SAN JOSE NOTRE DAME NEIGHBOURHOOD DOES NOT NEED MORE RESIDENCES, IT NEEDS MORE ACTIVITY & AMENITY OPTIONS

There have only been 4 high-rises built in Downtown SJ in the most recent 6 years--2 of which are STILL under construction, so there has only been 2 high-rises built and being leased. We're going to need of them (and the wealth residents they are leased out to) if we hope to have more non-bar/restaurant entertainment options.

Brian, I agree regarding non-bar/restaurant entertainment. But I disagree on going to another city to catch a first run movie. From downtown you can always take lightrail to go to Oakridge Mall and catch first run movies. Oakridge Mall also has a very nice bowling alley. That said, it would be nice to have a bowling alley and first run movie theatre right here in Downtown, but before doing so, we need a lot of local residents to support those types of businesses. The residents who don't live in Downtown are not going to drive in to Downtown, pay to park, just to watch movies. They can go to Oakridge, Eastridge, Vallco, Mercado, and Milpitas to watch movies and do other entertainments (Top Golf in North San Jose, etc). Any theaters or bowling alleys in Downtown are going to have to be supported by Downtown residents. And right now, there is just not enough Downtown residents to support these businesses.

Axis, 2002

For amenities, it's going to be pretty hard for this spot. This is because just 1 exit up on 87 from Andy's Pet Shop, and you're going to be at San Jose Market Center on Coleman, which can also be accessed by a 15-minute walk and 4-minute bike ride via Autumn Road. This market center has Target, a ton of restaurants, a bar via BJ's, and dessert places, and other amenity stores. So an amenity spot at Andy's Pet Shop will only cater immediately to the residents immediately surrounding it, who will always have the options of going to SJ Market Center 4 minutes drive away. It's going to be tough to work with that kind of established competition so close to it.

Downtown has always had a lot of bars and restaurants. The bar/arcade at the Toons location should go a long way to provide more non-bars/restaurant entertainment. As I have mentioned in other replies, we need more residents in order to make retail/entertainment hub works in Downtown.

In order to have more retail in Downtown, we need more residents in Downtown. Right now, the residents of San Jose go to their respective mega malls to shop: eastern San Jose go to Eastridge, western San Jose to VF/SR/Westgate, and southern San Jose go to Oakridge. Northeastern San Jose go to Great Mall in Milpitas. For high-end stuffs, everyone in the South Bay go to VF/SR and Stanford. So in order to support retail in Downtown, we need local Downtown residents to do so. Even though we have added a lot of residentials over the last few years, the majority of Downtown residents are not the types that have large disposable income. By building new residential high-rises, we can bring in large amounts of wealthy residents and put them together in a small footprint.

Grace, San Jose has over 350 parks within city border. Our city also borders the hills and mountains of Diablo and Santa Cruz ranges. We also have preserved a huge green space buffer to the south of City called Coyote Valley. So trust me, San Jose has a TON of green space. The Downtown area is an urbanized region, and thus will have less green space by nature. That's completely fine.

We actually have quite a bit of green space in Downtown's core: Guadalupe River Park, Chavez Park, St. James, and there will be another one in North San Pedro neighborhood. San Jose Downtown is also the urban center of the South Bay, so it is natural for it to have an urban, concrete look and not be like the rest of the South Bay suburbia.

San Jose Downtown has a lot of space between high-rises, too many in fact. The name of the game is to fill those spaces.

San Jose has one of the largest, and best, skate parks in California, located at Lake Cunningham park. The younger generations also tend to use a lot of Downtown plazas and buildings and park (such as Chavez Park) for skating. A dog park can be found close to Andy's Pet Shop on Santa Clara/Almaden next to Lee Yick laundry. Another dog park can also be found at Park Avenue/Delmas, which is a 7-minute jaunt down from Andy's Pet Shop.

Carol, there is a park called Guadalupe River Park immediately within a 4-minute walking distance of Andy's Pet Shop. There will also be another neighborhood park planned for the North San Pedro project north of Julian, also within a 5 minute walk of Andy's Pet Shop. Once the City gets around to cleaning up St. James Park, we will also have that park within a 5 minute walk of Andy's Pet Shop.

High-rise condo buildings use the least amount of city services per housing units, and also dole out the overall tax benefits to the City (sales tax from residential usage of local businesses, property tax, etc). In order to have more entertainment, we need more immediately localized patrons/residents. And not just any type of residents. We need the ones that have lots of discretionary income. High-rise condos pull in those type of residents. So if we want more entertainment, we're going to need to make sure there's a healthy base of localized wealthy patrons/residents. High-rise condos allow us to stick a very large number of these residents into a small footprint.

These will be provided by the North San Pedro project. I believe we will see townhomes and condos about 4-5 stories high and a pretty good-sized park.

A Dog park is already provided on Park Avenue/Auzerais, close enough to Notre Dame dog park, not to mention there is already a smaller dog park next to the laundromat on Santa Clara/Almaden. Parks and fountain/piazza with benches are already there at Guadalupe River Park, just a quick walk away from the Carlyle block. The city cannot require any retail spaces to be filled. Business demands dictate their filling, not the government. I agree that we may need to think of incentives to bring more retail into the area near Axis. But let's remember that Axis sits right next to San Pedro Square Market which is a thriving bars/restaurant area. And more retail space will be added with the Silvery Towers currently under construction. More retail will depend on how many more workers and local residents we have.

Retail in Downtown SJ is hard to do due to the presence of VF/SR behemoth (already the top 3 largest mega-mall in Northern California and by end of 2018 expansion will be the largest mega-mall in Northern California by every imaginable statistics, sq ft, store numbers, sales revenues, etc) only 4 exits away on 280. But we do have our theatres and performance arts and bars and restaurants. And what they need are patrons such as workers and local residents. By building high-rise residentials and filling them with high-salaried residents, Downtown businesses will be supported, and in turns more businesses will pop up.

The park for North San Pedro housing is still part of the plan. The two high-rises planned for NSP do not in anyway affect the original park plan.

They thought it was a combination of suburb and utopia. Didn't realize it would be the slums of the future. -Jack Diddly, Suburbia

Totally agree with this - downtown is missing the mark on having any for of entertainment or shopping for downtown residents and/or bringing people downtown.

There are already two more going up by Bassett and San Pedro, where there was supposed to be a park... enough already!

I would like to see a new low rise with a dog and a people parks or fountain/piazza with benches; and retail on the bottom. With some underground parking. I would also like the city to require the retail spaces that already exsist at Centera to be filled. The city needs to provide more incentives to bring the retail into our area near Axis.