2005.03.22
The Ghost Town of San Jose
I had reason to be in San Jose this weekend. Driving around the downtown area on a Saturday night I’ve decided San Jose is a ghost town. Not that it was completely dead but I would have thought that in a town that claims a population of over 900,000 would have a livelier night life than I saw. It didn’t help that it seemed about 30% of the businesses seemed closed or for rent.
I am sure I have a skewed vision of San Jose, but I think what might make the difference is that San Jose is part of the New America where people drive everywhere for anything. No one lives in concentrated areas; what they call population density in urban planning departments. I can see they’re trying to remedy this, but it hasn’t happened.
This is in opposition to other cities I’ve lived in where people could walk from where ever they lived in the city to shops and night life areas, and these districts had enough foot traffic that the businesses were profitable. These tend to be older cities, I think, like New York City and it’s boroughs, Washington DC, and San Francisco. These are all cities founded before the advent of the automobile and their sensibilities are different than modern cities.
I couldn’t live in San Jose. More power to the people that are there, but I could not live in a place like that. I would just get depressed.
Categorized: life
You can follow any responses to this entry with a RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
2 Responses to “The Ghost Town of San Jose”
- Gracie says (March 30th, 2005 at 02:09:38 )
Thank you!
A. You suck for not calling when you are in town. B. I have lived in the San Jose area for a long time and went to school here. I don’t think you have enough information to make such a bold statement. C. Downtown San Jose can actually be VERY cool…for cryin’ out loud, I lived there for 6 years!!! D. Ugh!!! I hate it when you make blanket statements sometimes. It gets me all fired up!!! Thanks! (Mean Face)- dugh says (March 30th, 2005 at 05:35:10 )
Hey hey!
No need to get defensive. I do qualify that I probably have a skewed vision of the place. But it was Saturday night and the place was dead. This is downtown, mind you, not in the neighborhoods, some of which looked charming. Your old apartment is still there; I was surprised I recognized it.Yes, I generalize, but in this case it’s because I don’t have extensive knowledge of the place. I don’t expect I ever will, either! San Jose is not the place for me. You may have lived there for six years but that’s like saying I lived in Ohio for a number of years; it’s not the greatest place on Earth and that’s a fact!
