San Jose pics (Santa Clara: 2014, home, building)

[Botev1912]

Originally Posted by Atsuke

Downtown from the Eastern Foothills

How can I get here? Is there an address?

[bobby_guz_man]

Botev,

Google Sikh Gurdwara, that place will afford you a view similar to the above. Or you can drive East on Sierra Road and hit the lookout point into the Valley below.

And despite what Tempest said, I am one of the minorities that he listed, and I am very proud of my adopted city of San Jose. San Jose is a rather large city (we can fit 2 San Franciscos and 1.5 Oaklands in our city limit), so there are many neighborhoods. Because of the distance--it takes 15 minutes on freeway driving to go from East to West, and 25 minutes of freeway driving to go from North to South--most residents of San Jose have never been to all areas of San Jose. Some are excellent, some are bad, most are good.

Some neighborhoods are like night and day. Come with me for a drive on El Camino Real heading east, starting from Santa Clara, and you'll see what I mean.

El Camino Real will become The Alameda as you head east pass Santa Clara Univ, and you will reach the College Park area of San Jose--whose neighborhoods are lined with gigantic Colonial mansions and restored 1910's Craftsman homes in well-manicured tree-lined neighborhoods with roads that are clearly built for an older time as their width can barely fit one car. The Alameda neighborhood is a real gem in San Jose, and is the original hotspot for the LGBT crowd, whom I still see in large gatherings once in a while at any of the eatery's. Do check out Crema Coffee House, with its street-fronted, elevated lawn.

Continue east on The Alameda will take you onto Santa Clara Street into Downtown, past the Pavillion, past the Art-Deco DeAnza Hotel, past San Jose's first high-rise--the Bank of the West tower--built in the early 20th century, past the Transit Mall on First and Second, past the Gensler-designed City Hall with its star dome.

Keep heading East after City Hall and you will run past the 14th/15th/16th street area, where if you make a detour to head South you will come upon the Naglee Park area, one of San Jose's most secret abodes, and where the sight of "old money" can still be seen in the gargantuan ivy-walled mansions, whose gates are adorned with lionhead statues, fronting Williams Park as their front yard, and the ever-flowing Coyote Creek as their whispering muse.

Head east again on Santa Clara and soon you will see on your left the Church of the Five Wounds, nearly 100 years in age, built in the classic cathedral style, a reminder of the Portuguese and Brazilian immigrants who made San Jose their home, and a landmark for any 101 drivers heading North past the Alum Rock overpass.

Now keep heading east, and Santa Clara will become Alum Rock, and on your right you will see the Mexican Heritage Cultural Center, with its beautiful Egyptian-inspired papyrus pond. Keep heading east, and the moment you cross White Road, you are in the land of low-slung, low-income homes of the less fortunate, who lives under the shadow of Lick Observatory atop Mount Hamilton. You will now be in the northern section of the much-ballyhoed "East Side San Jo"--which stretches all the way south to Tully Road--that people here talk about quite a bit.

Don't forget to stop by the famous hot dog stand with its little red bomb-shelter design on the corner of Alum Rock and Capitol Avenue, a California architectural landmark, and is still in operation ever since the early 1930's, replete with period-perfect standing tables and massive parking lots for those mid-century years when delivering stuffed buns on skate was all the rage

If you have time, you can continue by driving up Alum Rock, where the homes are married to the hills akin to Seattle's East, and has the most beautiful views of San Jose's valley due to the more extreme sloping of the Alum Rock Hills. Via a right turn onto Mount Hamilton Road, where at the top, you can find Lick Observatory, which once housed the largest telescope in the world, and situated atop the tallest peak in Silicon Valley, where hence after a particularly cold night every winter, will be covered in snow and can be seen from all around San Jose and the South Bay.

Hope you enjoyed it! Just one road is all it takes

[HyphensinCA]

Thank you for these great pics! We are probably moving to San Jose this August from DC so it's great to see what may await us. Makes me less sad about the fact that we can't afford SF and wouldn't want to deal with the long commute it would entail (new job is in Santa Clara).

[Octa]

I just randomly came across this thread and these pics are really nice. I've never been to CA so I didn't know San Jose was a built up city. I thought the area outside of San Francisco was just mostly suburbs.

[FutureCityBoii]

Those pictures are great

[Eng1200]

Hey SJ people, can you help me out by filling out a quick survey about bay area transportation?

[url]https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1SS5xRlMA7KgamnUeo7FQeMW3AP_mEeaEl2VanygLDT0/viewform[/url]

[Vodich]

From Eagle Rock:









City Hall:

[ondys]

Beautiful pictures! I have to go to Eagle rock some day. The view looks fantastic.

[Vodich]

Yeah, it's a pretty nice view from there. The trail going up to Eagle Rock doesn't have any covering though so on a hot day make sure to bring some water.

Found this nice 360 degree view from Eagle Rock on google:
https://www.google.com/maps/views/vi...tch=91&fovy=75

[PhoenixSomeday]

I hope to get to Montalvo in Saratoga this weekend so I can get some views of the valley from its south end.

I grew up and live in Santa Clara, so here's a few things from around here.

The first picture is of the old Kaiser hospital location at Kaiser Dr and Kiely Blvd. After what feels like 2 years of an empty dirt lot and another 6 months of having the entire street torn up and undriveable, they finally started construction on yet more apartments/condos to take up what precious little street parking is left.

The second picture is just across the street at Central Park. These things are always hanging out at this park, generating tons and tons of crap to step on and walk through (come on; a weekly or at least monthly power washing of the fountain area would be nice...). For some reason, they were at the baseball field today and not the fountain.

The third picture is of Saratoga Creek as seen from the southern-most bridge in Central Park. I remember when this creek was filled to the top everyday during the winters of the early 90s when the whole El Niño thing was going on.