Downtown San Jose

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Downtown San Jose

Downtown San Jose is the central business district of San Jose, California. The area is located north of Interstate 280 and east of Guadalupe Parkway, which roughly parallels Guadalupe River. The region is bound to the north by Highway 101 and to the east by Coyote Creek.

The area was first settled in 1797, when the town of San Jose moved somewhat inland from its original location on the banks of the Guadalupe River. The area was a typical small city downtown until the aggressive expansion of San Jose into surrounding areas led by A. P. Hamann forced city spending to the outlying areas and led to downtown's decline. In the 1980s, mayor Tom McEnery, whose family owned much of the land in downtown, began a program with the San Jose Redevelopment Agency that eventually spent $1.7 billion to revitalize the downtown area.

The ZIP code for the business district of downtown San Jose is 95113, and the residential area is covered by ZIP code 95112.

Business district

Downtown San Jose is noted for its lack of buildings exceeding 15 stories in height, due to its location near Mineta San Jose International Airport. Despite the height restrictions, the area is home to many of the city's landmarks, including the headquarters of Adobe Systems, the San Jose Museum of Art, the Tech Museum of Innovation, the Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph, and the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library. HP Pavilion, just west of Guadalupe Parkway, is also normally considered to be "in" downtown.

Downtown is the home of several important network service providers and Internet service providers, many of them located in Market Post Tower. Although the cost of office and technical space is relatively high downtown, this is offset by the low cost of peering and internetworking, an effect of proximity to other networking companies.

Many of the public areas of downtown San Jose are covered by a public, free, Wi-Fi network, including the areas surrounding Plaza de César Chávez and San Pedro Square. Downtown is also the hub of the VTA's light rail system, and the home of the main campus of San Jose State University. Much of central downtown has been designated on the National Register of Historic Places.

Residential district

The residential areas of Downtown San Jose are usually considered to be located in the region of Hedding, Taylor, and Santa Clara Streets. Little of the existing housing was built before 1906 because many of the original structures were destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Downtown San Jose's housing is primarily Victorian-style, primarily smaller homes but ranging to fairly large gingerbread Victorians. The downtown residential area consisted of primarily Caucasian residents through the mid-twentieth century, but Latinos and Vietnamese Americans have made up most of the region's residents since the latter portion of the twentieth century. Though much of Downtown San Jose is lower-class neighborhoods, some neighborhoods have been gentrified and converted into middle or upper-class communities.

External links

Neighborhoods of San Jose, California'''
Central	Downtown San Jose · Japantown · Rose Garden · Sunol-Midtown · Willow Glen · Naglee Park · Newhall/College Park
West	Burbank · Cambrian Park · North Valley · West San Jose · Winchester
North	Alviso · Berryessa
East	Alum Rock · East Foothills · King and Story · Little Portugal
South	Almaden Valley · Blossom Valley · Coyote Valley · Evergreen · Santa Teresa · San Felipe Valley · Silver Creek Valley
Nearby cities	West: Cupertino · Mountain View · Santa Clara · Sunnyvale North: Fremont · Milpitas South: Campbell · Gilroy · Los Gatos · Morgan Hill · Saratoga

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