I've lived in San Jose area for over 20 years now. The downtown area has made some improvements, but at an extremely slow pace. It would be nice to go to lunch/dinner and then have a place to walk around that had a few interesting shops, but there aren't really any. I find it very strange given the economic vitality of the area. I think the current mayor is on the right track. I hold out hope that in 5-10 years, it will be a completely different story downtown (hopefully sooner).