In Portland they 'put a bird on it'. In San Jose let's 'put a corporate logo on it.'

Early morning crew removes
the HP Pavilion sign from
the new SAP Center @ San Jose

This week work crews have been busy taking down the last remnants of the HP Pavilion era and began putting up new signage that will highlight the SAP Center at San Jose. All this week and last, arena management has been cleaning house, inside and out. Crews have been cleaning the shiny steel exterior and painting the white lattice work on the building corners. Inside the arena Shark management has been cleaning house as well (see the Silicon Valley Business Journal's Lauren Hepler series of articles on the changes), one of which was installing a new Chief Operating Officer. Interestingly enough the majority owner of the San Jose Sharks franchise, Hasso Plattner, is a co-founder of SAP.

SAP signed the five year deal valued at $8.4 million or $1.7 million per year with the proceeds being split up equally between the team and the City of San Jose. To put this in comparison the deal on the new Forty-Niner stadium in Santa Clara is valued at $220 million for 20 years (third largest deal ever) and the deal for ATT ballpark is valued at $50 million for 24 years. Yahoo also just signed signed a 10 year deal that will make that company the "exclusive online sports content, social networking, and photo and video sharing partner" for the  Forty-Niners.

In a post on his blog, San Jose City Council member Sam Liccardo highlighted a recent independent study which showed that bring the Oakland A's to the city would benefit downtown business by about $83 million annually. Additionally the sale of the future ballpark's naming rights would also bring additional and much needed cash to the city. I'm not sure how naming rights funnel into city coffers. Do they get diluted into the city's general fund? Does it go for maintenance of the arena, or other city assets, such as downtown museums or parks?

But given that the naming rights game is somewhat new (except in the St. Louis area) and limited to mostly sports facilities how else could an innovative city such as San Jose expand the concept. In Japan they even extended it to the teams themselves such as the Seibu (Department Store) Lions which play in the Seibu Dome, the Nippon Ham (meat products) Fighters, and Yakult (Yogurt) Swallows baseball teams. I'll discuss more in my next post but until then; "put a bird on it".

San Jose: Road and trail improvement projects in process.



Shopping on the Avenue (Willow Glen)
photo: WGBA website

 As chair of the city of San Jose's Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) I recently signed a letter of support for funding for various transportation projects in the city.  The city will be submitting grant requests for the projects listed below. Funding is through the One Bay Area Grant Program (OBAG) administered by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC). 

OBAG is investing roughly $800 million over a four-year period (FYs 2012-13 through 2015-16), funded through continuations of the current surface transportation legislation currently known as SAFETEA (the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act).
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OBAG will better integrate the Bay Area region’s federal transportation program with California’s climate law (Senate Bill 375, Steinberg, 2008) and the Sustainable Communities Strategy.

Please note the city will apply for these grants individually and these grants are on a competitive basis with other Bay Area (the nine-county region) cities, counties, and agencies. These projects are in the very initial, or conceptual stages (with the exception of the first project, the Alameda "Beautiful Way").  These grants will help fund the planning and design phases of the projects. Most of the projects have not been put before the public in community meetings. That will be included in a later phase.

I have included at map at the bottom to illustrate approximate citywide locations where possible.

• The Alameda “Beautiful Way” Grand Boulevard Phase 2
• St. John Complete Street Corridor:  HP Pavilion to St. James LRT Station
• Cottle Light Rail – Urban Village Connection
• East San Jose Bike/Ped/Transit Connections
• Penitencia Creek Trail Connection to Berryessa BART Station
• San José PDA Pedestrian Oriented Traffic Safety Signals Program
• San José PDA Ped/Bike/Transit Safety Lighting Program
• Jackson Complete Streets
• Autumn Parkway Extension – Diridon Transit Center Area
• Almaden/Vine “Livable Streets” Couplet Conversion
• Willow Street/Bird Avenue “Road Diet” and Three Creeks Trail Connection
• Oakridge/Almaden Urban Village Trail & Transit Connections

View OBAG - One Bay Area Grant Request in a larger map

Good Karma Bikes - Transportation for Transformation

Jada celebrates her 9th birthday with a
pink "Disney princesses" bicycle
 by Good Karma Bikes!

Had a great conversation with Irene yesterday from Good Karma Bikes. Good Karma is one of three Santa Clara County bicycle coops that I know of in this area. The other two are the Silicon Valley Bike Clinic of San Jose and Bicycle Exchange in Mountain View. (I hope to feature these two in future posts). Good Karma has been around for a couple of years and holds a weekly bike repair clinic at Diridon Station on Saturdays.

