Aerial view of San Jose. The intersection of
I-280 and Guadalupe Parkway is shown at
bottom. View is to the south.
San Jose (IPA: /ˌsænhoʊˈzeɪ/) is the
third-largest city in California, and the tenth-largest in the United States. It
is the county seat of Santa Clara
County. San Jose is located in Silicon Valley, at the south end of
San Francisco Bay. Once a small farming city, San
Jose became a magnet for suburban newcomers in new housing developments between the 1960s and the 1990s, and is now the largest
city in Northern California. The official United States Census Bureau population estimate for July 1,
2006 is 929,936.[3]
Originally known as El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe, San Jose was founded on November 29, 1777 as 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, increased demand for housing from soldiers and other veterans returning from
World War II, as well as aggressive expansion during the 1950s and 1960s, led San Jose to
become a bedroom community for Silicon Valley. Growth in the 1970s attracted more
businesses to the city. In the late 1980s, after four decades of heavy development and population growth, San Jose surpassed San
Francisco in population to become the third most populous city in California. By the 1990s, San Jose's location within the
booming local technology industry earned the city the nickname Capital of Silicon Valley.
Name
On April 3, 1979, the San José City Council adopted San José as the spelling of the city name on the city seal,
official stationery, office titles and department names. Also, by city council convention, the spelling of San José is
used when the name is stated in both uppercase and lowercase letters, but not when the name is stated only in uppercase letters.
The name is still more commonly spelled without the diacritical mark as San Jose. The
official name of the city remains The City of San Jose with no diacritical mark, according to the City Charter.
History
-
Prior to western settlement, the area was inhabited by several groups of Ohlone
Native Americans[6] Though visited briefly by the English two centuries prior, the first lasting
European presence began with a series of Franciscan missions established
from 1769 by Father Junípero Serra.[7] On orders from Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa, Spanish Viceroy of New Spain, San Jose was founded by Lieutenant José Joaquín Moraga as Pueblo de San Jose de
Guadalupe (in honor of Saint Joseph) on November
29, 1777, to establish a farming community. The town was the first civil settlement in
Alta California.[8]
In 1797, the pueblo was moved from its original location, near the present-day intersection of Guadalupe Parkway and Taylor Street, to a location in what is now Downtown San Jose. San Jose came under Mexican rule in 1825 after Mexico broke with the Spanish crown.
It then became part of the United States, after it capitulated without bloodshed in 1846 and California was annexed.[6] Soon afterwards, on March
27, 1850, San Jose became the first incorporated city in the state, with Josiah Belden its first mayor. The town was the state's first capital, as well as host of the first and
second sessions (1850-1851) of the California Legislature.
Though not impacted as severely as San Francisco, San Jose suffered damage
from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Over 100 people died at the Agnews
Asylum (later Agnews State Hospital) after its walls and roof collapsed,[9] and the San Jose High School's three-story stone was also destroyed. During World War II many Japanese were sent to internment camps and, following
the Los Angeles zoot suit riots,
anti-Mexican violence took place in the summer of 1943.
As World War II started, the city's economy shifted from agriculture (the
Del Monte cannery was the largest employer) to industrial manufacturing with the
contracting of the Food Machinery Corporation (FMC) by the United States War Department to build 1000 Landing Vehicle Tracked.[10] After World War II, FMC (later United Defense) continued as a defense contractor, with the
San Jose facilities designing and manufacturing military platforms such as the M113 Armored Personnel Carrier, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, and various subsystems of the M1
Abrams.[11] IBM
established its West Coast headquarters in San Jose in 1943 and opened a downtown research and development facility in 1952. Both
of which would prove to be harbingers for the economy of San Jose, as Reynold Johnson
and his team would later invent RAMAC, as well as the disc
drive, and the technological side of San Jose's economy grew.[12]
Downtown San Jose looking over the
Tech Museum towards
Mount Hamilton; hills in the background show their winter green color.
During the 1950s and 1960s, city manager Dutch Hamann led the city in a major growth
campaign. The city annexed adjacent areas, such as Alviso and
Cambrian Park, providing large areas for suburbs. An anti-growth
reaction to the effects of rapid development emerged in the 1970s championed by mayors Norman
Mineta and Janet Gray Hayes. Despite establishing an urban growth boundary, development fees, and incorporations of Campbell and Cupertino, development was not slowed,
but rather directed into already incorporated areas.[10] San Jose's position in Silicon Valley triggered more
economic and population growth, which led to the highest housing costs increase in the nation, 936% between 1976 and
2001.[13] Efforts to increase density continued into 1990s
when an update of the 1974 urban plan kept the urban growth boundaries intact and voters rejected a ballot measure to ease
development restrictions in the foothills. Sixty percent of the housing built in San Jose since 1980 and over three-quarters of
the housing built since 2000 have been multifamily structures, reflecting a political propensity toward Smart Growth planning principles.[14]
Law and government
- See also: San José City Council and
List of Mayors of San Jose, California
San Jose is a charter city under California law, giving it the power to enact local ordinances that may conflict with state
law, within the limits provided by the charter.[15]
The city has a council-manager government with a city manager nominated by the mayor and elected by the city council.
