Downtown San Jose's Next High-Rise

With One South already leasing, Centerra wrapping up, and Silvery Towers about to rise--the big question is which residential tower is going to go up next. Well, that question may be answered very soon. Simeon Residential Properties (one of the companies behind Centerra) purchased a half-acre site across from the Greyhound bus station. This is a turnkey development site that already has approval for a 21-story tower with 180 residential units and 7,000 SQFT of retail. Parking will be shared with a neighboring office building, a concept pretty new to San Jose.

The good news is that Simeon seems really eager to get going on the tower. The plan is to get the construction drawings done ASAP and break ground in early 2016. You may remember a previous drawing for this site, which you can see below. Personally, I like the eclectic design that makes the tower look like 3 different buildings scrunched together. Hopefully they'll keep some of these elements after the revision.

Two other projects could also break ground in 2016: a two-tower Barry Swenson project at St. James Park and a tower across the street from City Hall.

Source: SVBJ

Cat Cafe Now Open in San Jose

Meet "The Dancing Cat." Billed as San Jose's first creative space for people...and cats, this is a limited-time pop-up shop that only runs until June 14th. Cat Cafes began in Taiwan and Japan, places where many people are not able to have pets. You get to come in, have some coffee, and play with cats. Here, you can actually take a cat you fall in love with home.

The Dancing Cat is being run by Marilyn Krieger (a cat behaviorist known as The Cat Coach) and her friend Mary Rubin to promote adoptions for local shelters. They found an abandoned liquor store on North 15th Street and Julian and turned it into something that looks like your living room (an environment cats likely prefer over a shelter). The owners of The Arsenal art supply store on The Alameda even came in and panted a series of panels featuring their own cats.

The cost to come in and play with your new feline friends is $10 for adults and $5 for children under 10. The fee gets waived if you end up adopting a cat. If the pop-up goes well, they may end up opening a permanent location!

You can find The Dancing Cat at 702 E. Julian Street. It's open from noon to 6pm on Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday and from noon to 9pm on Fridays and Saturdays. The shop is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. For more info, peek inside The Dancing Cat website.

Photo by Greg Ramar

Source: San Jose Inside, Hat-tip to Payge Lyn for sending this in!

Hack Your Ride on June 6th!

VTA is hosting a great event for technical minds next Saturday called "Hack My Ride." This is actually part of a Knight Foundation grant to make Downtown San Jose even more exciting and innovative. The challenge is transforming how people get around Silicon Valley using a variety of apps and tools. Goals include making it easier to plan trips, wayfinding, connecting with surroundings, and generally make transportation a better experience.

Along with the Hackathon, Microsoft Silicon Valley is sponsoring a free lunch via two food trucks: Oh Miso Hungry and The Kabab Job. You can also be the first to learn about Downtown San Jose's new Bluetooth beacons and compete for $30,000 worth of prizes across 8 different categories.

If you're a techie--and I know many of us are--this is a great way to put your skills to use in a way that will benefit the whole community! You can either scroll down for more info or head over to the VTA event page over here.

