Safeway's new The Market store opened today.

One of the most anticpated events of this summer has finally come to downtown, as Safeway opened its new “The Market” store downtown. The new store is in The 88 apartment tower, at 2nd and San Fernando.

The store is a little bit of a different concept for Safeway, a smaller store focusing on “grab and go” foods and prepared foods like deli sandwiches. In addition to ready-to-eat food, there was a good selection of produce, including organics, and also packaged and frozen food. Visiting this morning, I didn’t notice that there was any meat counter at all, though I only stopped in quickly on my way to work, and I could have missed it. Prices were similar to other Safeway stores, and a manager from Safeway’s district office told me they intend to keep it that way.

Safeway managers were all over the store and seemed to be enthusiastic about developing a new kind of store for Safeway. I was told if the concept works out they have several other locations picked out where they might put similar stores. I was also told that Safeway is committed to stay in downtown for the long haul, and they have a long lease on the store location.

Bakery counter at the new downtown Safeway.

The new store is clean (naturally) and perhaps “cozy” but not cramped. The fruit and vegetable selection and the competitive prices will be a big gain for people living downtown. Fans of Zanotto’s Market are of course concerned about Safeway stepping in to their “territory” after Zanotto’s took a big risk to bring groceries to downtown when nobody else was willing to do it. I can also imagine the new store threatening Su Vianda, which has done a great job maintaining a clean, spacious store with fresh products in a space that had none of those features under the previous operator (Lucky/Albertson’s). I hope all three of these groceries can find their niches, because competition will keep them all motivated to provide better service and prices.

Graffiti in a bathroom at Backesto Park

Starting tomorrow, the San Jose Police Department will be providing a new tool to allow residents to help fight graffiti. A new web page will allow us to report graffiti, including uploading pictures.

SJPD will use the reports to identify taggers for further investigation. The photos will be kept in a database to ensure that when caught, taggers can be held accountable for more of their actual offenses.

I sure hope this works. There’s too much graffiti out there. For the city, it means parks and library workers are busy repainting things when they could be doing other important maintenance in their facilities. Small business owners are forced to pay for clean-up at their businesses. And for the rest of us, graffiti makes us feel like we live in a city run by gangs instead of citizens.

Rain Forecast
Evelyn Delgado

The downtown neighborhood of Naglee Park hosts its first artists’ open studios event on Sunday, June 7. Artists’ open studios are events where working artists in a specific area invite the public to visit their studios and see their work. Of course the artists will also sell their work. The Naglee Park Open Studios event is also meant to encourage a sense of community and promote the artist-friendly Naglee Park neighborhood, according to the event website.

More than a dozen artists in the Naglee Park neighborhood are participating. The artists work in media ranging from oil paints to felt, and there’s sure to be something interesting, no matter what your taste in art.

When: Sunday, June 7. 11:00 am to 5:00 pm.

Where: Various locations around Naglee Park. Pick up maps at House of Bagels or The Garage, both at 505 E San Carlos St., or download.

Cost: Free.

Dreaming
Alexandra Cunningham

Basket #1
Ted Fullwood