Getting to know the new San Jose - California

Sunset, Oct, 1994 by Lora J. Finnegan

Redevelopment and a hockey arena have brought new energy to the city's center. Have a look for yourself on our downtown walking tour

LAST SPRING, HOCKEY fans flocked by the thousands to the new Sharks arena in San Jose for the National Hockey League play-offs. On the way, they met San Jose's transformed downtown. For many, it was love at first sight. They beheld a downtown that had become vibrant, attractive, and colorful--especially when awash in the seasonal flood of teal-clad hockey fans.

With the Sharks taking to the ice again this month, it's a good time to renew your acquaintance with the city center. You may hardly recognize the place. Once, San Jose deserved the knocks it received for its featureless downtown, urban sprawl, and lack of development planning. Overcoming those problems and that image took a long time: today's revitalized urban core has been a decade and $585 million in the making, and comprises several office towers, three major museums, four new hotels, a convention center, and a light-rail line, as well as shops and restaurants.

It's an eminently walkable area, with level streets, balmy weather, and well-marked attractions. Come early on a game day and have a look around. We've marked out a route that takes you to three museums, a river parkway, a restaurant hub, and the city's oldest building.

START AT THE ARENA

Whether or not you're going to a hockey game, you can join a tour that will take you behind the scenes of the sleek, 20,000-seat San Jose Arena. On the 1-hour tour, you'll visit the arena's private club and--when not in use--the Sharks' locker room or a star's dressing room. Then go rinkside to watch a practice if the Sharks, Rhinos (a pro roller-hockey team), or Grizzlies (a pro indoor soccer team) are in town. Die-hard fans may also enjoy the arena's Sharks Store, selling logo-slathered T-shirts, shark earrings, and hockey-stick pencils.

From the arena, you can stroll about half a mile on a handsomely landscaped pathway along the once-derelict bank of the Guadalupe River to Guadalupe River Park and the Children's Discovery Museum (2). Go early, before crowds and decibel levels have maxed out. Pick up the free map to the 150 exhibits, from a streetscape including a walk-through ambulance to a rhythm exhibit that lets kids conduct their own orchestra. Hit the most popular areas first: the "Doodad Dump" (art projects) and the face-painting room. If you're with children ages 4 and under, stop in at the Early Childhood Resource Center, a quiet space with books and games.

TREK TO THE TECH AND A MUSEUM OF ART

Continue the walking tour by heading up W. San Carlos Street, past the Center for the Performing Arts (graced by outdoor sculptures more attractive than the center itself) to the Tech Museum of Innovation (3). Its nearly 100 hands-on exhibits will make a science convert out of you even if you hated the subject in school. Kids like the games in the computer room, the "clean room" showing production of a silicon chip, and the demonstrations of building a new high-tech bike.

Turn onto Market Street to stroll through the recently rededicated Plaza de Cesar Chavez, which beckons the footsore with its greensward, benches, and cool sidewalk-level fountains. Rested and ready, you can take on the San Jose Museum of Art (4). This fall, the oldest part of the museum, housed in the 1892 Richardson-Romanesque former post office, is scheduled to close for seismic work. The rest of the museum remains open, showing primarily 20th-century American paintings, sculpture, and photographs. A highlight is American Art 1900-1940: A History Reconsidered, an impressive selection from the Whitney Museum of American Art that includes works by Thomas Hart Benton, Edward Hopper, and Georgia O'Keeffe.

EAT IN A WAREHOUSE, TOUR AN ADOBE

Stroll two blocks farther on busy Market Street, past the magnificent neoclassical St. Joseph Cathedral, then head left on W. Santa Clara Street to the archway proclaiming San Pedro Square (5). Once the site of warehouses and light industry, it has long since been gentrified. Behind the sturdy brick and stone facades, you'll now find about 20 restaurants and watering holes. We liked the jazzy decor and California cuisine at Yanks Bistro. For a blend of country French and Italian cuisine, try 71 Saint Peter.

You can top off a meal with a double dose of local history at the nearby Peralta Adobe and Fallon House Historic Site (6). On one side of W. St. John Street sits the city's oldest structure, the low two-room adobe house built in 1797 that was part of the original pueblo. Across the street is the more opulent 1850s home of one of San Jose's early mayors. Both are managed by the San Jose Historical Museum Association, which offers guided tours.

To return to the arena for a hockey game, walk back to the corner of W. Santa Clara and Almaden Avenue and catch the free Arena Shuttle. It runs along W. Santa Clara for 1 1/2 hours before and 1/2 hour after arena events.