Springtime Events at Santana Row

This Spring, the Row will feature quite a few fund raisers and fun events--everything from a beauty and wine walk, an autism benefit concert, and the Summer Fashion Show. There are also regular events like the first Saturday Makers Market promoting local artisans, a free yoga series, and a mommy & me kid's club on the 2nd Tuesday of every month. Check out the full calendar of events below.

EVENT	DETAILS
Beauty & Bubbles	Thursday, April 4; 6 p.m. – 9 p.m. Step into Spring with Beauty and Bubbles benefiting the Junior League of San Jose. Meet and mingle with the winemakers while sampling wine and bubbles from local Santa Cruz winegrowers. Plus enjoy light bites, DIY flower crowns, beauty touchups, exclusive discounts and more inside Santana Row shops & restaurants!  Participating shops and restaurants include Crate & Barrel, Laser Away, LB Steak, Vintage Wine, Kendra Scott and more. Tickets are $35 in advance, and $40 starting March 29th. Purchase tickets online here or inside the Santana Row Concierge.
Makers Market in the Park	Saturday, April 6; 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. Visit this curated marketplace in Santana Row Park (across from Left Bank Brasserie) and shop local artists selling US handcrafted goods such as jewelry, handbags, ceramics, glassware, soaps candles and more! Enjoy the beautiful outdoor park and support local small business every 1st Saturday of the month. 30+ local artists DIY workshops Live music Complimentary Wine & Bites in the store  Contests for store gift certificates! For more information on how to be a vendor, please call (408) 320-1868.
Voices for Autism Benefit Concert	Saturday, April 6; 12 p.m. – 4 p.m. Join us for a day of fun, food, and music in Park Valencia. The Youth Leadership Committee is hosting the 4th Annual Voices For Autism Benefit Concert to increase autism awareness and raise money for the programs at Pacific Autism Center for Education (PACE).  The concert will feature youth bands and other musical performances from students around the Bay Area! This is a free event and perfect for families with children of any age. There will be music, interactive autism awareness demonstrations, and select restaurants are participating in fundraisers to raise money for PACE. All proceeds from this event benefit Pacific Autism Center for Education. PACE provides high quality behavioral therapy, education, and residential care for children and adults with autism. For more information, visit http://www.santanarow.com/events/voices-for-autism-benefit-concert.
Yoga on The Row	Every Saturday from May – September; 9 a.m. Bring your yoga mat and enjoy a morning workout with lululemon during their FREE Yoga Series every Saturday in Santana Row Park. Registration opens at 8:30 a.m., and classes start at 9 a.m.
Mommy & Me Kid’s Club Kick-Off Event	Tuesday, May 14; 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. The second Tuesday of every month, May through December join us for a fun-filled day of arts and crafts, face painting, music, balloon art, entertainment and more. Join us for the kick-off event on Tuesday, May 14th.  Enjoy live music from Andy Z, flower planting, character appearances, DJ and more.
Summer Fashion Show	Saturday, June 8; 2 p.m. One of the best parts about summer is the fashion. Santana Row’s most popular event, Fashion in The Park, returns to showcase the coolest looks for a hot summer in the most summery of spots—Santana Row Park. This professional runway show will feature the hottest summer styles from Santana Row shops. Tickets are $50 and include seating at the runway show, access to the onsite lounge, champagne & wine, light hors d’oeuvres, a Passion for Fashion shopping card with exclusive incentives & post‐show soirees. Tickets go on sale April 1 at the Santana Row Concierge and online at www.SantanaRow.com.

