Downtown San Jose visit activity soars, Oakland jumps, San Francisco nosedives

SAN JOSE — Visits to downtown San Jose have soared over the last year, providing a welcome counterpart to the forbidding economic trends that have haunted the Bay Area in the wake of the coronavirus.

Downtown Oakland visits have also hopped higher during the 12-month period that ended in March, according to a new School of Cities report produced by the University of Toronto.

San Francisco’s visitor activity, in sharp contrast, weakened badly, the university’s latest report shows. The nosedive in activity may reinforce the perception that a “doom loop” scenario plagues San Francisco.

During the year-long period ending in March, visits to downtown San Jose jumped 28.2%, the 8th-best performance in North America, the university’s study found. The university analyzed cell phone data to determine visits to 64 downtown districts in the United States and Canada.

Visits to downtown Oakland rose 20.6%, giving Oakland the 16th-best increase among the 64 cities that were surveyed.

San Francisco visits, in sharp contrast, plummeted 21.6% over the 12 months that ended in March, which was the worst performance of the 64 cities in the University of Toronto report.

The increase in visits to downtown San Jose may be partly due to an array of unique businesses that have sprouted in the urban core of the Bay Area’s largest city, in the view of San Jose Mayhor Matt Mahan.

“We are seeing a lot of entrepreneurs who are willing to take risks again,” Mayor Mahan said in an interview with this news organization at a recent event in downtown San Jose.

The fading of the coronavirus-linked business shutdowns that devastated the Bay Area and California economies may have helped to spur business formations in San Jose and elsewhere around the state.

“The pandemic had a bit of a chilling effect on new businesses,” Mahan said. “Now that we’re past that, we are seeing people from all over this city willing to take that leap and start a new business, or move from a garage to a storefront.”

Mahan’s efforts to tackle some basic problems that have afflicted downtown San Jose in the wake of the coronavirus appear to be helping to make the city’s urban core more attractive and likely to entice visitors, in the view of Nick Goddard, a senior vice president with Colliers, a commercial real estate firm.

“Mayor Mahan’s actions on homelessness and crime in the downtown has made a marked difference in cleanliness and safety,” Goddard said.

San Jose’s relatively strong performance suggests the South Bay city benefits from a favorable comparison to San Francisco, in the view of Russell Hancock, president of Joint Venture Silicon Valley, a San Jose-based think tank.

“Whether wrongly or rightly, San Jose’s reputation hasn’t taken the same kind of hit as San Francisco,” Hancock said. “Recent polls showed a reluctance on the part of many to frequent San Francisco’s downtown. San Jose is still perceived to be clean and safe, and more readily accessible.”

Goddard says he sees a growing amount of anecdotal evidence that a rebound is underway in downtown San Jose, especially in terms of visits to the urban core.

“All of our downtown food and beverage operations are way in excess of their pre-COVID levels,” Goddard said.

Urban Putt, a miniature golf site, is another unique venue that is helping draw people into downtown San Jose.

“I’ve been by Urban Putt a few times and there’s a two- to three-hour wait to get in,” Goddard said. “They are doing very well.”

Several restaurants have opened recently in the downtown, noted Leah Toeniskoetter, president of the San Jose Chamber of Commerce. More are slated to open. Another unique venue, an ax-throwing site called Unofficial Logging, is preparing a new space downtown.

“San Jose’s attractiveness as a destination for evening entertainment is clear,” Toeniskoetter said.

Here’s how other California cities fared that made it into the top 20 and how their visit activity changed during the year-long period:

— Los Angeles, a 24.5% increase, for a ranking of No. 12.

— San Diego, an increase of 21.4%, for a ranking of No. 15.

Also of note, New York City managed an 18.9% increase, for a ranking of No. 20.

The gains in activity for San Jose, Oakland, Los Angeles, San Diego and other California cities topped the overall trend nationwide, the university stated.

San Jose’s big one-year increase in visits as measured by cell phone activity arrives on the heels of a report released in October 2023 that determined San Jose was enjoying one of the strongest recoveries from the economic collapse that occurred due to the governmernt-ordered shutdowns.

As of October 2023, downtown San Jose visit activity had recovered to 96% of its pre-coronavirus level. That was the third-best in the nation, the University of Toronto researchers reported at that time.

Mayor Mahan pointed to other one-of-a-kind ventures as signs that downtown San Jose is gaining traction.

“You see the Downtown Food Hall from CloudKitchens that can bring in nearly 30 companies and provide low overhead costs for restaurants and restaurateurs to provide their foods and beverages,” Mahan said. “You see the Moments shops that are a different model. We are giving them a runway to see if they can get their revenue up to the point they can pay rent down the road.”

Mahan provided the comments after participating in the grand opening in downtown San Jose of Purple Lotus, which has become the first cannabis store to open in a commercial district in the South Bay city, and the first one outside an industrial zone.

“If San Jose is going to continue to be a place that plays host to entrepreneurship and innovation, we have to keep pushing to lower barriers to entry,” Mahan said.