Not long after major sporting events drew massive crowds to downtown San Jose and San Francisco, a survey ranked the two cities near the bottom of a national list for vibrancy. <\/p>\n
However, local leaders and business experts say the data is outdated and does not reflect a recent surge in money, music and partying.<\/p>\n
According to a 2025 survey of local residents by Gensler Research, San Jose ranked 29th out of 34 major cities in vibrancy, with San Francisco performing similarly poorly.<\/p>\n
On an average day, downtown San Jose can still feel quiet. Several storefronts remain empty, and the popular restaurant chain Sushi Confidential recently announced plans to leave San Pedro Square.<\/p>\n
“I don’t even go out downtown, really, myself,” one resident noted.<\/p>\n
But the survey was conducted before the Bay Area experienced a banner six months of major events, which included the Super Bowl, the World Cup and a massive Dom Dolla music festival.<\/p>\n
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan said the city is turning a corner and learning lessons about how to consistently bring people back to the urban core.<\/p>\n
“I actually think we’re making huge progress,” Mahan said. “I think we’re proving what’s possibly when we intentionally program the downtown around sports, entertainment, and cultural experiences.”<\/p>\n
Successful strategies have included hosting more festivals and creating entertainment zones that allow patrons to carry drinks between bars instead of discarding them at the door.<\/p>\n
“You see all the festivals, the entertainment zones allowing drinks to pass between bars instead of dumping them at the door, and that’s been wildly successful,” Mahan added.<\/p>\n
These efforts are crucial for the survival of local businesses. Mark Ritchie of Ritchie Commercial Real Estate noted that a healthy downtown relies on a mix of daytime workers and active locals.<\/p>\n
“We have corporate around here, we have so many businesses that are restaurants and everything else and people just walking that live locally,” Ritchie said.<\/p>\n
The ongoing challenge reflects a broader shift in urban planning. Because many downtowns were originally built at a time when retail was a primary draw, rather than online shopping, they must now pivot to thrive on restaurants, bars and large-scale events.<\/p>\n
While the city continues to adapt, some residents are already brainstorming creative ways to boost the area’s appeal and bring in new crowds.<\/p>\n
“I’d say maybe a big surf park right in the middle of downtown would be great,” San Jose resident Melissa Hartman said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not long after major sporting events drew massive crowds to downtown San Jose and San Francisco, a survey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[88,90,89],"class_list":["post-429367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429367","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=429367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}