Friday night ended up being “Girls Night Out,” so we decided to go grab dinner and drinks in Santana Row for a change. And, I gotta say, it’s always a big change. Every time I visit Santana Row I wonder: what is it about this suburban mini-mall that has the secret formula that downtown cannot figure out?
It is amazing to me not only that Santana Row is where it is, but that it’s as popular as it is. It’s a totally manufactured, man-made fantasy town. It’s as if the characters from “It’s a Small World” are going to pop out from behind a bush, or a movie director will jump out and say “Cut! Time for lunch, 30 minutes!” on his “standard-town” movie set.
It’s not that Santana Row isn’t fun, because it is. What boggles the mind is that it attracts people who would never set foot in downtown San Jose. I have a co-worker who grew up on the Peninsula a “650” snob who finds herself now living in Santa Clara. When I asked her if she ever went out in San Jose, her response was, “San Jose? Isn’t that kind of sleazy?” But she spends every weekend in Santana Row, so there is some magic formula they have bottled that works. To her it’s safe and predictable. And maybe the place that looks like a movie set makes people actually feel they are somewhere else besides San Jose—and that is what most people want. With that logic, if the next mayor wants to make their mark on our city, he or she should make it their top priority to make “fake towns” all over San Jose, and stop trying to make things so original and diverse.
Unfortunately, that seems to be what the people want.
Some of the secrets are not so secret. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has understood how to revitalize commercial districts for about a quarter-century. Malls (including Santana Row) can be coordinated, packaged, and presented in ways that downtowns traditionally weren’t. But if a city focuses on its strengths in a comprehensive way, the Trust recommends a four-point approach including “organization, promotion, design, and economic restructuring”, it can be a successful competitor. Here’s a link:
http://www.mainstreet.org/content.aspx?page=47§ion=2
Free parking, 24/7, no ands, ifs or buts.
Pull up the Downtown SJ signs and move them to Santana Row. Rename Downtown “Old Town” and leave it alone.
I guess if you’re planning on staying there all night it’s Ok, but the traffic getting there is horrible. Free parking is, of course, good but no sure how someone can care about paying 6 dollars for parking when the pay 8 dollars for a drink. who cares!
Phoa Hoa is absolutely right. FREE PARKING!
Parking close to shopping! Valley Fair, Santana Row, Eastridge are all easy to access and the parking is FREE
Another advantage Santana Row has over Downtown SJ is that it is safer. I don’t mind downtown myself, but there’s an anxiety factor when I bring my kids there.
Aesthetically, Santana Row has reached “critical mass”—you can stroll past lots of interesting businesses in a short walk. Downtown, the viable businesses are more spread out, and you have to walk by the boarded-up businesses, pawn shops, etc.
I have not been at this site long but it seems to me that maybe Single Gal is a public relations agent for Santana Row. This is at least the second time I’ve heard from her (I suppose) on this subject since I signed on.
Now I will say that its been a long time since I was in the after work “stop by for a few drinks” crowd but while working downtown I could find a lot of spots to visit. I could also go to Los Gatos or Sunnyvale or even Palo Alto and find some great places to get plowed.
I guess though that I’m to old to be impressed by new places to drink. So I’ll give it to ya’ Single Gal go get it where you can and where you feel comfortable.
As for me, I’ll sit in front of my fireplace, read as good book and down a couple of single malt Scotchs. No taxi fares, no DUI fears… any more.
you can thank the people of East Side San Jose.
To me, Santana Row is like a fake fantasy. I feel like I just went to Disney Land. The thing that I like about Santana Row is the livelyness and vibrancy.
I still love downtown the best. I was there the otherday to see the closing of downtown ice, and there seemed to be quite a few people there to watch Cirque de Soleil’s 5 minute preview.
People seem to like San Francisco and New York even though they’re dumps. Probablly cuz their is alot of stuff to do in those cities, they over look the dumpy part.
Does it seem to you that downtown feels a little discombobulated and in need of a unifying theme? Me too.
So let’s use our Quetzie as the common thread that ties our disparate downtown parts together.
