San Jose, California

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigationJump to search

This article is about the city in Silicon Valley. For other uses, see San José.

San Jose, California

City

City of San José

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Top to bottom, left to right: Downtown San Jose skyline, Hotel De Anza, Bank of Italy Building, San José City Hall, Hotel Valencia at Santana Row; Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton

 

Flag

 

Seal

Motto(s): 

The Capital of Silicon Valley

 

Shown within Santa Clara County

 

San Jose

Location within California

Show map of CaliforniaShow map of the United StatesShow map of North AmericaShow all

Coordinates: 37°20′N 121°54′WCoordinates: 37°20′N 121°54′W

Country United States

State California

County Santa Clara

RegionSan Francisco Bay Area

MetroSan Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara

CSASan Jose-San Francisco-Oakland

Pueblo foundedNovember 29, 1777

Founded asPueblo de San José de Guadalupe

IncorporatedMarch 27, 1850[1]

Named forSaint Joseph

Government

 • TypeCouncil–manager[2]

 • BodySan Jose City Council

 • MayorSam Liccardo[3] (D)

 • Assemblymembers[4]

List[show]

Area

[5]

 • City181.36 sq mi (469.72 km2)

 • Land178.24 sq mi (461.63 km2)

 • Water3.12 sq mi (8.09 km2)  1.91%

 • Urban342.27 sq mi (741.03 km2)

 • Metro2,694.61 sq mi (6,979 km2)

Elevation

[6]

82 ft (25 m)Lowest elevation

[7]

0 ft (0 m)Population

 (2010)

 • City945,942

 • Estimate 

(2019)[8]

1,021,795

 • Rank3rd in California[9]
10th in the United States

 • Density5,732.79/sq mi (2,213.44/km2)

 • Urban1,894,389 (29th)

 • Metro1,998,463 (34th)

 • CSA8,837,789 (5th)

Demonym(s)San Josean(s)
Josefino/a(s)

Time zoneUTC−8 (Pacific Time Zone)

 • Summer (DST)UTC−7 (Pacific Daylight Time)

ZIP codes

List[show]

Area code(s)408/669

FIPS code06-68000

GNIS feature IDs1654952, 2411790

Websitewww.sanjoseca.gov

San Jose[A] (/ˌsæn hoʊˈzeɪ, -ˈseɪ/; Spanish: [saŋ xoˈse]; Spanish for '"Saint Joseph"'),[13] officially the City of San José,[B] is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley[14][15][16] and the largest city in Northern California, by both population and area.

With an estimated 2019 population of 1,021,795, it is the third-most populous city in California (after Los Angeles and San Diego) and the tenth-most populous in the United States.[17] Located in the center of the Santa Clara Valley, on the southern shore of San Francisco Bay, San Jose covers an area of 179.97 square miles (466.1 km2). San Jose is the county seat of Santa Clara County, the most affluent county in California and one of the most affluent counties in the United States.[18][19][20][21] San Jose is the main component of the San Jose–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara Metropolitan Statistical Area, with an estimated population of around 2 million residents in 2018.[22] It is also the most populous city in both the San Francisco Bay Area and the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland Combined Statistical Area, which contain 7.7 million and 8.7 million people respectively.[23][24][25]

San Jose is notable as a center of innovation, for its affluence,[26][27][28] Mediterranean climate, and extremely high cost of living.[29] Its location within the booming high tech industry as a cultural, political, and economic center has earned the city the nickname "Capital of Silicon Valley". San Jose is one of the wealthiest major cities in the United States and the world, and has the third-highest GDP per capita in the world (after Zürich, Switzerland and Oslo, Norway), according to the Brookings Institution.[30] The San Jose Metropolitan Area has the most millionaires and the most billionaires in the United States per capita.[31] With a median home price of $1,085,000,[32] San Jose has the most expensive housing market in the country and the fifth most expensive housing market in the world, according to the 2017 Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey.[33][34][35][36] Major global tech companies including Cisco Systems, eBay, Adobe Inc., PayPal, Broadcom, Samsung, Acer, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Zoom maintain their headquarters in San Jose, in the center of Silicon Valley.

