For a big city, why is San Jose so boring? (San Diego: earthquakes, price)

[cardinal2007]

Originally Posted by BayAreaHillbilly

Downtown San Mateo is within reach of giving Downtown SJ a run for its money. Downtown Redwood City is a work in progress but could end up being pretty amazing some day.

Well that's a crazy exaggeration, Downtown San Mateo had less going on than DTSJ 5 years ago, and since then DTSJ has had a ton of stuff appear, including a lot of new highrises. Downtown San Mateo is practically the same, I used to go there all the time when I lived in Belmont.

Downtown Redwood City is working on removing the "deadwood city" badge, but it is not really there quite yet. But it is certainly growing and getting more restaurants, shops, etc, can't say the same for downtown San Mateo.

Neither of those has a pro sport arena, several theaters and a arts district, a convention center, a park with many events a year, DTSJ has that (and granted some holes in between that are slowly being filled in). DTSJ is growing so Downtown San Mateo is not, it will just never catch up.

Where will I catch a comics convention, a seasonal ice rink, a musical like Book of Mormon, a pro hockey game, art walk, a film festival and a rooftop restaurant in downtown San Mateo? It is a nice downtown, but seriously nothing like DTSJ.

[bobby_guz_man]

Originally Posted by BayAreaHillbilly

Size vs energy levels, etc.

Look, I spend plenty of time in downtown SJ.

Some of the criticisms regarding its scene (or weakness thereof) are well founded.

Don't take all this so freakin' personally.

It would be good if SJ become less boring (at least for those of us who are not introverted engineers who are all into hiding in houses with immediate family).

Size? Energy levels? Are you serious? Of course there are criticisms about Downtown, but to compare San Mateo downtown with about 8 blocks to a 200-block-grid of Downtown San Jose is asinine.

It takes me 5 minutes to walk end to end in San Mateo Downtown. It takes me 20 minutes to walk end to end in SJ Downtown. There are more people at a Sharks game even now than there are people in San Mateo put together for an entire week.

It's not personal. It's about straightening out the idiots when I see them.

[bobby_guz_man]

Originally Posted by BayAreaHillbilly

I was referring to the initial conditions prior to SJ transforming from a cross roads ag processing center into an edge city.

That "edge" city is currently the largest city north of LA and west of Phoenix. And it's only growing bigger. You can remove that "edge" part out of it now and just stick with "city", whatever the hell that means.

And get with the time man. Oakland has been irrelevant since before I was born. How long you been hiding under that rock?

[Radical347]

Originally Posted by BayAreaHillbilly

Downtown San Mateo is within reach of giving Downtown SJ a run for its money. Downtown Redwood City is a work in progress but could end up being pretty amazing some day.

I work in DT San Mateo and love it, but it is NOT on the same playing field as DTSJ and never will be. DTSM is cute, clean, and convenient. There are plenty of restaurants that are great to go to for lunch, a bunch of specialty shops, a couple of wine bars, about a gazillion bubble tea parlors, and a theater. All the storefronts are side by side. I'll give you that most of the buildings have a 2nd or in some cases 3rd floor with limited office and/or residential, but you don't see them walking around in the daytime. If anything, it's nighttime when it's busy because people are home from work and dining or buying chocolates. It's essentially an outdoor shopping mall. There are no hotels downtown, let alone within reasonable walking distance (the closest one is a sleazy dive on El Camino & 17th), no performing arts, no stadium, no convention center (again, the SM Event Center, while not horribly far, is a little ways beyond reasonable walking distance, and yet not that easy to get to from downtown on transit.) DTSM is very well managed, but it has no room to expand out, no space for infill and no aspirations to build up. It's essentially maxed out and within reach of nothing.

DTRWC on the other hand, I agree is a work in progress but could be amazing someday.

[cardinal2007]

Originally Posted by Radical347

I work in DT San Mateo and love it, but it is NOT on the same playing field as DTSJ and never will be. DTSM is cute, clean, and convenient. There are plenty of restaurants that are great to go to for lunch, a bunch of specialty shops, a couple of wine bars, about a gazillion bubble tea parlors, and a theater. All the storefronts are side by side. I'll give you that most of the buildings have a 2nd or in some cases 3rd floor with limited office and/or residential, but you don't see them walking around in the daytime. If anything, it's nighttime when it's busy because people are home from work and dining or buying chocolates. It's essentially an outdoor shopping mall. There are no hotels downtown, let alone within reasonable walking distance (the closest one is a sleazy dive on El Camino & 17th), no performing arts, no stadium, no convention center (again, the SM Event Center, while not horribly far, is a little ways beyond reasonable walking distance, and yet not that easy to get to from downtown on transit.) DTSM is very well managed, but it has no room to expand out, no space for infill and no aspirations to build up. It's essentially maxed out and within reach of nothing.

DTRWC on the other hand, I agree is a work in progress but could be amazing someday.

