[Mick]

In the 2023 SFG thread, we talked about the decimation of return visitors and workers to San Francisco. San Jose is now experiencing 96% of the visits to the city's urban core that occurred in 2019, the final full year before the COVID shutdown. That's the third highest level of activity in the 66 downtown districts in North America, trailing only the 103% for Las Vegas and 97% in El Paso. These results are from a study conducted by the University of Toronto, used mobile phone activity as the measuring stick. Office worker returns in San Jose are at about 40%.

And here's the link to the study's graphic: https://downtownrecovery.com/charts/rankings

The news is not so good in other California cities. San Francisco is only at 67% of its pre-coronavirus visits (ranking 48th), and Oakland is at 74% of their pre-COVID visits, ranking 37th. LA and SD are at 83% and 80% respectively.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/10/23/s...ovid-tech/

Was downtown San Jose that vibrant before the pandemic? Always has seemed to me to be somewhat quiet for a downtown of a major city, so 96% of a lower number is still a lower number. Similarly, what's considered downtown in LA? What I considered downtown is always dead after dark. . . .

It's just a broad comparative. San Jose's downtown is as it ever was, and San Francisco's is 1/3rd smaller. Not so great for SF Giants foot traffic.

There are things to do in downtown San Jose...maybe not things that you and I would want to do, but they have a number of interesting activities. The roots in San Jose's boring downtown are more than a century old...in the 1920s, the city fathers essentially conspired against allowing major department stores in downtown San Jose to protect their businesses (e.g., Hart's Department Store was the "big" store for quite a long time). So they didn't have big box department stores, no Macy's, Nordstroms, Neiman Marcus, not even Sears or JC Penney. Although interestingly, Mrs. Mick's shopping contacts tell her that Santana Row in West San Jose and Valleyfair (technically in Santa Clara, but across the street from Santana Row) are attracting more high-end shoppers and sales volume than Union Square and Stanford Shopping Center.

It doesn't mean that the Warriors or Giants will ever play in San Jose, but they did attract the Sharks and 49ers...

[Mick]

In the 2023 SFG thread, we talked about the decimation of return visitors and workers to San Francisco. San Jose is now experiencing 96% of the visits to the city's urban core that occurred in 2019, the final full year before the COVID shutdown. That's the third highest level of activity in the 66 downtown districts in North America, trailing only the 103% for Las Vegas and 97% in El Paso. These results are from a study conducted by the University of Toronto, used mobile phone activity as the measuring stick. Office worker returns in San Jose are at about 40%.

And here's the link to the study's graphic: https://downtownrecovery.com/charts/rankings

The news is not so good in other California cities. San Francisco is only at 67% of its pre-coronavirus visits (ranking 48th), and Oakland is at 74% of their pre-COVID visits, ranking 37th. LA and SD are at 83% and 80% respectively.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/10/23/s...ovid-tech/

Was downtown San Jose that vibrant before the pandemic? Always has seemed to me to be somewhat quiet for a downtown of a major city, so 96% of a lower number is still a lower number. Similarly, what's considered downtown in LA? What I considered downtown is always dead after dark. . . .

It's just a broad comparative. San Jose's downtown is as it ever was, and San Francisco's is 1/3rd smaller. Not so great for SF Giants foot traffic.

There are things to do in downtown San Jose...maybe not things that you and I would want to do, but they have a number of interesting activities. The roots in San Jose's boring downtown are more than a century old...in the 1920s, the city fathers essentially conspired against allowing major department stores in downtown San Jose to protect their businesses (e.g., Hart's Department Store was the "big" store for quite a long time). So they didn't have big box department stores, no Macy's, Nordstroms, Neiman Marcus, not even Sears or JC Penney. Although interestingly, Mrs. Mick's shopping contacts tell her that Santana Row in West San Jose and Valleyfair (technically in Santa Clara, but across the street from Santana Row) are attracting more high-end shoppers and sales volume than Union Square and Stanford Shopping Center.

It doesn't mean that the Warriors or Giants will ever play in San Jose, but they did attract the Sharks and 49ers...