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(Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose is the third-most populous city in California after Los Angeles and San Diego, and is the county seat of Santa Clara County. It is the tenth-most populous city in the United States, and, for the past several years, has held the title of The Safest Big City in America [4]. The city is located at the south end of the San Francisco Bay within the informal boundaries of Silicon Valley. With an estimated population of 953,000, (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose is also the largest city in Northern California. [5]

(Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose was the first town in the Spanish colony of Nueva California (later Alta California), founded in 1777. Originally, the city served as a farming community to provide food for nearby military installations. It served as the first capital of California after it gained statehood in 1850. After over 150 years as an agricultural center, increased demand for housing from soldiers and other veterans returning from World War II and starting families, as well as aggressive expansion during the 1950s and 1960s led to (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose being a bedroom community for Silicon Valley in the 1970s, which attracted more businesses to the city. By the 1990s, (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose's central location within the booming technology industry in the area earned the city the nickname as the Capital of Silicon Valley.

On April 3, 1979, the city council adopted San José as the spelling of the city name on the city seal and official stationery; however, the name is still more commonly spelled without the diacritical mark. The official name of the city is The City of San José.

History
For thousands of years before the arrival of European settlers, the area now known as (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose was inhabited by several groups of Ohlone Native Americans. Permanent European presence in the area came with the 1770 founding of the Presidio of Monterey and Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo by Gaspar de Portolà and Father Junípero Serra, about sixty miles (100 km) to the south. Don Pedro Fages, the military governor at Monterey, passed through the area on his 1770 and 1772 expeditions to explore the East Bay and Sacramento River Delta. Late in 1775, Juan Bautista de Anza led an expedition to bring colonists from New Spain to California and to locate sites for two missions, one presidio, and one pueblo (town). He left the colonists at Monterey in 1776, and explored north with a small group. He selected the sites of the Presidio of San Francisco and Mission San Francisco de Asís in what is now San Francisco; on his way back to Monterey, he sited Mission Santa Clara de Asís and the pueblo (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose in the Santa Clara Valley. De Anza returned to Mexico City before any of the settlements were actually founded, but his name lives on in many buildings and street names.

Early Spanish pueblo
El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe (The Town of Saint Joseph from Guadalupe) was founded by José Joaquin Moraga on November 29, 1777, the first settlement not associated with a mission or a military post (presidio) in Alta California. (Mission Santa Clara, the closest mission, was founded earlier in 1777, three miles (5 km) from the original pueblo site in neighboring Santa Clara. Mission San José was not founded until 1797, about 20 miles (30 km) north of (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose in what is now Fremont.) The town was founded by the colonists led to California by de Anza, as a farming community to provide food for the presidios of San Francisco and Monterey. In 1778, the pueblo had a population of 68. 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 (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose, surrounding Pueblo Plaza (now Plaza de César Chávez).

Early statehood
(Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose, 1875.During the Bear Flag Revolt, Captain Thomas Fallon led a small force from Santa Cruz and captured the pueblo without bloodshed on July 11, 1846. Fallon received an American flag from John D. Sloat, and raised it over the pueblo on July 14, as the California Republic agreed to join the United States following the start of the Mexican-American War. Fallon would later become the tenth mayor of (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose.

During the California Gold Rush period, the New Almaden Mines just south of the city were the largest mercury mines in North America (mercury was used to help separate gold from ore). The cinnabar deposits were discovered in 1845 by a Mexican cavalry captain, Don Andres Castillero, when he recognized the red powder used by local Ohlone Indians to decorate the chapel at Mission Santa Clara. Mining operations began in 1847 at what was the first operating mine in the province, just in time for the Gold Rush. The importance of the mercury industry at the time explains why the local newspaper is named the Mercury News.