– start with the new CH and rename the council chambers the “Quetzie chambers” – where Sacrifices of Virgin Tax Dollars by the High Priests and Priestesses of San Jose occur weekly!
– show your downtown loyalty by getting some Quetzie ink done at a local tattoo establishment
– screw mooncakes, true downtown loyalists want Quetzie shaped donuts from Lou’s
– Spaghetti Factory features a plate of Quetzie-ghetti, pasta that’s swirled up into a serpentine shape along with a refreshing Quetzie-cola
– have a Quetzie mascot that leads the holiday parade and participates in ribbon cuttings, etc.
– dedicate Friday’s at the IMAX to screenings of movies about Aztecs and snakes.
My prediction? Once this plan is pressed into action – it won’t be long before Santana Row will come crawling, scratch that, will come slithering begging to be linked to downtown SJ.
I have yet to hear anyone tell me that they’ve had a really great meal at any of Santana Row’s restaurants. The prices are high, the decor trendy…but the quality seems to come up short.
#9, #11, you are right.
Santana Row is manufactured and fake; it is consolidated and crowded; and the word ‘quality’ doesn’t stand past the trendy label names.
Yet despite all of this, which any ‘self-respecting downtowner’ vehemently abhors; Santana Row is bustling, energetic and, most of all, successful.
It may be hard to understand, but people today like pre-packaged and sanitized. They like the idea of an ‘up-town’ that is downtown. But mostly they like the percieved safety all these ritzy businesses and bars provide.
If a t-shirt costs $30 in Santana Row (do they even sell T-shirts?!) and dinner is $40 a plate, people think the ‘riffraff’ unable to afford the steep prices will stay away. So, Santana Row becomes a safe haven away from downtown.
However, I believe the most significant aspect that makes Santana Row so successful is it’s structure. Downtown could learn a lot by taking notes on this one.
To have a string of businesses, service and otherwise, right next to each other lining the street is what makes it so enjoyable. Yes Santana Row is small; but the layout is ideal. People can walk the street and shop while waiting for a table and not have to go beyond the range of that little restaurant pager. Seems trite, but it is nice.
When you go to downtown, you go to one spot. Going from San Carlos to San Fernando or Santa Clara while waiting for a table is just too far. Plus, why would I want to walk the streets there? Nothig but government buildings, hotels and high rises.
Maybe it doesn’t have to be so ‘Disney’, but downtown would be wise to structure itself after the streets of Paris or New Orleans. The mix of residents, restaurants and businesses all lining the same street is a formula that should not be discredited simply because the snobs of Santana Row did it first!
#8 says:
you can thank the people of East Side San Jose.
Thank them for what?
Downtown is a failure with all the tax money going down to waste. Nobody patronizes the downtown businesses and it’s such a wasteland! Santana Row is just too small and fake, and is that all San jose has to offer? San jose is a crummy, boring and insignificant town that has only a mediocre hang out place(Santana Row) and a pop. of 904,000. It’s that way because of those backward people of San Jose. All the European and Canadian Cities as well as Latin American cities have decent downtowns that are alot of fun. You would feel it’s very adequate and great sense of place and pride, alot more significant than Santana Row which San Jose has only to offer. San Jose is a hole in the donut with no downtown and no exciting neighborhoods. People of San Jose are responsible for the failure of inner core. Don’t blame the politicians for it because there’s only so much they can to do. In the long run, it will be a drain on the city because there’s no pride, place to go, and the blight will spread from downtown to the rest of city. it cost as more to not accept the downtown area to do business and thoroughly built up downtown and make it more dense and centralized.
Santa Row is a great place for a meal, drink, shopping and people watching. It’s also safe, clean and has that “retro” feel that seems to be the current “In” thing (my wife says it reminds her of Europe). This all being said, we should not give up or look so harshly on Downtown SJ. DSJ looks like it’s finally about to get it right, with new high-rise housing (and associated retail) on the horizon. DSJ already has an abundance of good restaurants/bars; unlike SR, they are mostly spread out and not centralized. What we should start doing is look to SR on how future developments in DSJ will look like. There’s unrealized potential for our downtown to thrive like SR (future developments at Diridon/Arena, SoFA…possible ballpark district?). In closing, let’s start viewing SR as a model of what our REAL downtown will one day be…thank you.
