San Jose's ADEGA is one of America's 100 Best Wine Restaurants

As a San Josean of Portuguese descent, ADEGA is a very special restaurant for me. Not only is it the very first restaurant in San Jose to earn a Michelin Star, but it is one of only two Portuguese restaurants in the United States to earn that honor. ADEGA has just won a second major award, a spot on Wine Enthusiast Magazine's prestigious "America's 100 Best Wine Restaurants of 2017."

One of ADEGA's owners is actually a wine importer, and he has amassed the largest collection of Portuguese wines outside of Portugal. This includes a large selection of ''green wines" which come from one of two varietals that only grow in Portugal.

The list was announced earlier this month and includes restaurants that the editors feel reflect the "best, brightest and most progressive wine and food experiences available today." The issue will hit newsstands in July and you can read the initial announcement over here.

Cupertino Welcomes Coconut’s Fish Café with Aloha

As soon as you walk into Coconut’s Fish Café, you are immediately transported to the Hawaiian Islands. From the Hawaiian music playing in the background, the staff’s welcoming hospitality, to the “ono” (delicious) dishes, Coconut’s in Cupertino is definitely a must-see!

Coconut’s is a fast casual restaurant where patrons order at the counter. From a menu perspective, think of it as a much healthier version of L&L’s. With great Pu-Pus (appetizers), healthy salads, gluten-free options, delicious entree selections to a keiki (kids) menu, Coconut’s has a variety of food choices for everyone.

The restaurant is renown for its fish tacos and it surely didn’t disappoint. The fresh mango salsa paired with Coconut’s famous coleslaw married perfectly #bomb.

The Fish and Chips were so scrumptious and one of my faves. I loved how the chips weren’t a thicker cut so it’s definitely a great platter for sharing #hellagood.

If I can live on just eating two things in this world, it would have to be calamari and shrimp. So, I was definitely excited that we ordered both of these Pu-Pus. It’s worth noting that the calamari is sliced calamari steak (the best cut)  #obsessed.

Other tasty recommendations include:

• Seared Ahi – sesame-crusted, blackened Ahi served with wasabi and soy sauce
• Macadamia Nut Crusted Mahi-Mahi – served with homemade mango coconut sauce, brown rice and coleslaw
• Poke Bowl – choice of traditional, spicy or teriyaki. Served with coleslaw, brown rice, ginger, wasabi and radish sprouts

As a Hawaiian born, Coconut’s Fish Café definitely has my approval. Sorry L&L’s, but Coconut’s is my new love J

Mahalo to Chad, Erica and Reina for the excellent customer service! Shout out to Sarah Santos for the great photos #Mahalo

Coconut's Fish Café is located at 20010 Stevens Creek Blvd in Cupertino and is open every day from 11am to 9pm.

-Noe Sacoco Jr.

Introducing Noe Sacoco

Today I have the pleasure to introduce a blogger who has given us several scoops in the past.

Noe Sacoco Jr is a "Downtown dweller" and hails from Hawai’i, but has called San Jose home the last 8+ years. Noe works in tech, is a college sports junkie (go Duke!), loves traveling, working out, and enjoys hanging out in San Jose’s best kept secrets. Noe is fascinated with Silicon Valley’s innovation and how the Valley fosters creativity where new paradigms triumph over yesterday’s failures. He believes greatness is born here daily. To pitch him story ideas, you can reach him at noesacoco@yahoo.com.

Noe's first post for The San Jose Blog will go live in an hour!

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Wishlist: An Urban Linear Park

When traveling, one thing I can count on is that local parks are probably the best way to get to know a city. For some cities, it's due to a signature park or tourist attraction within the park. For the rest, I find it most satisfying to explore a city through a linear park.

Wikipedia defines an urban park as a "park in an urban or suburban setting that is substantially longer than it is wide". This usually means there are two ends to the park, and it is designed to encourage pedestrian traffic between the end points (i.e. a trail). A properly designed, public, pedestrian- and bike-friendly pathway can allow visitors to see more of the city while simultaneously activating otherwise deserted spaces.

