WELCOME TO SAN JOSE

San Jose or San José is the third-largest city in California and the tenth-largest in the United States. The county seat of Santa Clara County, it is located at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region commonly referred to as Silicon Valley. Once a small farming city, San Jose became a magnet for suburban newcomers in new housing developments between the 1960s and 1990s, and is now the largest city in Northern California. Its estimated population by the US Census Bureau as of 2008 is 948,279. The California Department of Finance estimated San Jose's population as of 2008, at 1,006,892. The Metropolitan area contains approximately 1.8 million residents. It is one of the primary cities of the San Francisco Bay Area, and the largest in terms of population, land area, and industrial development.

San Jose was founded on November 29, 1777 as El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe, the first town in the Spanish colony of Nueva California, which later became Alta California. The city served as a farming community to support Spanish military installations at San Francisco and Monterey. When California gained statehood in 1850, San Jose served as its first capital. After more than 150 years as an agricultural center, San Jose experienced increased demand for housing from soldiers and other veterans returning from World War II, as well as aggressive expansion during the 1950s and 1960s by annexing more land area. By the 1990s, San Jose's location within the booming local technology industry earned the city the nickname Capital of Silicon Valley.

Attractions

Parks, gardens, and other outdoor recreational sites

Almaden Quicksilver County Park, 4,147 acres (17 km²) of former mercury mines in South San Jose (operated and maintained by the County of Santa Clara, Parks and Recreation Department).

Alum Rock Park, 718 acres (2.9 km²) in East San Jose, the oldest municipal park in California

Emma Prusch Farm Park, 43.5 acres (176,000 m²) in East San Jose. Donated by Emma Prusch to demonstrate the valley's agricultural past, it includes a 4-H barn (the largest in San Jose), community gardens, a rare-fruit orchard, demonstration gardens, picnic areas, and expanses of lawn.

Circle of Palms Plaza, a ring of palm trees surrounding a California state seal and historical landmark at the site of the first state capitol

Kelley Park, including diverse facilities such as Happy Hollow Park & Zoo (a child-centric amusement park currently closed for renovations), the Japanese Friendship Garden (Kelley Park), History Park at Kelley Park, and the Portuguese Historical Museum within the history park

Kirk Park, home to the San Jose Young People's Theater

Overfelt Gardens, including the Chinese Cultural Garden

Plaza de César Chávez, a small park in Downtown, hosts outdoor concerts and the Christmas in the Park display

Raging Waters, water park with water slides and other water attractions. This sits within Lake Cunningham Park

Rosicrucian Park, nearly an entire city block in the Rose Garden neighborhood; the Park offers a setting of Egyptian and Moorish architecture set among lawns, rose gardens, statuary, and fountains, and includes the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, Planetarium, Research Library, Peace Garden and Visitors Center

San Jose Flea Market

San Jose Municipal Rose Garden, 5½ acre (22,000 m²) park in the Rose Garden neighborhood, featuring over 4,000 rose bushes

Winchester Mystery House in San Jose.

Trails

San Jose's trail network offers over 51 miles (80 km) of recreational and commute trails throughout the City. The major trails in the network include:

• Coyote Creek Trail
• Guadalupe River Trail
• Los Gatos Creek Trail
• Los Alamitos Creek Trail
• Penitencia Creek Trail
• Silver Creek Valley Trail

This large urban trail network is linked to trails in surrounding jurisdictions and many rural trails in surrounding open space and foothills. Additional information is available at the City of San Jose trail network website.

Arts And Culture

Because the downtown area is in the flight path to nearby Mineta San Jose International Airport (also evidenced in the above panoramic), there is a height limit for buildings in the downtown area, which is under the final approach corridor to the airport. The height limit is dictated by local ordinances, driven by the distance from the runway and a slope defined by Federal Aviation Administration regulations. Core downtown buildings are limited to approximately 300 feet (91 m) but can get taller farther from the airport. There has been broad criticism over the past few decades of the city's architecture. Citizens have complained that San Jose is lacking in aesthetically pleasing architectural styles. Blame for this lack of architectural "beauty" can be assigned to the re-development of the downtown area from the 1950s onward, in which whole blocks of historic commercial and residential structures were demolished. Exceptions to this include the Downtown Historic District, the De Anza Hotel, and the Hotel Sainte Claire, both of which are listed in the National Register of Historic Places for their architectural and historical significance.

Municipal building projects have experimented more with architectural styles than have most private enterprises. The Children's Discovery Museum, Tech Museum of Innovation, and the San Jose Repertory Theater building have experimented with bold colors and unusual exteriors. The new City Hall, designed by Richard Meier & Partners opened in 2005 and is a notable addition to the growing collection of municipal building projects.

Public art is an evolving attraction in the city. The city was one of the first to adopt a public art ordinance at 2% of capital improvement building project budgets, and the results of this commitment are beginning to have an impact on the visual landscape of the city. There's a considerable number of public art projects throughout the downtown area, and a growing collection in the newer civic locations in neighborhoods including libraries, parks, and fire stations. Of particular note, the Mineta Airport expansion is incorporating a program of Art & Technology into its development.