Five Reasons to Hack Your Ride

Hack My Ride 2.0 challenges you to transform how we get around in Silicon Valley. Build working apps and tools that will make it easier for people to plan trips, connect with their surroundings, and enrich their transportation experience. If you're still on the fence about whether to join us for the kickoff hackathon on June 6, here are five reasons you should sign up: Food trucks! Oh Miso Hungry and The Kabob Job will provide free lunch thanks to Microsoft Silicon Valley, to fuel your creativity and get you outside for a break from coding. Beacons! Hack My Ride 2.0 hackathon participants will be the first to learn about the Bluetooth beacons we’ll be testing in our system, including how to use them in your projects. Lightning talks! The hackathon will start with brief talks from VTA, Prospect Silicon Valley and others about transportation innovation in Silicon Valley, VTA open data, beacons, the Internet of Things, and today’s mobility challenges and opportunities. $30,000 in prizes! If you’re looking to raise the funds to launch a business building out your app idea, the Hack My Ride app challenge is a great way to gain visibility and resources. #HackforChange! Partnering with Code for San Jose and the Tech Museum of Innovation, VTA is hosting this hackathon as part of the National Day of Civic Hacking. It’s a great way to contribute your technical skills to improving how you get around your city This is a three-month online app challenge kicked off with a hackathon at The Tech Museum of Innovation on June 6, 2015. RSVP to the hackathon learn about the data available (including being the first to access the beacons we’re testing), form a team, and start developing your submission. ​ Learn more about the three-month challenge, including rules, prizes and the submission process, at hackmyride2.challengepost.com. Share the link on Meetup, Twitter, Reddit or wherever you connect with your fellow transportation hackers! To get your creative juices flowing, Microsoft Silicon Valley and Knight Foundation are generously offering $30,000 in prizes in eight app challenge prize categories, so there are plenty of opportunities for your app to win. Or submit several times, if you have a bunch of great ideas and can’t pick just one! Read more on Headways, VTA's blog. Follow @VTA on Twitter, like our Facebook page, or click here to subscribe to updates from Headways, VTA’s official blog.

Earthquakes Hosting a FREE Viewing Party at Avaya Stadium Tomorrow

What a great way to increase utilization at what is perhaps the nicest stadium in the MLS. The Earthquakes are going to host a series of admission-free viewing parties for away games. The first one will be tomorrow at 2pm with the Quakes facing off against Toronto FC. The next will be on Saturday, June 20th against the Seattle Sounders FC at 1pm.

The gates to Avaya stadium open one hour prior to kickoff and fans will be able to watch the matches on the massive screen facing Coleman Avenue. Concessions will be available as well as two food trucks. Best of all, the largest outdoor bar in America will be open and serving fans throughout the game.

Lastly, there will be activities located in the two-acre 7UP Epicenter, but the Quakes did not disclose what those activities will be.

Source: Earthquakes

Rotary PlayGarden is Now Open!

A brand new two-acre playground built as part of the Rotary Club's 100th anniversary is now open off Coleman in the Guadalupe River Park. The $6 million playground was designed specifically so that all children can play together, even if they have special needs. There are slides, a merry-go-round, teeter-totters, swings, musical elements, sand-and-water play, and climbing structures. It is quite possibly the nicest playground in the Bay Area, so go check it out with the younger members of your family!

For more information on the Rotary PlayGarden, head over here.

San Jose Rotary PlayGarden Ribbon Cutting 2015 from WMS media Inc. on Vimeo.

Rent Controls in San Jose

I usually try to avoid doing very controversial or polarizing posts, but in this case I can't resist. A couple weeks ago there was an article posting in the Silicon Valley Business Journal about rent controls. San Jose District 3 (Downtown San Jose) Councilman Raul Peralez is proposing to strengthen rent controls in San Jose, specifically by cutting maximum rent increases to 4% and extending rent control to all buildings constructed before 1995 (right now only buildings built before 1979 are rent controlled and the maximum increase is 8% a year). It sounds good on paper, right?

As an econ major, I can't stress how terrible this idea is. Rent controls do not make escalating rent problems better, they make them worse. Sometimes far worse.

Long story short, rent control is a manipulation of the market where demand exceeds supply (see image below). This isn't a guess or assumption, it's a science. With rent controls, there will be fewer rental options available and a greater amount of demand for those remaining units. The stronger the controls, the greater this effect. If you have ever wondered why 50-100 people are all applying for one rent-controlled apartment in SF, this is it.

