{"id":356490,"date":"2026-06-11T17:17:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T17:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/356490\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T17:17:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T17:17:21","slug":"san-jose-downtown-revitalization-gets-boost-from-activating-street-life-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/356490\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jose downtown revitalization gets boost from activating street life"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, San Jose needed a comeback.<\/p>\n

It was slow at first, as the downtown calendar gradually filled up with new music festivals, night markets, street fairs and other events. Last year, though, it finally hit a tipping point as the city\u2019s nightlife scene exploded and downtown drew more than 34 million visitors \u2014 an increase of 9 percent over 2024, according to data from location analytics firm Placer.ai.<\/p>\n

RELATED:\u00a0Bay Area downtowns aren\u2019t dying \u2013 they\u2019re changing<\/a><\/p>\n

Ironically, this new success owed a debt to the pandemic itself, which had inspired San Jose officials to spend money creating more outdoor experiences for residents and visitors. The Urban Vibrancy Institute\u2019s Every Thursday initiative recruited bands to play at different brewpubs and restaurants in 2022 and then expanded that into a series of block parties with live music and food trucks in different downtown districts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They started with a splash in 2023<\/a> with an eclectic crowd of a few hundred grabbing a bite or a drink at Scratch Kitchen and Goodtime Bar in Fountain Alley in the Historic District or on the Paseo de San Antonio next to the Hammer Theatre. The following year, the block parties looked to be following a similar pattern. Then, the social media sensation San Jose Foos got involved, hyping the July event at San Pedro Square.<\/p>\n

Somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 people jammed onto the street, listening to music by the Good Time Collective. On Santa Clara Street, crowds waited in groups on the corners like there was a Sharks playoff game going on. The parties never reached that kind of attendance again, but the point had been made: People will show up downtown if you throw a good party.<\/p>\n

\"AA large crowd attends the Kehlani performance during the Big Game Block Party on East Santa Clara Street in front of City Hall in downtown San Jose on Feb. 7, 2026. (Doug Duran\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

The San Jose City Council also voted to create pedestrian malls on portions of San Pedro Street and Post Street<\/a>. In both cases, the asphalt was covered with colorful street murals, and the closed streets became natural gathering spots for pop-up events.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur downtown has at times struggled to be a consistent regional destination,\u201d Mayor Matt Mahan said at a forum on the Future of Downtown in March. But that\u2019s changing, he said. \u201cPeople are coming because there\u2019s something unique there.\u201d<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time that a focus on outdoor culture spotlighting some of downtown\u2019s best assets \u2014 great weather and numerous parks and plazas \u2014 has worked for San Jose. Christmas in the Park, Music in the Park and San Jose Jazz\u2019s SummerFest have been consistently popular for decades. There are no fewer than six major running events that go through downtown, the summer City Dance series outside the San Jose Museum of Art gets more popular every year, and the routes for Viva CalleSJ \u2014 which closes six miles of streets to vehicle traffic and opens them for bikes, skateboards and walkers \u2014 almost always go through downtown.<\/p>\n

This year, the multiple events connected to national and global sports events like the Super Bowl and the World Cup have supplanted block parties.<\/p>\n

On the Friday between rounds of the NCAA Men\u2019s Basketball tournament in March, DJ Diesel \u2014 aka NBA legend Shaquille O\u2019Neal \u2014 spun tunes for a crowd of about 5,000 people in front of San Pedro Square Market. A few weeks earlier, during Super Bowl weekend, crowds three or four times that size massed on the street in front of City Hall for a pair of music-driven block parties featuring Kehlani and DJ Dom Dolla. The pattern will be repeated this summer when six FIFA World Cup games are played at Levi\u2019s Stadium.<\/p>\n

\"EstebanEsteban Vasquez, from San Jose, dances during the 35th annual San Jose Jazz Summer Fest at Plaza de Cesar Chavez in San Jose on Aug. 8, 2025. (Shae Hammond\/Bay Area News Group)<\/p>\n

\u201cSuper Bowl and World Cup are pretty unique experiences,\u201d Mahan said. \u201cBut let\u2019s not underestimate the power of creating a reputation and a playbook for being a place that does sports events, conferences, conventions, live music and have that be a repeat driver of the experience economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Local event producer Fil Maresca agrees that the key to the comeback has been creating a consistently enjoyable experience for people, especially those who live in and around downtown.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more successful events are the neighborhood events,\u201d Maresca said. \u201cYou create a sense of place, and that\u2019s what brings people, as opposed to the headliner or a fireworks show.\u201d<\/p>\n

That sense of place can be found at South First Fridays, which has been inviting people to explore downtown\u2019s art galleries and other creative spaces<\/a> every month for more than two decades, as well as the weekly night markets in Japantown and Parque de los Pobladores and cultural events like the Little Italy Festival.<\/p>\n

\"PasqualePasquale Esposito entertains at the 2nd Annual Little Italy San Jose Street Festival on North Almaden Boulevard in San Jose on Oct. 28, 2017. (Karl Mondon\/Staff Archives)<\/p>\n

Maia Harris, vice president of strategic operations for San Francisco-based developer Jay Paul, said people who haven\u2019t spent much time in downtown San Jose often have a perception of the area being beset by crime and homelessness. \u201cBut when you bring those people downtown, you change that perception,\u201d she said at the Future of Downtown forum.<\/p>\n

With visitors and residents noticing the resurgent nightlife, the San Jose Downtown Association and the city have started a \u201cstitching districts\u201d initiative to connect different downtown areas with lighting and wayfinding signage.<\/p>\n

The goal is to create a seamless downtown where people can start in Little Italy or San Pedro Square and party their way to the SoFA district without missing a beat. And it\u2019s starting to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople say, \u2018I can walk across the street on Thursday nights, and there\u2019s a band playing in the park across the street from my house.\u2019 That is a great thing,\u201d Maresca said. \u201cWhen you say to somebody, \u2018I\u2019m going to a night market,\u2019 nobody says, \u2018Who\u2019s playing?\u2019 They say, \u2018Which one?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, San Jose needed a comeback. It was slow at first, as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[7,1335,383,967,839,23,100,88,90,89,420],"class_list":["post-356490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-california","tag-development","tag-economy","tag-entertainment","tag-festivals","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356490","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=356490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}