Alex Stettinski, named the next CEO of San Jose Downtown Association, has more than 20 years in the place management and economic development field working for business organizations in West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, downtown Los Angeles and the past four years with the Downtown Reno Partnership.

Stettinski was born in Geneva, Switzerland, and first moved to the Bay Area in 1989 to pursue a graduate degree at UC Berkeley.

Stettinski will begin serving the downtown San José community on Oct. 3, working alongside Scott Knies, the founding executive director and CEO since 1988, who will remain on the job until Nov. 4.

“I look forward to helping downtown rebound from the pandemic-related slowdown,” Stettinski said.

In an interview subsequent to the CEO announcement on July 11, Stettinski answered a few questions about his work and life experiences that could prove important during his tenure in San José.

What lessons learned growing up in Europe have you applied in previous city-building and place-making experiences?

I learned two things in Europe that I think totally apply to U.S. communities as well. First, every great city has a great downtown – it is literally impossible to have a vibrant and relevant city without the core being vibrant and relevant as well. Municipalities have to focus on their downtowns because they are the heartbeat of the city.

Second, you cannot neglect the weakest links of a community – it will backfire eventually. Mental health services, housing and education are some basic needs we must ensure for all members of a community, otherwise we will pay for it greatly. Structures and systems must be in place to catch people in need – the German system I grew up in offers more of these structures – their struggle is to not have them taken advantage of. Control mechanisms can curb the potential exploitation, and there is a fine line between helping people in need and enabling them. Europe has developed a few interesting models to help people while providing them with tools to become independent from government assistance.

What programs would you like implemented in response to increasing homeless conditions in downtown San Jose?

The Downtown Reno Partnership established a dedicated social outreach program, which today includes five ambassadors who are specially trained to effectively connect and communicate with the homeless population. Two of the five ambassadors are licensed and able to use a centralized data system that tracks homeless case management. Even though the City is not a social services provider, we can connect people to resources like housing, food, medical services, clothing or transportation.

I think Downtown San José could greatly benefit from such a program, supporting the local service agencies and taking a big chunk of work off the police department’s plate. It won’t solve the homelessness issue, but it will help manage the houseless population while other more robust and sustainable solutions are created.

You worked in SoCal for years – any insights from Los Angeles that are applicable to San Jose development?

There definitely are similarities between Downtown LA and Downtown San José. Both areas experienced a lack of residents and therefore a lack of retail and other businesses that would give a neighborhood vibrancy. Downtown LA also experienced an influx of new residential products, not unlike San José , which made it possible for us to reach out to companies to attract them to the area through the critical mass provided by the additional residential units. Just like San José , Downtown LA used to be an “event vessel,” which attracted thousands of people for a Lakers game or for a special event at one of the big clubs – once the events were over it was dead again. It took a while until Downtown LA became vibrant on its own, even when there were no events.

One thing I found particularly similar when I walked through Downtown San José was the fact that there are areas like First Street that have the bones for a really cool downtown  with stores, restaurants and light rail - but many of the stores are gone and way too many vacancies create a lack of foot traffic and vibrancy. I had exactly the same experience when I explored Downtown LA about 10 years ago – there were streets like Broadway that looked amazing – but you realized that most of the stores were empty or occupied by businesses that were sub-par. This all changed over the years, just like I know Downtown San José has upgraded its business mix and will continue to evolve into a vibrant neighborhood. 

Another similarity that comes to mind is the fact that a big development helped downtown LA. LA Live became an anchor in the area, which helped give it a stronger identity and a focal point for the community to gather. Similarly, the anticipated Google campus could serve as such in San José.