Cover: Park Place
Can the business owners and residents struggling to right their downtown neighborhood share St. James Park with the homeless? Not in the case of Mama Faye.

News: Crowding Control
What happens when a startup company's growth exceeds everyone's wildest dreams? Time to call in the hypergrowth brigade.

Hell Niño: A day in the life of the wet winter that few will forget.

Public Eye: Redevelopment Agency offers to sell Jose Theater for $1.

Tet Meets West: Vietnam vets, beauty queens share the stage with tradition.

Old-Time Religion: Robert Duvall reaches to preach in The Apostle.

Wrenching Drama: Nick Nolte's handyman comes on strong in Afterglow.

Hello, Brazil: Bruno Barreto refuses to take sides in his own political thriller, Four Days in September.

Master at Work: The Young Master shows Jackie Chan's action roots.

Musical Manifest: From Oman to the Silicon Valley, Manifest Yesterday experiments with sound. Plus, Nicky Baxter interviews the ensemble's founder, lead vocalist and lyricist L.B. Free.

Our Sweet Mary Lou: Lost loves and found fandom fuel Mary Lou Lord's Got No Shadow.

Audiofile: Reviews of the latest CDs by Stikky, DJ Shadow, Rhett Akins and Sugar High Billy.

Beat Street: Live 105 DJ mines local talent for compilation.

Dawson's Creaky: Kevin Williamson's Dawson's Creek panders to teenagers while pretending to respect them.

Tentacle Gazing: Proof that no good comic book goes unremembered.

Heaven or Hell: Todd S. Inoue talks to Gate of Heaven playwright Lane Nishikawa.

High-Stakes 'Game' at SJ Rep: Class rules trump hearts in Marivaux romp, The Game of Love and Chance.

Grand Pasta: Don Giovanni's brings operatic flair to noodles and more, and an aura of romance that lives up to the reputation of its namesake.