San Jose city leaders are working to reinvent the downtown corridor.
Mayor Matt Mahan acknowledges the city needs to do more to lure crowds to downtown and is looking for new, fresh ideas to draw more people.
"Our city pride really starts downtown," Mahan said while on a downtown walking tour Tuesday with NBC Bay Area.
The city expects to attract up to a million people to downtown over the summer for social and cultural events, festivals, and live bands.
When it comes to a clean and safe downtown, Mahan said it is a work in progress.
The mayor said the city is investing more in foot and bike patrols, and cleaning vandalized streets and buildings.
Downtown housing is another priority for the city.
Mahan said building more housing is one of the key strategies in taking downtown to the next level and into the future.
Downtown towers are a near capacity, with a 5% vacancy rate. Getting those residents to shop where they live will be a priority.
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Other priorities outlined by the city in helping revitalize downtown are improving transit and having more pop-up shops, where entrepreneurs fill vacant storefronts with minimal financial risk -- usually one-year leases.
The pop-up shop strategy has worked for La Paloma Imports, which shares a space with two other stores at Paseo De San Antonio.
"This a barely a year lease, but we for sure plan to expand more and see what we can do more in the future," said Danna Castrejon with La Paloma Imports.
National conventions are also returning to San Jose.
"It's great," Mahan said. "We're seeing a rebound."