Before the arrival of the Spanish, the area around San Jose was inhabited by the Tamien nation of the Ohlone peoples of California. San Jose was founded on November 29, 1777, as the Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe, the first city founded in the Californias.[37] It then became a part of Mexico in 1821 after the Mexican War of Independence. Following the American Conquest of California during the Mexican–American War, the territory was ceded to the United States in 1848. After California achieved statehood two years later, San Jose became the state's first capital.[38] Following World War II, San Jose experienced an economic boom, with a rapid population growth and aggressive annexation of nearby cities and communities carried out in the 1950s and 1960s. The rapid growth of the high-technology and electronics industries further accelerated the transition from an agricultural center to an urbanized metropolitan area. Results of the 1990 U.S. Census indicated that San Jose had officially surpassed San Francisco as the most populous city in Northern California.[39] By the 1990s, San Jose and the rest of Silicon Valley had become the global center for the high tech and internet industries, making it California's fastest-growing economy.[40]

History[edit]

Main articles: History of San Jose, California and Timeline of San Jose, California

Historical affiliations

•  Spanish Empire 1771–1821

•  First Mexican Empire 1821–1823

•  United Mexican States 1823–1848

•  California Republic 1846

•  United States 1848–present

Pre-Columbian period[edit]

The Santa Clara Valley has been home to the Tamyen group of the Ohlone people since around 4,000 BC.[41][42][43] The Tamyen spoke Tamyen language of the Ohlone language family. With the Spanish colonization of California, the majority of the Tamyen came to inhabit Mission Santa Clara de Asís and Mission San José.[44]

Spanish period[edit]

See also: Las Californias

 

A 1781 map of the Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe

 

The Luis María Peralta Adobe in San Pedro Square (built in 1797) is San Jose's oldest building.

 

San Jose celebrates the anniversary of its foundation every year at the Peralta Adobe.

California was claimed as part of the Spanish Empire in 1542, when explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo charted the Californian coast. During this time, California and Baja California were administered together as Province of the California (Spanish: Provincia de las California). For nearly 200 years, the Californias were sparsely populated and largely ignored by the government of the Viceroyalty of New Spain in Mexico City. Only in 1769 was Northern California finally surveyed by Spanish authorities, with the Portolá Expedition.[45]

In 1776, the Californias were included as part of the Captaincy General of the Provincias Internas, a large administrative division created by José de Gálvez, Spanish Minister of the Indies, in order to provide greater autonomy for the Spanish Empire's lightly populated and largely ungoverned borderlands. That year, King Carlos III of Spain approved an expedition by Juan Bautista de Anza to survey the San Francisco Bay Area, in order to choose the sites for two future settlements and their accompanying mission. First he chose the site for a military settlement in San Francisco, for the Royal Presidio of San Francisco, and Mission San Francisco de Asís. On his way back to Mexico from San Francisco, de Anza chose the sites in Santa Clara Valley for a civilian settlement, San Jose, on the eastern bank of the Guadalupe River, and a mission on its western bank, Mission Santa Clara de Asís.[46]

San Jose was officially founded as California's first civilian settlement on November 29, 1777, as the Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe by José Joaquín Moraga, under orders of Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa, Viceroy of New Spain.[47] San Jose served as a strategic settlement along El Camino Real, connecting the military fortifications at the Monterey Presidio and the San Francisco Presidio, as well as the California mission network.[48] In 1791, due to the severe flooding which characterized the pueblo, San Jose's settlement was moved approximately a mile south, centered on the Pueblo Plaza (modern-day Plaza de César Chávez).[49]

In 1800, due to the growing population in the northern part of the Californias, Diego de Borica, Governor of the Californias, officially split the province into two parts: Alta California (Upper California), which would eventually become a U.S. state, and Baja California (Lower California), which would eventually become two Mexican states.

Mexican period[edit]

 

Thomas Fallon equestrian statue; 10th Mayor of San Jose.

See also: Alta California and Mexican California

San Jose became part of the First Mexican Empire in 1821, after Mexico's War of Independence was won against the Spanish Crown, and in 1824, part of the First Mexican Republic. With its newfound independence, and the triumph of the republican movement, Mexico set out to diminish the Catholic Church's power within Alta California by secularizing the California missions in 1833.[citation needed]

In 1824, in order to promote settlement and economic activity within sparsely populated California, the Mexican government began an initiative, for Mexican and foreign citizens alike, to settle unoccupied lands in California. Between 1833 and 1845, thirty-eight rancho land grants were issued in the Santa Clara Valley, 15 of which were located within modern-day San Jose's borders. Numerous prominent historical figures were among those granted rancho lands in the Santa Valley, including James A. Forbes, founder of Los Gatos, California (granted Rancho Potrero de Santa Clara), Antonio Suñol, Alcalde of San Jose (granted Rancho Los Coches), and José María Alviso, Alcalde of San Jose (granted Rancho Milpitas).[citation needed]

In 1835, San Jose's population of approximately 700 people included 40 foreigners, primarily Americans and Englishmen. By 1845, the population of the pueblo had increased to 900, primarily due to American immigration. Foreign settlement in San Jose and California was rapidly changing Californian society, bringing expanding economic opportunities and foreign culture.[50]

By 1846, native Californios had long expressed their concern for the overrunning of California society by its growing and wealthy Anglo-American community.[51] On July 11, 1846, with the onset of the Mexican–American War, Captain Thomas Fallon conquered San Jose in the name of the Bear Flag Revolt for the California Republic, officially ending Mexican rule in Alta California.[citation needed]

American period[edit]

See also: California Republic and Conquest of California

 

San Jose in 1875, when Santa Clara Valley was one of the most productive agricultural areas in the world

 

Notre Dame High School's original campus in 1876. It was the first school accredited in California to give degrees to women.

