Community hub ready for its grand opening
After more than four years of construction, COVID-19 delays and a few months of preview events, Open San Jose is ready for its grand opening Saturday. The 18,000square-foot community hub in downtown San Jose is home to CreaTV San Jose and six other anchor nonprofits, including three arts organizations, Chopsticks Alley Art, Works/San Jose and Mosaic America.
But CreaTV San Jose CEO Chad Johnston says the space is meant to be much more, with tech-ready spaces available for groups to use for workshops, retreats, film screenings, rehearsals and art exhibitions. “We want everyone and anyone to come use this space,” he said.
When CreaTV began planning a move from its old studio space on West Julian Street, Johnston said he challenged his board to look at the nonprofit community media center as an instrument for social justice. Anyone with money and tech available to him could already get his own message out without CreaTV's help, so Johnston saw the opportunity to point the mission toward allowing people and groups traditionally underrepresented have access to the tools to share their stories.
“We had to approach community in a different way,” he said. “We had to ask who doesn't have access? Those are the people we want to partner with first.”
And that meant thinking outside the box. When Johnston and Chopsticks Alley Art founder Trami Cron first started talking about how to incorporate the Asian arts organization into Open San Jose, he thought they might be making a show. But Chopsticks Alley Art needed gallery space, and Open San Jose had it.
Visitors to Open San Jose's grand opening Saturday will get to see how Chopsticks Alley Art uses its space, as well as learn about the other anchor partners, Mosaic America, Works/San Jose, LEAD Filipino, San Jose Spotlight and NorCal Public Media. The festivities at 38 S. Second St. will start at 11 a.m. with a ribbon-cutting and continue with tours and performances throughout the space until 4 p.m. Go to creatvsj. org for more details. WALK AND ROLL >> Viva CalleSJ is back this Sunday, with 6 miles of streets closed to vehicular traffic and open to strollers, cyclists and skaters. The route this weekend, Downtown and Westbound, extends from Roosevelt Park on East Santa Clara Street over to West San Carlos Street and Bascom Avenue, with an offshoot to downtown's SoFA District via South First and Second streets. (Get the map with activity hubs and vehicle crossings at vivacallesj.org.)
And though all the Viva Calle events have been fun, this one's special because it will be the last one with Ed Solis at the helm. Solis is retiring next month after 23 years with the city of
San Jose, serving as recreation superintendent for the parks department and its unofficial Viva Calle czar. “I'm extremely proud of our team, leadership and partners who have made Viva CalleSJ one of the biggest and best community building programs in the Bay Area,” Solis recently said.
If there's a consolation, it's that he'll be able to enjoy the third Viva Calle this year Sept. 10 strictly as a participant.
RECORD-BREAKING QUAKES >> What do you get when you add former San Jose Earthquakes star Shea Salinas and 956 fans eager for a 30-minute soccer lesson? A Guinness World Record, that's what.
The team set the record for the largest soccer lesson last weekend at the Morgan Hill Outdoor Soccer Complex, which was also the site of the California Rush Summer Cup tournament. On top of being part of the record-setting effort, the fans who turned out got a T-shirt and an Adidas soccer ball — not to mention an experience they'll probably remember even if they forget how to dribble.