Jason Su

Jason Su is a San Jose-based urban designer and planner passionate about the intersection of public life, economic development, and civic engagement in city building. Raised in Los Angeles to immigrant parents, he noticed early the role cities play in promoting social cohesion and creating opportunities for all to achieve their American Dream.

Currently, he is the Street Life Manager for the San Jose Downtown Association, where he implements various art, beautification, capital, advocacy, and visioning projects. In his time, downtown San Jose has seen a proliferation of art crosswalks, murals, pedestrian count program, pop-up dog park, public life concept visions, and the 2015 Knight Cities Challenge, San Pedro Squared, a new retail incubator and public space on the ground floor of the City-owned parking garage. He is also a lecturer at San Jose State University, teaching graduate students topics covering community planning, urban design, and social media in planning.

Previously, he worked in streetscape project management with the City of San Francisco on the award-winning Castro Streetscape Improvement Project, and in strategic planning and research with the City of Oakland and SPUR, respectively. He is the Curriculum co-chair for New Leaders Council Silicon Valley, and a fellow with K880 Emerging City Champions and Pathways to Equity. Formerly, he served at the local American Planning Association’s Young Planners Group co-director for five years. He earned his Master of Urban Planning from San Jose State University, Bachelors in Sociology and Business Economics from the UC Irvine, and Certificate in Landscape Architecture from UC Berkeley Extension.

Jason believes in a human-centered, systems-level, and design-thinking approach to tackling urban issues. He is inspired by the community he works in to build partnerships, implement projects, and re-frame concerns into opportunities.