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CALIFORNIA SCIENCE EDUCATION CONFERENCE
OCTOBER 30-NOVEMBER 2, 2008
SAN JOSE CONVENTION CENTER

ABOUT SAN JOSE

San Jose is…

  • The oldest civilian settlement in California, founded in 1777

  • The site of the first state capital

  • Northern California's largest city, population of 945,000 (2005 census)

  • The third largest city in California

  • The tenth largest city in the nation

  • One of the top three Safest Big Cities in America

  • The largest concentration of technology expertise in the world, with 6,600 technology companies

Bet You Didn't Know…

  • The sun shines 300 days of the year in San Jose Average daily temperatures range from January's 50° to July's 70°

  • "California Casual" is always in style

  • Silicon Valley is very pet-friendly-San Jose has six fabulous dog parks

  • The highest elevation is 4,372 feet at Copernicus Peak on Mount Hamilton in the Diablo Range; on a clear day the view east from the peak can stretch all the way to the Sierra Nevada Range; locals say the route up Mount Hamilton from San Jose has 365 turns-one for every day of the year

Amazing, but True

  • San Jose leads the nation in patent generation

  • San Jose is the number one recycler among the nation's largest cities

Play All Day

  • Roam 150 parks and gardens

  • Sip or buy at more than two dozen local wineries

  • Shop 'til your credit cards sizzle at malls, outlets, and premium shopping centers

  • Watch traveling Broadway shows, ballet, opera, symphony, or local acts at off-Broadway style houses

Getting Here, Getting Around

  • Covering 177 square miles at the southern end of San Francisco Bay, San Jose is 45 minutes south of San Francisco, and some 40-70 minutes northeast of Santa Cruz and Monterey respectively.

  • The sleek light rail cars of the Valley Transit Authority (VTA) link downtown to businesses and attractions, making downtown easy to navigate

  • Access the city via any of three interstate highways (I-280, I-880, I-680), use the expressways, or hop on Caltrain (commuter rail between San Francisco and Gilroy) or Amtrak (the Sacramento to San Jose Capitol Corridor and the LA to Seattle Coast Starlight)

  • The Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport (SJC) is just three miles from downtown San Jose; average time from baggage claim bag pickup to hopping into a cab: five minutes. As the gateway to Silicon Valley, SJC is one of the most convenient and accessible airports in the Bay Area, boasting 13 airlines and 182 daily departures

  • Click here for more travel information.

Museums of Downtown San Jose:

Just a few blocks from the San Jose Convention Center is the Children's Discovery Museum, ranked by Child Magazine as one of the top ten children's museums in the nation, and a center for creative play and expression. Over on South Market Street you'll find the mango-colored The Tech Museum of Innovation. Its vivid and innovative hands-on exhibits will make you a science convert even if you avoided the subject in school. Near the leafy Plaza de Cesar Chavez and imposing Cathedral Basilica de St. Joseph sits the San Jose Museum of Art. The old section of the building is a graceful, 1892 Richardson-Romanesque building that was once San Jose's post office. Gaze at some 1,400 works—20th-century American paintings, sculpture, and photographs. Or check out their innovative hands-on gallery activities, imagination stations, and reading galleries that make the artwork more engaging and accessible for both children and adults.

A Re-energized Downtown

Downtown San Jose is lively and livable, home to everyone from those dubbed the "Young Digerati" (tech-savvy singles and couples) to empty nesters. Significant redevelopment investments (some $1.7 billion) have helped spark renewed interest in urban living.

New housing and amenities brought residents back to the city's core, says Harry Mavrogenes, Executive Director of the San Jose Redevelopment Agency. "Once we put parks, museums, arts, transit and the Arena in place, it made downtown an appealing place to live again." They helped save San Jose's history, too, preserving buildings like the California Theatre, Hotel Montgomery, and others. New corporate neighbors also invigorate the scene—BEA Systems, Accenture, Acer, and Xactly Corporation are just some of the companies expanding or relocating to the downtown.

Where downtown meets the San Jose State University campus, the soaring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library (another Redevelopment Agency Project) is another site of innovation. A unique city and university partnership, it's the nation's first such co-managed library. The equivalent of a small town population (7,500) visits daily, drawn by assets like the world's largest Steinbeck archive (the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies) and the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies.