San José Civic Plaza

The Rotunda

Though we've gone to downtown San Jose for trade shows, traveling exhibits, and civil ceremonies, we had never visited City Hall.

The buildings were closed last Saturday, and no amount of pleading from a harmless-looking three-generational family, including two small kids, would get us in.

What we could see was impressive--a spacious plaza, office towers, a 110-ft. glass rotunda, and outdoor sculpture. Our nephew, who had started working there in August, promised to give us a tour if we would visit him on a weekday.

However, we weren't impressed by some of the run-down properties a block away from Civic Plaza.

Waterscape has been shut off

Development has been set back because of the coronavirus.

sales taxes in downtown San Jose have plunged 38.5% below their pre-COVID levels, [SJ Director of Development Nanci] Klein said.

“There are areas of the downtown that are really struggling,” Klein said Wednesday during the meeting.

Despite the gloomy statistics, there are hopeful signs of not just recovery but growth. San Jose's shopping malls--admittedly not close to City Hall--are booming. And then there's Google:

Google has proposed the development of a new neighborhood consisting of office buildings, homes, shops, restaurants, entertainment hubs, cultural loops and open spaces where Google could employ up to 25,000 people.

The Downtown West transit village, which would be developed in phases over a period of years, is deemed to be a game changer for San Jose.

Although San Jose suffers from the same homelessness and crime problems as the famous city to the north, San Jose has much less red tape, more can-doism, and more tech-infused energy than San Francisco. If they were stocks, I'd rather put my money on San Jose.