March 2019 Downtown Dimension Highlights

The MARCH 2019 Downtown Dimension is now available at: https://sjdowntown.com/wp_2016/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/DTDMAR2019.pdf In this edition: Maya Esparza and Pam Foley, elected to the San Jose City Council in November and joining the panel in January, provide their perspectives of the city and downtown in an eight-question Q&A. February was a month of tremendous development activity, including progress on three very large downtown proposals. Downtown welcomes Opa!, Miniboss, Super Good Kitchen and Nokia. The City Council closes in on a decision regarding maximum downtown heights. Opportunity zones, a new tax break for those with capital gains to reinvest, form in downtown. Urban Catalyst also forms to utilize opportunity funds to substantially improve downtown real estate. Here's an invitation to attend SJDA's next public meeting, April 12, 8-9:30 a.m. at The Glass House. Main topic:  Mitigating homelessness downtown. Please rsvp to sjdarsvp@sjdowntown.com Also for your information: Live and Local SJ supports live music in the center city. Traffic alerts keep up with lane and road closures and openings. Maps of downtown commercial property availability and development proposals. Boom City: SJDA's summary of new downtown building proposals and west side acquisitions. Downtown Dimension is a leading source for information about downtown San Jose news, events and businesses.  Subscribe with a simple email to sjda@sjdowntown.com, subject line:  Subscribe.  For information about weekly downtown events, also subscribe to Downtowner Online.

Copyright © 2019 San Jose Downtown Association, All rights reserved

New homes and office space coming to Steven's Creek

Fortbay has just received approval for one of the first San Jose "signature projects" at 4300 Steven's Creek. This is just a few minutes west of Valley Fair and Santana Row and near the border of Cupertino.

The plan is to build 582 residential units, 233,000 SQFT of office space, and a multi-story parking structure. There will be some retail element, but it is not clear from the article how much or where in the project it will be. The new buildings will be between six and eight stories and will wrap around a new 1.4 acre promenade and park.

It's nice to see new mixed use projects being developed outside of Downtown San Jose. The one missing component here is access to public transit, but I have a feeling most of the residents will have a short commute to the Apple campus down the street. We really need to build some sort of mass transit from Downtown all the way to De Anza since this corridor is densifying rapidly.

Source: SVBJ

Lights, Camera, Action: Cinequest 2019

Cinequest 2019 occurs March 5^th to March 17^th in San Jose and Redwood City (Silicon Valley) where it will showcase the work of artists from 56 countries, including 132 World and U.S. premiere films and virtual reality.  One hundred works at Cinequest have been directed by women. Fifty-four celebrations, performances, and special events round out the offerings—amounting to 531 screenings, events, parties and experiences.

Some of my top flick picks and screenings I'm so excited about watching include: Freaks, Every Time I Die, The Public, Groupers, #Like, Undercover, The Edge of Success, Cut Off (Abgeschnitten), Go Back to China and Shadow to name a few!!!

Here’s a look at Bay Area films, documentaries and short films worth checking out:

·      Bring Me An Avocado

·      Lucky Fifty

·      Circles

·      The Edge of Success

·      The 17

·      Hook Up 2.0

·      Your Friend

·      49 Mile Scenic Drive

·      Bones

·      Shades

·      Swan

·      When an Egg Meets a Tomato

·      My Mother, Myself and I

·      Love for Food

·      In Our Heads

·      The Fringe Class

·      Lunch Lady

·      American Muscle

Key Cinequest 2019 highlights include:

Closing Night Screening and Celebration: Sunday, March 17, 6:00pm, California Theatre

Cinequest 2019 culminates with The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. 

Maverick Spirit Award Events:

Cinequest’s highest honor, the Maverick Spirit Award, recognizes the world’s most compelling visionary and creative forces. Cinequest 2019’s Maverick Spirit Award recipients are:

• Legendary star of screen and stage Bill Nighy
• Actor, director, writer, and activist Nandita Das
• Life of a Maverick Award Recipient, Esther Wojcicki

Television & Webisodes at Cinequest 2019:
It wasn’t that long ago when award-winning actors, directors, and producers wouldn’t dream of working in television or creating a web series. All of that has changed as the golden era of TV prevails. Cinequest is extremely proud to offer a First Look at upcoming shows, and you get to experience these dynamic stories on the big screen!!! Lineup includes:

