San Pedro Street is blocked to expand outdoor dining capacity

The Downtown San Jose is finding creative ways to survive during these tough times. The latest initiative is fully closing down San Pedro Street between Santa Clara and Saint John and allowing restaurants to expand their outdoor seating onto the street itself. Farmers Union, O'Flaherty's, The Old Spaghetti Factory, District, Sushi Confidential, and the Old Wagon are some of the restaurants taking advantage of this.

I had a great dinner at District last Friday and it felt almost like pre-covid times (except for the masks and the menu being on your phone of course).

San Pedro Street has been shut down before for special events like Super Bowl 50, but it has never been used like this before. The plan is to keep the street closed until September, but I hope it actually becomes permanent. This is arguably the liveliest street in Downtown San Jose and expanding the usable space makes it both safer for pedestrians and more interesting to walk through or visit. It also would open the potential of adding more retail along the garage next to MOMENT or even cafes and pop-ups in the middle of the street.

Source: SVBJ

Miro Tower Photos

Fortunately not all major construction projects are stalled due to the Coronavirus. Miro continues to make great progress in Downtown San Jose and both towers are almost at full height (nearly 30 stories). Below are a couple photos taken from SJSU by gillynova.

Despite everything our skyline is evolving and there is still much excitement around Downtown San Jose in the developer community.

Source: gillynova from the San Jose Development Forum

Affordable housing project proposed for Guitar Showcase site

A developer would like to relocate the Guitar Showcase store at 3090 S. Bascom Avenue, raze the building, and construct a six-story residential building in its place. The project would have 90 apartments and 100% of them would be classified as affordable housing. The plan is to have a mix of one, two, and three bedroom units ranging from 405 SQFT to 975 SQFT. 29 of the units would be reserved for formerly homeless making no more than 30% of our area's median income.

Also included in the project would be 2,200 SQFT of commercial space on the ground floor and 25 parking spaces.

If this project comes to fruition, Guitar Showcase won't be moving very far. There is an available space for them right next door.

Source: SVBJ

Free San Jose COVID Testing

I'm back from a short workation to Tahoe. While I didn't do anything crazy like visiting a casino, I plan on getting COVID tested soon and thought I would share the easiest way to do it for anyone interested.

This week, free pop-up COVID-19 tests will be administered at the County of Santa Clara service Center Auditorium (1555 Berger Road, San Jose) and Independence High School, C Commons (617 N. Jackson Avenue, San Jose).

I have done the pop-up tests twice now, and it is extremely easy to do. The new method is completely painless--they do not shove the q-tip all the way up your nose as they did with early tests. On a scale of 1-10 with a shot in the arm being an 8, I would put this at a 1 in terms of pain/discomfort, which is to say there isn't any.

They also don't even ask for your insurance, it is completely free and you get the results within a few days. You do not need symptoms, a doctor's note, or proof of residency. Just walk in and get your test. If you show up early it should be a very short wait. The last one I did was towards the end of the day and it took 30 minutes total to wait in line, provide contact info, and get tested. Masks are required the entire time.

Again, the tests are at the County of Santa Clara Service Center Auditorium and Independence High School. The pop-up sites will be open from 10am to 3pm, Tuesday thought Friday. If you are in South San Jose, they will also be doing tests in the South County Annex (9300 Wren Avenue, Gilroy).

Source: San Jose Inside

Transportation Innovation

San Jose Spotlight has a great article discussing how we can solve for our future transportation issues. Eventually traffic will return, in fact this past week I did hit a few spots on 101 that reminded me of the good old pre-covid days. We have BART now, which is fantastic, but going forward we should be looking at faster and cheaper solutions.

In fact, there is a grade separated, point-to-point solution that exists today. The Boring Company Loop. Tunnels can be built at $10 million per mile versus $1 billion per mile for a traditional subway, and autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles can transport you from a station to any other station in the network at up to 150 miles per hour. It sounds too good to be true, but so did electric cars that are affordable and fun to drive and reusable rockets that can land themselves. Also, the Boring Company already has two projects in the works. There is a functional test track in LA that goes from SpaceX headquarters to a residential backyard (no joke) and a Loop in Las Vegas that will connect the Las Vegas Convention Center, the Strip, and the airport.

It's a killer suggestion that would help bring our transportation into the future (it is 2020 after all) while improving safety, convenience, and cost-per-mile. Check out Norman Kline's article over here.

