Fifty-seven years ago, the city of San Jose hired a new city manager, A. P. “Dutch” Hamann, who previously had been a middle manager for General Motors. Hamann had a vision for San Jose and he carried it out with gusto.
![](http://ti.org/sanjosesprawl.jpg)
Sprawling San Jose.
Hamann had grown up in Orange County and felt there was something wrong with an urban area that did not have an identifiable central city. He could see that the area that would eventually be known as Silicon Valley was growing, and he set out to make San Jose, which calls itself the oldest city in California, the most important city in the region.