Redwood City did a lot to basically make zoning rules for downtown and expedite the approval process. The Silicon Valley Business Journal had an article on how some people are complaining about all the new construction. San Jose should do something like that, it seems like it takes at least 2-3 years from when a proposal if first made until it is done. RWC could become the big player in the peninsula, taking Palo Alto's thunder, since Palo Alto, and Menlo Park are saying no to more office space downtown, Mt. View is growing slowly, and San Mateo, and Burlingame are not growing at all downtown.

I'm serious, if DT RWC continues building office space, and those come with walkable, welcoming ground level retail then it could become the go to location for startups starting out.

[Conrad Gray]

I really don't understand why downtown SJ doesn't have a bustling tech scene. It's got a handful of startups you can count with your fingers, a few clanking dinosaurs (Adobe, Acer), etc. All of the big tech companies in SJ are up in N. San Jose near Santa Clara.

[bobby_guz_man]

Originally Posted by Conrad Gray

I really don't understand why downtown SJ doesn't have a bustling tech scene. It's got a handful of startups you can count with your fingers, a few clanking dinosaurs (Adobe, Acer), etc. All of the big tech companies in SJ are up in N. San Jose near Santa Clara.

Floor space issue. Most tech companies want 35,000 to 40,000 sq ft floor plate.

SF is a special case, and mind you, tech passed over SF for the last 40 odd years. It's only happening now in SF because the workers finally wanted to live in more urban environment, and SF is seeing a resurgence.

I was there in SF during the dot com boom, and even back then the tech companies were housed in low-slung and mid-rise office buildings with larger floor plates than the high-rises offer. It's true even now I believe, with the rise of SOMA. Being that SOMA is close to Downtown SF, you can say that the effects of SOMA bleeds into Downtown SF in a way that North San Jose could not bleed into Downtown SJ.

One other thing: You can't count the tech companies in Downtown with your fingers--there're about 100 of them the last count came out last year

One more other thing: Adobe is definitely not a clanking "dinosaur". They're one of the first old-schoolers to embrace the "cloud" successfully and adapted very quickly with the changing times, making great profits along the way.

[bobby_guz_man]

One other thing, I remembered you complaining about sports teams in San Jose.

San Jose currently has 2 sports teams from the Big 5. San Francisco has 1. Oakland has 3. Santa Clara has 1.

The reason why San Jose doesn't have a baseball team is well-documented. The San Francisco Va-ginats are cockblocking the A's move to San Jose. Nothing else needed to be said.

San Jose would have had a basketball team if Larry Ellison had got his way and acquired the Memphis Grizzlies a few years back. The plan was to buy the Grizz and move them into SAP Center (at the time still called HP Pavillion). That was nixed by the Grizz's owner who wanted the team to stay local.

Guess who ended up buying the Grizz? Some guy who runs a company called Ubiquity Networks, from San Jose LOL, you can't make this up. The team is still there in Memphis because of the lease on the arena, but the owner is very young and I definitely see him making a move after another 10 years, by then the lease should be cheaper to buy off. He may very well move the team back to his hometown here in San Jose.

The 9ers are nearly San Jose's defacto football team, though the name says San Francisco and the stadium sits in Santa Clara.
Draft bash? San Pedro Square Market in Downtown SJ.
Where do the players and coaches live? Mostly in San Jose's Santana Row, Willow Glen, Rose Garden, and Alum Rock Hills.
Where will the AFC team for this Super Bowl be staying? Downtown SJ's Fairmont.
Where will the the AFC team for this Super Bowl practicing? Spartan Stadium south of Downtown SJ.
Where will Media Night, considered the best entertainment besides the Game itself, take place? SAP Center in Downtown SJ.


In a perfect world, the Warriors will move to SF in a few years, the Raiders will get a new stadium in Oakland, and the A's will be allowed to move to San Jose due to the Raiders' stadium construction.

SF will then have 2 teams, San Jose will have 3 teams, and Oakland will have 1 team. SF and SJ will share the 9ers together.

[Ultrarunner]

Oakland has always been a big league city when it comes to sports franchises... Oakland and Alameda County residents have paid and continue to pay for the privilege...

When the Raiders moved South... every prominent figure in the sports world said the Raiders would NEVER return to Oakland... now we know NEVER is measured in years.

Oakland is truly amazing with a population of a little over 400k... Baseball, Football, Hockey, Basketball, Roller Derby franchises have all called Oakland home and part of that is because of geography combined with excellent weather and the variety of transportation available.

Writing as a fourth generation Oaklander that happened to be born in San Jose...

[high bowler]

Isn't Downtown San Jose similar to Downtown San Diego with San Pedro sq. being the nightlife spot for Downtown San Jose and Gaslamp District being the nightlife spot for San Diego? I take that San Diego has more neighborhoods with things to do than San Jose. Beside, where do people really hang out in San Jose? In Seattle, they hang out in Fremont/Ballard and Capitol Hill. In LA, they hang out in Silver Lake, West Hollywood and Hollywood. I went to San Jose, and asked myself, "where do people hang out in this city?" I can see why San Jose is a boring city since it's so spread out. Fill me in.