Name
San Jose is named after ''el Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe'' (History
Pre-colonial period
San Jose, along with most of theSpanish period
California was claimed as part of theMexican period
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 theAmerican period
By the end of 1847, the Conquest of California by the United States was complete, as theGeography
San Jose is located at . San Jose is located within theCityscape
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, growing the city from , absorbing the communities named above, changing their status to "neighborhoods." 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. During his reign, it was said the City Council would vote according to Hamann's nod. In 1963, the State of California imposedTopography
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 fromClimate
San Jose, like most of the Bay Area, has a warm-summerNeighborhoods and districts
The city is generally divided into the following areas: Central San Jose (centered onParks
San Jose possesses about of parkland in its city limits, including a part of the expansiveTrails
A 2011 study byWildlife
Early written documents record the local presence of migrating salmon in the Rio Guadalupe dating as far back as the 18th century. BothDemographics
In 2014, the U.S. Census Bureau released its new population estimates. With a total population of 1,015,785, San Jose became the 11th U.S. city to hit the 1 million mark, even though it is currently the 10th most populous city. It is currently the largest U.S. city with an Asian plurality population.2010
The2000
As of theEconomy
The CSA San Jose shares with San Francisco was the country's third-largest urban economy as of 2018, with a GDP of $1.03 trillion. Of the 500+ primary statistical areas in the U.S., this CSA had among the highest GDP per capita in 2018, at $106,757. 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,Wealth
The San Jose Metropolitan Area has the most millionaires and billionaires in the United States per capita. It is situated in the most affluent county inSilicon Valley
The large concentration of high-technology engineering, computer, and microprocessor companies around San Jose has led the area to be known as Silicon Valley. Area schools such as theMedia
San Jose is served by Greater Bay Area media. Print media outlets in San Jose include '' The Mercury News'', the weekly '' Metro Silicon Valley'', ''El Observador'' and the ''Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal''. The Bay Area'sTop employers
As of June 30, 2021, the top employers in the city were:Culture
Architecture
Because the downtown area is in the flight path to nearbyVisual arts
Public art is an evolving attraction in the city. The city was one of the first to adopt a public art ordinance at 2% of capital improvement building project budgets, and as a result of this commitment, a considerable number of public art projects exist in the downtown area, and a growing collection in neighborhoods including libraries, parks, and fire stations. In particular, the Mineta Airport expansion incorporated art and technology into its development. Early public art included a statue of Quetzalcoatl (the plumed serpent) downtown, controversial in its planning because some called it pagan, and controversial in its implementation because many felt that the final statue by Robert Graham did not look like a winged serpent, and was more noted for its expense than its aesthetics. Locals joked that the statue resembles a pile of feces. A statue of Thomas Fallon also met strong resistance from those who called him largely responsible for the decimation of early native populations.Performing arts
The city is home to many performing arts companies, including Opera San Jose, Symphony Silicon Valley, Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley, sjDANCEco, The San Jose Symphonic Choir, Children's Musical Theater of San Jose, the San Jose Youth Symphony, theSports
San Jose is home to the San Jose Sharks of the NHL, the San Jose Barracuda of the AHL, and the San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer. The Sharks and the Barracuda play in the SAP Center at San Jose. The Earthquakes built an 18,000 seat new stadium that opened in March 2015. San Jose was a founding member of both the California League and Pacific Coast League in minor league baseball. San Jose currently fields theLandmarks
Notable landmarks in San Jose includeMuseums and institutions
* The Tech Museum of Innovation * Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, which houses the largest collection of Ludwig van Beethoven in the world outside of Europe * Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, the largest U.S. public library west of the Mississippi River * San Jose Museum of Art, contemporary art museum with a collection of West Coast artists *Law and government
Local
San Jose is aState and federal
In the California State Senate, San Jose is split between theCrime