By the end of 1847, the Conquest of California by the United States was complete, as the Mexican–American War came to an end.[42] In 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo formally ceded California to the United States, as part of the Mexican Cession. On December 15, 1849, San Jose became the capital of the unorganized territory of California. With California's Admission to the Union on September 9, 1850, San Jose became the state's first capital.[52]

On March 27, 1850, San Jose was incorporated. It was incorporated on the same day as San Diego and Benicia; together, these three cities followed Sacramento as California's earliest incorporated cities.[53] Josiah Belden, who had settled in California in 1842 after traversing the California Trail as part of the Bartleson Party and later acquired a fortune, was the city's first mayor.[54] San Jose was briefly California's first state capital; legislators met in the city from 1849 to 1851. (Monterey was the capital during the period of Spanish California and Mexican California).[55] The first capitol no longer exists; the Plaza de César Chávez now lies on the site, which has two historical markers indicating where California's state legislature first met.[56]

In the period 1900 through 1910, San Jose served as a center for pioneering invention, innovation, and impact in both lighter-than-air and heavier-than-air flight. These activities were led principally by John Montgomery and his peers. The City of San Jose has established Montgomery Park, a Monument at San Felipe and Yerba Buena Roads, and John J. Montgomery Elementary School in his honor. During this period, San Jose also became a center of innovation for the mechanization/industrialization of agricultural and food processing equipment.[57]

Though not affected as severely as San Francisco, San Jose also suffered significant damage from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Over 100 people died at the Agnews Asylum (later Agnews State Hospital) after its walls and roof collapsed,[58] and San Jose High School's three-story stone-and-brick building was also destroyed. The period during World War II was a tumultuous time. Japanese Americans primarily from Japantown were sent to internment camps, including the future mayor Norman Mineta. Following the Los Angeles zoot suit riots, anti-Mexican violence took place during the summer of 1943. In 1940, the Census Bureau reported San Jose's population as 98% white.[59]

 

The Bank of Italy Building, built in 1926, is the oldest skyscraper in Downtown San Jose.

As World War II started, the city's economy shifted from agriculture (the Del Monte cannery was the largest employer and closed in 1999[60]) to industrial manufacturing with the contracting of the Food Machinery Corporation (later known as FMC Corporation) by the United States War Department to build 1,000 Landing Vehicle Tracked.[61] After World War II, FMC (later United Defense, and currently BAE Systems) continued as a defense contractor, with the San Jose facilities designing and manufacturing military platforms such as the M113 Armored Personnel Carrier, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, and various subsystems of the M1 Abrams battle tank.[62]

IBM established its West Coast headquarters in San Jose in 1943 and opened a downtown research and development facility in 1952. Both would prove to be harbingers for the economy of San Jose, as Reynold Johnson and his team would later invent RAMAC, as well as the hard disk drive, and the technological side of San Jose's economy grew.[63]

The Ford Motor Company relocated its factory in Richmond to a new location in the suburb of Milpitas, called the San Jose Assembly Plant, which was one of the primary locations for manufacturing the Ford Mustang.[citation needed]

During the 1950s and 1960s, City Manager A. P. "Dutch" Hamann led the city in a major growth campaign. The city annexed adjacent areas, such as Alviso and Cambrian Park, providing large areas for suburbs. An anti-growth reaction to the effects of rapid development emerged in the 1970s, championed by mayors Norman Mineta and Janet Gray Hayes. Despite establishing an urban growth boundary, development fees, and the incorporations of Campbell and Cupertino, development was not slowed, but rather directed into already-incorporated areas.[61]

 

The 1928 San Jose annual Fiesta de las Rosas parade in Downtown

On April 3, 1979, the San Jose City Council adopted San José, with the diacritical mark on the "e", as the spelling of the city name on the city seal, official stationery, office titles and department names.[64] Also, by city council convention, this spelling of San José is used when the name is stated in mixed upper- and lower-case letters, but not when the name is stated only in upper-case letters. The accent reflects the Spanish version of the name, and the dropping of accents in all-capital writing was typical in Spanish. While San José is commonly spelled both with and without the acute accent over the "e", the city's official guidelines indicate that it should be spelled with the accent most of the time and sets forth narrow exceptions, such as when the spelling is in URLs, when the name appears in all-capital letters, when the name is used on social media sites where the diacritical mark does not render properly, and where San Jose is part of the proper name of another organization or business, such as San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce, that has chosen not to use the accent-marked name.[65][66] The 1965 city charter, as amended, states the name of the municipality as City of San José, with the accent mark.[67] The city's website appears to use a mixture of both; for example, the "City of San José" in the text uses the mark but the "City of San Jose" logo image does not.[68]

