Note: I originally wrote this document (titled – Living Downtown San Jose) in 2016 when I worked at Netflix for the benefit of my fellow co-workers. I wanted to encourage people relocating to the Bay Area to consider living in San Jose. I am reproducing here with some updates for your enjoyment.
Many Netflix employees want to live in an exciting urban environment. For many, the obvious choice is to live in San Francisco. It is a city with international recognition that many new employees feel comfortable choosing when relocating to the Bay Area. Netflix offers shuttle service to San Francisco. It seems like the obvious choice to make.
However, just 10 miles northeast of Netflix headquarters is Downtown San Jose with many urban qualities that may get overlooked.
Commute Time
But first, let’s talk about commute time. The commute from downtown San Jose is about 11 miles and driving usually takes about 20 minutes in the morning. It’s about 40 minutes in the evening. For the more health oriented people, it is a 45min bike ride where about 5 of the 9 miles are on the scenic Los Gatos Creek Trail.
By Jean-Marie White
Unfortunately, there is no efficient public transportation available, but an Uber ride is about $25.
Citybuilding in San Jose
San Jose is betting big on its downtown and lots of people want to be part of it. There are many residential projects in the pipeline, with the latest MIRO towers setting a new level of luxury.
From Steinberg Hart website
Current Best Bets
The area around San Pedro Square Market has emerged as a vibrant neighborhood over the last 10 years. San Pedro Square Market boasts around 20 vendors (food counters, barber shop, bars, restaurants, …) and is next to many more restaurants and bars. It becomes extremely active on game nights when the San Jose Sharks play at the SAP center. There is also a shuttle to Paypal Park making it easy for soccer fans to catch the San Jose Earthquakes in action.
By Jean-Marie White
The better addresses are:
The Paseo is an area tucked between San Jose State University and the Signia Hotel and KQED building. It has many restaurants and coffee shops. For those who love coffee, downtown San Jose is home to several third-wave coffee shops: Philz, Voltaire, A.M. Craft, Nirvana, Voyager and Academic Coffee.
By Jean-Marie White
The better addresses are:
SOFA, short for South First Art District has many music venues, clubs, bars, art galleries, restaurants and the gorgeous California Theatre that hosts Opera San José, Symphony San Jose and many more events. It’s home to the monthly art gallery crawl – South First Fridays. The evening often includes live music and food in the streets. The funky neighborhood also hosts a greater density of live music venues than nearly any place in the Bay Area, including San Francisco. The clubs draw everything from nationally known swing bands to local punk and upcoming djs.
The better addresses are:
San Jose Japantown is a delightful urban village with many restaurants, bars, coffee shops, a buddhist church and food market. It hosts many events throughout the year: artwalk, sakewalk, beerwalk, Obon Festival, a year-round Sunday farmers’ market, … It’s a very family-friendly neighborhood with daycares, a community center and more.
Restaurants
Downtown San Jose has more than 200 dining options. Some of my favorites are:
- SOFA Market – Mexican, Cuban, pizza, sandwiches, coffee, gelato, bar, … and San Pedro Square Market
- Scott’s Seafood – Fantastic seafood
- Olla Cocina – Mexican
- District – Loungy/trendy
- Farmers Union – New American
- SP2 – Communal dining
- Orchestria Palm Court – if you have never seen an orchestrion, you need to check it out. And the food is always delicious.
- La Vic – Famous San Jose taqueria with several locations.
- Teske’s – German
- Elyse – Wonderful French-Vietnamese restaurant
- Il Fornaio – Italian restaurant
- Original Joe’s – Italian American restaurant
- Rollati Ristorante – Modern Italian
- Sushi Confidential – Japanese
- The Garage – This is a Naglee Park neighborhood haunt. This is where neighbors come to meet each other and sit at communal tables to catch up.
Gyms
- Westca (West Coast Aesthetics) – a boutique gym right downtown that has created an amazing community that goes above and beyond.
- SJSU Spartan Recreation – State of the art facility right on San Jose State campus.
- Orange Theory Fitness – several locations downtown
Public Transit
Downtown is well-connected to the following transit systems:
- Caltrain – about 55min baby bullet train ride to San Francisco
- BART (from Berryessa) – About 60min to San Francisco
- VTA Light Rail – covers many areas of San Jose
- Other trains – the Altamont Express gets you to the east. Amtrak’s Capitol Corridor and Coastal Starlight lines get you almost anywhere in the state and beyond.
Downtown is also a short walk to Diridon Station, which will become the busiest train station west of the Mississippi and the first high-speed rail station in the country within the next 10 years.
Bike Share – Participate in the Sharing Economy
Downtown San Jose is served by BayWheels (Lyft). It’s a fun way to expand your entertainment reach. Use your phone to unlock.
Scooters!
