Redevelopment in San Jose is Hard. Cambrian Park Plaza Shows Us Why.

Bay Curious

KQED

History, Places & Travel, Society & Culture

4.8 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 April 2026

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Cambrian Park Plaza, a strip mall in San Jose, was once the heart of the neighborhood. Featuring a bowling alley, grocery store, post office, clothing stores and more, it had everything nearby residents might need. But it's faded significantly since it's heyday in the 1960s-1980s. Now the smattering of stores that are there are on short term leases, and may storefronts sit empty. On today's show, we explore the fight to redevelop this space, and the market conditions that have made moving forward a challenge. It's the story of one neighborhood, yes. But it's also the story of San Jose, and in many ways the entire San Francisco Bay Area. Additional Resources: Cambrian Park Plaza, a Beloved San Jose Strip Mall, Awaits a New Future Read the transcript for this episode Sign up for our newsletter Got a question you want answered? Ask! Your support makes KQED podcasts possible. You can show your love by going to https://kqed.org/donate/podcasts This story was reported by Katrina Schwartz. Bay Curious is made by Katrina Schwartz, Christopher Beale and Olivia Allen-Price. Additional support from Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Maha Sanad, Ethan Toven-Lindsey and everyone on Team KQED. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Jamie Lang and Sophie Haboo have arrived on Disney Plus.
0:04.0	We're having a baby.
0:06.0	We're having a baby.
0:07.0	I've always wanted to be mom.
0:09.0	And we're bringing you on our journey through everything.
0:12.0	I have no idea what we're doing.
0:13.0	Thank you. I have more of an idea.
0:15.0	I think of it like a Tamagocchi.
0:17.0	At the end of all of this...
0:20.0	We're going to have a little baby.
0:21.8	Raising Chelsea, a Hulu original series streaming exclusively on Disney Plus.
0:27.3	18 plus subscription required T's and T supply.
0:31.1	From KQED.
0:33.8	Sometimes questions come from the most random places.
0:37.0	I volunteer for a San Jose-based kitten restaurant. Sometimes questions come from the most random places.
0:45.9	I volunteer for a San Jose-based kitten rescue, and it's called Itty Biddy Orphan Kitty Cafe.
0:48.1	This is Connie Young from Mountain View.
0:58.7	So we have adoptable foster kittens that come every weekend, and, you know, there's two playrooms and you can book a 50-minute slot. The kitten cafe where she volunteers is located in Cambrian Park Plaza
1:05.7	on the west side of San Jose. You know, so I went there to volunteer and I saw that plaza, and it looked
1:12.6	very interesting. It was kind of different than the other strip mall plazas in the area.
1:18.0	Cambrian Park Plaza isn't one long, flat-fronted building, like a typical strip mall. It was built to
1:24.2	mimic the experience of a town's main street, so the facade turns often,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from KQED, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of KQED and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.