Urban Linear Parks in Other Cities

The High Line, New York City

Some of this activation comes from re-purposing paths that are no longer in use. The High Line in New York used to be a stretch of railroad elevated railroad. Now visitors on The High Line can walk parallel to 10th Ave, but with a lot more green and some escape from the rush of the streets below.

Other examples include waterfront walks. While waterfronts are generally already pedestrian destinations, these parks naturally draw visitors to walk along side them. One example not far from home is the Embarcadero in San Francisco. The walk stretches from AT&T Park on the southern end to Fisherman's Wharf in the north. Along the way there is public art, a nice view of the Bay Bridge, restaurants, and of course, piers.

The Embarcadero, San Francisco

My favorite example of a linear park is actually from a recent trip to Panama City (in Panama, not Florida). The Cinta Costera is also a park along the waterfront, but is on a different level when it comes to pedestrian involvement. I walked along most of it, which took approximately an hour.

Playground at Cinta Costera, Panama City

Street vendors at Cinta Costera, Panama City

Here's what it had to offer:

• Outdoor exercise areas
• Playgrounds
• Food carts
• Toy vendors and DIY carnival games
• Basketball and futsal courts
• Sculptures
• Music
• People in Disney costumes (for photos)
• Plenty of seating, and plenty of people seated

This park was the place to be for kids and adults, tourists and locals alike. The eyes, foot traffic, and lighting provided a sense of safety. The entire stretch of the park felt lively and festive. Wouldn't it be nice to have something similar in San Jose?

Guadalupe River Trail & Park

San Jose doesn't have much of a waterfront to flaunt, and it doesn't (yet) have large stretches of unused rail or road to convert into a park. Until Alviso is a more appropriate destination for visitors, the park with the most potential to become an urban linear park to showcase the city is probably Guadalupe River Park and Trail. A large section of it already intersects with the most urban part of San Jose (and the South Bay). It is somewhat connected to various pedestrian walkways, and isn't fully contained within a large, isolated park. 

Interestingly we caught glimpses of what the park could become during the Pokemon Go craze. Just the equivalent of a couple of highway exits down from the park, masses of people gathered between the SAP Center and Little Italy near the Guadalupe River trail. At night there started to be music, hot dog carts started to show up, and people eventually seemed to go to the park just to hang out. The natural benefits of a successful public space were in full display, albeit a result of the mobile game.

Guadalupe River Trail during the Pokemon Go craze

Over time, the crowds started to dwindle until the park was empty once again. However, I couldn't help but wonder how great it would be if we had people enjoying our parks this much on a daily basis.

Safety is #1

From what I see, hear and read, the biggest obstacle preventing many people from visiting parks around San Jose is the fear for their safety. In my observations about Cinta Costera, I mentioned that it felt safe. That's what prompted me to take the one hour walk rather than call a taxi: the park both intrigued and welcomed me. It was easy to call for help with so many pedestrians nearby. The open layout meant I could see what was coming from a great distance. It was next to an expressway, so not many cars were parked on the side of the road. There wasn't a single poorly lit stretch of the path.

On the contrary, the Guadalupe River Trail is mostly isolated rather than integrated with the city. The miscellaneous trees and bushes mean it's hard to know what's ahead or around the corner. While San Jose is still one of the safest large cities in the US, its reputation within the Bay Area has suffered in recent years due to the growing homeless population (and related news). With most people afraid or uncomfortable walking through the parks, and refusing to visit, the opposite of the Pokemon Go impact occurs. The quieter the park, the more people are worried that something bad may happen in the next corner, or behind the next bush, and no one would be around to help them. It's a cruel cycle.

What's Next?

There did appear to be an effort to re-imagine Guadalupe Trail Park from 2009. As far as I could tell, this was nothing more than a brain exercise for the planning group. The presentation certainly looks interesting, but is also clearly outdated. For example, with movement on the St. James Park redesign (which includes a stage), does it make sense for Guadalupe River Park to also have a major entertainment venue?

