English
Spanish
Vietnamese
Black Friday retail lines may have been shorter than expected this year, but San Jose residents still flocked to small businesses for their holiday shopping. The San Jose Made Craft Holiday Fair drew unexpectedly large crowds at the Santa Clara Convention Center over the three-day event, which included Black Friday and Small Business Saturday. More than...
Uptick in holiday travel at San Jose airport
After a turbulent year, the Mineta San Jose International Airport is seeing a promising uptick in passengers traveling for the holidays. Approximately 300,000 passengers passed through the airport from Nov. 19 through Nov. 28. Daily traffic data is not yet available, but airport officials say overall travel volume was nearly three times higher than the...
Santa Clara mayor gives social media silence to council colleague
Blocking people on social media is a no-no for elected officials, no matter how frustrating some trolls can get. But that didn’t stop Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor from allegedly blocking someone on Facebook. This time, it was one of her colleagues: Councilmember Anthony Becker. Becker first found out about his banishment from the mayor’s...
UPDATE: San Jose council delays potential Calle Willow rezoning
Small businesses owners in San Jose’s Calle Willow district are fearing displacement. A delayed rezoning vote on their neighborhood isn’t likely to help assuage their fears. The San Jose City Council voted Tuesday to delay a vote to remove Willow Street, known to residents as Calle Willow, from a city plan to increase building height...
UPDATE: San Jose council approves license plate readers to curb crime
San Jose has approved leasing new license plate reading cameras, although questions remain about their deployment. The San Jose City Council agreed Tuesday to spend $250,000 in federal relief funds on license plate reading cameras. The proposal was prompted by several high-profile robberies and thefts at retail stores in the Bay Area. Details about collection,...
San Jose mayor, law enforcement address recent string of retail robberies
Facing a spate of organized retail thefts and robberies over the weekend, San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo and local enforcement are looking for ways to beef up security during the holidays—including use of surveillance technology. “I’m releasing a proposal with colleagues for investment in automated license plate readers and other surveillance tech that will assist...
San Jose’s downtown Willow Glen springs back to life as holidays arrive
The quaint character of downtown Willow Glen stores and eateries is re-emerging, even though the COVID-19 pandemic hit businesses hard. Last week, tree-lined Lincoln Avenue, between Minnesota Avenue and Willow Street, saw foot traffic increase as customers wandered into retail boutiques like Bella James, to paint pottery at Petroglyph or shop for gifts and lunch...
Different hiring experiences for San Jose coffee shops, eateries
The solution to the ongoing labor shortage might seem as simple as paying employees more, but “more” isn’t always available. In the restaurant industry, budgets are straining to cover the increased costs of ingredients due to widespread shortages. That doesn’t necessarily translate to passing costs onto customers. For some businesses the answer isn’t that simple. “You...
Commercial real estate investments soar in Silicon Valley
Commercial real estate sales boomed in Silicon Valley last quarter, but vacancies remain high throughout the region. A surge in investment activity between July and September brought year-to-date aggregate commercial real estate sales in the South Bay to $6.3 billion. That’s the highest sales volume for the region since 2015, according to a new report...
San Jose’s tourism arm reports zero dollars in revenue
Team San Jose, a nonprofit that manages the city’s arts and cultural centers and tourism, reported zero dollars in revenue this past year, demonstrating the COVID-19 pandemic’s tremendous impact on the local economy. “We were closed by county mandate for the majority of the year,” spokesperson Frances Wong told San José Spotlight. “With a closed convention center and closed...