Downtown San Jose is the central business district of the San Jose, California, USA, area. The area is located north of Interstate 280 and east of Guadalupe Parkway; the north and east boundries are less well defined.

The area was first settled in 1797, when the town of San Jose moved there from its original location on the banks of the Guadalupe River. The area was a typical small city downtown until the aggressive expansion San Jose into surrounding areas led by A. P. Hamann forced city spending to the outlying areas and led to downtown's decline into a red-light district. In the 1980s, mayor Tom McEnery , whose family owned much of the land in downtown, began a program with the San Jose Redevelopment Agency that eventually spent $1.7 billion to revitalize the downtown area.

Downtown San Jose is noted for its lack of tall buildings, due to its location near Mineta San Jose International Airport. Despite the height restrictions, the area is home to many of the city's landmarks, including the headquarters of Adobe Systems and Knight-Ridder; the San Jose Museum of Art, the Tech Museum of Innovation, the Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph, and the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library. HP Pavilion, just west of Guadalupe Parkway, is normally considered to also be "in" downtown.

Many of the public areas of downtown San Jose are covered by a public, free, Wi-Fi network, including the areas surrounding Plaza de César Chávez and San Pedro Square . Downtown is also the hub of the VTA's light rail system, and the home of the main campus of San Jose State University. Much of central downtown has been designated on the National Register of Historic Places.

External links

• San Jose Downtown Association
• San Jose Redevelopment Agency
• National Park Service page about the San Jose Downtown Historic District
• Free WiFi Downtown San Jose