[ San Jose | News Index | Metroactive Central | Archives ]

Metropolis

News From Silicon Valley's Neighborhoods Stop and Shop Cupertino--For those phobic of long supermarket lines, there will soon be a more pleasant locale for buying fruits and veggies. Starting May 26, an outdoor farmers market plans to open up shop Fridays, 9am to 1pm, on the corner of Vallco, just north of TGI Friday's and Macy's. Forty farmers, 70 retailers in all, will come mostly from the San Joaquin Valley to sell their produce, flowers, honey, eggs and gourmet food products to eager Silicon Valleyites. If the market can entice enough customers, it may be expanded to Saturdays and Sundays as early as next year. Get Outta Town Saratoga--Tenants at Park Saratoga, a hub of local mom and pop shops, have no choice but to rethink their place in town. The shopping center, being bought by Stanley Properties, is shortly going to cost renters twice the current price. To the chagrin of the City Council, several restaurants, a hair salon, a tailor shop and a handful of others will be forced out if they can't fork over the extra dollars, making space for more well-to-do dotcom offices. Unable to thwart the process legally, council members are truly troubled, says City Manager William Norton, by the "shrinking local-serving retail." Diggin' It Sunnyvale--Construction workers laying a sewer pipe in a six-foot trench unearthed one ancient surprise on May 9. Down in the dirt, they discovered what was later tagged as the centuries-old remains of a Native American who'd been interred near modern-day Fair Oaks Avenue. Anthropologist Lorna Pierce estimated the skull to be anywhere from 500 to 2,000 years dead. While Santa Clara County is usually associated with the Ohlone, guessing which tribe the remains came from would not be easy, she says. Researchers will contact the most likely living descendants so the body can be buried elsewhere. [ San Jose | Metroactive Central | Archives ]