Since 2018, San Jose has Lime and Bird scooters. There are other companies trying to get in the action as well. Scooters are a very cheap and efficient way to move around downtown. But best of all, they are fun! Look here for more micro-mobility options.
SJC – Mineta San Jose International Airport
Getting to SJC from downtown is a 10 minute drive. But for anything more than a day trip, use Uber or Lyft. The one-way ride will set you back $20 and will more than offset the parking fee. Southwest offers the bulk of SJC flights.
Trails
Downtown is directly connected to the Guadalupe River Trail. It is a recently upgraded trail that goes all the way to Alviso and makes for great weekend exercise (about 10 miles). From there you can catch the Bay Trail to extend your ride to Palo Alto or beyond.
To get to Netflix from Downtown, you would go through Willow Glen and get on the Los Gatos Creek Trail (about 8 miles to Netflix).
Entertainment
Downtown San Jose has several large entertainment venues:
- SAP Center – home of the San Jose Sharks and host to many world-class shows throughout the year.
- Center for the Performing Arts – Home to Broadway San Jose which brings national tours like PHANTOM, WICKED and BOOK OF MORMON.
- California Theatre – Home to Opera San José and Symphony San Jose.
- San Jose Civic – a 3,000 seat concert venue featuring headline entertainment
- Montgomery Theater – Home to Children’s Musical Theater San Jose and small national touring shows
And smaller intimate theaters. My favorites are:
There are also many clubs and bars. Some of my favorites are:
- The Continental
- Mama Kin
- The Hedley Club
- Haberdasher
- Paper Plane
- Five Points
- ISO Beers
- 55 South
- Camino Brewing Co
- Splash
Parks
- Plaza de Cesar Chavez Park – this park hosts some of the best San Jose events: Christmas in the Park, San Jose Jazz Summerfest, Music in Park’s summer music concerts, etc…
- St James Park is a downtown park that is benefiting from renewed, focused attention and the urban growth. Already a place for free lunchtime yoga in the summer, the city is launching a new competition to redesign the park and a community-led effort is working to bring over 50 concerts a year at a Levitt Pavilion.
- Guadalupe River Park & Gardens – 3 miles of parks and gardens that hosts the Children’s Discovery Museum, tennis courts, playgrounds, bike trails, public art, community garden, historic rose garden and orchards, the Rotary Play Garden and more.
San Jose State University
The SJSU campus borders downtown San Jose. It is an urban campus with large pathways that can be used for walking or running. It hosts the Martin Luther King Library, which is also part of the city’s library program and is open to the public, guest speakers, music, sporting and community events.
Recurring Events
South First Fridays Art Walk
During summer months, an Art Walk animates the first Friday of the month in the SoFA (South First Art) District.
San Jose Jazz
San Jose Jazz is a non-profit organization that promotes Jazz education year round. It hosts many concerts throughout the year, including home concerts, but the highlight is the SummerFest. It’s a weekend long event filled with shows and concerts at various venues downtown San Jose. It includes Jazz, Latin, Blues, Funk, R&B, Salsa, New Orlean Jazz and World music.
Viva Calle
Viva Calle is an event that temporarily closes miles of San Jose streets to bring communities together to walk, bike, skate, play, and explore the city. This event takes inspiration from Ciclovia that originated in Columbia.
Christmas in the Park and Downtown Ice
An outdoor Christmas event that takes place at Plaza de Cesar Chavez Park that features hundreds of Christmas trees and many related events including a 5K fun run. An public outdoor rink encircling palms trees is just across the street.
Cinequest
Cinequest is an independent film festival that takes place at various venues downtown in the winter.
Public Artwork
Downtown San Jose contains many pieces of public artwork.
Music in the Park
Every year the San Jose Downtown Association puts on affordable concerts with big-name acts. Tickets are $10 to $15. Past shows have included Flogging Molly, Ozomatli and more.
More Events
Find out more about San Jose events at the Content Magazine. Stay current on upcoming weekend picks by following @ContentMag and #ContentExplore and #ContentPick on Twitter and Instagram.
More Neighborhoods
Just outside of downtown are several historical neighborhoods that boast great communities. All very walkable and a 20min walk to downtown.
Naglee Park
This is my neighborhood! Naglee Park has several architectural styles (Spanish Revival, New Colonial, Jazz, Craftsman). But one of its most endearing attributes is its incredible sense of community. There’s a 4th of July parade, a National Night Out where neighbors come together to mingle, Bark in the Park, Open Studios, Neighborhood Christmas parties (many of them).
Hensley Historic District
Hensley boasts many Victorian houses. Proud owners painstakingly restore those elegant homes back to their original splendor.
Interestingly, San Jose allows residents to raise chickens (but not roosters) in the city. Imagine harvesting your own eggs, growing your own fruits and vegetables all the while just a few minutes away from great sushi in Japantown.
Rose Garden and Shasta Hanchett Park
Just a few miles west of downtown, the Rose Garden area and Shasta Hanchett Park boasts beautiful arts & crafts and Spanish revival homes.
