San Jose

San Jose (Spanish for St. Joseph)
has a population of nearly 946,000 and is the third-largest city in

California, the tenth-largest in the United States, as well as the county
seat of

Santa Clara County. San Jose is the largest city within Silicon Valley,
which is a major component of the greater San Francisco Bay Area. It is the
largest city in Northern California.

San Jose was founded on November 29, 1777, by Lieutenant

José Joaquín Moraga as El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe, the first
civilian town in the Spanish colony of Nueva California. The city served as a
farming community to support Spanish military installations at
San
Francisco and

Monterey. When California gained statehood in 1850, San Jose served as its
first capital.

After more than 150 years as a small farming community, the San Jose area in
the mid-20th century contained some of the last undeveloped land near San
Francisco Bay. It then began to experience rapid population growth, much of it
coming from veterans returning from World War II. San Jose then continued its
aggressive expansion during the 1950s and 1960s by annexing more land area. The
rapid growth of the high-technology and electronics industries further
accelerated the transition from an agricultural center, to an urbanized
metropolitan area.

By the 1990s, San Jose’s location within the booming local technology
industry earned the city the nickname “Capital of Silicon Valley”. San Jose is
now considered to be a global city, and notable for its affluence, high cost of
living, and low crime.

Etymology

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. Also, by city council convention, this
spelling of San José is used when the name is stated in both 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. The name is still more commonly
spelled without the diacritical mark as San Jose. The official name of
the city remains City of San Jose with no diacritical mark, according to
the City Charter. However, the city’s website uses San José.

History

Prior to European settlement, the area was inhabited by several groups of

Ohlone Native Americans. The first lasting European presence began with a
series of
Franciscan

missions established from 1769 by Father

Junípero Serra. On orders from

Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa, Spanish

Viceroy of New Spain, San Jose was founded by Lieutenant

José Joaquín Moraga as Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe (in honor of
Saint
Joseph) on November 29, 1777, to establish a farming community. The town was
the first civil settlement in the former province of

Alta California.

In 1797, the pueblo was moved from its original location, near the
present-day intersection of

Guadalupe Parkway and Taylor Street, to a location in what is now Downtown
San Jose. San Jose came under
Mexican rule in
1821 after Mexico broke with the Spanish crown. It then became part of the
United States, after it capitulated in 1846 and California was annexed.

On March 27, 1850, San Jose became the second incorporated city in the state
(after Sacramento), with

Josiah Belden its first mayor. The town was the state’s first capital, as
well as host of the first and second sessions (1850–1851) of the

California Legislature. Today the

Circle of Palms Plaza in downtown is the historical marker for the first
state capital. The city was a station on the

Butterfield Overland Mail route.

Though not impacted as severely as
San
Francisco, San Jose suffered 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, and the 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 98.5% white. The
entire region prepared for the beginning of the war.

As World War II started, the city’s economy shifted from agriculture (the

Del Monte cannery was the largest employer) to industrial manufacturing with
the contracting of the

Food Machinery Corporation (later known as

FMC Corporation) by the

United States War Department to build 1000

Landing Vehicle Tracked. 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.

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.

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 incorporations of

Campbell and

Cupertino, development was not slowed, but rather directed into already
incorporated areas.

San Jose’s position in

Silicon Valley triggered more economic and population growth, which led to
the highest housing costs increase in the nation, 936% between 1976 and 2001.
Efforts to increase density continued into 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.

Climate

Measurable precipitation falls in downtown San Jose on an average of 62 days
a year. Annual precipitation has ranged from 6.12 in (155 mm) in 1953 to
32.57 in (827 mm) in 1983. The most precipitation in one month was 10.23 in
(260 mm) in February 1998. The maximum 24-hour rainfall was 3.60 in (91 mm) on
January 30, 1968. Although summer is normally quite dry in San Jose, a very
heavy thunderstorm on August 21, 1968, brought 1.92 in (49 mm) of rain, causing
some flooding.