The San José City Council is made up of ten council members elected by
districts, and a mayor elected in an at-large election. During city council meetings, the mayor presides, and all eleven members
can vote on any issue. The mayor has no veto powers. Council members and the mayor are elected to
four-year terms; the even-numbered district council members beginning in 1994; the mayor and the odd-numbered district council
members beginning in 1996. Council members and the mayor are limited to two successive terms in office, although a council member
that has reached the term limit can be elected mayor, and vice versa. The council elects a vice-mayor from the members of the
council at the second meeting of the year following a council election. This council member has the right to act as mayor during
the temporary absence of the mayor, but does not have the right of succession to the mayor's office upon a vacancy.[16]
The City Manager is the chief administrative officer of the city, and must present an annual budget for approval by the city council. When the office is vacant, the Mayor proposes a candidate for City
Manager, subject to council approval. The council appoints the Manager for an indefinite term, and may at any time remove the
manager, or the electorate may remove the manager through a recall election. Other city
officers appointed by the council are the City Attorney, City Auditor, City Clerk, and Independent Police Auditor.[16]
Like all California cities except San Francisco, both the levels and the boundaries of what the city government controls is
determined by the local county Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO).[17] The goal of a LAFCO is to try to avoid uncontrolled urban
sprawl. The Santa Clara County LAFCO has set boundaries of San Jose's 'Sphere of Influence' (indicated by the blue line in
the map near the top of the page) as a superset of the actual city limits (the yellow area in the map), plus parts of the
surrounding unincorporated county land, where San Jose can, for example, prevent development of fringe areas to concentrate city
growth closer to the city's core. The LAFCO also defines a subset of the Sphere as an 'Urban Service Area' (indicated by the red
line in the map), effectively limiting development to areas where urban infrastructure (sewers, electrical service, etc.) already
exists.
Crime
San Jose has consistently been ranked as one of the safest large cities in the United States. During the 1990s and 2000s, the
crime rate has consistently fallen.[18] Since 2002 the city
has ranked as the safest American city with a population over 500,000 according to the Morgan Quitno and Khoa Le Awards.[19] The designation is based on
crime statistics reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in six
categories: murder, rape, robbery,
aggravated assault, burglary, and auto theft. Current mayor Chuck Reed is a member of the
Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition,[20] an organization formed in 2006 and co-chaired by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston mayor Thomas Menino.
Sister cities
The Office of Economic Development coordinates the San Jose Sister City Program which is part of Sister Cities International. As of 2006, there are seven
sister cities [21]:
Geography
Looking west over northern San Jose (downtown is at far left) and other parts of Silicon Valley. See an up-to-the-minute view of
San Jose from the Mount Hamilton web camera.
http://mthamilton.ucolick.org/hamcam/
San Jose is located at 37°18′15″N, 121°52′22″W (37.304051,
−121.872734)¹.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area
of 178.2 square miles (461.5 km²)1, of which 3.3 square miles (8.6 km²; 1.86%) is water.
San Jose lies near the San Andreas Fault; a major source of earthquake activity in California. The most serious earthquake, in 1906, damaged many buildings in San Jose
as described earlier. Earlier significant quakes rocked the city in 1839, 1851, 1858, 1864, 1865, 1868, and 1891.[citation needed] The Daly City Earthquake of 1957 caused some damage. The Loma
Prieta earthquake of 1989 also did some damage to parts of the city. The other faults near San Jose are the Monte Vista
Fault, South Hayward Fault, Northern Calaveras Fault, and Central Calaveras
Fault.
The Guadalupe River runs from the Santa Cruz Mountains (which separate the South Bay from the Pacific Coast) flowing north through
San Jose, ending in the San Francisco Bay at Alviso. Along the southern
part of the river is the neighborhood of Almaden Valley, originally
named for the mercury mines which produced mercury needed for gold extraction from quartz during the California Gold Rush as well as mercury fulminate
blasting caps and detonators for the U.S. military from 1870 to 1945.[citation needed]
The lowest point in San Jose is at sea level at the San Francisco Bay in Alviso; the
highest is 4,372 feet (1,333 m) at Copernicus Peak, Mount Hamilton, which is
technically outside the city limit. Due to the proximity to Lick Observatory atop Mount
Hamilton, San Jose has taken several steps to reduce light pollution, including
replacing all street lamps and outdoor lighting in private developments with low pressure
sodium lamps.[22] To recognize
the city's efforts, the asteroid 6216 San Jose was named after the city.[23]
Climate
Mount Hamilton, in the
Diablo Range, showing summer's golden mantle. Dark green areas in
hills are primarily scrub oak and other low-growing shrubs.