Saint Leo’s
This neighborhood has incredible access to the Diridon station, Whole Foods, great restaurants on The Alameda and downtown.
Willow Glen
Willow Glen is a beautiful neighborhood and vibrant community, just 5 minutes by car from downtown San Jose. It has walkable, tree-lined streets, diverse architecture and a historic downtown area with many shops and restaurants. The Willow Glen Professional and Business Association sponsors the Dancin’ on the Avenue street party on Lincoln Avenue between Willow and Minnesota once a year and there are also wine walks, parades, classic car shows and numerous other events throughout the year. Willow Glen also has several very good public schools — including two of the San Jose Unified School District’s magnet schools (Hammer Montessori Elementary and River Glen Bilingual Elementary — and an active parent community. (There are also private school options.) There are several large parks, as well as numerous sports leagues, an excellent library and other activities for children. Housing options include apartments, condos and single family homes in many different architectural styles. The Los Gatos Creek Trail runs right through Willow Glen.
Train Ride to San Francisco
Instead of stressing out on 280 or 101 driving to San Francisco, you can enjoy a carefree train ride on Caltrain. Diridon station is a few minutes walk from downtown and has a train departing for San Francisco every hour on weekends.
Nearby
Santana Row and Westfield Valley Fair
Santana Row and Westfield Valley Fair boast great shopping and dining. It will be served by the Rapid 523 VTA bus service that will go in service when the Berryessa BART station opens in late 2019/early 2020.
Climate
San Jose weather is very simple to describe. You get perfectly blue sunny skies from May to October. Some people find that boring, but I love it and enjoy the about 10 degrees warmer temperature than in San Francisco. In the winter time, you get fewer rainy days and the fog lifts much earlier in the morning than in San Francisco.
Gay Life
My personal experience of “gay life” in the last 20 years has changed a lot and the line between “gay life” and simply “life” is blurring. I run into my gay friends at bars (gay or otherwise) downtown all the time. But there are gay-specific bars and events that are worth mentioning:
- Liquid Therapy takes place the first Friday of the month and is a social networking event (mostly men attend)
- There are 3 popular gay bars: Splash, Renegades and Mac’s Club
- Silicon Valley Pride – in addition to the annual Pride event in August, SV Pride programs year round events like drag brunches and mixers. The SV Pride events are very inclusive and including people from all genders.
Gay life in San Jose can be described as more “domestic” than San Francisco’s – I have many married friends who are raising kids in my neighborhood. Another difference with San Francisco is that a lot more of gay life takes place at private parties in people’s homes. Integrating into gay social networks is definitely more important in San Jose.
Last But Not Least
What I described above contributes to someone’s quality of life. But an important aspect of someone’s happiness relates to one’s sense of community belonging. San Jose is extremely diverse and I have experienced a city where one can get engaged at various degrees – from attending a neighborhood annual holiday party, to joining a community working group focused on urban villages or bringing BART to San Jose, to joining a city commission. In a good way, downtown San Jose can feel like a small town where it is easy to network, make friends, contribute to the welfare of the city, create that sense of belonging yet enjoy all the benefits of living in a large Western US city. See what else is brewing in San Jose.
Acknowledgements
I want to thank the many people who provided feedback on this document:
- Leslie Griffy, independent journalist
- Ryan Sebastian, owner of Treatbot, Moveable Feast, ED @ Public Space Authority
- Jenny Niklaus, VP of Innovation Networks at American Leadership Forum
- Laura Tolkoff, San Jose Policy Director, SPUR
- Blage Zelalich, City of San Jose Downtown Manager
- Jessica Garcia-Kohl, Koine Strategies, Principal
- James P. Reber, ED @ San Jose Parks Foundation
- Kyra Kazantzis, Directing Attorney @ the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley
- Jessica Zenk, Division Manager, Transportation Policy
- Daniel Garcia, Cultivator @ Content Magazine
- Nanci Williams, General Manager @ Broadway San Jose
- Joshua Barousse, Council Assistant @ Office of Councilmember Ash Kalra
- Lydia Guel, Director of Community Development @ Sacred Heart Community Service
- Adam Mayberry, co-founder @ Mayberry Workshop
- Chris Neale, VP @ The Core Companies
- Jacky Morales-Ferrand, Director of House @ City of San Jose
- Suzanne Wolf, Deputy Director, Parks & Recreation @ City of San Jose
- Laura Chmielewski, VP Marketing and Communications @ Team San Jose
- Jennifer DeForest, Marketing Project Manager @ Team San Jose
- Susan Ellenberg, Senior Director for Community Development, San Jose Chamber Foundation
- Bryan Rodriguez, HR @ Yu-Ai Kai Japanese American Community Senior Service of San Jose
- Anne Loomis, Technical Program Manager @ Netflix
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