Apartments in SV area with MANY walkable options?

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by sonarrat

San Jose is an old cow town that only recently decided it wanted to be a city. Most of the "downtown" area in the numbered streets doesn't really resemble a downtown; it's just a denser form of urban sprawl with some odd businesses catering to the low-income crowd along Santa Clara St, some catering to the SCU and SJSU students closer to First Street, and some going after the Sharks crowd near the train station. It's a commuter's downtown, if that makes any sense. If you want to live in a downtown, you want San Francisco.

I think you're being a little harsh here. Since I live downtown, I admit to being biased

If you live in Downtown SJ you can walk to the following:

--a major library
--a cute urban Safeway
--movie theater
--a theater for plays/concerts (San Jose Rep. & Calfornia Theater)
--a university campus with a swimming pool open to the public
--convenient access to SJ airport via light rail and bus connection (no need to ask friends for rides to the airport!)
--bars & clubs if you're into that sort of thing
--regular events at Plaza de Cesar Chavez (such as Music in the Park on Thursday nights during the summer)
--Tech Musem with Imax Theater inside
--San Jose Museum of Art
--plenty of restaurants....high end, low end, and in the middle.
--a nice Catholic Church
--2 Starbucks and a coffee place at the library.

Not quite walkable (at least not a short walk unless you live on the west side of downtown) are the CalTrain station and HP Pavilion.

They've also built a lot of new residential high rises downtown. Sales have been slow because of the bad economy, but they are selling.

As far as apartment vacancies downtown....typically the vacancy rate is low and the rents are high for what you're getting because San Jose State students want to live close to campus...as well as the fact that downtown SJ is becoming a more desirable location.

The one thing the downtown lacks is decent retail shopping (other than the Safeway, the Walgreens, and a newly opened Ross clothing store).

Is it San Francisco? Definitely not. There's not as much to do and it doesn't have anywhere near the same level of buzz. And the stuff there is to do in San Jose isn't "world class". But it's also not as crowded, not as cold, and not as dirty. There are not as many homeless people, and it's not as expensive (as SF, Mountain View, or Palo Alto...not sure about Campbell).

Campbell, Mountain View, & Palo Alto also have cute downtowns. In some ways they're cleaner and nicer than SJ. But also smaller, with less to do and less urban.

[gone down south]

Originally Posted by mysticaltyger

I think you're being a little harsh here. Since I live downtown, I admit to being biased

If you live in Downtown SJ you can walk to the following:

--a major library
--a cute urban Safeway
--movie theater
--a theater for plays/concerts (San Jose Rep. & Calfornia Theater)
--a university campus with a swimming pool open to the public
--convenient access to SJ airport via light rail and bus connection (no need to ask friends for rides to the airport!)
--bars & clubs if you're into that sort of thing
--regular events at Plaza de Cesar Chavez (such as Music in the Park on Thursday nights during the summer)
--Tech Musem with Imax Theater inside
--San Jose Museum of Art
--plenty of restaurants....high end, low end, and in the middle.
--a nice Catholic Church
--2 Starbucks and a coffee place at the library.
.

No offense, but you just described pretty much every small-time cow-town 3-block long "Main Street" in America. 2 whole Starbucks???? Golly Gee!

Anyways, the original argument stands, that San Jose is at this point still a glorified suburb.

[krudmonk]

Originally Posted by gone down south

No offense, but you just described pretty much every small-time cow-town 3-block long "Main Street" in America. 2 whole Starbucks???? Golly Gee!

Anyways, the original argument stands, that San Jose is at this point still a glorified suburb.

Um, nope. If you think that describes most towns, you haven't traveled.

EDIT: I see most of your posts are in the Frisco forum. Comment explained.

[gone down south]

Originally Posted by krudmonk

Um, nope. If you think that describes most towns, you haven't traveled.

EDIT: I see most of your posts are in the Frisco forum. Comment explained.

Been here less than a year, lived all over the East Coast in Canada and the U.S., and I still think San Jose is 3 blocks of faux downtown surrounded by endless crappy suburbs. Sorry.

[sonarrat]

Originally Posted by gone down south

Been here less than a year, lived all over the East Coast in Canada and the U.S., and I still think San Jose is 3 blocks of faux downtown surrounded by endless crappy suburbs. Sorry.

And I went to SJSU, which is right in the tepid "heart" of downtown, so I know of whence I speak. After dark most students just went home. That should tell you a lot.

[krudmonk]

Originally Posted by gone down south

Been here less than a year, lived all over the East Coast in Canada and the U.S., and I still think San Jose is 3 blocks of faux downtown surrounded by endless crappy suburbs. Sorry.

So what's "faux" about it? New buildings? Which three blocks are you even counting? Only Almaden Boulevard fits your glib description. Sounds like you're running with fifth-hand generalizations.

Originally Posted by sonarrat

And I went to SJSU, which is right in the tepid "heart" of downtown, so I know of whence I speak. After dark most students just went home. That should tell you a lot.

I live up near Backesto Park and I see students all the time. There are 30,000 of them and you're painting them all as the ones who followed you to the parking lot at the end of the day. I went to Davis and knew kids that commuted from Woodland and Winters, so what does that say of that school? Absolutely nothing.

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by sonarrat

And I went to SJSU, which is right in the tepid "heart" of downtown, so I know of whence I speak. After dark most students just went home. That should tell you a lot.

Sheesh. You & gonedownsouth are harsh.

If you don't want to live in SF (and I already admitted we're not in the same league as SF), it's still the best downtown in SV.

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by sonarrat

After dark most students just went home.

A little thing called studying. Also, historically a commuter school, but the new on-campus housing has helped attract more students to stay there.

And there are plenty of students all over downtown in restaurants, clubs and bars virtually any night of the week...presumably after having done the night's classwork.

HP Pavilion, btw, is always visited by a large crowd walking from downtown to a show or Sharks game. Which may well be joined in close proximity by Cisco Field, the A's new downtown stadium. SJ ain't SF, but it ain't dead, either.

[mysticaltyger]

Originally Posted by bigdumbgod

A little thing called studying. Also, historically a commuter school, but the new on-campus housing has helped attract more students to stay there.

And there are plenty of students all over downtown in restaurants, clubs and bars virtually any night of the week...presumably after having done the night's classwork.

HP Pavilion, btw, is always visited by a large crowd walking from downtown to a show or Sharks game. Which may well be joined in close proximity by Cisco Field, the A's new downtown stadium. SJ ain't SF, but it ain't dead, either.

Sonarrat is judging things by the way they used to be when he was in college. Although it's true, downtown SJ doesn't have a big city vibe, it's not as sleepy/boring as he makes it out to be.