San Jose's position in Silicon Valley triggered further economic and population growth. Results from the 1990 U.S. Census indicated that San Jose surpassed San Francisco as the most populous city in the Bay Area for the first time.[39] This growth led to the highest housing-cost increase in the nation, 936% between 1976 and 2001.[69] Efforts to increase density continued into the 1990s when an update of the 1974 urban plan kept the urban growth boundaries intact and voters rejected a ballot measure to ease development restrictions in the foothills. Sixty percent of the housing built in San Jose since 1980 and over three-quarters of the housing built since 2000 have been multifamily structures, reflecting a political propensity toward Smart Growth planning principles.[70]

Geography[edit]

San Jose is located at 37°20′07″N 121°53′31″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 180.0 sq mi (466 km2), of which 3.4 sq mi (8.8 km2) (1.91%) is water, making it the fourth-largest California city by land area (after Los Angeles, San Diego and California City).[17]

San Jose lies between the San Andreas Fault, the source of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, and the Calaveras Fault. San Jose is shaken by moderate earthquakes on average one or two times a year. These quakes originate just east of the city on the creeping section of the Calaveras Fault, which is a major source of earthquake activity in Northern California. On April 14, 1984, at 1:15 pm local time, a 6.2 magnitude earthquake struck the Calaveras Fault near San Jose's Mount Hamilton.[71] The most serious earthquake, in 1906, damaged many buildings in San Jose as described earlier. Earlier significant quakes rocked the city in 1839, 1851, 1858, 1864, 1865, 1868, and 1891. The Daly City Earthquake of 1957 caused some damage. The Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 also did some damage to parts of the city. The other faults near San Jose are the Monte Vista Fault and the Hayward Fault Zone.[citation needed]

show

Places adjacent to San Jose, California

Cityscape[edit]

 

Overhead panorama of downtown San Jose

 

Looking west over northern San Jose (downtown is at far left) and other parts of Silicon Valley.

San Jose's expansion was made by the design of "Dutch" Hamann, the City Manager from 1950 to 1969. During his administration, with his staff referred to as "Dutch's Panzer Division", the city annexed property 1,389 times,[72] growing the city from 17 to 149 square miles (44 to 386 km2),[73] absorbing the communities named above, changing their status to "neighborhoods."

They say San José is going to become another Los Angeles. Believe me, I'm going to do everything in my power to make that come true.

— "Dutch" Hamann, 1965[74]

Sales taxes were a chief source of revenue. Hamann would determine where major shopping areas would be, and then annex narrow bands of land along major roadways leading to those locations, pushing tentacles across the Santa Clara Valley and, in turn, walling off the expansion of adjacent communities.[75]

During his reign, it was said the City Council would vote according to Hamann's nod. In 1963, the State of California imposed Local Agency Formation Commissions statewide, but largely to try to maintain order with San Jose's aggressive growth. Eventually the political forces against growth grew as local neighborhoods bonded together to elect their own candidates, ending Hamann's influence and leading to his resignation.[76] While the job was not complete, the trend was set. The city had defined its sphere of influence in all directions, sometimes chaotically leaving unincorporated pockets to be swallowed up by the behemoth, sometimes even at the objection of the residents.[72]

Major thoroughfares in the city include Monterey Road, the Stevens Creek Boulevard/San Carlos Street corridor, Santa Clara Street/Alum Rock Avenue corridor, Almaden Expressway, Capitol Expressway, and 1st Street (San Jose).

Topography[edit]

 

A satellite image of the Santa Clara Valley in the South Bay Area; San Jose makes up most of the urbanization in the center of the valley.

 

The Santa Clara Valley experiences a Mediterranean climate, with an average of 301 days of sunshine.

The Guadalupe River runs from the Santa Cruz Mountains (which separate the South Bay from the Pacific Coast) flowing north through San Jose, ending in the San Francisco Bay at Alviso. Along the southern part of the river is the neighborhood of Almaden Valley, originally named for the mercury mines which produced mercury needed for gold extraction from quartz during the California Gold Rush as well as mercury fulminate blasting caps and detonators for the U.S. military from 1870 to 1945.[77] East of the Guadalupe River, Coyote Creek also flows to south San Francisco Bay and originates on Mount Sizer near Henry W. Coe State Park and the surrounding hills in the Diablo Range, northeast of Morgan Hill, California.

