From today’s paper.

It’s been edging towards a million for some time now, perhaps next year as the writer suggests. The poll asking “Would hitting the one million population mark increase San Jose’s national visibility?” is also worth looking at. Showing only a slight edge that it would I had to think about it. We’re the 10th largest city, edging out more well known places like Detroit, Boston, Seattle, DC, Las Vegas, Atlanta, and let’s not forget, ‘the city’.

So why wouldn’t hitting a million heighten our national visibility? Those cities previously listed have far more history than San Jose, something you just can’t make up for in the short-run. But there are things that other places are doing.

Smaller cities such as Austin and Portland seem to have more swagger, and carry more of the spotlight. What they’ve done is create ways to stand out. Austin has SXSW and has asserted itself as the live music capital of the world. Richard Florida would claim that it goes hand-in-hand with a creative economy, as does the local government.

Portland has made good use of cutting edge planning policies to create a more livable and environmentally friendly city. Listing Portland’s merits are beyond the scope of this post, so I’ll let you google it.

San Jose should leverage its position as capital of Silicon Valley to create greater national visibility. It’s already got the tech world, perhaps giving free space to 1,000 artists to work would help. An Urban Design Alliance (as they do in Sac) could help brighten the façade of the downtown.