• THE BLACKOUT (U.S. Premiere) 
• A glorious addition to the science fiction genre, The Blackout defies expectations and electrifies.
• JOE ALL ALONE 
• Joanna Nadin’s bestseller about finding optimism and adventure in deprived circumstances. Thirteen-year-old Joe Holt is left behind when his mum and unsavory boyfriend take a week-long holiday.
• M (U.S. Premiere)  
• An exhilarating horror-thriller from Argentina, M follows Diane and Tim, a young American couple who travel to Patagonia to search for Tim's father, a biologist who disappeared 10 years earlier.
• OVER WATER (U.S. Premiere) 
• Over Water is a captivating psychological drama set against the raw background of a sea port. Former television star John Beckers is given one last chance to get his life back on track.
• TABOO (U.S. Premiere) 
• Called “The comedy show you shouldn’t laugh with,” Taboo examines that which we often take for granted and forget to cherish.
• UNDERCOVER (U.S. Premiere) 
• One of the largest ecstasy producers in the world, Ferry Bouman, lives a charmed life in his villa, but things start to change when two undercover agents move into his territory.

Regular Screening Prices:

·      General Admission: $12

·      Regular screening tickets are not valid for special events. Opening and Closing Night films are special events.

·      Matinee: $8 All weekday (Monday – Friday) screenings before 5 pm.

·      Students: $6 Valid Student ID required at Box Office.

Complete lineup with ticket and pass sales information at www.cinequest.org

KT Urban planning a 27-story co-living tower

KT Urban has re-unveiled "Garden Gate" tower, destined for 600 S. First Street which is close to highway 280 in the SoFA part of Downtown San Jose. The 27-story tower will be our second proposal a co-living project--think fancy dorms for adults. Residents would pay slightly lower then average rents (for new construction Downtown) and get a private bedroom adjacent to common areas like living rooms and kitchens.

Generally, buildings like this are filled to the brim with amenities. From the renders below, it even looks like they are even planning a rooftop pool and a penthouse deck/lounge.

As housing prices continue to balloon out of control, we need to think a bit outside the box. Solutions such as co-living will help diversify the housing products available and hopefully bring a little bit more affordability to San Jose. From a development perspective, bringing 1,000 residents to SoFA would be icing on the cake.

Source: SVBJ

Boring Company tunnel from Downtown San Jose to SJC

Last month there was a surprise announcement that Sam Liccardo has been in talks with The Boring Company for the past 18 months about a project that would connect Diridon to the airport via a 4-mile tunnel. The Boring Company is a disruptor in the tunneling space using hybrid-electric boring machines and several other innovations to reduce the cost of tunneling by a factor of 10. A two-way tunnel to the airport could cost less than $100 million versus the $800+ million a traditional people-mover would cost to build.

Now is really the perfect opportunity to start looking at next generation transportation options. As we have witnessed with California High-Speed Rail, paying for something that is both the most expensive and slowest high-speed train in the world makes little sense. Same goes for spending almost a billion dollars for a 4 mile people mover shuttling people at 25-35 MPH. If we can lay the foundation for a network that will reduce traffic and move people faster and do it at a far lower cost, that is worth exploring. Kudos for Sam for taking the initiative so long ago. Silicon Valley deserve a transit system that makes our innovative heritage proud.

Source: Teslarati, SVBJ

San Jose receives an Oscar-winner shout out

Last Sunday when John Ottman won an Oscar for best film editing on Bohemian Rhapsody, he also delivered a nice little surprise for San Joseans in his speech:

“Lastly, this goes to my parents on their fireplace mantle because they encouraged me to do whatever I wanted to do when I was a kid whether it was writing music, which was a mystery to them, or making films in their garage on Normington Way in San Jose, California,”  

Normington Way is between Pinehurst and Thousand Oaks, just north of Oakridge. Apparently his first film was a spooky ghost movie which he made while attending Gunderson High School. Thanks for the shout out John!

Source: ABC 7 News