A PR person for Santana Row? Now that’s a new one!
And David Ladd just sounds like he could use a drink….
This is the standard-issue dig on Santana Row, but it’s just fake. It’s fun, popular, lively, pretty, but it’s fake. You leave the place, and you see back of buildings, because the architect didn’t seem to care much for Winchester and Stevens Creek Boulevards. It’s a shame, since the development could have added so much to the existing streets. But instead you get false fronts like that giant Best Buy window that looks like an entrance but is not. It’s very nice within itself, but it does little to connect with the outside world. That’s not good urban design.
Still, it’s a lot better than those bleak parking lots at other shopping centers of the same size, I have to say. And if they had housing like Santana Row does, well hey, how could this region go wrong with more housing supply?
As Tony D states, there are projects underway or nearly so that should provide the mix needed to get things moving downtown. We can only hope that what the CIM group has planned will be on a much larger scale than SR is, and that it won’t appear to be as fake as SR so obviously is even at first glance. The real estate section of the Merc back on 1/7 had an article about Los Angeles doing the same thing with their downtown, building high rise condos to get people living there. Being a hotbed of creativity compared to San Jose’s hotbed of nerdiness, our planners would do well to examine what LA is doing as it’s bound to be a success, whereas if whatever takes shape in downtown SJ is masterminded by the current and incredibly inept council, it’s absolutely going to be doomed to failure.
Gal, David Ladd is not all that far off the mark. The suburban mindset has an aversion to the real world, for which any downtown is a nucleus. The idea of bright lights and a big city only seems to create visions of a crime ridden and overall unsafe scene in these simple suburban brains, and they stay away in droves, prefering the mundane atmosphere of shopping malls with boring stores, and will only occassionally feel adventurous enough to set foot in even a fake city scene like SR.
See Leonard McKay’s post from yesterday. We can thank Dutch for giving us a sprawling uncohesive mess populated by anti-urban simpletons whose answer to any question about SJ’s downtown is “who needs one?”
Ten years from now, will Santana Row still be fake?
santana row is newer so along with it comes the hype of something new. its close to valley fair one of san jose’s more bourgie/yuppie type mall. so with that being said, santana row’s nightlife seems to cater towards that buorgie audience. downtown san jose’s crowd is totally on the oppositite end of the spectrum. not to say the crowd is ghetto, but its not so buorgie. i think thats why a place like farenheit ultra lounge just doesnt seem to work as well in DSJ. if you want a certain crowd you need to tailor your enviroment and setting accordingly to your target market. but dont sleep people, cause DSJ with all its developments in progress, high cost of living and aging population we might see a turnaround in audience within a matter of 3 to 5 years.
Leslie#1—So, why haven’t the Mayor & Council, Scott Kneis, and Dan Fenton figured this out yet?
Pho Hoa #2, Dan Sturges #5: I don’t buy the free parking excuse. SF doesn’t have free parking, Los Gatos has some, but not nearly enough, but people still go there.
#9, #11, #12: the answer is simple—mediocrity sells. There are a lot more people who will pay for something safe and mediocre than something truly high-quality. How else does one explain the long-term success of The Spaghetti Factory—worst “Italian” food in North America; Bella Mia—the new owners missed an opportunity to make something go—and PF Changs—worst Asian food on the entire planet; McCormick & Shmicks—terrible seafood and the most bogus wine list imaginable? Maggionas—what’s that?? Bad food, incredibly ong waits and very poor service. But it’s packed every night. Go figure.
And something nobody really wants to say—not PC at all—check out the demographic @ Santana Row vs. pretty much anywhere else in SC County.
mikejones: I resemble that aging population remark. On the other hand, I really would lke a good place to go out for dinner downtown.
Good is subjective and I realize this but, a place where I could get a market price lobster thermador and a good steak would draw me out like a magnet.
The only place that comes close is in Alviso and it’s not that good anymore either.
Santana Row… phony, fake, glitz and absolutely no ambiance. But I bet they’re good to go for wi-fi.