The San Jose Police Department has consistently innovated in crime prevention, through programs like "CrimeReports.com", which made San Jose the first American city to make all 911 calls available online. Like most large cities, crime levels had fallen significantly after rising in the 1980s. From 2002 to 2006, Morgan Quitno Press named San Jose the safest city in the United States with a population over 500,000 people. Crime in San Jose had been lower than in other large American cities until 2013, when crime rates in San Jose climbed above California and U.S. averages. In 2021, SmartAsset ranked San Jose tied as the 10th safest city in the United States. In 2020, violent crime per 100,000 people has been the lowest the city has seen in 2017 while the homicide rate has been the highest since 2016; property crime per 100,000 people has been the lowest the city has seen in over ten years.2021 mass shooting
On May 26, 2021, a mass shooting occurred at a Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) rail yard in San Jose. Ten people were killed, including the gunman, 57-year-old VTA employee Samuel James Cassidy, who shot and killed himself. The shooting led to a day-long suspension of light rail services in the area. It is the deadliest mass shooting in the history of theEducation
Higher education
San Jose is home to several colleges and university, universities. The largest isPrimary and secondary education
Up until the opening of Abraham Lincoln High School (San Jose, California), Lincoln High School in 1943, San Jose students only attended San Jose High Academy, San Jose High School. San Jose has 127 elementary, 47 middle, and 44 public high schools. Public education in the city is provided by four high school districts, fourteen elementary education, elementary districts, and four unified school districts (which provide both elementary and high schools). In addition to the main San Jose Unified School District (SJUSD) and other Districts within San Jose such as the Alum Rock Unified School District and the East Side Union High School District, other nearby unified school districts of nearby cities are Milpitas Unified School District, Morgan Hill Unified School District, and Santa Clara Unified School District. The public schools in San Jose declared bankruptcy in 1983; this was the largest school district bankruptcy to that date in the US. Observers identified the reasons as a drop of 5,000 students in the preceding years, the difficulties imposed on school finances by ''Serrano v. Priest'' in 1968, the reduction of tax monies because of 1978 California Proposition 13, and the local teacher's union contract requiring a raise in pay. Private schools in San Jose are primarily run by religious groups. The Roman Catholic Diocese of San Jose in California, Catholic Diocese of San Jose has the second largest student population in the Santa Clara County, behind only SJUSD; the diocese and its parishes operate several schools in the city, including five high schools: Archbishop Mitty High School, Bellarmine College Preparatory, Notre Dame High School, San Jose, California, Notre Dame High School, Saint Francis High School (Mountain View), Saint Francis High School, and Presentation High School. Other private high schools include two Baptist high schools, Liberty Baptist School and Private schools in San Jose, California, White Road Baptist Academy, one Non-denominational Christianity, Non-Denominational Protestant high school, Valley Christian High School (San Jose, California), one University-preparatory school, Cambrian Academy, a nonsectarian K-12 The Harker School, Harker School with four campuses in western San Jose, and a K-12 school of the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod, Apostles Lutheran School.Libraries
The San José Public Library system is unique in that the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library combines the collections of the city's system with the San Jose State University main library. In 2003, construction of the library, which now holds more than 1.6 million items, was the largest single library construction project west of the Mississippi, with eight floors that result in more than of space with a capacity for 2 million volumes. The city has 23 neighborhood branches including the ''Biblioteca Latinoamericana'' which specializes in Spanish language works. The East San Jose Carnegie Branch Library, a Carnegie library opened in 1908, is the last Carnegie library in Santa Clara County still operating as a public library and is listed in theCommunity services and utilities
San Jose is protected by the San Jose Police Department and San Jose Fire Department. Drinking water is supplied by the San José Municipal Water System (Muni Water) along with the privately owned San Jose Water Company and Great Oaks Water Company. The San José–Santa Clara Regional Wastewater Facility provides Tertiary treatment, advanced wastewater treatment and reclaimed water.Transportation
