The coffee shops you mentioned are doing well despite what the city has done, not because of what the city has done. Please do not take credit for the fact they serve a good product and run a good business. You are a hindrance to business, despite your pretty word pictures. What do you not understand that the urchins that roam downtown San Jose have chased the patrons away?? Nobody wants to subject themselves to the vagrants and gangsters when there are so many other viable options. Why the hell do people want to go to a place where you are going to rely on patrons to be the “eyes” out for the criminal element? Yeah, that is going to be a real selling point for families looking for a place to go. Even if these patron lookouts spot a crime, there are no cops left to respond. Are you also going to deputize the patrons of these outdoor cafes? Sam, can you take your social engineering baloney, along with SPUR, and flush it down a low flush toilet, please?

If it’s just making it easy for businesses to block off parking spaces for tables, or putting tables in front of an establishment without blocking the sidewalk then what’s the downside?  If it is additional opportunities for bloat and bureaucracy, then the naysayers are going to be right.

If any of you know anything about Murphy Street in Sunnyvale, you know that after all the money they spent for redevelopment (building and then “re”building the shopping center), the block of Murphy Street they left alone is the area that gets all the business now.

Add some large retail stores and there is certainly the potential for a more vibrant, flourishing downtown area.

Finfan,

You’ve performed a bit of magic in writing a factual assessment of Downtown San Joser!  Without lying through their dentures, few could disagree with you.

Liccardo, Reed, et al, seem to have no issue with their “Emperor’s Clothes” approach, when describing the gnarly and unseemly side of Downtown. 

And, while Santana Row, is overdone falseness in terms of kinship with a real downtown street scene, it’s a clean and vibrant place and I’ll spend my time and money there, avoiding the parasites and intruders, who sustain the filth and grubby conditions in Downtown, a place once grand but nevermore to be.

And that was just a few years ago before “pension reform” cough cough.
Good luck Sam. Those of us in the know recognize you’re merely shilling for SPUR and the Toeniskoetter Development group. Keep it up pal. The Seeno brothers could use some company.

P.S. Nice picture of the empty sidewalk cafe. You could of at least got skinny Pete Constant to sit down for an outdoor meal and photo. Or is he determined to spend all his council card money at his buddies Pasta Market restaurant on Coleman?
No need for any more Urbanism over there. Camp Chuck Sam is right across the street.

Sometime ago on this site a poster (David Wall perhaps) warned everyone ans suggested people start educating themselves on an outfit called “San Jose SPUR” and the topic it promoted which is “Urbanism” or “New Urbansism.”

It didn’t take long for posters on this particular article to deduce that Liccardo’s “More Eyes on the Street = A Safer San Jose”  is just a load of hooey. 

Given the current tact of Mayor Reed and his core block of Votes on the City Council (which includes Liccardo) to utterly decimate the traditional “front line in the war on crime” THE POLICE DEPARTMENT… there is little doubt that the planning/building concepts of URBANISM are in play. 

The tenets of Urbanism is exactly what Liccardo and Co are proposing – this idea that “everything out in the open”  naturally reduces “anonymity” ; that limiting vehicle traffic and encouraging well defined and bounded areas for people to associate that are best accessed on foot and public transportation rather than by automobiles is part of the kook factor.  Urbanists love to say that high visibility (see and be seen)  should naturally promote more civil and socially acceptable behavior amongst us all – everything is brought out into the sunshine – and imply that crooks can run but they cant hide.

Big porches Big windows big sidewalk cafes…. for those who haven’t figured it out yet, Urbanists believe that surveillance cameras are a cost effective replacement for expensive police forces.

Urbanists desire to create “territory” (TURF) outsiders are welcome to come and spend but don’t misbehave or you’ll be reported to the “authorities.”

Here is a report on how expensive the cost of policing crime in “Urban-ized” areas is vs areas that are designed with more traditional “security” measures:  http://www.americandreamcoalition.org/safety/policingnu/policingnu.html#photos

Urbansim very expensive – how many “lattes” does a cafe have to sell to pay for it?  Again we have a scenario where Liccardo (one of the “usual suspects”) is lobbying for planning that will no doubt funnel more taxpayer money to developers!!! Doubt it? Check out the “Director” of San Jose SPUR – her last name (not a very common one )  is connected to …..a big time developer!

By the way, now that CalPERS has come back and given you a price tag on your by out for your pension, I guess it just easier to keep it and hope everybody forgets the you lied about getting rid of you pension.

Must be nice to have vested rights for your pension and future police officer will not.

You better hope measure B does not pass.

Talk about “eyes on the street” safety, why during my entire visit to this nascent urban village, not one of the dozen or so shopping carts assembled there was touched by anyone other than the urbanite “owner” (who’d originally stolen it from a local business). Oh, there was lots of arguing to be heard—including a few profanity-laden threats, but that, along with the odors of human waste baking in the sunlight, only made me feel like I was really sitting outside a trendy cafe in downtown San Jose.

Nothing enhances a warm panini lunch plate like the cigarette smoke and tubercular hacking of a half-drunk homeless beggar leaning over the table. Wow! So this is life in a sanctuary city! A city that never hesitates to use its powers to extract ever more money from those who commute to work, pay their taxes, or operate businesses, while at the same time it facilitates the ability of parasites and foreign intruders to spread their filth and incivility wherever it suits them.

No question about it, this is what things look like after city hall has “done its part.”