Errors in the Perceived Location and Character of San José, California

This study examines some perceptions of the character and location of San José, the nation’s eleventh-largest city and the central city for a county of one and a half million residents. A survey questionnaire, completed in 1990 by 713 university and college students at a dozen schools, was the basis for our findings on spatial variations in familiarity with the city. Errors in the perceived location and character of the city varied in ways consistent with earlier findings on place perception. The low level of familiarity with the characteristics of the place is a source of consternation to local booster organizations and to those who think that the nation should be more familiar with San José’s role as the anchor of the large and nationally vital Silicon Valley concentration of high technology research and manufacturing.