pro Shops has to be one of the most insane retail stores I have ever seen. The giant diorama-filled 145,000 SQFT space has everything from an aquarium to a 12-lane bowling alley. The building is larger than most Costco's and it attracts shoppers that live as far as two hours away. I have to recommend that everyone check out the store at least once, even if you are not the outdoorsy type.

Over the weekend, I was invited to try out the new menu at Uncle Bucks, a full-service restaurant within the store. The restaurant is nestled to the side of the bowling alley and has several rooms of various sizes for private parties and events. There can easily be over a one hour wait for the restaurant, so it would be a good idea to put your name on the list first before you head out to explore the store.

For lunch, we had the following:

• Alligator with jalapeno cream sauce - This is one of their signature items and is a must try. The spiced fried alligator does not taste as exotic as it sounds and goes really well with the sweet sauce.
• Smoked Wahoo dip - This was my wife's favorite. It's a smoked Wahoo pate with crackers and cucumber slices.
• Islamorada Portofino - Another signature item. Blackened Tilapia topped with grilled shimp and lobster cream sauce. The fish was both flavorful and filling.
• Firepit Burger - My personal favorite. This is a double cheeseburger with jalapenos and pepperjack. It came with crispy battered fries.

We were so stuffed from those items, we couldn't handle a dessert. The Key Lime pie was tempting though. For the full menu, click here.

The restaurant is extremely kid-friendly and features Disneyland-grade nautical decorations. For adults, there is a bar sitting underneath the bow of a ship in the middle of the bowling alley. Scroll down for all the photos. For more information, head over to the Uncle Buck's Fish Bowl & Grill Facebook page.

Bass Pro Shops and Uncle Bucks is located at 5160 Cherry Avenue. The store is open from 9am-9pm Monday through Saturday and 9am-8pm on Sunday. Hours are extended during the holidays.

Alligator with jalapeno cream sauce

Smoked Wahoo dip

Islamorada Portofino

Firepit Burger