Within the early efforts at public art, there are notable controversies. Two examples include the statue of Quetzalcoatl (the plumed serpent) in downtown which was controversial in its planning because some religious groups felt that it was pagan, and controversial in its implementation because many felt that the final statue by Robert Graham did not closely resemble a winged serpent, and was more noted for its expense than its aesthetics. This has resulted in a common "inside" joke among locals, who insist it closely resembles a pile of feces.

The statue of Thomas Fallon also met strong resistance from those who felt that people like him were largely responsible for the decimation of early native populations and Chicano/Latino activists protested he captured San Jose by violent force in the Mexican-American war (1846) as well "repressed" historic documents of Fallon ordered the expulsion of most of the city's Californio (early Spanish or Mexican) residents. In October 1991 after protests in part of Columbus Day and Dia de la Raza celebrations, the Fallon statue plan was scrapped and the statue was stored in a warehouse in Oakland for more than a decade. The statue was returned to public display in 2002, albeit in a less conspicuous location: Pellier Park, a small triangular patched formed by the merge of West Julian and West St. James streets.

In 2001, the city sponsored SharkByte, an exhibit of decorated sharks, based on the mascot of the hockey team, the San Jose Sharks, and modeled after Chicago's display of decorated cows. Large models of sharks were decorated in a variety of clever, colorful, or creative ways by local artists and were then displayed for months at dozens of locations around the city. Many displays were removed early because of vandalism. After the exhibition, the sharks were auctioned off and the proceeds donated to charity. The sharks can still be found in their new owners' homes and businesses.

In 2006, Adobe Systems in commissioned an art installation titled San Jose Semaphore by Ben Rubin, which is located at the top of its headquarters building. Semaphore is composed of four LED discs which "rotate" to transmit a message. The content of the San Jose Semaphore’s message remained a mystery until it was deciphered in August 2007. The visual art installation is supplemented with an audio track, transmitted from the building on a low-power AM station. The audio track provides clues to decode the message being transmitted.

The city is home to many performance arts, including Opera San Jose, Symphony Silicon Valley, Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley, Children's Musical Theater of San Jose (recognized as the largest and most talented youth theatre company in the nation), the San Jose Repertory Theatre, and American Musical Theatre of San Jose. San Jose also is home to the San Jose Museum of Art, one of the nation's premiere Modern Art museums. In addition, the annual Cinequest Film Festival in downtown has grown to over 60,000 attendees per year, becoming an important festival for independent films.

The HP Pavilion at San José is one of the most active venues for events in the world. According to Billboard Magazine and Pollstar, the arena sold the most tickets to non-sporting events of any venue in the United States, and third in the world after the Manchester Evening News Arena in Manchester, England, and the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, for the period from January 1 – September 30, 2004. Including sporting events, the HP Pavilion averages 184 events a year, or roughly one event for every two days, which is significantly higher than the average for NHL arenas.

Kelley Park

Kelley Park in San Jose, California, USA is 156 acres (631,000 m²), including diverse facilities such as Happy Hollow Park & Zoo, the Japanese Friendship Garden, History Park at Kelley Park, Portuguese Historical Museum, and Viet Museum within the history park. Most of the rest of the park is picnic areas, lawns, groves of trees, and plenty of pathways in between.

Kelley Park is located at the intersections of Story and Senter Roads in East San Jose.

The land was once a farm owned by Judge Lawrence Archer, a former mayor of San Jose.

San Jose Municipal Rose Garden

The San Jose Municipal Rose Garden (5.5 acres) is a rose garden located at the intersection of Naglee Avenue and Dana Avenue, San Jose, California, in the Rose Garden neighborhood. It is open to the public daily without charge. Dogs are not allowed.

The garden was once a prune orchard, but was bought by San Jose in 1927 and is now exclusively devoted to roses. It features more than 3,500 rose shrubs representing 189 rose varieties.

As an official Display Garden for the All-America Rose Selections (AARS) the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden receives AARS award winning roses in advance of public release. In the early 2000s, City budget cuts impacted the Rose Garden. In 2005 the AARS put the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden on probation and it was at risk of losing AARS accreditation. In 2007 Friends of the San Jose Rose Garden (FSJRG) was established, a volunteer nonprofit organization whose mission was to restore and renovate the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden. In December 2008 the AARS lifted the garden from probation and restored full accreditation. In 2009 over 800 new roses were planted as part of the restoration project.

On May 2, 2009 the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden was rededicated as an official All-America Rose Selections Test Garden, one of 23 in the USA and the only one in Northern California. The rededication ceremony and ribbon cutting of new Test Beds was conducted by the Mayor of San Jose Chuck Reed, the President of the All America Rose Selections, Tom Carruth, San Jose City Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio, and Co-Founders of the Friends of the San Jose Rose Garden, Beverly Rose Hopper and Terry Reilly.