Eric Glader dreams of seeing a massive crowd of people streaming into downtown San Jose’s Historic District on Thursday for a block party the nonprofit he runs — Urban Vibrancy Institute — is organizing. The idea is a simple one, he says: Create a fun time to showcase the area’s businesses for residents, office workers and city employees.

“It’s a great way to celebrate these businesses and support those that really need us for survival,” he said. “We can’t get complacent. We have to keep our foot on the gas. We have to lean in where we can lean in.”

The party, which starts at 5:30 p.m., is the first in a series planned around downtown. This one focuses on the Historic District, roughly bounded by the First and Second Street corridors between Santa Clara and San Fernando streets, which includes Fountain Alley, Post Street and the Bank of Italy building. The Urban Vibrancy Institute, which brought live music to downtown venues with its Every Thursday program last year, again is arranging for the tunes while downtown restaurants are hoping the crowds show up hungry for a bite.

Of course, one evening of partying by itself isn’t going to bring back the vibrancy of downtown San Jose, which like other city centers has struggled with getting people to return in the post-pandemic world. And it’s even worse in San Jose, which shows only about 39% of office workers returning as of May 8 — the lowest among big metro areas in the United States, 10 percentage points below a 10-city average and about 6 percentage points lower than San Francisco.

There are nearly 50 eateries and businesses in the Historic District alone, and they’ve seen business shrivel since 2020 — especially during the workday. Some downtown spots like San Pedro Square Market are doing better, but the Historic District was practically deserted during the lunch hour on Friday. And if people run into trash on the sidewalk or feel unsafe because of a person shouting profanities on the corner, they’re just going to stay away.

But Glader is optimistic that bringing a critical mass of people downtown — even for a one-night block party — will let them find new places like Good Times wine bar or CreaTV’s Open San Jose, a community hub that includes the Works and Chopsticks Alley art galleries.

“If we collaborate and continue to push forward, I think we are going to see some wonderful things,” he said.

A block party might be a good first step toward that goal. We’ll find out Thursday.

EVENING OF HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE >> I’ve raved already about the amazing restoration of Faber’s Cyclery on South First Street — a yearslong effort to bring back the 140-year-old building devastated by a 2013 fire. So I was glad to hear the Jim and Suzanne Salata and the Garden City Construction team will be receiving the Outstanding Building Restoration award from the Preservation Action Council at next week’s Preservation Awards Night at History Park.

Theirs is among the dozen awards that will be presented for distinguished service or building restoration at the Santa Clara County Preservation Alliance’s second annual event on Friday, right in the middle of National Preservation Month.

“Last year’s inaugural SCCPA Awards Night was a tremendous success, and we expect nothing less this year,” said Tere Johnson, chair of the SCCPA steering committee and president of the New Almaden Quicksilver County Park Association. “Our goals for hosting an Awards Night are twofold — to celebrate local historic and cultural preservation achievements, and to bring Santa Clara County preservation groups together to meet, share and collaborate.”

Preservation groups from throughout the county will be sharing projects they’re working on, and the California Pioneers of Santa Clara County will screen a restored short film about the history of transportation in the valley. There’ll be food and drinks for sale, and music will be provided by the StarGeezers. Tickets to the 7 p.m. program are $20 and can be purchased at www.preservation.org/npm2023, where you can also see a list of the award recipients.

SMILES AHEAD >> The Santa Clara County Dental Foundation is gearing up for Silicon Valley Healthy Smiles, a free, two-day dental clinic that’s expected to provide care to 1,500 low-income Santa Clara County residents next weekend. The foundation is setting up 100 dental chairs at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center’s South Hall, which will be staffed by volunteer dentists from the Santa Clara County Dental Society on May 20-21.

Of course, chances are you’re brushing and flossing twice a day so you won’t need this help, but the event still could use some volunteers, including dentists, hygienists, nurses and EMTs as well as nonmedical folks to help register patients, translate instructions and check people in. Volunteers can register online at volunteers.healingca.org.

BUILDING FUN >> San Jose developer Urban Catalyst put on a real circus of a show for its third investors party at downtown’s Blanco Urban on Thursday night. There were gourmet circus treats — booze-fired churros, anyone? — as well as ax-throwing, skee ball and even a torch juggler.

Urban Catalyst CEO Erik Hayden played ringmaster for the crowd, talking up the company’s various projects around downtown before introducing Mayor Matt Mahan who declared — to cheers from the development-heavy crowd — San Jose would be Silicon Valley’s urban center. As a partygoer observed to me, it would be nice if Urban Catalyst’s next party is for a ribbon-cutting; its Paseo project that replaced the former Camera 12 cinemas looks like its closest to making that a reality.

Contact Sal Pizarro at spizarro@bayareanewsgroup.com.