Source: San Jose Spotlight

Urban Catalyst proposes a residential mid-rise by Diridon

Urban Catalyst does not seem to be slowing down one bit when it comes to new development proposals. Their latest endeavor is Madera @ Downtown West, a 157-unit apartment complex near where Google plans to build their San Jose megacampus of up to 8 million SQFT.

Madera will have 49 studios, 14 one-bedroom, 14 two-bedroom, 26 three-bedroom, and 54 four-bedroom apartments. I'm happy to see a large number of studios and 3-4 bedroom units as theses are rare products in the San Jose apartment and condo markets. In fact, I'm quite shocked at there being 54 four-bedroom apartments as there are typically only a couple of these in each Downtown San Jose high-rise building and they are extremely expensive penthouses. This building might actually be family-friendly.

While it is only eight-stories, it is located in a medium density area that still has a large number of single family homes. This will certainly be an upgrade for the block, especially with ground-floor retail. The project is bound by 486-498 W. San Carlos St. and 332-338 Josefa St and it will replace a few small commercial buildings and a vacant house.

Construction could start as early as July 2021 and take two years to complete.

Source: SVBJ

Downtown refreshed with 10 new student art works

Coronavirus epidemics halts program – but not before receiving 75 submissions

SAN JOSE – San Jose Downtown Foundation art selection committee has chosen 10 new Downtown Doors from 98 art works submitted by area high school students before COVID-19 sent students and teachers home to study for the remainder of the 2019-20 school year.

The 10 doors will freshen the downtown as businesses reopen and some employees return to work.  Like the judging session, a virtual reception took place over Zoom Thursday, June 18.

“As businesses begin to recover from the COVID-19 virus, we want downtown looking vibrant with art,” said Ramona Snyder, SJDF board president.  “With funding already secured from the City of San Jose Office of Cultural Affairs, SVCreates and private donors such as Comerica Bank and Ernest and Irene Pestana Chari, we’re moving forward with half of the Downtown Doors program for this fiscal year and plans to proceed with the program when teachers and students are working together again.”

In its 17^th year, the number of Downtown Doors in the city’s center has reached 302.  Downtown Doors occupies 110 sites located mostly on busy pedestrian rotes through the downtown core.  Student artworks are digitized onto vinyl coatings that are attached in their full colorful splendor to service doors and utility boxes throughout downtown.

“Downtown Doors provides young artists the opportunity to publicly express themselves,” Snyder added.  “Students of all ethnicities and demographics have been posting their messages of change and hope downtown for 16 years now.”

In past years, Downtown Doors art works have paid tribute to strong women and the courageousness of parent and grandparent immigrants.  Several selections this year – submitted in January and February before pandemic or the call for racial change -- are self-expressions.

“As always, the art selected is amazing,” said Jessica Vuong, program coordinator.  “I can’t wait to see what comes next.”

Program donors and sponsors include:  City of San Jose Office of Cultural Affairs; Adobe, Comerica Charitable Foundation; Ernest and Irene Pestana Charitable Foundation; and SVCreates, and Councilmember Johnny Khamis.

Site hosts for the 2020 art work includes:  50 West, San Jose State University/Hammer Theatre Center; City of San Jose, Il Fornaio/Westin St. Claire; Fairmont San Jose; and The Studio Climbing Gym.

Art selection Committee: James Morgan of SJSU; Jeannine Flores, Santa Clara County Office of Education; Jeff Bordona, San Jose Museum of Art; Michael Ogilvie, San Jose Director of Public Art; Charlie McCollum, SJDF Trustee; and the Board of Trustees and Downtown Association staff which selected the 10^th door today.

The Downtown Doors Class of 2020 includes:

Mezcal makes the best out of a difficult situation

Mezcal, a minority-owned restaurant, can't seem to catch a break. They were already struggling to survive like many restaurants in a post-covid world. Then they were burglarized not once, but twice. The Oaxacan restaurant could have called it quits, but instead they turned their boarded up windows into some of the coolest murals Downtown. The murals were done by local artists from Local Color, a women-led San Jose nonprofit.

The restaurant is now open for outdoor dining and features an assortment of Oaxacan mole sauces and many new items like grilled octopus, a black mole tamale, a ribeye, and a salmon burger. If you're feeling adventurous you can even try grasshoppers (which are surprisingly delicious by the way).

Mezcal is open from noon to 8pm, Tuesday through Sunday, at 25 W San Fernando St.

Source: SVBJ