The snow level drops as low as 2,000 ft (610 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. This
sometimes snarls 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 in (7.6 cm) on car and roof tops. The official observation station
measured only 0.5 in (1.3 cm) of snow.

Like most of the Bay Area, San Jose is made up of dozens of microclimates.
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.

Landmarks

Important landmarks in San Jose include

Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose,

History Park at Kelley Park,

Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph,

Plaza de César Chávez,

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library,

Mexican Heritage Plaza,

Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum,

Lick Observatory,
Hayes
Mansion,

SAP Center at San Jose,
De
Anza Hotel,

San Jose Improv,

San Jose Municipal Stadium,

Spartan Stadium,

Japantown San Jose,

Winchester Mystery House,

Raging Waters,

Circle of Palms Plaza,

San Jose City Hall,

San Jose Flea Market

Oak Hill Memorial Park, and

The Tech Museum of Innovation.

Economy

The large
concentration of high-technology engineering, computer, and
microprocessor companies around San Jose has led the area to be known
as

Silicon Valley. As the largest city in the valley, San Jose has
billed itself “the capital of Silicon Valley.” Area schools such as
the

University of California, Berkeley,

University of California, Santa Cruz,

San Jose State University,

San Francisco State University,

California State University, East Bay,

Santa Clara University, and

Stanford University pump thousands of engineering and computer
science graduates into the local economy every year.

A view of Downtown San Jose as seen from East Foothills.

Adobe Systems headquarters in downtown San Jose.

High economic
growth during the tech bubble caused employment, housing prices, and
traffic congestion to peak in the late 1990s. As the economy slowed in
the early 2000s, employment and traffic congestion diminished
somewhat. In the mid-2000s, traffic along major highways again began
to worsen as the economy improved. San Jose had 405,000 jobs within
its city limits in 2006, and an unemployment rate of 4.6%. In 2000,
San Jose residents had the highest median household income of any city
in the United States with a population over 300,000, and currently has
the highest median income of any U.S. city with over 280,000 people.

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,

Sanmina-SCI, and
Xilinx,
as well as major facilities for

Becton Dickinson,

Ericsson,

Hewlett-Packard,
Hitachi,
IBM,

Kaiser Permanente and

KLA Tencor. The North American headquarters of
Samsung
are located in San Jose. Other large companies based in San Jose
include
Altera,
Atmel,

CEVA,

Cypress Semiconductor,

Echelon,

Integrated Device Technology,
Micrel,
Netgear,

Novellus Systems,
Oclaro,

Online Trading Academy,

Quantum,

SunPower,

Supermicro,

Tessera Technologies,

TiVo,

Ultratech, and

VeriFone. Sizable government employers include the city
government,

Santa Clara County, and

San Jose State University.

Acer‘s United States division has its offices in San Jose. Prior
to its closing,

Netcom had its headquarters in San Jose.

The cost of living in San Jose and the surrounding areas is among
the highest in California and the nation. 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.

San Jose residents produce more U.S. patents than any other city.
Thirty-five percent of all venture capital funds in the U.S. are
invested in San Jose and Silicon Valley companies.

Top employers

As of December 2011, the top employers in the city are:

#	Employer	# of Employees
1	County of Santa Clara	15,360
2	Cisco Systems	11,600
3	IBM	7,460
4	City of San Jose	6,620
5	San Jose State University	3,100
6	Brocade Communications Systems	3,000
7	eBay	3,000
8	Hitachi	2,900
9	San Jose Unified School District	2,690
10	Xilinx	2,340
11	Sanmina-SCI	2,170
12	Kaiser Permanente	2,120
13	Adobe Systems	2,000
14	Good Samaritan Hospital	1,850
15	KLA Tencor	1,770
16	Comerica Bank	820
17	Polycom	800

Law and government

Local

Arts and architecture

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 the results of this commitment are beginning
to have an impact on the visual landscape of the city. There are a
considerable number of public art projects throughout the downtown area,
and a growing collection in the newer civic locations in neighborhoods
including libraries, parks, and fire stations. Of particular note, the
Mineta Airport expansion is incorporating a program of Art & Technology
into its development.