On March 27, 1850, (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose became the first incorporated city in the U.S. state of California; the first mayor was Josiah Belden. It also served as the state's first capital with the first and second sessions of the California Legislature, known as the Legislature of a Thousand Drinks, being held there in 1850 and 1851. The legislature was unhappy with the location, as no buildings suitable for a state government were available in the city, and took up State Senator Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo's offer to build a new capital on land he donated to the state in what is now Benicia.

In 1884, Sarah L. Winchester (nee Pardee), the widow of William Winchester and heiress to the empire that manufactured the Winchester rifle, was told that the Winchester family was cursed and haunted by ghosts who were killed by the rifle. She moved from Connecticut to (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose and began a construction project of such magnitude that it was to occupy the lives of carpenters and craftsmen until her death: the house was continually under construction for thirty-eight years. It is believed that she built the massive, bewildering house to confuse these spirits. Before the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, the Winchester Mystery House reached a height of 7 stories; today it stands three stories with approximately 160 rooms. Many visitors to the house claim to have felt the presence of ghosts.

(Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose has historically been known for ghost sightings, especially the East foothills. Tragically, the early 1940s consisted of a string of murders by one farming family. Their house still stands 2 miles behind Cliff Drive in (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose. There have been many reports of missing tools and strange behavior in the neighborhood near Old Piedmont Road. Every member of the family was found and prosecuted except for the youngest son. There have been numerous sightings of Frederick Wallace in this haunted area of old orchards.

Notable events
This replica of the Light Tower at the (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose History Park stands only half of the original tower's 237 feet (72 m).In 1881, because of a forceful campaign by editor J.J. Owen of the (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose Mercury, the city council authorized the construction of the (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose Electric Light Tower, ostensibly to replace the gas streetlights that had illuminated downtown (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose since 1861. It didn't provide sufficient illumination, and by 1884 was used only for ceremonial purposes. It collapsed during a gale in 1915. In 1989, an informal "Court of Historical Inquiry" looked into the issue of whether the Eiffel Tower was a copyright infringement of the Electric Light Tower; the Justice ruled that it was not.

The 1933 kidnapping and murder of Brooke Hart resulted in mob violence in (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose. About 10,000 residents (approximately 1/6 of the city's population at the time) stormed the jail and lynched the two men who had confessed to the killing. The case drew international attention to (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose, for the kidnapping, lynching, and for the praise that Governor James Rolph directed to those who participated. It is also notable as the last public lynching in California's history. Photos of the lynchings were even used as Nazi propaganda.

Earthquakes
(Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose lies near the San Andreas Fault; a major source of earthquake activity in California. Significant quakes rocked the city in 1839, 1851, 1858, 1864, 1865, 1868,1891 and 1906. The Daly City Earthquake of 1957 caused some damage. Most recently, the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 also caused some major damage to parts of the city. The most serious earthquake, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, with its epicenter slightly off the coast of San Francisco near Golden Gate Park[6] , devastated many buildings in (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose. The city was still primarily rural and the population much smaller than San Francisco, so houses and businesses were not so closely built, providing no opportunity for a major fire like the one that destroyed the city up the Peninsula. The all-brick Agnews Asylum (later Agnews State Hospital) suffered possibly the worst damage in the (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose area, killing over 100 people as the walls and roof collapsed. The 8-year-old (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose High School's three-story stone and brick structure also collapsed, and many other buildings were severely damaged. There have been many other numerous earthquakes felt in (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose that cause little or no damage other than causing a "stir" around town and a few broken bottles or windows. Although most damages from earthquakes are quickly repaired, if you look closely, earthquake damage may be seen around town in the way of cracked sidewalks, raised curbs, slanted or cracked walls, patched freeway divider walls. The other faults near (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose are the Monte Vista Fault, South Hayward Fault, Northern Calaveras Fault, and Central Calaveras Fault.

