San Pedro Square Market — Restaurant in San Jose

Ive been living in San Jose for over a decade and am just now realizing that I have a love-hate relationship with San Pedro Market.

👍🏽 The Love Story Incomparable parking situation and the ultimate convenience of having such a diverse set of businesses literally on one block. Plenty of seating available (usually) and there’s pretty much always something for everyone whether you like hanging out with a beer and some close friends or are looking for a wild-ish night out or even needing some retail therapy at some local small businesses.

👎🏽 The Hate Story The main issue for me is just how hot and cold / night and day / whatever you want to call it experiences at SPM can be. Some days I visit and the vibes are perfect—not too crowded and loud, the food tastes exceptionally good, the live entertainment is jammin’. And then other days are like my most recent visit, where I was picking up some Taco Bell for my wife and had planned to purchase myself some food from one of the businesses inside of SPM on my way back to my car, but was told by a group of 3 security guards at the front doors that I couldn’t even walk into the building OR on the fenced-in sidewalk because I had a Taco Bell bag in my hand. I understand not allowing people to walk into and through the building with outside food or beverages, but to tell me that I have to walk in a portion of the STREET because the fenced-in sidewalk is still considered SPM property feels, to me, incredibly patronizing. In addition to the original 3 guards that I encountered at the front entrance, I counted 2 more as I turned the corner both of whom intently watched me as I walked by on the now public sidewalk with Taco Bell bag in hand. It’s experiences like this that make me feel totally unwelcome and unwilling to support SPM.

Unfortunately—or fortunately?—it truly does feel like a 50/50 split with no one side outweighing the other. In my opinion, that makes my feelings even more difficult to grapple with because it causes me to give SPM endless “one more chances.” Yes, that is 100% on me and I need to make a choice whether to love it or hate it… but couldn’t they also make that choice a little easier by at least being consistently positive or...

​San Pedro Market Square, once a calm, park-like spot for music lovers, has seemingly become a gang dance hall vibe. This change is attributed to, the private property manager, who apparently has a violent approach, is solely responsible for the change. The manager uses harassing attitude against paying customers, threatening them with large security guards for simply carrying their own belongings which contains food or drinks. The manager made these threats without any posted rules to justify his actions, approaching peaceful consuming customers with physical threats and a grin to exert his power similar to gangs marking territory by violence. His approaches is seemingly racially discriminating.

The San Pedro Square Redevelopment Agency refers to the former San Jose Redevelopment Agency (SJRA) (SJRA), a government agency created in 1956 to revitalize San Jose, California. The agency focused on redeveloping areas like San Pedro Square, which is home to historic structures such as the Peralta Adobe, the last remaining building from the Spanish colonial settlement of El Pueblo de San José. The SJRA was the second-largest tax increment financing agency in California before its dissolution in 2012.

The project, which opened in 2011, also received financial support from the Redevelopment Agency of the City of San Jose.

SJ City is part financer for the square, however surprisingly the SJ City tax paying residents can't use it as a park and bring their belongings. Many groups have hosted birthdays or events there, are there any good behaving customers get forced out of the park by the private property manager's security guards because they carried their own food or drinks items? Are the security guards there to prevent violence and crime or instead of imposing threat to...

Came here for a colleague's departing celebration. Gonna miss you, MJ. Have not been here since pre-covid. Arrived at about 4:30PM on a Thursday and the place looked good. Good amount of people when I arrived and the crowd was beginning to swell. By the height of the evening, the place was packed. Like, pre covid times. The main difference, not everything was open. The far food court had nearly nothing open with changes to account for social distancing and other Covid formalities. The whole place only had one bar open and business was booking. The beer spot was also open and was the other primary source for adult beverages. I get my beer, and join the folks at the outdoor tables. If you've been to San Pedro Square, you know what it is like, and I am sure my experience was the same.

Here's the journal part. Had a bunch of drinks, got happy, sent out a general invite to friends and family to see if anyone wanted to join me while I sober up before heading home. I have great family and friends. They all were ready to come take me home, and one friend in particular brought his whole family (wife and 2 young kids out) to make sure I was OK and eventually sent them home and drove me back to his place to sober up and fed me ramens. Love these people. Shout out to my sister and her boy, Rey. They normally are my rescuers and were ready on the trigger.

San Pedro Square. It's good. Do it. Be responsible when drinking. Make and keep...