San Jose: A City Center Emerges (1988)

Below is a nostalgic look at Downtown San Jose nearly 30 years ago. It took a long time, but I think Downtown is finally living up to the vision that the city leaders describe in the video.

Sourisseau News: The Valley’s Love Affair with the Bicycle

While biking is extremely popular in San Jose today, and we are one of the most bike-friendly cities in the US, our love for bicycles goes all the way back to the 1880's. To learn more, check out the two minute Sourisseau News video below.

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


Sourisseau News: The Valley's Love Affair With the Bicycle - March 2017 from WMS media Inc. on Vimeo.

North 4th Street Student Tower Proposal

There seems to be no shortage of exciting news related to Downtown San Jose these days! The newest development project proposal is a 26-story student housing tower at the intersection of N. 4th Street and St. John. This location is 3 blocks away from SJSU and only 1 block away from St. James Park.

At 285 feet, it would be the exact same height as the San Jose City Hall, the second tallest building in San Jose (The 88 is taller by one foot). If the height alone wasn't enough to make it stand out, the proposed design with guarantee it. If approved, the N. 4th Street tower would have the most colorful and eclectic design of any Downtown tower to date. It features almost Tetris-like cutouts both horizontally and vertically, multi-colored glass, and even trees on the roof.

The ground floor has a respectable 8,409 SQFT of retail, a 2,713 SQFT leasing office, bike parking, and retail & guest parking. Above that is four levels of parking for students followed by 21 levels of student housing with 400 units (enough for about 900 students). If that weren't enough, there is a rooftop patio and amenity area--again with trees!

There are some negatives with the design. First, the tower will be adjacent to many single family homes along 5th Street, and those homeowners are likely not thrilled to have a student housing tower as a next-door neighbor. Also, there are a ton of parking spaces for a tower designed for students--especially since BART, Light rail, Bus Rapid Transit, and protected bike lanes are all within a 5 minute walk. In combination with the advent of autonomous cars, this will be very expensive wasted space five years from now and does not promote good urban design. At minimum they should plan on building the parking floors in such a way where they can be repurposed in the future.

Overall, I have to say this is pretty exciting and would markedly improve our skyline as well as add foot-traffic to an undeserved part of Downtown.

Huge thanks to fellow blogger Kimberly Vacca for providing high-res images from the proposal! Also a shout out to Robertee from the San Jose Development Forum for being the first to post about the permit. Click on the images below to enlarge.

Academic Coffee Grand Opening

Academic Coffee has graduated from being a pop-up at Five Points (awesome bar by the way). They have opened a proper coffee shop at 499 S. 2nd Street and are hosting a grand opening event today from 7am-2pm. To celebrate they are offering buy one, get one free drinks all day long. Next month their hours will be extended to 7am-7pm every day. I'm pretty excited to have another non-chain, quality coffee shop Downtown!

There will be a short ribbon cutting ceremony at 11am with Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, State Assemblymember Ash Kalra, County Supervisor Cindy Chavez, Mayor Sam Liccardo, and Councilmember Raul Peralez.

For more info and photos, head over to their Facebook Page.

Another great photo of San Jose

Below is quite a stunning perspective of Downtown San Jose that I have never seen before. This shows how population density is quickly increasing.

Source: Forbes, Dirt Patch from the San Jose Development Forum

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!