The lowest point in San Jose is 13 feet (4.0 m) below sea level at the San Francisco Bay in Alviso;[78] the highest is 2,125 feet (648 m).[79] Because of the proximity to Lick Observatory atop Mount Hamilton, San Jose has taken several steps to reduce light pollution, including replacing all street lamps and outdoor lighting in private developments with low pressure sodium lamps.[80] To recognize the city's efforts, the asteroid 6216 San Jose was named after the city.[81]

San Jose lies close to the Pacific Ocean and a small portion of its northern border touches San Francisco Bay. Santa Clara Valley is the population center of the Bay Area and, like the hub and spokes of a wheel, surrounding communities emanate outwards from the valley. This growth, in part, has shaped the greater Bay Area as it is today in terms of geographic population distribution and the trend of suburbanization away from the valley.[citation needed]

There are four distinct valleys in the city of San Jose: Almaden Valley, situated on the southwest fringe of the city; Evergreen Valley to the southeast, which is hilly all throughout its interior; Santa Clara Valley, which includes the flat, main urban expanse of the South Bay; and the rural Coyote Valley, to the city's extreme southern fringe.[82]

Climate[edit]

San Jose, like most of the Bay Area, has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csb),[83] with warm to hot, dry summers and mild to cool, wet winters. San Jose has an average of 301 days of sunshine and an annual mean temperature of 60.5 °F (15.8 °C). It lies inland, surrounded on three sides by mountains, and does not front the Pacific Ocean like San Francisco. As a result, the city is somewhat more sheltered from rain, giving it a semiarid feel with a mean annual rainfall of 15.82 inches or 401.8 millimetres, compared to some other parts of the Bay Area, which can receive about three times that amount.

Like most of the Bay Area, San Jose is made up of dozens of microclimates. Because of a more prominent rain shadow from the Santa Cruz Mountains, Downtown San Jose experiences the lightest rainfall in the city, while South San Jose, only 10 mi (16 km) distant, experiences more rainfall, and somewhat more extreme temperatures.

The monthly daily average temperature ranges from around 50 °F (10 °C) in December and January to around 70 °F (21.1 °C) in July and August.[84] The highest temperature ever recorded in San Jose was 109 °F (42.8 °C) on June 14, 2000; the lowest was 19 °F (−7.2 °C) on December 22–23, 1990. On average, there are 2.7 mornings annually where the temperature drops to, or below, the freezing mark; and sixteen afternoons where the high reaches or exceeds 90 °F or 32.2 °C. Diurnal temperature variation is far wider than along the coast or in San Francisco but still a shadow of what is seen in the Central Valley.

hideClimate data for San Jose, California (1981–2010 normals, extremes 1893–present)

​

With the light rainfall, San Jose and its suburbs experience about 300 fully or partly sunny days a year. Rain occurs primarily in the months from November through April. During the winter and spring, hillsides and fields turn green with grasses and vegetation, although deciduous trees are few. With the coming of the annual hot summer dry period, the vegetation dies and dries, giving the hills a golden cover which, unfortunately, also provides fuel for grass fires.

Measurable precipitation falls in downtown San Jose on an average of 59 days a year.[citation needed] "Rain year" precipitation has ranged from 4.83 inches (122.7 mm) between July 1876 and June 1877 to 30.30 inches (769.6 mm) between July 1889 and June 1890, although at the current site since 1893 the range is from 5.77 inches (146.6 mm) in "rain year" 1975–76 to 30.25 inches (768.3 mm) in "rain year" 1982–83. The most precipitation in one month was 12.38 inches (314.5 mm) in January 1911. The maximum 24-hour rainfall was 3.60 inches (91.4 mm) on January 30, 1968. Although summer is normally quite dry in San Jose, occasional summer monsoon storms from Arizona can bring unusual thunderstorms and high humidity to the area. In fact, a very heavy thunderstorm on August 21, 1968, brought 1.92 inches (48.8 mm) of rain, causing some flooding.[citation needed]

The snow level drops as low as 4,000 ft (1,220 m) above sea level, or lower, occasionally coating nearby Mount Hamilton and, less frequently, the Santa Cruz Mountains, with snow that normally lasts a few days. Snow will snarl traffic traveling on State Route 17 towards Santa Cruz. Snow rarely falls in San Jose; the most recent snow to remain on the ground was on February 5, 1976, when many residents around the city saw as much as 3 inches (0.076 m) on car and roof tops. The official observation station measured only 0.5 inches (0.013 m) of snow.[87]

Neighborhoods and districts[edit]

Main page: Category:Neighborhoods in San Jose, California

The city is generally divided into the following areas: Downtown San Jose, Central, West San Jose, North San Jose, East San Jose, and South San Jose. Many of these regions were originally unincorporated communities or separate municipalities that were later annexed by the city.

