San Jose, California

=== Cityscape ===
San Jose's expansion was made by the design of [[A. P. Hamann|"Dutch" Hamann]], the City Manager from 1950 to 1969. During his administration, with his staff referred to as "Dutch's Panzer Division", the city annexed property 1,389 times,<ref name=Campbell>{{cite news |last=Safford |first=Pat |date=November 17, 2010 |url=http://www.tabardtheatre.org/reviews/cambexprs_Driving_rvw.pdf |title=The legacy of Dutch Hamann plagues Cambrian residents, Annexation Background |newspaper=Campbell Express |volume=59 |issue=45 |page=1 |access-date=November 9, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131110031551/http://www.tabardtheatre.org/reviews/cambexprs_Driving_rvw.pdf |archive-date=November 10, 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> growing the city from {{cvt|17|to|149|sqmi}},<ref>{{cite news |author=Don Mccormack |url=http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/San-Jose-Reality-not-reputation-3138794.php |title=San Jose: Reality, not reputation |newspaper=SFGate |date=July 16, 1995 |access-date=July 8, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131110021241/http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/article/San-Jose-Reality-not-reputation-3138794.php |archive-date=November 10, 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> absorbing the communities named above, changing their status to "neighborhoods."

{{Blockquote|text=They say San José is going to become another Los Angeles. Believe me, I'm going to do everything in my power to make that come true. |author="Dutch" Hamann, 1965<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.worldwatch.org/system/files/EP121A.pdf |title=Virtual Ecology – A Brief Environmental History of Silicon Valley |last=Sachs |first=Aaron |page=15 |work=World-Watch |publisher=Worldwatch.org |date=January–February 1999 |access-date=November 9, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131110022816/http://www.worldwatch.org/system/files/EP121A.pdf |archive-date=November 10, 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

Sales taxes were a chief source of revenue. Hamann would determine where major shopping areas would be, and then annex narrow bands of land along major roadways leading to those locations, pushing tentacles across the Santa Clara Valley and, in turn, walling off the expansion of adjacent communities.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sanjoseinside.com/news/entries/dutch_hamann/ |title=Dutch Hamann – Part One |publisher=San Jose Inside |date=January 16, 2006 |access-date=July 8, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131110022621/http://www.sanjoseinside.com/news/entries/dutch_hamann/ |archive-date=November 10, 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref>
{{wide image|Downtown Skyline from Oak Hill (cropped).jpg|1000px|align-cap=center|View of [[Downtown San Jose]]'s skyline from [[Oak Hill Memorial Park]].}}
During his reign, it was said the City Council would vote according to Hamann's nod. In 1963, the State of California imposed [[Local Agency Formation Commission]]s statewide, but largely to try to maintain order with San Jose's aggressive growth. Eventually the political forces against growth grew as local neighborhoods bonded together to elect their own candidates, ending Hamann's influence and leading to his resignation.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sanjoseinside.com/news/entries/dutch_hamann1/ |title=Dutch Hamann – Part Two |date=January 16, 2006 |publisher=San Jose Inside |access-date=July 8, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131110022715/http://www.sanjoseinside.com/news/entries/dutch_hamann1/ |archive-date=November 10, 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> While the job was not complete, the trend was set. The city had defined its sphere of influence in all directions, sometimes chaotically leaving unincorporated pockets to be swallowed up by the behemoth, sometimes even at the objection of the residents.<ref name=Campbell/>

Major thoroughfares in the city include [[Monterey Road]], the [[Stevens Creek Boulevard]]/[[San Carlos Street]] corridor, [[Santa Clara Street]]/[[Alum Rock Avenue]] corridor, [[Almaden Expressway]], [[Capitol Expressway]], and [[1st Street (San Jose)]].