Like other American cities built mostly after World War II, San Jose is highly automobile-dependent, with 76 percent of residents driving alone to work and 12 percent carpooling in 2017. The city set an ambitious goal to shift motorized trips to walking, bicycling, and public transit in 2009 with the adoption of its Envision San Jose 2040 General Plan. In 2018, the city extended these goals to 2050 with its San Jose Climate Smart plan.Public transit
Rail service to and from San Jose is provided by Amtrak (the Sacramento–San-Jose Capitol Corridor and the Seattle–Los-Angeles Coast Starlight), Caltrain (commuter rail service between San Francisco and Gilroy, California, Gilroy), Altamont Corridor Express, ACE (commuter rail service to Pleasanton, California, Pleasanton and Stockton, California, Stockton), and the local Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority light rail, VTA light rail system connecting downtown to Mountain View, California, Mountain View, Milpitas, California, Milpitas,Air
San Jose is served by San Jose International Airport, Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport northwest of downtown, and by Reid-Hillview Airport, Reid-Hillview Airport of Santa Clara County, general aviation airport located in the eastern part of San Jose. San Jose residents also use San Francisco International Airport, a major international hub located to the northwest, and Oakland International Airport, another major international airport located to the north. The airport is also near the intersections of three major freeways, U.S. Route 101 in California, U.S. Route 101, Interstate 880 (California), Interstate 880, and California State Route 87, State Route 87.Highways
The San Jose area is served by a freeway system that includes three Interstate Highway System, Interstate freeways and one United States Numbered Highways, U.S. Route. It is, however, the largest city in the country not served by a List of Interstate Highways, primary (one- or two-digit route number) Interstate; most of the Interstate Highway Network Interstate Highway System#Planning, was planned by the early 1950s well before San Jose's rapid growth decades later. U.S. Route 101 in California, U.S. 101 runs south to the California Central Coast and Los Angeles, and then runs north up near the eastern shore of the San Francisco Peninsula to San Francisco. Interstate 280 (California), I-280 also heads to San Francisco, but goes along just to the west of the cities of the San Francisco Peninsula. Interstate 880 (California), I-880 heads north to Oakland, running parallel to the southeastern shore of San Francisco Bay. Interstate 680 (California), I-680 parallels I-880 to Fremont, California, Fremont, but then cuts northeast to the eastern cities of theBicycling
Central San Jose has seen a gradual expansion of bike lanes over the past decade, which now comprise a network of car-traffic-separated and buffered bike lanes. San Jose Bike Party is a volunteer-run monthly social cycling event that attracts up to 1,000 participants during summer months to "build community through bicycling". Unfortunately, fewer than one percent of city residents ride bicycles to work as their primary mode of transportation, a statistic unchanged in the past ten years. Typically, between 3 and 5 residents are struck and killed by car drivers while bicycling on San Jose streets each year.Trail network
San Jose is crossed by several major regional off-street paved trails, most notably the Guadalupe River Trail, Los Gatos Creek Trail, and Coyote Creek Trail. These trails extend from near downtown San Jose for dozens of miles to the north and south, and are connected with each other via bicycle routes of varying quality. The city is planning to construct new trail extensions in the coming years including the Three Creeks Trail and San Tomas Aquino Creek Trail.Notable people
Sister cities
San Jose has one of the oldest Twin towns and Sister cities, Sister City programs in the nation. In 1957, when the city established a relationship with Okayama, Japan, it was only the third Sister City relationship in the nation, which had begun the prior year. The Office of Economic Development coordinates the San Jose Sister City Program which is part of Sister Cities International. , there are eight sister cities: * Okayama, Okayama, Okayama, Japan (established on May 26, 1957) * San José, Costa Rica (1961) * Veracruz, Veracruz, Veracruz, Mexico (1975) * Tainan City, Tainan, Taiwan (1977) * Dublin, Ireland (1986) * Yekaterinburg, Russia (1992) * Pune, India (1992) * Guadalajara, Mexico (2014)See also
* List of people from San Jose, California * List of streets in San Jose, California, with name origins * List of tallest buildings in San Jose, California * Northern California MegaregionNotes
References
Further reading
* Beilharz, Edwin A.; and DeMers Jr., Donald O.; ''San Jose: California's First City''; 1980, * ThExternal links
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