Mount Hamilton in January, with morning fog clearing away.
San Jose, like most of the Bay Area, has a Mediterranean climate.[24] Unlike San Francisco, which is exposed to the ocean or Bay on three sides and whose temperature
therefore varies relatively little year-round and overnight, San Jose lies further inland, protected on three sides by mountains.
This shelters the city from rain and makes it more of a semiarid, near-desert area,
with a mean annual rainfall of only 14.4 inches (366 mm), compared to some other parts of the Bay Area, which can get up to
four times that amount. It also avoids San Francisco's omnipresent fog most of the year.
However, temperatures are generally moderate. January's average high is 59 °F (15 °C) and average low is 42 °F (6 °C), with
overnight freezes several nights each year; July's average high is 84 °F (29 °C) and average low is 58 °F (14 °C), with heat
exceeding 100 °F (38 °C) several days each year. The highest temperature ever recorded in San Jose was 109 °F (42.8 °C) on June
14, 2000; the lowest was 17 °F (-8.3 °C) on January 9, 1920 and January 10, 1920. Temperatures between night and day can vary by
30 or 40 °F (17 to 22 °C).
With the light rainfall, San Jose experiences over 300 days a year of full or significant sunshine. Rain occurs primarily in
the months from October through April or May, with hardly any rainfall from June through September. During the winter, hillsides
and fields turn green with grasses and vegetation, although deciduous trees are bare; with the
coming of the annual summer dry period, the vegetation dies and dries, giving the hills a golden cover, which some find beautiful
but which also provides fuel for frequent grass fires.
The snow level drops as low as 2,000 ft (610 m) above sea level, or lower, occasionally each
winter, coating nearby Mount Hamilton, and less frequently the
Santa Cruz Mountains, with snow that normally lasts a few days. This sometimes
snarls traffic traveling on State Route 17 towards Santa Cruz. Snow occasionally falls in San Jose, but until recently, the most recent snow to
remain on the ground was in February of 1976 when many residents around the city saw as much as 3 inches (7.6 cm) on car and roof
tops. However, in March of 2006, a smaller amount, up to one inch (2.5 cm) of snow fell in downtown San Jose as well as other
areas around the city at elevations of only 90 feet (27 m) to 200 feet (61 m) above sea level.
Again, like most of the Bay Area, San Jose is made up of dozens of microclimates.
Downtown San Jose experiences the lightest rainfall in the city, while South San Jose, only 10 miles (16 km) distant,
experiences more rainfall and slightly more extreme temperatures.
Economy
Adobe Systems headquarters
The large concentration of high-technology engineering, computer, and microprocessor companies around San Jose has led the
area to be known as Silicon Valley. As the largest city in the valley, San Jose has
billed itself "the capital of Silicon Valley." Area schools such as San José State
University, Santa Clara University, and Stanford University pump thousands of engineering and computer science graduates into the local
economy every year.
High economic growth during the tech bubble caused employment, housing prices, and
traffic congestion to peak in the late 1990s. As the economy slowed in the early 2000s, employment and traffic congestion
diminished somewhat. In the mid-2000s, traffic along major highways again began to worsen as the economy improved. San Jose had
405,000 jobs within its city limits in 2006, and an unemployment rate of 4.6%. In 2000, San Jose residents had the highest median
household income of any city with a population over 300,000,
and currently has the highest median income of any city with over 225,000 people.
San Jose lists 25 companies with 1,000 employees or more, including the headquarters of Adobe
Systems, BEA Systems, Cisco, and
eBay, as well as major facilities for Flextronics,
Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Hitachi and Lockheed Martin. Sizable government employers include
the city government, Santa Clara County, and San José State University.
The cost of living in San Jose and the surrounding areas is among the highest in
California and the nation.[2] Housing costs are the primary reason for the high cost of living, although the costs in all areas tracked
by ACCRA are above the national average. Despite the
high cost of living in San Jose, households in city limits have the highest disposable income of any city in the U.S. with over 500,000 residents.