Within the early efforts at public art, there are notable
controversies. Two examples include the statue of

Quetzalcoatl (the plumed serpent) in downtown which was controversial
in its planning because some religious groups felt that it was pagan, and
controversial in its implementation because many felt that the final
statue by

Robert Graham did not closely resemble a winged serpent, and was more
noted for its expense than its aesthetics. This has resulted in locals
joking that the statue resembles a pile of feces.

The statue of Thomas Fallon also met strong resistance from those who
felt that people like him were largely responsible for the decimation of
early native populations and
Chicano/Latino
activists protested he captured San Jose by violent force in the

Mexican-American war (1846) as well “repressed” historic documents of
Fallon ordered the expulsion of most of the city’s

Californio (early Spanish or Mexican) residents. In October 1991 after
protests in part of Columbus Day and

Dia de la Raza celebrations, the Fallon statue plan was scrapped and
the statue was stored in a warehouse in

Oakland for more than a decade. The statue was returned to public
display in 2002, albeit in a less conspicuous location: Pellier Park, a
small triangular patch formed by the merge of West Julian and West St.
James streets.

In 2001, the city sponsored SharkByte, an exhibit of decorated sharks, based
on the mascot of the hockey team, the San Jose Sharks, and modeled after
Chicago’s display of decorated cows. Large models of sharks were decorated in a
variety of clever, colorful, or creative ways by local artists and were then
displayed for months at dozens of locations around the city. Many displays were
removed early because of vandalism. After the exhibition, the sharks were
auctioned off and the proceeds donated to charity. The sharks can still be found
in their new owners’ homes and businesses.

In 2006,
Adobe
Systems commissioned an art installation titled San Jose Semaphore by Ben
Rubin, which is located at the top of its headquarters building. Semaphore is
composed of four LED discs which “rotate” to transmit a message. The content of
the San Jose Semaphore’s message remained a mystery until it was deciphered in
August 2007. The visual art installation is supplemented with an audio track,
transmitted from the building on a low-power AM station. The audio track
provides clues to decode the message being transmitted.

The city is home to many performing arts companies, including

Opera San Jose,

Symphony Silicon Valley,

Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley,
sjDANCEco,

Children’s Musical Theater of San Jose (45 years old in 2013), the

San Jose Youth Symphony, the

San Jose Repertory Theatre,

City Lights Theatre Company,

The Tabard Theatre Company,

San Jose Stage Company, and the now-defunct

American Musical Theatre of San Jose which was replaced by

Broadway San Jose in partnership with
Team
San Jose. San Jose also is home to the

San Jose Museum of Art, one of the nation’s premiere Modern Art museums. The
annual

Cinequest Film Festival in downtown has grown to over 60,000 attendees per
year, becoming an important festival for independent films. The

San Francisco Asian American Film Festival is an annual event, which is
hosted in
San
Francisco,

Berkeley, and

Downtown San Jose. Approximately 30 to 40 films are screened in San Jose
each year at the Camera 12 Downtown Cinemas. The

San Jose Jazz Festival is another of many great events hosted throughout the
year.

The

SAP Center at San Jose is one of the most active venues for events in the
world. According to

Billboard Magazine and Pollstar, the arena sold the most tickets to
non-sporting events of any venue in the United States, and third in the world
after the

Manchester Evening News Arena in
Manchester,
England, and the
Bell
Centre in

Montreal, Quebec, Canada, for the period from January 1 – September 30,
2004. Including sporting events, the SAP Center averages 184 events a year, or
roughly one event for every two days, which is significantly higher than the
average for NHL arenas.