You may think that if you are already in an apartment, that this will not effect you in a negative way. That couldn't be further from the truth. The stronger the gap between the market and the current rental price, the more likely your landlord will be doing everything possible to get you out of the building. Likely this will include include minimizing maintenance, refusing to do any improvements, trying to convert multi-family rentals to condos, and a variety of other items that I won't even go into. As soon as your are out of the apartment, you will be hit with far higher rents for lower quality units that more people are competing to get (again, SF). Many people will resort to "black market" apartments or tenement housing. Some will become homeless.

The damage does not end there. Rent controls will reduce the market value of all apartments affected. That means lower property taxes for the City of San Jose, and less revenue for services--including the already strapped SJPD and SJFD departments. Landlords will have less incentive to maintain their properties (in fact the opposite when trying to kick people out), leading to substandard housing and blight in both urban and suburban areas.

Thankfully, it seems like Mayor Sam Liccardo does not share the same sentiment on rent control as Raul Peralez. It's a very difficult topic to stand up to, because most voters will not understand economics and the topic of rent control is completely counter-intuitive. Sorry for the soapbox moment, but I really believe this will cause substantial damage to the rental market as can be seen in every single city around the world with strict rent controls (especially SF and New York).

Source: SVBJ

Apple and Tesla are Evaluating Expansion to San Jose!

The two hottest companies in Silicon Valley are contemplating expansion to San Jose! It has been a poorly kept secret that Apple is out of room and it's epic 2.8 million SQFT spaceship project in Cupertino will only cover a fraction of the space it needs. To make matters worse for Apple, Cupertino is not allowing any more office construction outside of a limited area round Valco. Reportedly, Apple has been looking at two different major San Jose projects to expand to: 101 Tech on Orchard Parkway (300,000 SQFT) and the Coleman Highline (up to 1.5 million SQFT).

To make things even more interesting, Tesla is also looking at 101 Tech. Whether it would be an expansion of their Palo Alto headquarters or a full move of their HQ is unclear (it would be much closer to the Tesla factory and the office space would cost half as much). In either case, they would be a very welcome addition to San Jose. Tesla actually wanted to create their factory in North San Jose near Aliso, but were not able to secure the state tax credits needed to build in the location.

Either one of these companies coming to San Jose would be a HUGE win. Nate's article is a great read and an excellent way way to start off the week. Grab a cup of coffee and read the full article via the source link below.

Source: SVBJ

Celtic Woman Performing in San Jose on 5/28

Celtic Woman is celebrating their 10th Anniversary with a world tour. They are going to be at the Center for the Performing Arts on May 28th (this Thursday) at 7pm.

If you're a fan of Irish music, then this critically-acclaimed performance is for you. The multi-platinum ensemble will be singing Irish classics like "Danny Boy" and "Mo Ghile Mhear" as well as contemporary takes on "You Raise Me Up" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." For a little preview, check out the short video below. For tickets, head over here.

About Celtic Woman 

In 2015, Multi-platinum Irish music sensation Celtic Woman celebrates the 10^th anniversary of its debut with a breathtakingnew show across 80 North American cities through the end of June. The group celebrates a decade of performing a fresh fusion of contemporary and traditional music and dance with an Irish twist that has touched the hearts of millions of fans in America.  The all female ensemble made its debut on PBS in 2005 and has achieved massive success encompassing nine albums that have each debuted at #1 on Billboard’s World Album chart, over eight million albums sold and platinum sales in nine countries.  Their eight PBS specials have ranked among the network’s most-watched music programs and topped the Billboard DVD charts. Celtic Woman has sold over three millions concert tickets, sold out prestigious concert halls across across six continents & 23 countries with an especially devoted audience in America.   Over the past decade, Celtic Woman has performed for three U.S. presidents and made high-profile appearances on the daytime drama The Bold and the Beautiful and on Dancing with the Stars.

TICKET INFORMATION: 

Celtic Woman performs in San Jose on Thursday May 28 at 7pm at the Center for Performing Arts. Tickets  $39-$99   are available in person at the Box Office by calling Ticketmaster at 1-800-745-3000 or online at www.sanjosetheaters.org