safety of driverless cars. Go ahead and take a live look now at downtown San Jose. The city continues to look for solutions to increase the safety and vibrancy of the area. The latest idea helping five small businesses open pop up shops near San Jose State. NBC Bay Area's Ian Cull was there as they opened today, and Ian, this is something that the city is subsidizing. Yes, yes. So the city, the Downtown Association and other business leaders came together with the goal of filling vacant storefronts, vacant storefronts and, you know, vacancies, as we've been reporting, have been an issue since the pandemic began, not only here but in downtown corridors across the country. So San Jose decided a good way to attract businesses is to allow for those empty stores to be converted into temporary pop ups. Well, today, five minority women owned businesses opened on Paseo de San Antonio de San Antonio, near San Jose State. They include a candle shop, an import store. There's also a business selling crystals and plants. Prior to this, the business owners have been selling online or in other markets, and today they described what this new opportunity means to them. This is a dream come true for us and we are so thrilled to welcome all of you in. I feel very grateful and blessed, especially someone born and raised in San Jose. I'm trying to pinch myself. I still can't believe this is happening. Thank you guys for accepting me here and thank you for all the support the community loves small business and that is exactly what we are here to do. I'm so excited to serve the San Jose community. A lot of smiles out there today, Ian. So take us through how the city is getting involved to help them out. Yeah, so this is part of the city's budget and passed by the city council. Each shop was given a grant of $3,000 to renovate their space and the city is also paying for some of their rent. The city calls it the Storefront Activation Program, with the hope that adding more small businesses not only helps the local economy, but also adds to the vibrancy of downtown San Jose, attracting more people, which in turn can make streets safer for the city of San Jose, should always make sure that our small businesses have the opportunity and the resources to open up a brick and mortar in downtown San Jose, and that is slowly happening. A lot of excitement down there. Not everybody is celebrating, though. One business owner tells me that they were not thrilled that they still have to pay full rent while businesses, you know, right down the street might be getting some subsidies. The Downtown Association, though, says that they're working on building more of these. They're going to be opening another one on Post Street in the coming months, we think. And the shops that you
