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San Jose, California
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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 .
History
Prior to western settlement, the area was inhabited by several groups of Ohlone Native Americans The first lasting European presence began with a series of Franciscan missions established from 1769 by Father Junípero Serra.
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Encyclopedia
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 .
History
Prior to western settlement, the area was inhabited by several groups of Ohlone Native Americans The first lasting European presence began with a series of Franciscan missions established from 1769 by Father Junípero Serra. 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 José 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.
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. 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, 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. After World War II, FMC (later United Defense, and currently BAE Systems) 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. IBM established its West Coast headquarters in San Jose in 1943 and opened a downtown research and development facility in 1952. Both 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.
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. 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. 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.
Law and government
LocalSan 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. 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.
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.
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). 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.
San Jose is the county seat of Santa Clara County. Accordingly, many county government facilities are located in the city, including the office of the County Executive, the Board of Supervisors, the District Attorney's Office, eight courthouses of the Superior Court, the Sheriff's Office, and the County Clerk.
State and federalIn the state legislature San Jose is located in the 10th, 11th, 13th, and 15th Senate Districts, represented by Democrats Ellen Corbett, Joe Simitian, and Elaine Alquist, and Republican Abel Maldonado respectively, and in the 20th, 21st, 22nd, 23rd, 24th, 27th, and 28th Assembly Districts, represented by Democrats Alberto Torrico, Ira Ruskin, Sally Lieber, Joe Coto, Jim Beall, John Laird, and Anna M. Caballero respectively. Federally, San Jose is located in California's 14th, 15th, and 16th congressional districts, which have Cook PVIs of D +18, D +14, and D +16 respectively and are represented by Democrats Anna Eshoo, Mike Honda, and Zoe Lofgren respectively.
Several state and federal agencies maintain offices in San Jose. The city is the location of the Sixth District of the California Courts of Appeal. It is also home to one of the courthouses of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.
CrimeDuring the 1990s and 2000s, the crime rate fell, but as quickly as crime rates in most American cities during that time period. Recently, however, crime rates have risen. Despite the rising crime, it is still ranked as the safest city with a population over 500,000 people. 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, 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:
Geography
San Jose is located at (37.304051, -121.872734).
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 178.2 square miles (461.5 km²), 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. 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.
The lowest point in San Jose is 13 feet (4 m) below 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. To recognize the city's efforts, the asteroid 6216 San Jose was named after the city.
Climate
San Jose, like most of the Bay Area, has a Mediterranean climate. 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 farther 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). Temperatures exceed 90°F (32°C) on an average of 18.3 days annually, and drop to 32°F (0°C) or lower on an average of 5.6 days annually.
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.
Measurable precipitation falls in downtown San Jose on an average of 58 days a year. Annual precipitation has ranged from 6.12 inches in 1953 to 32.57 inches in 1983. The most precipitation in one month was 10.23 inches in February 1998. The maximum 24-hour rainfall was 3.60 inches on January 30, 1968. Although the summer is normally quite dry in San Jose, a very heavy thunderstorm on August 21, 1968, brought 1.92 inch of rain, causing some localized flooding.
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 on February 5, 1976, when many residents around the city saw as much as 3 inches (7.6 cm) on car and roof tops. The official observation station measured only 0.5 inch of snow. 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.
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
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 University of California, Berkeley, 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. Housing costs are the primary reason for the high cost of living, although the costs in all areas tracked by 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. Thirty-five percent of all venture capital funds in the U.S. are invested in San Jose and Silicon Valley companies.
Demographics
As of the census 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 Census Bureau's 2006 American Community Survey estimated the racial or ethnic makeup of the city as 46.96% White (31.34% White Non-Hispanic), 30.49% Asian, 0.45% Pacific Islander, 2.92% African American, 0.54% Native American, 15.11% from other races, and 3.52% from two or more races. 32.16% of the population were Hispanic of any race. 38.63% of the population was foreign born.
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.
According to a 2006 estimate, 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 $73,804 annually. The median income for a family was $83,089. 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. 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.
San Jose has a very diverse religious life with thousands of churches, mosques, temples, and religious centers. San Jose and the rest of the San Francisco Bay Area is home to many Christian congregations (including large, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses) alongside centers of Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist 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. A high percentage of foreign-born live in the city, 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. 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. 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 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.The height limit is dictated by Federal Aviation Administration guidelines known as advisory circulars. The height limit is driven by the distance from the runway and a slope defined by the FAA in the previously mentioned guidelines. Core downtown buildings are limited to approximately 300 feet but can get taller the 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, 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. 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 are 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 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 . 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.
Sports
The only "Big Four" team to play in San Jose is the San Jose Sharks of the NHL. The Sharks began play as an expansion team in 1991. As of the 2007-08 NHL Season, the Sharks have become extremely popular in San Jose and are one of the top draws in the NHL selling out nearly all of their home games. The team is still yet to win the Stanley Cup, but if they do it would be the first major professional sports team from San Jose to win a championship. The closest the team ever came to a Stanley Cup championship was in 2004 when they lost in the Western Conference Final to the Calgary Flames. The Sharks play home games at the HP Pavilion at San Jose (also referred to as the Shark Tank or the Tank) and is a member of the NHL's Pacific Division in the Western Conference. They have intense rivialries with the Colorado Avalanche and Detroit Red Wings as well as geographic rivalries with the Los Angeles Kings and the Anaheim Ducks.
San Jose has had previous attempts to draw teams from Major League Baseball, the NFL and the NBA by offering stadium deals or attracting relocating sports teams. In 1991 the San Francisco Giants baseball team nearly closed the deal to play in San Jose. In November 2007, MLB's Oakland Athletics (A's) submitted plans to the neighboring city of Fremont in Alameda County for a 32,000 seat stadium with a planned opening for the 2011 season. Since the mid-1990s, numerous attempts to move the team to San Jose or Santa Clara never materialized due to territorial restrictions that places San Jose into neighboring National League's San Francisco Giants territory. Nevertheless, the proposed Cisco Field (naming rights were purchased in 2006 by San Jose-based networking company Cisco Systems) will be five to eight miles (8 to 13 kilometers) north of San Jose's city limits via Interstate 880. This is possible because the A's own territorial rights for Alameda County, which borders much of San Jose to the north. Since the team will be located closer to San Jose than its current home in Oakland if the plan goes through, speculation on a name change to more closely identify with San Jose and its more affluent population and businesses is rife according to the San Jose Mercury-News.
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 | |