#21: Let’s rephrase the question—why point fingers at problems when we have an opportunity to point at solutions?—and start another thread soon: what’s great and interesting and special about SJ that we can leverage? It’s hard to physically create something beautiful, workable, and worth visiting—from both near and far—if someone can’t imagine it first. SJ has a lot to offer, but we need to understand its assets and capitalize on them. We need vision…
“Every morning I awake torn between a desire to save the world and an inclination to savor it. This makes it hard to plan the day. But if we forget to savor the world, what possible reason do we have for saving it?”
– e.b. white
JMO, thanks for the restaurant reviews. I can only speak to the Spaghetti Factory and couldn’t agree more, and you have captured what I agree is the suburban love affair with mediocrity by making the Spag Factory connection. Nice job! Since I’ve got an old dusty gift certificate for Maggiano’s, I guess I’m going to find out for myself about that place sooner or later.
I also don’t buy the rationale behind free parking. Downtown Palo Alto doesn’t have much of it and the county’s largest (is it still?)shopping center with acres of free parking is almost walking distance, yet downtown PA is thriving and has been for many years.
JM, would you mind expanding on the demographic comment? Is it the same predominant demographic as Valley Fair on Sunday? Just wondering if I need to be more careful of the oblivious drivers around SR too.
Net Girl, I don’t get over to Story and King much, but can tell you right now that “they” will not respect it any more than they do the other commercial complexes at that intersection.
Now don’t everyone crash this blog by rushing to hook me up to Finfan’s whipping post.
In a nutshell, one has to look only at the VTA stop at the corner of 2nd and Santa Clara, to see one of the foremost problems in Downtown San Jose…never will you see such a display of bums, litter, public urination, drunks, drug dealing, etc. This takes place on one of the most visible corners in the downtown area and right smack dab in front of the VTA offices…it is a disgrace and something should be done about it…
#27 Yeah, I rarely go to that area because of that. I get kinda weary walking through Santa Clara near the VTA offices. There are some mentally ill looking people there. If you wanna get all the homless and mentally ill people off the street, we might need to move all the homless services out to the edge of town.
Also at times I walk through some parts of downtown and it smells like urine. It’s discusting…
Didn’t New York give the homeless passes to New Jersey? Where can we send ours?
NetGirl #24: Ya mean The Tropicana Center that the city tried to codemn and bring in a bunch of white guys from Walnut Creek to build a Mexican Pueblo version of Santana Row? Only cost us taxpayers another ton of moola to, pay back Dennis Fong’s attorneys.
Ya know, as I read and write about the boondoggles and debacles foisted upon us by the Mayors/Councils/and the RDA for the last thrity years, it’s a wonder San Hozay ain’t bankrupt by now. They’ve blown enough money on bad deals like Tropicana, Retail (Hah!) Pavilion, Twohy Building (Casa Castillo/Zyngs), PF Changs, McCormick and Shits, Zanottos, THE TAJ GONZAL…and the list goes on, to subsidize tons of market rate housing as well as below market rate housing and almost build BART.
Mark #26—same demogpraphic, but more expensive cars and more expensive clothing on the drivers with cell phones cemented to their ears @ SR that VF.
Tom #27: don’t forget First and Santa Clara, which has derelicts,druggies, and homiez on BOTH sides of the street, whereas Second and Santa Clara has them on only one side.
But I wondered from Day One what the Santana Row developers were thinking. The array of shops catered to a group that lives in Los Altos, Palo Alto, and other ultra rich enclaves. Why would they come to San Hozay instead of Stanford more than once? When Tommy Bahamas is the cheapest store in a center, ya gotta wonder who they think is their demographic for buyers.
So, what’s the over/under in number of months from now that SR will have more restaurants than retail shops? Will it fail as the Retail (Hah!) Pavilion did downtown?
I think people forget that downtown San Jose is the oldest part of town. It’s all dilapidated for a reason. We didn’t just built it that way. We may have contripbuted to its demise, but that’s a whole other story.
