San Jose<\/a>, as the City Council unanimously approved a critical agreement to release $2 million in state-awarded funding for the project.<\/p>\nThe expansion, known as “La Placita,” will help to revitalize the East San Jose community. Located across Alum Rock Avenue from Mexican Heritage Plaza, which was a center for the farmworker movement in the 1960s.<\/p>\n
Revitalizing a Cultural Hub in East San Jose<\/p>\n
The Mexican Heritage Plaza has long served as one of the key cultural hubs of the East Side.<\/p>\n
“The reason why this is so important is for over a decade, that building sat mostly vacant and blighted,” said Jessica Paz-Cedillos, CEO of the Mexican Heritage Plaza. “When you think about public space and families and youth being able to walk around and access services, that creates neighborhood vibrancy.”<\/p>\n
What to Expect at La Placita<\/p>\n
Once construction is complete, La Placita will serve as a multi-use community anchor. The facility is slated to include:<\/p>\n
A 200-seat “black box” theater for local performing arts.<\/p>\n
A family health and wellness center.<\/p>\n
A dedicated resource center for child care services.<\/p>\n
A new caf\u00e9 designed to spur local economic growth.<\/p>\n
The expansion is part of a broader effort to revitalize the Alum Rock corridor and create sustainable local jobs. Gloria Castaneda, who will operate the new caf\u00e9, told KTVU in an earlier interview the business will provide opportunities for both professionals and youth.<\/p>\n
“We will hire a pastry chef, a regular chef, grill cooks, and waiters,” Castaneda said. “We will also hire students after school to help us with prep.”<\/p>\n
Funding the Finish Line<\/p>\n
While the $2 million grant was previously approved in the California state budget, Tuesday\u2019s City Council vote was a necessary administrative step to establish the grant agreements between the state and the plaza.<\/p>\n
The funding arrives at a critical time. Paz-Cedillos said that the project is currently in the active construction phase, which carries a high overhead.<\/p>\n
“It is incredibly important,” Paz-Cedillos said. “We are talking about a half-million dollars a month in order to get this project across the finish line. Having that money accessible to us goes a long way.”<\/p>\n
What’s next<\/p>\n
La Placita is expected to be completed and open to the public early next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief The San Jose City Council on Tuesday approved a key agreement to help fund the expansion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[1610,10150,11104,76764,76765,88,5500,90,89],"class_list":{"0":"post-259161","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-jose","8":"tag-city-council","9":"tag-east-san-jose","10":"tag-expansion","11":"tag-la-placita","12":"tag-mexican-heritage-plaza","13":"tag-san-jose","14":"tag-san-jose-city-council","15":"tag-san-jose-headlines","16":"tag-san-jose-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}