My Mixed Emotions About San Jose Hosting Super Bowl 50

[KamaAina]

http://www.siliconvalleydebug.org/articles/2016/02/05/my-mixed-emotions-about-san-jose-hosting-super-bowl

As a rabid NFL fan (albeit a supporter of the currently lackluster 49ers) I can’t help but find something cool about the biggest sporting event in the universe taking place in my backyard. Cam Newton was spotted grabbing a bite at La Vic’s on Monday, so what’s not to like about the Super Bowl right?...

The attempted vanishing of the homeless, the erecting of ‘clean zones’ where street vendors are barred from milking the tourism cash cow, local government bending over backwards for a monolithic corporate entity like the NFL, to name a few. As a person who cares about issues of equity and gentrification, there’s a lot to feel queasy about hosting the Super Bowl....

Also as a proponent of all things San Jose I've been impressed with the transformation of public space taking place downtown. I walked out of San Pedro Square on Saturday and saw a grass football field laid down the middle of the street. Kids and families were interacting and enjoying themselves in a way rarely seen in this city. In Cesar Chavez park some of San Jose’s best DJ’s and bands will be playing sets all weekend surrounded by food trucks and newly installed lighting and staging....

This is exactly how I feel like downtown’s current Super Bowl makeover. When the powers that be are ready to put Super Bowl level effort into activating public spaces on the average Thursday night San Jose will have arrived as a true urban center.

[Mr.Bill]

1. Maybe a high-profile event like this

will help your weak real estate values.



I lived in Silicon Valley from '61-'91 and I'm not sure how I would feel about all this going on. I was there in '84 when it was played at Stanford, but the Superbowl then was nothing like the spectacle it is today. I do know my Jaycee chapter had the contract to sell the programs at the game in '84 and we made about 60K in a few hours, so that was nice, since all that money went to charity events anyway. You can make a lot of poor kids happier at Christmas time with 60K.

[KamaAina]

2. Thread win!

[Retrograde]

3. It's in Santa Clara, not San Jose

Just got an email from the neighborhood group (I'm about 20 miles north, in Palo Alto) saying that the Central Expressway was closed from Shoreline south to "accommodate the Super Bowl traffic hub" in downtown Mountain View. I was here for the Stanford superbowl - lived off Embarcadero, the main street from the stadium to 101 - and aside from increased traffic (about the same level as the Stanford/Cal football games) it didn't have as big an impact. I'm ignoring the whole thing as best I can.

[KamaAina]

4. Several events, including Media Night, have been in San Jose

and street vendors have been pushed out of the downtown area where the fancy beer garden has been set up.

[mackerel]

5. I read somewhere that the whole hosting thing wasn't even

really put to a vote and they was no money deal worked out. I read that the NFL is not picking up their fair share
of the bill. It's been mostly left to San Francisco and San Jose. Not sure about Santa Clara.