Located
49 miles southeast of San Francisco at the center of Santa Clara County and the
southern shore of the San Francisco Bay, San Jose covers 180 square miles and
is the 3rd most populous city in California after Los Angeles and San Diego and
the 10th most populous in the U.S. Its modern and vibrant downtown is
surrounded by a broad aggregation of neighborhoods that extend outward to the
rolling hills that cradle San Jose to the west, south and east. These
neighborhoods have distinct characteristics and in certain cases, their own
downtowns as exemplified by the historic downtown on Lincoln Street in the
Willow Glen neighborhood that lies just south of downtown. San Jose is often
considered the capital of Silicon Valley thanks to its concentration of tech
firms. As a continued indication of San Jose’s place in the local tech
industry, Google has filed plans to develop the Google Transit Village along a
mile long corridor adjacent to Highway 87 which will be anchored by San Jose’s
Diridon Station, one of the largest transit hubs on the west coast. The
development will include a 5.5 million square foot campus for Google, along
with up to 5,000 housing units, 500,000 square feet of combined retail, culture
and education facilities, and 15 acres of green spaces. Final approval for the
Google Transit Village is expected late in 2020 which would allow for portions
of the project to open starting in 2024. San Jose has 12 local school districts
and is also served by adjoining school districts such as the Cupertino Union
School District, the Fremont Union High School District, and the Santa Clara
Unified School District.
