Silicon Valley city centers

[izard]

I have not been to San Jose city center for almost 20 years. Now as I come to Cupertino quite often, and San Jose is just few minutes away...


I was surprised to discover the European feel of it. The pic above looks like a street in Barcelona!

Such a contrast with Cupertino city center.

I can imagine these buildings somewhere in European city, with cafes and stores on ground floor and nice courts. However, I bet it is made of sticks like most US homes, and you can hear neighbors from above, below, left and right in every apartment. The street is too wide and is not convenient for pedestrians so must be tough to own one of the ground floor cafes...

Comments

[juan_gandhi]

With mayor Sam Licardo the changes came to San Jose. New buildings, etc. That was happening, of course, before Covid; now sure what would be going on now that people still prefer to work from home. But if you remember the landscape seen5 20 years ago from hwy 8 and now - a lot of differences.

[izard]

I remember just how it felt back then - US suburbia and tiny soulless downtown. Not any more!

[juan_gandhi]

Ok, you have to carefully choose time to show up in downtown San Jose after dark. One day it's totally empty, and who knows whom you bump into (when I was riding my bicycle, I had a pepper spray ready, to get rid of bums on the road); another day (some Saturdays) - a lot of life, music, people, artists' studios, everything. Ok, maybe San Pedro square is ok every weekend. But not the rest of SJ.

[izard]

Last week I walked from downtown San Jose to the airport following a bike trail. There were homeless tents all the way but I did not feel any tension/aggressiveness, just noticed several drug users who were obviously high.

[juan_gandhi]

I stopped using that bike trail, because of tents and shit. Aggressiveness does not happen every time, it's just random. Before, it was my favorite one. Used it to ride to Google.