Saturday Repair Clinic
10 a.m.- 4 p.m.
Adjacent to the Diridon Station (see map below).
102  S. Montgomery Street,
San Jose

Good Karma Bikes can be found under the red pop-up tents in the Stephen's Meats Parking Lot Across from Patti's Inn.

They are also giving free classes on how to fix bikes at the shop located on Sunol Street.  If you would like to be involved in this just let them know by e-mail.
 
Good Karma also has a Yahoo group if you are interested: 
 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Friends_of_Good_Karma_Bikes/ 




View Larger Map

Some recent reads: books, blogs, and other marginalia

High Line Park, New York

Some recent reads. Not all of them directly related to urbanista stuff.

Books

Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier by Edward Glaeser 

Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less are the Keys to Sustainability by David Owen

The Economy of Cities by Jane Jacobs

The Great Inversion and the Future of the American City by alan ehrenhalt

The Rise Of The Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community And Everyday Life by Richard Florida
The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life by Marion Roach Smith

Brew to Bikes: Portland's Artisan Economy by Charles Heying

Human Transit: How clear thinking about public transit can enrich our communities and our lives by Jarrett Walker

The High Cost of Free Parking: Donald Shoup

The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Guwande

Blogs and Websites

Strong Towns

The San Jose Blog

The HighLine

Other Marginalia

SPUR - San Jose

San Jose Bike Party

Tactical Urbanism

Pecha Kucha

SPUR Lunchtime forum - Fort Mason Streetcar

Tomorrow, Wednesday, October 19, 12:30 PM

The proposed project to extend the historic F-Line streetcar all the way to Fort Mason is making progress. Join Rick Laubscher, president of the Market Street Railway, and Doug Wright, project consultant to Fort Mason Center for details on the project, including its benefits, costs and plans for implementation. 12:30 pm.

This event is hosted by SPUR.
SPUR is located at:
654 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94105

This event is free to members. $10 for non-members. OK to bring lunch.



- Posted from my iPhone

Location:S Mathilda Ave,Sunnyvale,United States

Population and Vehicle Density Correlation

This was a little fun I had playing with a graphical representation of the amount of land converted to parking; assuming a density of 6,000 residents per square mile (Sunnyvale, CA). I came up with just under 25% of the land would be needed to park cars, on average. This does not assume land needed to move those cars. I haven't gotten there yet.

The land here in the Silicon Valley only 50 years ago used to be full of orchards now parking lots have taken there place.

Parking Requirement Calculations (Google Docs)

The larger square represents one mile square. Notice how the old orchard roads were one mile distant. Now these "one mile roads" make for perfect suburban arterial roads. The smaller red square represents one quarter of a square mile.




View Asphalt Jungle in a larger map

How this all started. - Part I

After living in the valley for ten years now; I have contemplated going without a car for several years now. After reading a couple of very good books by James Kuntsler; first "The Geography of Nowhere; the Rise and Decline of Americas Man Made Landscape" and "Home from Nowhere" my eyes were opened to how American cities used to be and how they are now. My mother told me of growing up in San Diego and using the trolley to go the 2-3 miles downtown to go shopping or see a movie. They lived above the family business just as described in Kuntsler's books with a very tight knit fabric of families.

As for myself I grew up loving bikes, bike rides, bike races and any other thing having to do with bikes. At 14 I had a paper route or sub for others with a paper route. Having to get up at 4:00 in the morning wasn't so bad. I got to ride when no one was out and I still remember the smells at the time of the morning when there were no cars out and no winds or breezes. I used to ride or walk to school. In fact I had a friend and classmate who lived on the other side of town (back then in San Diego, the other side could have been 10 miles) and bike to school everyday.

In high school I met a friend of mine at a street corner early one morning with our bikes and crude panniers and headed north to Los Angles. We camped on the beach in San Clemente right next to the Western White House; President Nixon's old summer home. We got as far as Long Beach before heading back but we were hooked.

My next big ride wouldn't be until 1984, to ride north to Los Angles again to see the Olympic Bicycle Road race which was open to everyone. We rode up the day before putting in about 120 miles to get to our night's lodgings. The next day we rode to the venue to see the men's road race and watch Alexi Grewal win the U.S.'s first ever cycling gold medal.

After this I rode for fun and fitness but it wasn't until I took a two week bicycling trip around British Columbia, Canada that I really got into it again. I don't know what it is but the feeling of making my way around on a trip under my own power is intoxicating as it is practical.

How All This Started - Part III

How All This Started - Part II