Transition from agriculture to technology
For nearly two centuries a farming community, (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose produced a significant amount of fruits and vegetables until the 1960s, and many past and current names of teams, streets, buildings, and so on reflect its agricultural beginnings. Prunes, grapes, and apricots were some of the major crops. In 1922, the first commercial farming of broccoli in the U.S. was started in (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose, by brothers Stephano and Andrea D'Arrigo. The Del Monte cannery in Midtown was the largest employer in the city for many years. [7]

Food Machinery Corporation (FMC) was founded in (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose as the Bean Spray Pump Company in 1883. In 1941 the company received an order from the United States War Department for one thousand LVTs, bringing defense contracts to (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose for the first time. After World War II, FMC continued as a defense contractor, with the (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) 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. FMC's military business would later be spun off into United Defense. [8]

IBM established their west coast headquarters in (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose in 1943. In 1952 they opened a research and development facility in downtown, where Reynold Johnson and his team invented RAMAC. In 1956 IBM opened its Cottle Road manufacturing facility in the Santa Teresa neighborhood, where disc drives were invented in 1962. IBM moved the research and development operation out of downtown, opening the Santa Teresa Laboratories in the Coyote Valley in 1976, and the Almaden Research Center in 1986. [9]

Growth
Downtown (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose looking over the Tech Museum towards Mount Hamilton; hills in the background show their winter green color. Click photo for detailed description.A. P. Hamann (nicknamed "Dutch") became city manager in 1950. At the time, the city had a population of 95,280 and a total area of only 17 square miles. Hamann instituted an aggressive growth program by annexation of adjacent areas, such as Alviso, Cambrian Park, and other neighborhoods, and a program of dispersed urbanization, called urban sprawl. Hamann also spent significant time on the East Coast, selling (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose as an ideal place for businesses to expand into. Hamann's efforts resulted in an annual population growth rate of over eight percent. When Hamann left office in 1969, (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose had grown to 495,000 residents and 136 square miles. [7]

Following Hamann's retirement, anti-growth city councils came to power, cemented with the 1971 election of Norman Mineta as mayor. Under Mineta, the city adopted the "General Plan" that restricted development of land inside the incorporated area of (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose and banned development in an additional 200 square miles east and south of the city, an area known as (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose's sphere of influence. To the west, communities such as Campbell and Cupertino had incorporated as cities to avoid being annexed to (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose, while expansion to the north was impossible because of San Francisco Bay. The result was that there was no land available to build housing. The plan's goal was to bring population growth down to a more manageable level. [10]

However, with the boom of the electronics industry, specifically personal computers and integrated circuits, (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose and the surrounding areas' population continued to grow rapidly. By 1980, the city's population was 629,442; it reached 782,248 by 1990; and at which point Santa Clara County as a whole had grown to 1,682,585 residents. [11] However, the city council passed another General Plan in 1994 with the original 1974 urban growth boundaries intact. As a result, housing costs in (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose and the rest of the Bay Area rose faster than the national average in the 1980s and 1990s; between 1976 and 2001, (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose's housing costs increased by 936%, the fastest growth in the nation over that time. The average 2003 home price in Santa Clara County was approximately 330% of the national average. [10]

Many people's view of (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose is still formed by the Dionne Warwick hit from 1968, "Do You Know the Way to (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose?" Written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David (neither of whom had spent time there and chose the name because it suited the tune), it includes the lyrics, "there's a lot of space in (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose; there'll be a place where I can stay" and "I may go wrong and lose my way," and contrasts it to Los Angeles, "a great big freeway." In 1960, the population of (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose was only 204,000, just over a fifth of the 2003 population. The only freeway through or near (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose was U.S. Route 101, which touched only the outermost edges of the city and was still a rural route or controlled by traffic lights in some areas. A large portion of the Santa Clara Valley still contained commercial orchards.

Law and government
The (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose City Hall opened in 2005.See also: Current leaders of (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose, California and List of Mayors of (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose, California. (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose is a charter city under California law, giving it the power to enact local ordinances that may conflict with state law, within the limits provided by the charter. The city has a council-manager government with a city manager nominated by the mayor and elected by the city council.