Besides those mentioned above, some well-known communities within San Jose include Japantown, Rose Garden, Midtown San Jose, Willow Glen, Naglee Park, Burbank, Winchester, Alviso, East Foothills, Alum Rock, Communications Hill, Little Portugal, Blossom Valley, Cambrian, Almaden Valley, Silver Creek Valley, Evergreen Valley, Edenvale, Santa Teresa, Seven Trees, Coyote Valley, and Berryessa. A distinct ethnic enclave in San Jose is the Washington-Guadalupe neighborhood, immediately south of the SoFA District; this neighborhood is home to a community of Hispanics, centered on Willow Street.

•  

  Almaden Valley

•  

•  

  The Alameda

•  

•  

  Alviso

•  

•  

  Berryessa

•  

•  

  Downtown San Jose

•  

•  

  Evergreen

•  

•  

  Little Portugal

•  

•  

  Japantown

•  

•  

  Midtown San Jose

•  

•  

  North San Jose Innovation District

•  

•  

  Rose Garden

•  

•  

  San Pedro Square

•  

•  

  Santana Row

•  

•  

  College Park

•  

•  

  Willow Glen

•  

•  

  Silver Creek Valley

•  

•  

  Edenvale

•  

•  

  Communications Hill

•  

•  

  Naglee Park

•  

•  

  Alum Rock

•  

•  

  SoFA District

•  

•  

  Palm Haven

Parks[edit]

 

President William McKinley memorial in St. James Park

 

The San Jose Japanese Friendship Garden at Kelley Park

San Jose possesses about 15,950 acres (6,455 ha) of parkland in its city limits, including a part of the expansive Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The city's oldest park is Alum Rock Park, established in 1872.[88] In its 2013 ParkScore ranking, The Trust for Public Land, a national land conservation organization, reported that San Jose was tied with Albuquerque and Omaha for having the 11th best park system among the 50 most populous U.S. cities.[89]

• Almaden Quicksilver County Park, 4,147 acres (16.78 km2) of former mercury mines in South San Jose (operated and maintained by the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department).

• Alum Rock Park, 718 acres (2.91 km2) in East San Jose, the oldest municipal park in California and one of the largest municipal parks in the United States.

• Children's Discovery Museum hosts an outdoor park-like setting, featuring the world's largest permanent Monopoly game, per the Guinness Book of World Records.[90] Caretakers for this attraction include the 501(c)3 non-profit group Monopoly in the Park.

• Circle of Palms Plaza, a ring of palm trees surrounding a California state seal and historical landmark at the site of the first state capitol

• Emma Prusch Farm Park, 43.5 acres (17.6 hectares) in East San Jose. Donated by Emma Prusch to demonstrate the valley's agricultural past, it includes a 4-H barn (the largest in San Jose), community gardens, a rare-fruit orchard, demonstration gardens, picnic areas, and expanses of lawn.[91]

• Field Sports Park, Santa Clara County's only publicly owned firing range, located in south San Jose[92]

• Iris Chang Park, located in North San Jose is dedicated to the memory of Iris Shun-Ru Chang, author of the Rape of Nanking and a San Jose resident.

• Kelley Park, including diverse facilities such as Happy Hollow Park & Zoo (a child-centric amusement park), the Japanese Friendship Garden (Kelley Park), History Park at Kelley Park, and the Portuguese Historical Museum within the history park

• Martial Cottle Park, a former agricultural farm, in South San Jose. Operated by Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department

• Oak Hill Memorial Park, California's oldest secular cemetery

• Overfelt Gardens, including the Chinese Cultural Garden

• Plaza de César Chávez, a small park in Downtown, hosts outdoor concerts and the Christmas in the Park display

• Raging Waters, water park with water slides and other water attractions. This sits within Lake Cunningham Park

• Rosicrucian Park, nearly an entire city block in the Rose Garden neighborhood; the Park offers a setting of Egyptian and Moorish architecture set among lawns, rose gardens, statuary, and fountains, and includes the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, Planetarium, Research Library, Peace Garden and Visitors Center

• San Jose Municipal Rose Garden, 5 1⁄2 acres (22,000 m2) park in the Rose Garden neighborhood, featuring over 4,000 rose bushes

Trails[edit]

 

Guadalupe Reservoir at Almaden Quicksilver County Park

 

Santa Teresa County Park in South San Jose

A 2011 study by Walk Score ranked San Jose the nineteenth most walkable of fifty largest cities in the United States.[93]

San Jose's trail network of 60 miles (100 km) of recreational and active transportation trails throughout the city.[94] The major trails in the network include:

• Coyote Creek Trail

• Guadalupe River Trail

• Los Gatos Creek Trail

• Los Alamitos Creek Trail

• Penitencia Creek Trail

• Silver Creek Valley Trail

This large urban trail network, recognized by Prevention Magazine as the nation's largest, is linked to trails in surrounding jurisdictions and many rural trails in surrounding open space and foothills. Several trail systems within the network are designated as part of the National Recreation Trail, as well as regional trails such as the San Francisco Bay Trail and Bay Area Ridge Trail.