As far as Santana Row is concerned, it still aint that bad, think of all the rich snobs comming down from the hills to sleazy Ole San Jose to spend their money. Gotta love that…
Oh, by the way, have you guys seen how nice king and story looks? It’s prolly one of the nicest “ghettos” in the country. Not to shabby if I do say so myself. We’ll have to see how long it will stay in pristeen condition. Will they take care of it, or will it all be a waste of taxpayer money.
Re: Free parking in Santana Row as being the draw?
It’s a ruse. A fake. You end up paying much more in inflated food, drink and merchandise costs by patronizing Santana Row then you would forking over a fiver and heading to a real restaurant in the downtown core.
Re: Disgusting VTA stop on 1st/Santa clara?
Absolutely. Write your councilperson and the head of the DOT, and demand to know why the cleaning budget was halved yet Grand Prix can get a 4 million dollar subsidy.
downtown shouldn’t compete with Santana Row. It should completely bypass it- and flaunt the fact that DT has real culture (Opera? Ballet? Symphony?) and real nightlife (live music- it can be found in a few places downtown- as well as salsa, hip hop {don’t be scared} house music..etc) and real restaurants, several of which have been serving for over 20 years.
Well, if it’s of any solace, I recently wandered through the downtwon SJ Fairmont and picked up 65 page mag called “San FRancisco Bay Area Wine + Food” and not a single Santana Row eating establishment was mnetioned. Indeed, not a single Santa Clara County restaurant or winery was mentioned, although a restaurant in Crockett was.
San Hozay—the Rodney Dangerfield of cities. SIGH!
#27, oh my, you’ve got to be kidding about 2nd and Santa Clara… “bums, litter, public urination, drunks, drug dealing, etc.” Perhaps we should shuffle them off to the new City Hall where they might feel more at home.
Last night an urban planner friend was in town from Chicago and we did the downtown tour, then went to Santana Row for a good laugh, to see the Disneyland “case study,” and eat at Amber India with the beautiful people.
Last time I was there was the night before City Hall/Taj Mahal grand opening. And the difference between the fake and real: it’s private property folks. If you’re stinky, homeless, selling crack, Santana Row will kick your ass out. Walking from La Vic to City Hall on that celebration saturday, we encountered screaming homeless people, trash around the bus stops, graffiti, the smell of urine on Santa Clara streets… and it’s still one of the cleanest “downtowns” I’ve visited.
at the same time, redevelopment staff doesn’t get that downtown is not a mall. many legit businesses that have wanted to come downtown have been given the run-around because their too low rent for RDAs vision of becoming the next Santana Row (ross, marshalls). In the meantime, those of us who work downtown have lots of great places to go at lunch but little shopping.
A girl at my work constantly calls San Jose the ghetto. Is it really true? Is San Jose thought of as the ghetto?
I don’t think a ghetto has 700,000 and up track houses. I suspect most of the 650 attitude is because the peninsula is pretty much a huge endless part of urban sprwal just like San Jose. And Yes Palo Alto is overrated and is full of overpriced tacky track houses. From Midwest standards Palo Alto is ordinary and kinda of funky, esp. along the El Camino.
The answer is simple to fixing this problem, our downtown needs to have more people and more business. Those industrial park occupants can actually move on down to downtown San Jose thereby attracting businesses, restaurants (intended separately), entertainment, and residents. Downtown San Jose is a dandelion in lawn of dying brown grass with it’s green spots being at the edges and strange places. It’s strange how our Santana Row is located smack dab in the Santa Clara/San Jose border region? Plus, my only argument against Santana Row is it’s parking…though free… can be very hard to find….and Santana Row also should try blending in with the neighborhood instead of sticking out like a sore thumb.
Downtown is going to dramatically change within the next 5 years. But i have a great idea! Why don’t we bury our light rail under first and second streets? and then resumes above ground. San Jose can then have a light rail system very competitive to the Muni Metro and can travel through downtown much much faster!
The solution to this issue is straightforward: we need more businesses and people in our downtown. The residents of those industrial parks can actually move down to downtown San Jose, drawing in shops, eateries (separately intended), entertainment, and people.
This comment is on an article published in 2006.