Post Street in downtown San Jose is a block with a colorful and historic past. Once known as El Dorado Street, its watering holes are where the first California state legislature boozed up in 1851. It’s where downtown’s Mardi Gras celebrations started small before they got too big. And, more recently, it’s been the unofficial home for San Jose’s LGBTQ community during celebrations like Silicon Valley Pride.
Consider that designation official now.
The stretch of Post Street between Market and First streets was rebranded Thursday as the QMunity District, as San Jose joined the roster of big cities across the country that have an established, historic area catering to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ) community, like Lavender Heights in Sacramento or the Castro in San Francisco.
“I always knew this was a very special street,” said TJ Bruce, owner of Splash Nightclub, which, along with the bar Mac’s Club, is one of two LGBTQ businesses on the street. “This does feel a lot like home for a lot of LGBT people, and I think what’s happening here is going to make this more special.”
The “reimagining” of Post Street is the product of a collaboration driven by Project More, which supports the LGBTQ community through cultural events and advocacy, and including San Jose City Councilman Raul Peralez‘s office, Santa Clara County’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, design firm Gensler and the San Jose Downtown Association.
“Not only will this new district showcase LGBTQ diversity, expression, talent, history and cultural arts, but it will also be welcoming for LGBTQ and allied businesses, organizations, residences and visitors of all types,” said Project More President Nathan Svoboda.
Peralez’s office provided $66,000 in funding for the first phase, which includes the addition of streetlight banners, colorful intersection and sidewalk art and programmable LED lights strung between the buildings. The funding also will go toward a planned mural that will feature the work of three LGBTQ artists. For more information about the area, go to qmunitydistrict.org.
The Downtown Association also worked with the city to block off a portion of the street to vehicle traffic through the remainder of the year, creating downtown’s third “al fresco” dining area that’s open to Post Street eateries like Don Pedro’s Mexican Restaurant and Cream ice cream shop.
Maribel Martinez, director of Santa Clara County’s Office of LGBTQ Affairs, says even in progressive Silicon Valley, LGBTQ people still feel unsafe and long for community. As a queer person growing up in East San Jose, she said she has always felt out of place. But Thursday, she felt at home.
“With this space, we the LGBTQ community in San Jose will not go back to the closets in any literal or metaphorical way,” she said. “Instead we will be infused in the heart of downtown, and we will infuse it with hope, justice and, of course, fabulous, revolutionary love.”
WHAT’S OPEN, WHAT’S NOT: The Winchester Mystery House announced it was bringing back small-group, self-guided tours starting Sept. 12 after Santa Clara County eased its COVID-19 restrictions. The last time the San Jose landmark attraction attempted to reopen for indoor tours was in July, but that lasted just two days before the county clamped down on everything again. Hopefully, this stretch will last much longer.
But while the county’s new guidelines allow for indoor museums to open, the Tech Interactive in downtown San Jose is letting people know it’s not ready to welcome visitors back to the mango-and-azure learning center. On top of any COVID-19 concerns, the Tech’s email newsletter said it wouldn’t be the same without many of its hands-on experiences. There’s no doubt about that — though maybe Tech leadership also wondered if they still counted as a museum after dropping the word from the name last year.
ONE WORD – MICROPLASTICS: Saratoga High School senior Urmila Vudali has been into plastics and their harmful effects for a while, but even she had little idea how much plastic is drowning our world every day in ways we can’t even see.
“We can find traces of plastics in toxins in our own bodies, and they can emerge from anything from car tires to our laundry,” said Vudali, student leader of the Saratoga Youth Climate Action Team and the Santa Clara County Youth Task Force representative from Supervisor Joe Simitian‘s district.
So what’s she doing about it? She has organized a Zoom webinar about the danger microplastics pose to both people and the environment featuring a panel of environmental scientists and water pollution experts. It’s happening at 4 p.m. on Sept. 14 — which Santa Clara County has designated Microplastics Awareness Day — and you can get more information and register at www.sccgov.org/sites/d5.
THE BIG REVEAL: Urban Confluence Silicon Valley is set to reveal the top three designs — and the people behind them — in the running to be chosen for a proposed landmark structure in downtown San Jose. The unveiling will take place during a virtual event Sept. 18 that begins at 7 p.m. with a “pre-party” and a showcase of the 900-plus designs that were submitted.
The event will be live-streamed on YouTube and Facebook Live, and you can register for free at www.urbanconfluencesiliconvalley.org.