Sports

Club	Sport	Founded	League	Venue
San Jose Sharks	Hockey	1991	National Hockey League: Western Conference	SAP Center at San Jose
San Jose Earthquakes	Soccer	1995	Major League Soccer: Western Conference	Buck Shaw Stadium
San Jose Giants	Baseball	1988	California League	San Jose Municipal Stadium
San Jose SaberCats	Arena football	1995	Arena Football League (West Division)	SAP Center at San Jose
Real San Jose	Soccer	2007	National Premier Soccer League	Yerba Buena High School

San Jose is home to the

San Jose Sharks of the
NHL,
and to the

San Jose Earthquakes of

Major League Soccer, as well as the

San Jose Sabercats of the

Arena Football League. The Sharks and the Sabercats play in the

SAP Center at San Jose. The Earthquakes recently had their groundbreaking on
a new 18,000 seat

stadium in

Santa Clara. San Jose was a founding member of both the

California League and

Pacific Coast League, in

minor league baseball, and currently fields the

San Jose Giants. The San Jose Giants are a Class A affiliate of the

San Francisco Giants.

In 2004, the San Jose Sports Authority hosted the

U.S. Olympic team trials for judo, taekwondo,
trampolining and
rhythmic gymnastics at the

San Jose State Event Center. In August 2004, the San Jose Seahawk Rugby
Football Club hosted the USA All-Star

7-Aside Rugby Championships at Watson Bowl, east of Downtown. San Jose is
also home to the

St Joseph’s Hurling Club.

In 2008, around 90 percent of the members of the United States Olympic team
were processed at San Jose State University prior to traveling to the

2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
The 2009 Junior Olympics for trampoline were also held here. In April 2009, it
was announced San Jose State will host the 2011

American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) national tournament.
The

NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament is also frequently held in San
Jose.

Transportation

Public transportation

The San Jose area has a large freeway system, including three

Interstate freeways and one

U.S. Route. It is, however, the largest city in the country not served by a
primary Interstate; most of the Interstate Highway Network

was planned by the early 1950s well before San Jose’s rapid growth decades
later.

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.

I-280 also heads to San Francisco, but goes along just to the west of the
cities of San Francisco Peninsula.

I-880 heads north to

Oakland, running parallel to the southeastern shore of

San Francisco Bay.

I-680 parallels I-880 to

Fremont, but then cuts northeast to the eastern cities of the

San Francisco Bay Area.

Several state highways also serve San Jose:

SR 17,

SR 85,

SR 87 and

SR 237. Additionally, San Jose is served by a system of county-wide
expressways, which includes the

Almaden Expressway,

Capitol Expressway,

San Tomas Expressway, and

Lawrence Expressway.

Several regional transportation projects have been undertaken in recent years
to deal with congestion on San Jose freeways. This includes expansion of

State Route 87 including more lanes near the downtown San Jose area. The
interchange for

I-280 connecting with

I-680 and

US 101, a rush-hour spot where the three freeways meet has been known to
have high-density traffic similar to

Los Angeles County interchanges.

Major highways

The interchange at the beginning of I-280 and I-680 was constructed years
before it its completion. The two bridges, with no on ramps or off ramps stood
over U.S. Route 101 as a 110 foot tall monument to inefficiency for years in the
1970s. It became the butt of many local jokes. The highlight prank occurred in
January 1976, when a

1960 Chevrolet Impala was placed on the highest bridge overnight, where it
obviously would be impossible to drive. The following day, San Jose City
Councilman Joe Colla was photographed standing next to the car, a photo which
was circulated across many newspapers. It has been suggested this stunt nudged
the wheels of progress to find the funds to complete the freeway. In 2010, the
interchange was named the Joe Colla Interchange.

Walkability

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

Utilities

Wastewater treatment happens at the San Jose/Santa Clara Water Pollution
Control Plant, which treats and cleans the wastewater of more than 1,500,000
people that live and work in the 300+ square mile (780 km²) area encompassing
San Jose,

Santa Clara, Milpitas,
Campbell,
Cupertino,

Los Gatos,

Saratoga, and

Monte Sereno.