San Jose residents produce more U.S. patents than any other city.[25] Thirty-five percent of all venture
capital funds in the U.S. are invested in San Jose and Silicon Valley companies.[26]
- See also: List of foreign consulates in San Jose
Demographics
- See also: Maps of San Jose,
California
As of the census2 of 2000, there were 894,943 people, 276,598 households, and 203,576 families
residing in the city. The population density was 5,117.9 people per square mile
(1,976.1/km²). There were 281,841 housing units at an average density of 1,611.8 per square mile (622.3/km²). The racial makeup
of the city was 47.49% White, 3.50% African American, 0.77% Native American, 26.86% Asian, 0.40% Pacific Islander, 15.94% from other races, and 5.04% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 30.17% of the population.
There were 276,598 households out of which 38.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.0% were
married couples living together, 11.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and
26.4% were non-families. 18.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 4.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years
of age or older. The average household size was 3.20 and the average family size was 3.62.
In the city the population was spread out with 26.4% under the age of 18, 9.9% from 18 to 24, 35.4% from 25 to 44, 20.0% from
45 to 64, and 8.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 103.3 males.
For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 102.5 males.
The median income for a household in the city was the highest in the US for any city with more than a quarter million
residents with $70,243 annually. The median income for a family was $74,813. Males had a median income of $49,347 versus $36,936
for females. The per capita income for the city was $26,697. About 6.0% of families
and 8.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 10.3% of those under
age 18 and 7.4% of those age 65 or over.
According to California Department of Finance estimates, San Jose's population on January 1, 2007 was 973,672, third in the
state behind Los Angeles and San
Diego. The estimate indicated a growth of 1.6 percent from the previous year.[27] According to United States
Census Bureau estimates, as of July 1, 2005, San Jose had a population of 912,332, making it the tenth most populous city
in the United States.[28]
San Jose has a very diverse religious life with thousands of churches, mosques, temples, and religious centers. [citation needed] San Jose and the rest of the San
Francisco Bay Area is home to many Christian congregations (including large Mormon, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches[29] and the Jehovah's Witnesses) alongside centers of
Jewish, Hindu, Muslim,
Buddhist, Hare Krishna,[30] and Sikh faiths among numerous other religious
communities.
When it comes to dealing with such a diverse demographic, San Jose has a relatively easy situation with race
relations[citation needed]. A high percentage of
foreign-born live in the city[citation needed], including many high-tech workers from East and South Asia. The people from these countries have settled in the
city and across the Santa Clara Valley during the last three decades. Many Central
American, Southeast Asian and Eastern
European immigrants have lived in San Jose since the late 1970s and early 1980s[citation needed]. A large, multi-generational
Hispanic barrio is in the Alum Rock district. Many Chinese Americans and Japanese Americans
thrive downtown on the streets of Guadalupe and Almaden.
San Jose has the distinction of being the U.S. city with the largest Vietnamese American population.[31] Municipal signs and brochures are sometimes displayed in Vietnamese
language in addition to English and Spanish. In an effort to cater to this demographic, the San Jose Mercury News published a
Vietnamese-language newspaper from 1999–2005 called Viet Mercury.
Arts and architecture
San Jose's downtown architecture is noted more for its limited height than for any particular buildings{or}. Because the
downtown area is in the flight path to nearby Mineta San Jose International
Airport, there is a permanent height limit for all buildings[citation needed]. There has been broad criticism over the past few decades of the city's
architecture[original research?]. Citizens have
complained‹The template Weasel-inline is being considered for
deletion.› [weasel words] 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[original research?]. Exceptions to this include the
Downtown Historic District, the De Anza Hotel, and the Hotel Sainte Claire, all of which are
listed in the National Register of Historic Places for their
architectural significance.
Municipal building projects have experimented more with architectural styles than have most private enterprises[original research?]. 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.[original research?]
Public art is an evolving attraction in the city. The City was one of the first[citation needed] to adopt a public art ordinance at 2% of capital improvement building
project budgets[citation needed], and the results of this commitment are beginning to have an impact on the
visual landscape of the City. There is a considerable amount of pieces throughout the downtown area, and a growing collection in
the City's neighborhood newer civic locations including libraries, parks, and fire stations. Of particular note, the Mineta
Airport expansion will incorporate 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 piece
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.[32]
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.[33] 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 a kinetic art installation titled San Jose Semaphore by Ben Rubin, which resides at the
top of its headquarters building. Semaphore is comprised of four lighted 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.[34] 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,[35] 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.
Sports
- See also: Sports in San Francisco Bay
Area
The players of the San Jose Earthquakes moved to Houston, Texas after the 2005 season to become the Houston
Dynamo. San Jose has been home to the Earthquakes in the North American
Soccer League (1974–1984), Western Soccer A