Wildlife[edit]

Early written documents record the local presence of migrating salmon in the Rio Guadalupe dating as far back as the 18th century.[95] Both steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and King salmon are extant in the Guadalupe River, making San Jose the southernmost major U. S. city with known salmon spawning runs, the other cities being Anchorage, Alaska; Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon and Sacramento, California.[96] Runs of up to 1,000 Chinook or King Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) swam up the Guadalupe River each fall in the 1990s, but have all but vanished in the current decade apparently blocked from access to breeding grounds by impassable culverts, weirs and wide, exposed and flat concrete paved channels installed by the Santa Clara Valley Water District.[97] In 2011 a small number of Chinook salmon were filmed spawning under the Julian Street bridge.[98]

Conservationist Roger Castillo, who discovered the remains of a mammoth on the banks of the Guadalupe River in 2005, found that a herd of tule elk (Cervus canadensis) had recolonized the hills of south San Jose east of Highway 101 in early 2019.[99]

At the southern edge of San José, Coyote Valley is a corridor for wildlife migration between the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Diablo Range.[100][101]

Demographics[edit]

Historical population

CensusPop.%±

18709,089—

188012,56738.3%

189018,06043.7%

190021,50019.0%

191028,94634.6%

192039,64237.0%

193057,65145.4%

194068,45718.7%

195095,28039.2%

1960204,196114.3%

1970459,913125.2%

1980629,40036.9%

1990782,24824.3%

2000894,94314.4%

2010945,9425.7%

Est. 20191,021,795[8]8.0%

U.S. Decennial Census[102]

In 2014, the U.S. Census Bureau released its new population estimates. With a total population of 1,015,785,[103] San Jose became the 11th U.S. city to hit the 1 million mark, even though it is currently the 10th most populous city.

hideRacial composition2010[104]1990[59]1970[59]1940[59]

White42.8%62.8%93.6%98.5%

—Non-Hispanic28.7%49.6%75.7%[105]n/a

Black or African American3.2%4.7%2.5%0.4%

Hispanic or Latino (of any race)33.2%26.6%19.1%[105]n/a

Asian32.0%19.5%2.7%1.1%

Other race15.7%12.3%0.8%(X)

Two or more races5.0%n/an/an/a

​

2010[edit]

 

Map of racial distribution in San Jose, 2010 U.S. Census. Each dot represents 25 people: White, Black, Asian, Hispanic or Other (yellow).

 

Thematic map showing median household income across central Santa Clara County as of 2014; the darker the color, the more affluent the area.

The 2010 United States Census[106] reported that San Jose had a population of 945,942. The population density was 5,256.2 people per square mile (2,029.4/km2). The racial makeup of San Jose was 404,437 (42.8%) White, 303,138 (32.0%) Asian (10.4% Vietnamese, 6.7% Chinese, 5.6% Filipino, 4.6% Indian, 1.2% Korean, 1.2% Japanese, 0.3% Cambodian, 0.2% Thai, 0.2% Pakistani, 0.2% Laotian), 30,242 (3.2%) African American, 8,297 (0.9%) Native American, 4,017 (0.4%) Pacific Islander, 148,749 (15.7%) from other races, and 47,062 (5.0%) from two or more races. There were 313,636 residents of Hispanic or Latino background (33.2%). 28.2% of the city's population was of Mexican descent; the next largest Hispanic groups were those of Salvadoran (0.7%) and Puerto Rican (0.5%) heritage. Non-Hispanic Whites were 28.7% of the population in 2010,[107] down from 75.7% in 1970.[59]

The census reported that 932,620 people (98.6% of the population) lived in households, 9,542 (1.0%) lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 3,780 (0.4%) were institutionalized. There were 301,366 households, out of which 122,958 (40.8%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 162,819 (54.0%) were opposite-sex married couples living together, 37,988 (12.6%) had a female householder with no husband present, 18,702 (6.2%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 16,900 (5.6%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 2,458 (0.8%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 59,385 households (19.7%) were made up of individuals, and 18,305 (6.1%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.09. There were 219,509 families (72.8% of all households); the average family size was 3.54.

The age distribution of the city was as follows: 234,678 people (24.8%) were under the age of 18, 89,457 people (9.5%) aged 18 to 24, 294,399 people (31.1%) aged 25 to 44, 232,166 people (24.5%) aged 45 to 64, and 95,242 people (10.1%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35.2 years. For every 100 females, there were 101.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 99.8 males.