About ten percent of the treated wastewater is sold for irrigation (“water
recycling”) in San Jose,
Santa Clara, and
Milpitas, through local
water providers San Jose Municipal Water System, City of Milpitas Municipal
Services, City of Santa Clara Water & Sewer Utility, Santa Clara Valley Water
District, San Jose Water Company, and Great Oaks Water Company.

PG&E provides residents natural gas and electricity service. Telephone
communications are provided primarily by

AT&T, and

cable television is provided by
Comcast.
Internet services are provided by several companies, but primarily by Comcast
and AT&T.

Education

Colleges and
universities

San Jose is home to several colleges and universities. The largest is

San Jose State University, which was founded by the California legislature
in 1862 as the California State Normal School, and is the founding campus of the

California State University (CSU) system. Located in downtown San Jose since
1870, the university enrolls approximately 30,000 students in over 130 different
bachelor’s and master’s degree programs. The school enjoys a good academic
reputation, especially in the fields of engineering, business, art and design,
and journalism, and consistently ranks among the top public universities in the
western region of the United States. San Jose State is one of only three Bay
Area schools that fields a

Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS)

Division I college football team;

Stanford University and

U.C. Berkeley are the other two.

National Hispanic University, with an enrollment of 600, offers associate
and bachelor’s degrees and teaching credentials to its students, focusing on
Hispanic students.

California University of Management and Technology (CALMAT) offers many
degree programs, including MBA, Computer Science, Information Technology. Most
classes are offered both online and in the downtown campus. Many of the students
are working professionals in the Silicon Valley.

Lincoln Law School of San Jose and

University of Silicon Valley Law School offer law degrees, catering to
working professionals.

National University maintains a campus in San Jose.

The San Jose campus of

Golden Gate University offers business bachelor and

MBA degrees.

San Jose’s

community colleges,

San Jose City College,

West Valley College,

Mission College and

Evergreen Valley College, offer associate degrees, general education units
to transfer to CSU and UC schools, and adult and continuing education programs.
The West campus of

Palmer College of Chiropractic is also located in San Jose.

WestMed College is headquartered in San Jose and offers paramedic training,
emergency medical technician training, and licensed vocational nursing programs.

The

University of California, Santa Cruz operates

Lick Observatory atop

Mount Hamilton.

Additionally, San Jose residents attend several other area universities,
including

Santa Clara University,

Stanford University in

Palo Alto,

Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley in

Mountain View and the

University of California, Berkeley. San Jose and South Bay residents also
comprise large proportions of the student bodies at major California public
universities, including

UC Santa Cruz,

UC Davis,

UC San Diego, and

UC Riverside.

Primary and
secondary education

Up until the opening of

Lincoln High School in 1943, San Jose students only attended

San Jose High School. Some of the city’s history is embedded within these
two high schools, which hold a

Thanksgiving Day high school football game, called the “Big Bone.” As of
2010, there are 127 elementary, 47 middle, and 44 high schools, of which are all
public. Public education in the city is provided by four high school districts,
fourteen

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), other nearby unified school
districts of nearby cities are

Milpitas Unified School District,

Morgan Hill Unified School District, and

Santa Clara Unified School District.

Districts using the “feeder” system:

• 
  Campbell Union High School District receives students from:
  • 
    Cambrian
  • 
    Campbell Union
  • 
    Luther Burbank
  • 
    Moreland
  • 
    Union School District.
• 
  East Side Union High School District receives students from:
  • 
    Alum Rock Union
  • 
    Berryessa Union
  • 
    Evergreen Elementary
  • 
    Franklin-McKinley
  • 
    Mount Pleasant Elementary
  • 
    Oak Grove
  • 
    Orchard Elementary
• 
  Fremont Union High School District receives students from:
  • 
    Cupertino Union School District.
• 
  Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint Union High School District receives students from
  • 
    Los Gatos Union School District.
  • 
    Stratford Middle School
  • 
    Saratoga Union School District

Attractions

Trails

San Jose’s trail network offers over 53 miles (90 km) of recreational and
commute trails throughout the City.
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.