Ken Kay Associates' vision of Guadalupe River Park

I do like many of the ideas outlined in this plan (an efficiently run fountain would be a great contrast to the mostly dry river), but it's missing a critical consideration. The park is connected to the trail. As the downtown, Diridon, and Japantown areas become more pedestrian friendly, the trail will be the best way for many locals to arrive at the park. Revamping with park itself without turning the stretches of Guadalupe Park Trail into a safe, welcoming walkway could mean that the park remains barren and inactive during most of the week.

As the urban core of San Jose develops, it'll be increasingly important that there's an all-ages, all-genders public space for us to gather as a community. Focusing on making Guadalupe River Park and Trail the best they can be would help us achieve that goal. A comprehensive plan must include turning the urban stretch of the trail into our own take of the urban linear park concept. It has the potential to not only become a unique attraction to the area, but also become a crucial pedestrian pathway between neighborhoods.

- Lawrence Lui

Saturday Stats: San Jose is one of the best places to live

In a U.S. News report, the largest 100 metros were analyzed to determine the best place to live in the country. The key criteria were desirability, value, job market, quality of life, and net migration. San Jose took 3rd place, behind Austin (#1) and Denver (#2). SF came in at #16.

Sources: SVBJ, U.S. News

The 30th Annual ComedySportz World Championship comes to Downtown San Jose

ComedySportz is a really fun concept where improv comics compete against one another. There is a large amount of audience participation and the competitions vary greatly, so each show is completely different. The San Jose ComedySportz troop runs their shows out of the Camera 3 theater, but there are actually 25 different ComedySportz locations throughout the world. 

Next week the ComedySportz World Championship is taking place in San Jose at the Hammer Theatre (now run by SJSU). This is the second time we will be hosting the World Championship, and San Jose won the first time we hosted it in 2006. You can find everything you need to know about the epic four-day event in the press release below. 

THE WORLD OF COMEDY COMES TO SAN JOSE

WHO: 30th Annual ComedySportz World Championship

WHAT: 22 ComedySportz teams from the United States and England will come together to battle for laughs. (See list of participating cities below)

WHEN: 

Wednesday, June 28  7:30pm Opening Ceremonies and First Match.  

Thursday, June 29  Championship Matches at 7:30pm

Friday, June 30  Championship Matches at 7:00pm and 9:30pm

Saturday, July 1  Semi-Final Matches at 4:00pm and 7:00pm.   FINAL CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH at 9:30pm followed by Awards Ceremony with presentation of the "Meaningless Cup” and Closing Party.

WHERE:  Hammer Theatre Center, 101 Paseo de San Antonio, San Jose, CA 95113 

WHY: This 30th annual event is fun, fast-paced, family-friendly improvisational comedy played as a sport. Two teams take turns making up scenes, playing games and singing songs – and the audience votes on which team they like best. This is serious funny business.   This is only the second time in the 30 years of the event that the Bay Area will host the games.  Sponsored by San Jose State University.

PRICES: Single Tickets $10 to $20.  All-Access Pass available for $75. (All four days; all events)

TICKETS: 408.924.8501 or https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/971732

Hammer Theatre Center Box Office is open weekdays 12-5pm and 2 hours prior to performance for both phone and walk-up sales. Located on Paseo de San Antonio between Second and Third Streets.

CITIES PARTICIPATING: Boise, Boston, Buffalo, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Manchester (England), Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Portland, Provo, Quad Cities, Richmond, Sacramento, San Antonio, San Jose, Seattle, Twin Cities and Washington DC.

SHORT BYTE FOR CALENDARS: The 30th annual ComedySportz World Championship will be held June 28 through July 1 in the beautiful Hammer Theatre Center, 101 Paseo de San Antonio in the heart of downtown San Jose. Nearly two dozen teams from around the United States (and one from England) will compete over the four day event for pride and prizes with improvisational comedy, games and songs based on suggestions from the audience. Tickets are $10 to $20 at 408.924.8501 or online at https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/971732

PHOTOS: Photos by PJ Heller courtesy of ComedySportz San Jose.  Comedy as a sport! Two teams battle each other in an improvised comedy competition based entirely on audience suggestions. A referee calls penalties for boring or crude humor. If a player (or fan) uses “foul language" the referee can call the “Brown Bag Foul" and place a paper bag over the offenders head.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Representative teams from 22 improvisational comedy groups from across the United States and England will descend on San Jose June 28 through July 1 for the 2017 ComedySportz World Championship.

