San Jose, California
San Jose, California, situated in the heart of Silicon Valley, is the third-largest city in the state, boasting a population of approximately 971,000 as of 2022. The city plays a dual role in California's economy, serving as a hub for both high-tech industries and agricultural production in the fertile Santa Clara Valley. San Jose's rich diversity is reflected in its vibrant neighborhoods, including the well-known Japantown, and is celebrated through various cultural festivals that honor its Hispanic and Latino heritage. Historically, San Jose was California's first civilian settlement and briefly served as the state capital after its admission to the Union in 1850.
The city's landscape is characterized by its mountainous surroundings and abundant parks, such as Alum Rock Park and Kelley Park. San Jose is home to significant educational institutions, including San Jose State University, and has witnessed substantial growth in the technology sector, with major companies like Adobe and Google expanding their presence. However, this economic boom has contributed to rising housing prices and homelessness, impacting the community. Overall, San Jose blends historical significance with modern innovation, making it a unique and essential part of California's identity.
Subject Terms
San Jose, California
Situated in California's Bay Area, San Jose has approximately the same population as San Francisco but is completely overshadowed by this neighboring city in reputation. However, San Jose is equally important to the state of California, being the center of both Silicon Valley, the country's computer capital, and the Santa Clara Valley, an agricultural and distribution anchor for the state.
Landscape
San Jose is located in west-central California, approximately fifty miles southeast of San Francisco and thirty miles northeast of Santa Cruz, in the heart of the Santa Clara Valley. Whereas San Francisco is located at the mouth of San Francisco Bay, San Jose is at its southern end, flanked by Mount Hamilton to the east and the Santa Cruz Mountains to the west. The city is the seat of Santa Clara County and covers an area of 176.5 square miles. Unlike many coastal California cities, inland San Jose's landscape is rich in fertile, fruit-growing land.
People
San Jose is the third-largest city in the state, with a population of 971,233 in 2022, and it is quite diverse. Many ethnic neighborhoods coexist and are celebrated by the city. One of the best known of these is Japantown, a popular tourist attraction.
The city's large Hispanic community is served by the Biblioteca Latinoamericana, a branch of the San Jose Public Library, which houses one of the largest Spanish-language collections in California. In addition, the city sponsors many festivals celebrating its Hispanic and Latino traditions, including the Mexican Heritage and Mariachi Festival, El Dia de San Juan Festival, and the Cinco de Mayo Parade and Festival.
As of the 2022, the US Census Bureau estimated the city's Asian population was estimated to be 38.1 percent while its White population was 23.9 percent. African Americans or Black people accounted for 2.9 percent of the population. People of Hispanic or Latino heritage (of any race) constituted an estimated 30.8 percent of the population.
Economy
Since San Francisco is the tourist capital of northern California, San Jose uses its relative anonymity to its advantage. The city is the capital for produce farmers in the surrounding rich Central Valley. The majority of its business activity has to do with the distribution and processing of all the fruit grown in the area, including grapes, apricots, and plums.
Agriculture is not the only important industry. San Jose is located in the center of Silicon Valley, making high-tech business just as important as high-yield farming. Its major employers are in manufacturing, professional and scientific services, healthcare and social assistance, retail, and hospitality. In addition to computers and electronic components, products manufactured in San Jose include beer, paint, metal and aluminum products, and motor vehicles.
Moffett Federal Airfield, located a few miles outside the city, was a naval air station until 1994. The land was then transferred to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which had operated the Ames Research Center on the grounds since 1939. Following the transfer of ownership, NASA began to develop the land into NASA Research Park. Moffett still operates as an airfield, and NASA shares the space with various corporations and academic institutes, contributing significantly to San Jose's economy.
In the late 2010s, several major tech companies expanded in San Jose, with Adobe adding a fourth downtown office tower and Google planning a campus near the Diridon train station. The proposed Google Village project, including office and retail space and potential housing, was expected to produce twenty thousand new jobs by 2035. However, residents protested it over rising housing prices and potential gentrification.
The median household income in San Jose from 2018 to 2022 was $136,010, among the highest in the United States.
Landmarks
San Jose features numerous public parks. The oldest is Alum Rock Park, established in 1872 and so named because residents once thought the park's large boulder centerpiece was aluminum. Alum Rock Park's natural mineral springs made it a popular health spa from 1890 to 1932. Kelley Park is home to the Happy Hollow Park and Zoo, the Japanese Friendship Garden, and several historical attractions. Rosicrucian Park features a peace garden, a planetarium, and the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, and many of its buildings are constructed in an Ancient Egyptian style.
Like many other cities settled by the Spanish, San Jose has many beautiful and historic mission buildings. The most famous of these is the Mission San José, founded as La Misión del Gloriosísimo Patriarca Señor San José in 1797 by a priest named Fermín de Francisco Lasuén. The fourteenth mission to open in California, Mission San José became the home to nearly three hundred native Ohlone people within its first three years.
The city is also home to the West Coast's oldest public college, San Jose State University. Other educational institutions in or near San Jose include San Jose City College and the University of Santa Clara, just west of the city.
History
San Jose became California's first civilian settlement on November 29, 1777, by Spanish explorer José Joaquín Moraga. The settlement was named Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe in honor of Saint Joseph, as well as for the nearby Guadalupe River.
When California entered the Union in 1850, San Jose was the first city to be chartered, and it acted as the new state's capital for two years. The city had already established itself as an important supply base for prospectors during the California gold rush of 1849. With the arrival of the railroad in 1864, San Jose became a produce-distribution hub for the region, laying the groundwork for what would become its main economic activity.
During the first half of the twentieth century, agriculture continued to dominate the city's economy. However, the aerospace industry began to intrude on this dominance after World War II. The combination of new industry and the annexation of surrounding towns resulted in a population boom for San Jose. During the latter part of the century, as the city absorbed more and more outlying farmlands, its area increased nearly eightfold.
More recently, the population of San Jose increased by more than 70 percent between 1970 and 1990, thanks to the rise of the computer industry in Silicon Valley. During that period, more than 2,500 technology companies moved to San Jose. The Tech Museum of Innovation opened in San Jose in 1990 in order to educate visitors and residents alike about the area's high-tech industry.
In October 1989, San Jose was struck by the Loma Prieta earthquake that caused extensive damage to San Francisco. San Jose was less affected than its neighbor, but the surrounding area experienced property damage estimated at half a billion dollars.
In 1994, the Japanese American Internment Memorial sculpture by Ruth Asawa was installed outside the Federal Building in San Jose. It recalls the unjust detention of 120,000 Japanese Americans, including San Jose residents, during World War II.
An ongoing high-tech boom in San Jose contributed a housing shortage in the early twenty-first century. Homelessness in the city soared, reaching more than 6,300 in 2023.
Bibliography
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