Museums, libraries, and other cultural collections

• 
  Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose
• 
  History Park at Kelley Park
• 
  Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, home of the largest
  
  Beethoven collection outside Europe
• 
  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, the largest U.S. public library west
  of Mississippi River
• 
  Mexican Heritage Plaza, a museum and cultural center for Mexican Americans
  in the area
• 
  Portuguese Historical Museum
• 
  Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts
  on display in the western United States, located at
  
  Rosicrucian Park
• 
  San Jose Museum of Art
• 
  The Tech Museum of Innovation
• 
  San Jose Steam Railroad Museum, proposed, artifacts and rolling stock are
  kept at the fairgrounds and Kelley Park
• 
  History San José
• 
  Old Bank of America Building a historic landmark

Sports and event
venues

• 
  SAP Center at San Jose—home of the
  
  NHL‘s
  
  San Jose Sharks, and the
  
  AFL‘s
  
  San Jose SaberCats
• 
  San Jose Municipal Stadium, home of the minor league
  
  San Jose Giants.
• 
  Spartan Stadium, home of San Jose State University football,
  
  MLL‘s
  
  San Francisco Dragons, and the previous home of
  
  Major League Soccer‘s
  
  San Jose Earthquakes.
• 
  San Jose Convention Center—home of the
  
  CBA‘s
  
  San Jose Sky Rockets until the team’s departure in 2006 to
  North
  Dakota.
• 
  San Jose Jazz Festival, held annually in downtown San Jose
• 
  San Jose Improv, San Jose’s oldest theater, home for the
  
  San Jose Improv Comedy Club.

Other structures

• 
  Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph, the oldest parish in California
• 
  Lick Observatory, home of what was once the largest
  telescope
  in the world
• 
  Sikh Gurdwara – San Jose, the largest
  Gurdwara
  (a Sikh temple)
  in the United States
• 
  Peralta Adobe, a restored
  adobe home
  showing the lifestyle of Spanish and Mexican California
• 
  Winchester Mystery House, a sprawling, 160-room Victorian mansion built by
  
  Sarah Winchester
• 
  Raging Waters, the largest water park in Northern California with 23 acres
  (93,000 m²) and millions of gallons of water

Media

San Jose is served by Greater Bay Area media. Print media outlets in San Jose
include the

San Jose Mercury News, the weekly

Metro Silicon Valley, El Observador and the Silicon Valley /
San Jose Business Journal. Broadcasters include 34 television stations, 25
AM radio stations, and 55 FM radio stations.

In April 1909,

Charles David Herrold, an electronics instructor in San Jose, constructed a
radio station to broadcast the human voice. The station “San Jose Calling” (call
letters FN, later FQW), was the world’s first radio station with scheduled
programming targeted at a general audience. The station became the first to
broadcast music in 1910. Herrold’s wife Sybil became the first female “disk
jockey” in 1912. The station changed hands a number of times before eventually
becoming today’s
KCBS in
San
Francisco.
Therefore KCBS technically is the oldest radio station in the United States, and
celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2009 with much fanfare.

Cultural
references to San Jose

• The city’s name appears in “Do
  You Know the Way to San Jose“, with lyrics by
  Hal David
  and music by
  
  Burt Bacharach. It became a Grammy-winning 1968 hit single (Pop #10, R&B
  #23) for
  
  Dionne Warwick, her version categorized
  
  Scepter Records 12216; more than 100 other known recordings exist.
• 
  Michaela Roessner‘s Vanishing Point, (Tor, New York, 1993,
  
  ISBN 0-312-85213-4) a post-apocalyptic novel, is largely set in San Jose.
  In the book, many
  
  South Bay survivors have gathered to live in the
  
  Winchester Mystery House and the nearby
  
  Century Theatres dome.
• The 2006 independent film Valley Of The Heart’s Delight, featuring
  
  Pete Postlethwaite as a scheming newspaper publisher, is based on an
  actual kidnapping, murder, cover up, and mob lynching which took place in San
  Jose in 1933.