Berryessa, San Jose Berryessa, San Jose The Berryessa District or North Valley in the North San Jose region of San Jose, California is located in the northeast portion of the city, between Coyote Creek and the Diablo Range foothills. The name comes from a member of the prominent Basque–Spanish Berreyesa family: Nicolas Berreyesa, a Californio settler who was granted Rancho Milpitas in 1834. The name North Valley is sometimes used by locals to refer to Berryessa. Informal use of the term sometimes also includes parts of Milpitas and Alviso to mean the northern portion of the Santa Clara Valley. In the late 19th
Mayor of San Jose a runoff election. All elected mayors of San Jose have been members of the Democratic Party. The first elected mayor was Ron James and the first female mayor was Janet Gray Hayes. Many mayors of San Jose have either served in other public offices or been influential in the private sector following their tenures. Norman Y. Mineta subsequently became a congressman, U.S. Secretary of Commerce and U.S. Secretary of Transportation. After his terms, Tom McEnery has served on the Board of Directors of the San Jose Sharks and founded the Irish Innovation Center and Silicon Valley Global, two downtown-based groups