The (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose City Council is made up of ten council members elected by districts, and a mayor elected in an at-large election. During city council meetings, the mayor presides, and all eleven members can vote on any issue. The mayor has no veto powers. Council members and the mayor are elected to four-year terms; the even-numbered district council members beginning in 1994; the mayor and the odd-numbered district council members beginning in 1996. Council members and the mayor are limited to two successive terms in office, although a council member that has reached the term limit can be elected mayor, and vice versa. The council elects a vice-mayor from the members of the council at the second meeting of the year following a council election. This council member has the right to act as mayor during the temporary absence of the mayor, but does not have the right of succession to the mayor's office upon a vacancy.[12]

The city manager is the chief administrative officer of the city, and must present an annual budget for approval by the city council. The council elects the manager for an indefinite term, and may at any time remove the manager, or the electorate may remove the manager through a recall election. Other city officers elected by the council are the city attorney, city auditor, and city clerk. [12]


(Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose, surrounding cities, and salt evaporation ponds from space, September 1994. North is to the lower right.Like all California cities except San Francisco, both the levels and the boundaries of what the city government controls is determined by the local county [13] (LAFCO). The goal of a LAFCO is to try to avoid uncontrolled urban sprawl. The Santa Clara County LAFCO has set boundaries of (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose's 'Sphere of Influence' (indicated by the blue line in the map near the top of the page) as a superset of the actual city limits (the yellow area in the map), plus parts of the surrounding unincorporated county land, where (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose can, for example, prevent development of fringe areas to concentrate city growth closer to the city's core. The LAFCO also defines a subset of the Sphere as an 'Urban Service Area' (indicated by the red line in the map), effectively limiting development to areas where urban infrastructure (sewers, electrical service, etc.) already exists.

(Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose has consistently been ranked as one of the safest large cities in the United States. During the 1990s and 2000s, the crime rate has consistently fallen. [14] From 2001 to 2005 the city was ranked as the safest American city with a population over 500,000 by the Morgan Quitno Awards. [15] The designation is based on crime statistics reported to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in six categories: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, and auto theft. [16] However, reports of police brutality have become more common. [17][18][19]


Climate
Mount Hamilton range showing summer's golden mantle. Dark green areas in hills are primarily scrub oak and other low-growing shrubs, with possibly a grass-fire burned area on the far right. 
Mount Hamilton range in January, with morning fog clearing away.(Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose, like most of the Bay Area, has a Mediterranean climate tempered by the presence of the San Francisco Bay. Unlike San Francisco, which is exposed to the ocean or Bay on three sides and whose temperature therefore varies relatively little year-round and overnight, (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose lies more inland, protected on three sides by mountains. This shelters the city from rain and makes it more of a semiarid, near-desert area, with a mean annual rainfall of only 14.4 inches (366 mm), compared to some other parts of the Bay Area, which can get up to four times that amount. It also avoids San Francisco's omnipresent fog most of the year.

However, temperatures are generally moderate. January's average high is 59 °F (15 °C) and average low is 42 °F (6 °C), with overnight freezes several nights each year; July's average high is 84 °F (29 °C) and average low is 58 °F (14 °C), with heat exceeding 100 °F (38 °C) several days each year. The highest temperature ever recorded in (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose was 109 °F (42.8 °C) on June 14, 2000; the lowest was 17 °F (-8.3 °C) on January 9, 1920 and January 10, 1920. Temperatures between night and day can vary by 30 or 40 °F (17 to 22 °C).

With the light rainfall, (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose experiences over 300 days a year of full or significant sunshine. Rain occurs primarily in the months from October through April or May, with hardly any rainfall from June through September. During the winter, hillsides and fields turn green with native grasses and vegetation, although deciduous trees are bare; with the coming of the annual summer dry period, the vegetation dies and dries, giving the hills a golden cover, which some find beautiful but which also provides fuel for frequent grass fires.

