San Jose Jazz Summer Fest 2017: Aug 11-13

This weekend, San Jose Jazz brings its annual Summer Fest back to downtown San Jose. This is probably the biggest live music event in the city, and a large section of the downtown core is closed off to cars. Over the course of the weekend, over 100 acts will perform at 12 indoor and outdoor stages.

In addition to various sub-genres of jazz at each stage, there will also be dance lessons, food/drink, and local vendors throughout the area. Some people like to travel from stage to stage, while others find their favorite area and relax for the day. Whatever your style is, if you are at all into live music I highly recommend checking this out! See how it went last year in the summary video below.

In the last couple of years I've learned a few tips for attendees:

• Bring a chair if you can! It is so much easier to just set up wherever you feel like it, and stay for as long as you want.
• Don't forget that your ticket gets you a wristband, which allows you to leave the festival and return as you please. This makes it much easier to visit a nearby bar, restaurant, or cafe if you're looking for something outside of the festival.
• As with any festival, try to map out where you want to be for specific performances. It can take some time to walk between stages. For indoor stages, capacity is limited so punctuality is especially important.
• Jazz Beyond After Dark usually has slightly more experimental music, and is one of my favorite parts of the festival. If you get the chance, check it out on Fri and Sat nights.
• Wear sunscreen!

For more information, see the promotional video or visit the website at https://summerfest.sanjosejazz.org/.

-Lawrence Lui

Sourisseau News: Women Cannery Workers

The San Jose Fruit Packing company was once the largest cannery in the world and by the 1930s, Santa Clara Valley's 38 canneries were the largest employers of women in California.To learn more about the important role of women keeping these these canneries afloat, watch the latest episode of Sourisseau News below.

To see an archive of past videos, head over here.

Sourisseau News August 2017 Women Cannery Workers from WMS media Inc. on Vimeo.

San Jose Light Tower Proposal

San Jose Inside has quite a bit more information on a proposal that will bring back our most iconic landmark, the electric light tower. The tower would likely be 250-260 feet tall, feature dynamic LED lighting, and may have an observation deck/restaurant at the top. The current team working on the project thinks it is feasible to build by 2020.

On a related note, there is a fund raiser tonight at Cafe Stritch to help fund Tom Wohlmut's documentary, "The Light Between Two Towers." The film will highlight the relationship between our tower and the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Read the detailed article describing these very two exciting projects over here!

San Jose's ADEGA and Michelin announce first Michelin All-Star Event

ADEGA is an amazing Portuguese restaurant that became the first and only Michelin-star restaurant in San Jose last year. It is also one of only two Michelin starred Portuguese restaurants in the United States. This September, ADEGA is hosting a special event involving two special meals prepared by four different Portuguese chefs, all of which have Michelin stars.

• San Jose’s ADEGA Chefs, David Costa and Jessica Carreira
• Chef George Mendes of Michelin one-starred Aldea in New York, NY
• Chef Alexandre Silva of Michelin one-starred Loco in Lisbon, Portugal
• Chef Pedro Lemos of Michelin one-starred Pedro Lemos in Porto, Portugal

This special event will take place on September 12th and 14th. Each meal will consist of seven courses, each with a carefully selected wine pairing. After the meal, there is also a networking opportunity with the all-star cast of Portuguese chefs. Part part of the proceeds will be donated to No Kid Hungry - California.

Tickets for this exclusive experience are $375 per person, which includes food, wine pairing, tax, and service. It is pricey, but is also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have a meal prepared by so many decorated chefs. You can learn more or make reservations over here.

Update: The September 13th event has been moved to September 14th

Pop-Up Bikeway + Events

The City of San Jose is hosting several events related to biking next week thanks to funding from the Knight Foundation. The events begin with a temporary protected bikeway running along 4th Street between St. John and San Salvador starting on Monday, August 7th and continuing for a whole week. It will be interesting to see how the community reacts to the concept. You can check out the first flyer below for an idea of how this might look.

There will also be a community roundtable on August 9th to discuss how to better incorporate biking into our streets. Finally, there will be a meet & greet happy hour at Uproar brewery on August 10th. All of the flyers and Facebook page links are below.

Temporary pop-up protected bike lane on 4th St
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/events/463681204000450

Community Roundtable
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/events/114812749171629

Evening Social  
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/events/481765975492276/

Downtown San Jose from Backesto Park

I love this photo from gillynova on the San Jose Development Forum. This was taken using a drone and provides a unique perspective of Downtown San Jose.

If you are curious about the exact location, Backesto Park is bound by 13th St., 15th St., Jackson St., and Empire St. It is perhapse best known as the location for the Luna Park Chalk Art Festival.

Riverpark Towers in Downtown San Jose gets new tenants

The Downtown office market is continuing to gain momentum. In addition to the big announcements from companies like Google and Adobe, there are smaller wins to celebrate as well. The Riverpark II office tower near the Guadalupe river sat empty for many years and was a sobering reminder of our great recession. Today the building is over 90% leased.

Cohesity is the latest tech company to make Downtown their headquarters, taking two whole floors in Riverpark. They are moving from a 14,000 SQFT space in Santa Clara to 40,000 SQFT in the tower. That means even more workers to liven up our city's core and hopefully take advantage of the Guadalupe River Park, one of our most underrated attractions.

A few feet away, Erik's DeliCafe has also opened a brand new location on the ground floor of Riverpark I (333 San Carlos Street, Suite 150). The restaurant will feature an espresso bar, breakfast options, and online ordering to cater towards Downtown techies. This was formerly the location of Paolo's, which closed down in August 2015. Slowly but surely, all the available office and retail spaces are filling up.

Source: SVBJ, SVBJ #2

Sourisseau News: Hotel Vendome

On First Street, just north of Downtown, there once stood the Hotel Vendome. The 150-room hotel was only around between 1889 and 1930, but featured several interesting amenities like a bowling alley. Eventually increased competition and damage from fires led it to shut down and the land was subdivided and sold off. It would have been nice to preserve this gem near Japantown, much like we were able to do for Hayes Mansion, the Hotel Montgomery, and the Hotel DeAnza.

Watch the two-minute video more to learn about this hotel and see some amazing historic photos.

To see an archive of past videos, head over here.

Sourisseau News: Hotel Vendome - April 2017 from WMS media Inc. on Vimeo.