South FIRST FRIDAY Nov 3rd, 2023 in #DTSJ #ArtwalkSJ

South FIRST FRIDAYS is back today will all new exhibits across multiple galleries in three different districts. Everything is open from at least 5-10pm. Participating venues include ANNO DOMINI, the Institute of Contemporary Art, KALEID Gallery, Works San Jose, the San Jose Museum of Quilts & Textiles, the SoFA Market, MACLA, Art Ark Gallery, MACHU PICCHU, Natural Do Salon, 1Culture, and Chopsticks Alley Gallery. 

There are a few special items worth noting for this month. You can go to the California Theatre and watch a free sneak peak of The Barber of Seville at 5:45pm, 6:30pm, 7:15pm, and 8pm. 1Culture is handing out Halloween treats for kids. Also, Phantom Galleries is presenting a special Gianfranco Paolozzi solo exhibition at The Pierce and the artist will be in attendance from 5-9pm.

It all goes down today, November 3rd. As usual admission is free and all ages are welcome. Click here for a preview of featured art! Below is a map with all of the galleries to check out across all three different districts.

"McTerrorsaurus" ceramics by Kurt Salinas at Chopsticks Gallery

110 townhomes proposed in North San Jose at existing office site

As the office market struggles to recover, project after project has been pivoting to housing. The latest proposal is coming from SummerHill Homes and would involve replacing a two-story office building with 110 townhomes on a 5.1-acre site at 90 East Tasman Drive. 

This is a great location in the middle of the tech world's "Golden Triangle." It's in front of a VTA Light Rail stop and is a few stations away from either Levi's Stadium to the west or Milpitas BART and The Great Mall to the east.

While townhomes in many ways would certainly be an improvement over the current 1980s era office buildings at the current site, it's still a far cry from what Santa Clara is doing off of Tasman just over 1 mile away. That site is also 5-acres, but instead of townhomes it features a 23-story apartment building with 509 apartment and 191 senior housing units in a secondary tower. That is literally seven times the density of the San Jose proposal (see below).

The land here is extremely valuable. It would make sense to move a bit beyond townhomes at this point in North San Jose, especially with such great access to existing transit networks. 

Source: The Mercury News, TheRegistry

Willow Glen Christmas Trolley Rides

It's getting to be that time of year again! Willow Glen is doing a holiday trolley ride through both the commercial and residential parts of Willow Glen to view all of the holiday decorations. The trolly is an old fashioned cable car that seats up to 32 people.

The rides take place from December 7-10 and December 14-21 from 5:15pm to 9pm. Each ride takes about 30 minutes and costs $20 for kids and $40 for Adults. The trolley boards in front of Bank of America at 1245 Lincoln Avenue. There is also plenty of free public parking in the Bank of America lot, courtesy of the Willow Glen Business Association.

If you're wondering why I'm posting this so early, well many of the dates have already sold out. Now would be the time to book your holiday trolly ride over here.

Happy Halloween 2023! 🎃🦇👻

Hope you all have a fun and safe Halloween tonight! If you have a favorite neighborhood for trick-or-treating please post it in the comments or on X (Twitter).

Also, please be sure to check out our "wishlist" post for Halloween in the Park!

Halloween in Japantown San Jose

Japantown is also throwing a major Halloween event tomorrow. They have actually been doing a Halloween event since 2003. In 2017 it became so popular they closed off major streets.

Trick-or-treating starts at 4:30pm with most of the SJ Japantown businesses participating. Then you have San Jose Taiko performances, dancing, a haunted house, and arts & crafts.

There should be no shortage of options tomorrow to celebrated one of the most fun holidays out there.

Trick or Treat in Willow Glen

Downtown Willow Glen is hosting their annual trick-or-treat event tomorrow from 11am-12:30pm for toddlers and 3pm-4:30pm for school-aged kids. Several stores along Lincoln avenue will be handing out candy at this time and will be fully decked out for Halloween.

Then after 5pm, you can take your kids into the Willow Glen residential neighborhoods which are one of the top areas to trick-or-treat in San Jose.

Three county offices relocated to North San Jose

A former Cisco office off Tasman in North San Jose will now provide a variety of Santa Clara County services in North San Jose. These include the Assessor's Office, the Department of Tax and Collections, and the Clerk-Recorder's Office.

These services used to be at 70 W. Hedding Street and 8523 North First Street and could be inconvenient when it comes to parking (which was mostly metered). It could also be a long walk from parking to the County offices, which are next to Courthouses and the San Jose Main Jail. On the other hand, the new offices have plentiful free and convenient parking yet are also still close to VTA bus routes and VTA Light Rail.

The new campus also has a special surprise for couples that are getting married--a brand new indoor and outdoor wedding chapel!

Source: SVBJ

Green energy startup opening 50,000 SQFT factory in San Jose to turn bricks into batteries

A battery can be a lot of different things. One form I didn't expect was a brick. Antora Energy found a way to store heat inside of carbon blocks and then storing them while the brick stays at temperatures of 1,500 degrees Celsius or higher. When energy is needed, the system can leverage that heat for industrial uses or convert the heat back to electricity.

The 50,000 SQFT manufacturing facility will be built in North San Jose and should be completed in 2024. The first brick batteries are also expected to be manufactured and delivered to customers in 2024.

Source: BayAreaINNO