ComedySportz isn’t a comedy about sports, it’s comedy played AS a sport. It’s a competition between two teams competing for laughs and for points by making up scenes based on the audience suggestions. There are penalties, there are fouls, there’s a uniformed referee. This is serious funny business.

The four-day event, featuring workshops, public performances and impromptu improvisation sessions stretching into the early morning hours, kicks off on Wednesday June 28th at 7:30pm. San Jose’s own venerable ComedySportz team, founded in 1987, will participate in the opening match. On Saturday, July 1st, after that evening’s 9:30pm championship match, one team will emerge victorious and be awarded the "Meaningless Cup."

The ComedySportz concept, created by Dick Chudnow in Milwaukee in 1984, was inspired by the Canadian-born Theatersports enterprise. Chudnow gave it a sports-themed look and feel, incorporating uniformed referees and devising time limits and a point system that seemed to place the event somewhere between the NFL and "Who’s Line is it Anyway." Chudnow has described the ComedySportz ethos as family friendly, relatively foolproof and pretty much guaranteed to be goofy.

ABOUT US: CSz San Jose, the producer of ComedySportz was founded in 1987 and is licensed by CSz Worldwide, one of 25 teams in cities across the United States and two in Europe (Manchester England and Berlin Germany.) In addition to a year-round schedule of matches at their Arena in San Jose, they participate in programs and road shows for corporate, college, church, school and association clients each year, coach high school leagues, and lead corporate team-building and Applied Improv workshops. 2017 will be the second time that ComedySportz San Jose has hosted the World Championships and they won the title in 2006.

San Jose Crime

Earlier this year San Francisco kicked off a major benchmarking study against 16 peer cities. The data in the report is completely unbiased in relation to San Jose--our city had no part in the funding or creation of the report.

A striking chart that I came across shows both violent and property crimes in the benchmark cities. The ideal quadrant to be in for this chart is the lower left, meaning cities that have both low violent crime and property crime. The red arrow shows where 0 crime would be. Despite all of the noise regarding increases in San Jose crime over the past few years, not only were we in the best quadrant but we had the lowest per capita violent crime of any city except for San Diego. As for property crimes, we also beat out all but four cities (in a good way).

San Francisco has nearly double the violent crime and property crime in San Jose proper. Oakland takes it to the next level with quadruple the violent crime. So if anyone ever tells you that San Jose is not safe, you can send them the chart below.

Source: SocketSite

VTA's BART Phase II Update

Below is a webinar with the latest updates on the $4.69 billion BART Phase II project. This will be the most expensive transit project in Silicon Valley history and add a subway through Downtown San Jose with three stations along with a new terminus station in Santa Clara.

The video is 40 minutes long, but well worth watching if you are interested in transportation projects. One question that came up multiple times is why the heck we are building a completely redundant station in Santa Clara that is already serviced by Caltrain instead of evaluating running BART to San Jose International or Santana Row. Unfortunately, the response was very mediocre--it takes a long time to plan these projects and voters already voted for this specific alignment. I have to say that is a disappointing answer and is completely misaligned with the pace of change in Silicon Valley. It will be 9 years (at least) until this project is completed, so we should make sure we build that most effective system that will maximize utilization instead of making multi-billion dollar errors because we did the easy thing instead of the right thing.

BART itself is built on 45 year old technology. I have been a huge advocate and supporter, but honestly am starting to have doubts that BART will be the most effective transportation solution in 2026. Self-driving cars will completely change the transportation landscape within a decade, and costs will come dangerously close to public transit for point-to-point transportation in a private cabin. I hope that VTA is agile enough to keep up with transit innovations and make sure we are building these epic projects for the future and not for the past.

Video Link