You may have read the story over the weekend about struggling downtowns, based on a poll conducted by the Bay Area News Group and Joint Venture Silicon Valley. Seventy-nine percent of the poll respondents said they rarely or never visit downtown San Jose, with 76 percent saying the primary reason was they didn’t “have a reason to visit.”
Let me offer a few suggestions. This past weekend, for example, more than 11,000 people ventured downtown to participate in the Rock N Roll Half-Marathon and its related races, a few thousand were taking in the Little Italy Festival and 49ers fans were at San Pedro Square to watch Sunday’s big victory. That’s not to mention the people who went to San Jose Symphony’s season-opening weekend performance, saw “Bald Sisters” at San Jose Stage or “Toxic” at City Lights or caught the last couple of Broadway San Jose performances of “Hadestown” at the Center for the Performing Arts.
A casual peek inside both the old-school Original Joe’s and newcomer Rollati on Saturday night revealed tables of diners. Just ask the people across the street from Rollati walking through the hoops of the illuminated “Sonic Runway” display at San Jose City Hall.
Sure, you might have favorite dining spots or wine bars at Santana Row or in Campbell, Los Gatos or Willow Glen. Fair enough. But there’s also San Jose Jazz’s Summer Fest and Winter Fest, Cinequest, the Rotary Fourth of July fireworks show, Christmas in the Park, Music in the Park and South First Fridays. Most of the Viva CalleSJ events run through downtown, there’s a big run just about every other month, and there’s also a hockey team called the San Jose Sharks who play at SAP Center, a venue filled some 200 nights a year with sporting events, concerts, monster truck rallies and WWE shows.
Now, it’s true that most of downtown San Jose is a ghost town during the day, with a small percentage of workers returning to offices after COVID-19 — but it’s a much different story at night, especially on weekends. More retail would give people an incentive to visit regularly, too. And yes, one bad encounter downtown with somebody screaming — or doing worse — on a street corner is going to leave a lasting negative impression, as would seeing trash on the streets or boarded up windows. Notably, though, few people in the poll pointed to those as reasons they stay away.
So maybe San Jose’s bigger problem is one of perception and reputation. If a quiet night with Netflix is more your cup of tea, there’s nothing wrong with having that preference. But it doesn’t mean downtown is dead.
HOMETOWN HERO: Sports journalist Marc J. Spears, the senior NBA writer for ESPN’s Black-led media platform Andscape, was honored Saturday with the William Randolph Hearst Award from San Jose State’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the Hammer Theatre Center.
Spears — who graduated from Silver Creek High School and San Jose State — was treated to a nine-minute video compiled by retired SJSU radio/TV Professor Bob Rucker with congratulations from a diverse group of people including Warriors Coach Steve Kerr, jazz musician Branford Marsalis, retired Mercury News columnist Mark Purdy and his mom, Carolyn Spears.
Spears, who was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame this summer, got very emotional talking about the treatment he received after — as a member of the men’s basketball team and a writer for the Spartan Daily at San Jose State — he wrote an article about the lack of Black coaches in college basketball. But the university has been very good to him since those days, he said, and growing up in San Jose helped expand his worldview.
“I very much appreciate the city of San Jose for showing me what a diverse world is. Most people don’t get that opportunity,” said Spears, who described the people of various ethnicities who lived on his street in San Jose. “San Jose is the foundation, San Jose State is the foundation for everything I do now.”
CLOSING TIME: The South Bay is going to be a little less fun this fall. Downtown Campbell arcade bar LvL Up closed its doors Saturday, though it isn’t selling its fantastic array of pinball machines and old-school arcade games in hopes that the space’s next operator embraces the concept.
And S27 Ales owners Lucas and Kathy Szymanowski announced on Facebook that they’ll also be closing down their craft beer operation in San Jose after nearly four years. No big villain to blame here, they said in the post, just the unfortunate combo of rising prices and slumping sales. A final day hasn’t been determined yet, so the couple says fans should check their Facebook and Instagram pages for updates and stop by for a last pint or two.
