San Jose to create cultural shopping district to support local businesses

The San Jose City Council on Tuesday decided to move forward with the creation of a new business district on the east side of town.

It's being called the Tully Road-Eastridge Business Association, or TREBA, and encompasses the Tully Road corridor from Highway 101 to Capitol Expressway.

The goal is to create a cultural shopping district and bring more people to the area to support the local businesses.

Christina Bui said making hand sewn bridal dresses has become like second nature. Her shop is a second generation business on the Tully corridor, originally started by her mother 36 years ago.

"I learned a lot. This is a skillset that's hard to come by," said Bui as she cuts some fabric.

During COVID her shop was considered non-essential and was forced to shut down for about a year. Bui said knew she had to do something to help the other businesses in the area stay afloat.

"My neighbors here had a hard time understanding the English and understanding how the process works so I kind of took charge. I said, 'Let's all help each other, because we can't do this alone," said Bui.

It was during that work helping other businesses apply for PPP loans and grants that she found out so many business owners were feeling frustration over the same issues: crime, trash and graffiti in the area, and a general lack of appeal for people to come to the area to shop.

That's when the idea of a new business district was born.

"We believe in this model. It's a model that enables collective action," said San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan.

The city already gave the group a grant of $50,000 to start the work, cleaning up trash and adding landscaping.

If a business district is created, it would allow the almost 550 businesses in the area to contribute to a fund to pay for those projects on an ongoing basis , anywhere from $300 to $450 a year depending on the type of business.

"If the commercial district that you're operating in is safer, cleaner, it has an identity, there's some marketing money behind it and more people come and start walking around and spending time there, all of the businesses in that corridor benefit," said Mahan.

San Jose is home to the largest Vietnamese population in the US - with 10-percent of the city's residents identifying as Vietnamese, according to the latest numbers.

That's why Bui feels it's so important to attract more people to the corridor to experience the culture.

"If we can build Tully Road, as a cultural destination, it would be kind of an interesting thing," she said.

TREBA also has plans to put up banners on the lamp posts highlighting the area, plus is holding the Tully East Festival at the end of September to draw more people to the area.

Now that the council has voted unanimously to move forward with the proposal, there will be an opportunity for public comment in October and again in November before the council takes any final action.