There were 314,038 housing units at an average density of 1,745.0 per square mile (673.7/km2), of which 176,216 (58.5%) were owner-occupied, and 125,150 (41.5%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.6%; the rental vacancy rate was 4.3%. 553,436 people (58.5% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 379,184 people (40.1%) lived in rental housing units.

2000[edit]

 

 

 

 

Clockwise: Five Wounds Portuguese National Church, Tết Vietnamese New Years Parade, Sikh Gurdwara of San Jose, Japanese American Museum of San Jose

As of the census[108] of 2000, there were 894,943 people, 276,598 households, and 203,576 families residing in the city.

The population density was 5,117.9 people per square mile (1,976.1/km2). There were 281,841 housing units at an average density of 1,611.8 per square mile (622.3/km2). Of the 276,598 households, 38.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.0% were married couples living together, 11.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 26.4% were non-families. 18.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 4.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.20 and the average family size was 3.62.

In the city, the age distribution of the population shows 26.4% under the age of 18, 9.9% from 18 to 24, 35.4% from 25 to 44, 20.0% from 45 to 64, and 8.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females, there were 103.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 102.5 males.

According to a 2007 estimate, the median income for a household in the city was the highest in the U.S. for any city with more than a quarter-million residents with $76,963 annually. The median income for a family was $86,822.[109] Males had a median income of $49,347 versus $36,936 for females. The per capita income for the city was $26,697. About 6.0% of families and 8.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 10.3% of those under age 18 and 7.4% of those age 65 or over.

Economy[edit]

 

Adobe world headquarters in Downtown San Jose

 

Samsung's Silicon Valley headquarters in the North San Jose Innovation District

 

Cisco Main Campus in the North San Jose Innovation District

 

eBay corporate headquarters in West San Jose

 

PayPal headquarters in the North San Jose Innovation District

 

Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2017 at the San Jose Convention Center.

The cost of living in San Jose and the surrounding areas is among the highest in California and the nation, according to 2004 data.[110] Housing costs are the primary reason for the high cost of living, although the costs in all areas tracked by the ACCRA Cost of Living Index are above the national average. Households in the city limits have the highest disposable income of any city in the U.S. with over 500,000 residents.[111][112]

San Jose is a United States Foreign-Trade Zone. The city received its Foreign Trade Zone grant from the U.S. Federal Government in 1974, making it the 18th foreign-trade zone established in the United States. Under its grant, the City of San Jose is granted jurisdiction to oversee and administer foreign trade in Santa Clara County, Monterey County, San Benito County, Santa Cruz County, and in the southern parts of San Mateo County and Alameda County.[113]

San Jose lists many companies with 1,000 employees or more, including the headquarters of Adobe, Altera, Brocade Communications Systems, Cadence Design Systems, Cisco Systems, eBay, Lee's Sandwiches, Lumileds, PayPal, Rosendin Electric, Sanmina-SCI, Western Digital and Xilinx, as well as major facilities for Becton Dickinson, Ericsson, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, Hitachi, IBM, Kaiser Permanente, KLA Tencor, Lockheed Martin, Nippon Sheet Glass, Qualcomm, and AF Media Group. The North American headquarters of Samsung Semiconductor are located in San Jose.[114][115] Approximately 2000 employees will work at the new Samsung campus which opened in 2015.

Other large companies based in San Jose include Align Technology, Altera, Atmel, Bloom Energy, Bristlecone (company), CEVA, Cypress Semiconductor, Cohesity, Echelon, Extreme Networks, GlobalLogic, Harmonic, Integrated Device Technology, Maxim Integrated, Micrel, Move, Netgear, Novellus Systems, Nutanix, Oclaro, OCZ, Quantum, SunPower, Sharks Sports and Entertainment, Supermicro, Tessera Technologies, TiVo, Ultratech, VeriFone, Viavi Solutions, Zoom Video Communications, and Zscaler. Sizable government employers include the city government, Santa Clara County, and San Jose State University.[116] Acer's United States division has its offices in San Jose.[117] Prior to its closing, Netcom had its headquarters in San Jose.[118][119]

On July 31, 2015, Cupertino-based Apple Inc. purchased a 40-acre site in San Jose.[citation needed] The site, which is bare land, will be the site of an office and research campus where it is estimated that up to 16,000 employees will be located. Apple paid $138.2 million for the site.[120] The seller, Connecticut-based Five Mile Capital Partners, paid $40 million for the site in 2010.[121] Real estate experts expect that other tech companies currently located in Silicon Valley will also follow in Apple's path by purchasing land or property in San Jose.[122]