January 27, 2021 by Gary Singh
OLD MEETS NEW: The Chestnut Industrial Center and the neighborhood around it feel like 50s San Jose meets present day.
Photo by Gary Singh
In a green color like freeway signage, the placard says Chestnut Industrial Center. Splotches of faded primer barely conceal the graffiti. Other, unidentified materials drip down the front of the sign, as if someone threw garbage at it.
I arrive at this sign after segueing off Coleman Avenue onto Asbury Street, which then dead-ends at Chestnut Street, centering me as I launch into one of San Jose s most picturesque industrial wastelands. Between Coleman Avenue and the railroad tracks, from Taylor Street up to Interstate 880, it s all here: Roofing, construction, building and landscape management, petroleum, concrete and collision repair.