The snow level drops as low as 2,000 ft (610 m) above sea level, or lower, occasionally each winter, 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 occasionally falls in (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose, but until recently, the most recent snow to remain on the ground was in February of 1976 when many residents around the city saw as much as 3 inches on car and roof tops. However, in March of 2006, a smaller amount, up to one inch of snow fell in downtown (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose as well as other areas around the city at elevations of only 90 feet to 200 feet above sea level.

Again, like most of the Bay Area, (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose is made up of dozens of microclimates. Downtown (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose experiences the lightest rainfall in the city, while South (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose, only 10 miles (16 km) distant, experiences more rainfall and slightly more extreme temperatures.

Economy
Adobe Systems headquarters (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose considers itself "the Capital of Silicon Valley." As such, its economy rises and falls with high-tech employment in the Bay Area. During the peak of the tech bubble, employment, housing prices, and traffic congestion peaked, but all eased as the economy slowed during the first few years of the 21st century. As of 2006, the city reported 405,000 jobs within the city limits and an unemployment rate of 4.6%. (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose had the highest median household income of any place with a population over 300,000 in 2000, and currently has the highest median income of any place with over 225,000 people.

The city lists 25 companies with 1,000 employees or more, including the headquarters of Adobe Systems, BEA Systems, Cisco, and eBay, as well as major facilities for Flextronics, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Hitachi and Lockheed Martin. Sizable government employers include the city, Santa Clara County, and San José State University.

The cost of living in (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose and the surrounding areas is among the highest in California and the nation.[1] Housing costs in the city are the primary reason for the high cost of living, although the costs in all areas tracked by ACCRA are above the national average. Despite the high cost of living, (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose households have the highest disposable income of any large American city. (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose residents produce more U.S. patents than any other city, the average worker productivity in (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose is double the national average, and 35% of venture capital funds in the U.S. are invested in (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose and Silicon Valley companies. [21]

Arts and architecture
Plumed Serpent statue in Plaza de César Chávez(Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose's downtown architecture is noted more for its limited height than for any particular buildings. Because the downtown area is in the flight path to nearby Mineta (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose International Airport, there is a permanent height limit for all buildings. There has been broad criticism, both in the past and present, of the city's architecture. It has been said that (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose's buildings are, in fact, rather lacking in ornamentation, or aesthetically pleasing architectural style. The thorough re-development of the downtown area in the 1960s to the present, in which whole blocks of buildings were razed, has often been blamed for this.

Municipal building projects have experimented more with architectural styles than have most private enterprises. The Children's Discovery Museum, Tech Museum of Innovation, and the (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose Repertory Theater building have experimented with bold colors and unusual exteriors. The new City Hall, designed by Richard Meier & Partners opened in 2005 and is a notable addition to the growing collection of municipal building projects.

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 is a considerable amount throughout the downtown area, and a growing collection in the City's neighborhood newer civic locations including libraries, parks, and fire stations. Of particular note, the Mineta Airport expansion will incorporate 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. Locals have been known to jokingly call the statue the "Park God," referring to its shape. [22] 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.

In 2001, the city sponsored SharkByte, an exhibit of decorated sharks, based on the mascot of the hockey team, the (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose Sharks, and modeled after Chicago's display of decorated cows. [23] 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.

The city is home to many performance arts, including Opera (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose, Symphony Silicon Valley, Ballet (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose Silicon Valley, the (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose Repertory Theatre, and American Musical Theatre of (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose. (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose also is home to the (Bought to you by limousine service -San Jose) San Jose Museum of Art [24], one of the nation's premiere Modern Art museums. In addition, the annual Cinequest Film Festival in downtown has grown to over 60,000 attendees per year, becoming an important festival for independent films.

The HP Pavilion 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 HP Pavilion averages 184 events a year, or roughly one event for every two days, which is significantly higher than the average for NHL arenas.

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