San Jose: REAL Capitol of Bay Area

By John W. Lillpop

Snobbish San Franciscans have long held that "The City," as they immodestly refer to their old school, runned down metropolis, is vastly superior to all points south, especially the once-upon-a-time cow town known as San Jose.

According to these look-down-their-nose elitists, San Francisco outpaces the rest of the Bay Area in all matters involving politics, culture, commerce, music, entertainment, and major-league sports.

Perhaps that belief needs to be reconsidered in light of the new and improved San Jose?

Consider this calendar of events for just one day, last Sunday, March 30:

A colorful and exotic parade was held to celebrate the Iranian New Year. To accommodate the festivities, the City of San Jose graciously closed several streets and provided police coverage so that Iranians could celebrate their enchanting music, pageantry, and culture openly and freely.

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, although not Iranian, joined the parade in a top-down convertible, waved to the cheering crowd as he passed, and made his way to the speaker's podium to address the celebrants. Even the mayor of Brisbane joined the festivities, also in a convertible automobile that was part of the parade.

At about the same time as the spectacular Iranian parade was ending at Market and Park, former President Bill Clinton was addressing Democrats attending the party's annual state convention at the McEnry Convention Center, one-mile away.

Fittingly enough, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom had to come to San Jose in order to hobnob with California's top Democrats.

The McEnry Convention Center was also hosting the Pacific Alliance Gymnastics Championships, while further south down Market Street, the largest Indian realty show in the United States was taking place at South Hall.

San Jose was host to several other events, some small, some large, all providing terrific opportunities for entertainment and education on a lovely spring Sunday.

Lest we forget, the fun-packed day culminated with exciting NHL action at the HP Pavilion, as the Sharks continue their quest to bring the Stanley Cup home.

Meanwhile, up in dreary old San Francisco, a couple of baseball teams that will surely lose more games than they will win in 2008 played meaningless games before die-hard fans who came out to ATT Park only because they were unable to get tickets to the Sharks' game in San Jose.

Times they are a changing--are you ready, San Francisco?