I'm unable to post the photo, but if you follow this link and view the photo show of a History San Jose exhibit at San Pedro Square Market, "Earthquakes Come Home," celebrating the team's 40th anniversary, you will see a 1975 San Jose Earthquakes ticket brochure with the city's then skyline, entitled "No Fault Soccer." http://historysanjose.org/wp/research-collection/san-jose-soccer-legacy-collection/
Not the exact photo, but the slide show to get to the photo... I never realized the 280/87 junction had been built out so much by '75... At that time, DT SJ was "drive by" territory for my Cupertino residing parents. Eastridge was the prize destination in those days with all the cool indoor sculpture and the ice rink. https://embed.culturalspot.org/embed/exhibit/JAKyXSDPl_qoJw?hl=en
Back in the mid-1990s, downtown San Jose was drive by territory for the former 82 bus line from my Northside neighborhood enroute to its destination at the Westgate shopping center. Whereas, in most large cities, public transit serves the downtown, in San Jose it served a suburban-style retail plaza. When I rode it, I was the only one in a suit and the only passenger to disembark downtown, with the rest of the passengers comprised of middle-aged matrons. The flip side is that the bus driver would make a stop at Casa Vicky and distribute free warm tortillas to the passengers. I used to tell this anecdote to my friends back east in explaining the quintessence of San Jose -- Mayberry on the Guadalupe.
I agree, however, people aren't flocking to San Jose for it's sunsets or an old stone bridge in Alum Rock park like they do for the sights of San Francisco.
Net out Oakland and there is no comparison. More people leave SJ each day than enter (to work that is); the only city in the country really. Though fortunately some come in 20 times/year to watch soccer!
Exactly. Hopefully the planned Google campus in downtown SJ proceeds. I think it will and can give downtown a nice shot in the arm that it could really use.
The Murky news site is so glitch-prone, I do not click on any links these days, lest I waste a lot of time dealing with pop-ups, content that doesn’t show up, etc. And now, they want you to subscribe in order to see the content? No thanks.
I think this is a little pessimistic. The media exposure of the Quakes in 2017 is miles ahead of where it was in the early 2000s when I started watching MLS. That's just the nature of general soccer awareness in the US. I don't think there's really much to compare between the media landscapes of that time and now. Do I think winning MLS Cup would be totally transformative for the Quakes now? Hard to say, but I would be incredibly surprised if the results weren't positive with regard to exposure and attendance. The number of times I hear the Quakes mentioned on the broadcasts (and MLS in general) of other sports has been steadily increasing and San Jose is going to benefit somewhat from that. You also have to be careful about how much value you place on media exposure, especially the type. Remember that newspaper sports columnists are barely still a thing as people don't bother reading that stuff anymore. Networks like ESPN are also hurting due to the incredible volume and pure inanity of what they broadcast. Traditional sports media is years and years behind with regard to producing content that people are actually interested in. Yes, there lingers on the beating chest argument laden idiocy that marred sports shows, but that stuff is no longer really a good representation in what people are looking for in sports commentary and analysis and should not be considered worth the effort to win over, anyway.
As someone who moved from another part of the state, the preoccupation between which Bay Area city is better than the other is odd and would be amusing if it wasn't so omnipresent. In a joking attempt to remedy the situation, I'll give you an outsider's perspective: Both SF and SJ have major problems in terms of the attitudes of the people living there. People in SF are insular and act as if there is no world outside of it, making them completely insufferable to talk to. People in San Jose can't stop talking about how much they hate San Francisco because they feel compelled to compare themselves to everyone else out of a lack of self worth (and yet they still root for the Giants after they won a World Series). The reality is that every place has problems and no place is inherently better than another. If you don't like some place in particular, good for you. The incessant need to drag down another place isn't exactly the most flattering look, though. That isn't to say I haven't been guilty of voicing opinions like this before, but over time, it seems like an incredible amount of wasted effort.
In general, this is not true. I grew up in the south bay. There are exceptions of course, but it is not my experience at all that south bay folks "hate San Francisco" and "can't stop talking about how much they hate San Francisco". It is much more common to respect SF for what it is, or to feel like it's all part of the bay area experience rather than to be divisive about it.
Someone from San Francisco calls San Jose "secondary" and I rightly defend the honor of my adopted home. That does not mean I "hate" San Francisco. I've lived in both places, and I, too, came from somewhere else. What I hate is the unwarranted disrespect San Jose receives from all corners, including fellow Quakes fans and its own daily newspaper. San Jose is the only city in the country in which the daily newspaper is so ashamed of where it comes from that it has removed the hometown name from its masthead, and done so in order to pretend that it is the daily paper for another city. San Jose is also the only city in the country where the daily paper can pine for one major league team while giving lavish front page coverage to the championship parade of another major league team, neither of which play in the hometown, and the one being feted is the one impeding the relocation of the one pined for. The dark shadow that San Francisco casts over San Jose is real, and it has deleterious consequences, not least of which is the Mercury News' continued shitty coverage of the Quakes relative to that of San Francisco sports teams.
I remember those interchanges were still closed at least until the early 1990's. Hwy 87 in 1992 from near Virginia and Alma was not there from what I recall. Then I lost track.
Yeah, yeah. F@#$ el-lay! OK, I do get what you are saying. Really, and when I travel, I frequently try to imagine living in whatever place I'm traveling through. The desert doesn't work for me, but that's because I'm losing all my pigment. But I've seen lots of places I'd love to live: Astoria, Orcas Island, Santa Cruz (still), maybe Tacoma. But I wouldn't want to live in Seattle. It's a nice town to visit, but driving there is horrendous! SF lost it's luster for me long, long ago. I still like San José, but most big cities put me off. And it's really about the size and sort of town I want to live in. And would you really want to live in Baghdad? or Kabul? or Lagos? or Khartoum? There are probably some tiny little towns in the "sticks" in this country that wouldn't make your hit parade either. It's not all the same thing, man. And yeah, people in San José have a bit of a put upon, second class chip on their shoulders about SF. And in many ways, I think that's perfectly reasonable. I'd be a happy to live in SJ again, but I wouldn't live in SF on a bet. Go Quakes!! Go San José!! - Mark
Oh I remember that! I had a Silicon Valley Monopoly game I took with me when I had to relocate to K.C. MO in '79 that had a drawing of the Valley, looking like it was from the vantage point of the typical airliner on final approach to SJC which included that set of three unattached overpasses. And that photo is not the 87/280 junction, it is the 280/680/101 junction...
I grew up in the Seattle area and they had the same "ramps to nowhere". There were a couple on I-5 near the old Kingdome which sat unfinished for many years, and then a couple near the Arboretum/Lake Washington that were never completed because of citizen activism in the early 70's. There have been plans to finally remove them, but, ironically some want to keep them as they are and as a kind of monument for the Arboretum Park. p.s. Great place to see bald eagles along the shore there!
That’s fascinating. How can Toronto be below us in nationally televised games? Why would mls & SUM do that? They are trying to de-throne TFC? And putting ATL & LAFC on top? That actually infuriates me
Out of the gate, LAFC is beating us on pizzazz. Maybe during our Rivalry Week game, we should chant “We’re small market! We’re small market!” Think Krazy George could learn that one?
I'm good with that. I'm thankful Alum Rock Park remains a little hidden gem. A historic touchstone for Eastsiders to gather and celebrate family events. I don't mind a few less people going there. Actually, Westies wouldn't be caught dead there, so no worries.
Last I checked, LAFC still did not have its own Big Soccer MLS club sub-forum. So, they're certainly not beating us on random jibberish.