San José is the largest city in Silicon Valley, the 3rd largest in California, and the 10th largest in the US. Six years ago, San José suffered the greatest loss of jobs of any major US city since the Great Depression. Today San José area is still home to the largest concentration of technology expertise in the world. However, it seeks to reinvent itself with more focus on the arts, innovation, and perhaps a new focus on clean technology. The area fosters diversity and many city initiatives work to integrate immigrant populations. Twenty five percent of all new companies in Silicon Valley have a foreign national as a founder.

San José is not impervious to the national recession. San José Mayor Chuck Reed cited progress in growing the local economy in hard times, but his third state-of-the-city speech in January also delivered sobering news. The budget shortfall is three times the size of last year's deficit, is more than the entire budget for parks, recreation and neighborhood services and is more than double the budget for the city's libraries. In addition, the city still has a $500 million maintenance backlog for roads and other infrastructure. Early 2008 budget cuts helped spur a wave of violent crime that cost San José its coveted "safest big city" title. As a result, the city boosted funding for gang prevention for the first time since 1999 and added officers to the force, resulting in a 20-percent reduction in gang violence last year and a reduced murder rate.