San Jose has a color problem. And if you have any reason to walk or drive the streets downtown, you no doubt see it every day.

The colors of so many downtown buildings are drab and boring, so much so that I’ve heard the city called “Tan Jose.” And not because of all the sunshine.

There are exceptions, of course. The Gold Building, the blue One South Market residences, the Tech and the Children’s Discovery Museum come to mind. But downtown’s overall palette has registered somewhere between desert sand and gray for decades. The gleaming new Family Justice Center by St. James Park fits right in with the Fairmont, the City National Civic and City Hall’s bleak plaza as a monument to beige.

We can only hope that change is starting. Over the past week, artist Benjamin Henderson transformed the appearance of Good Karma, which serves up vegan dishes alongside craft beers on South First Street. The formerly khaki building was made over with a mural of a moonlit forest in deep blue, with the restaurant’s name standing out boldly on an orange background. And right across the street, the gray concrete barrier around Fountain Alley also was painted with stripes of green hues — another huge improvement.

There have been other good signs, too. Juan Carlos Araujo of Empire Seven Studios has made connections between artists and building owners to beautify Japantown with murals, and there has been an explosion of murals downtown thanks to the San Jose Downtown Association and Erin Salazar’s Exhibition District project.

If the building boom everyone is counting on really materializes in San Jose, the people designing these buildings need to leave beige behind. Let’s spice things up a little like they’re doing at Good Karma.

HAVE SHOE, WILL TRAVEL: With so much focus on sexual assault right now, there’s really no better time for the YWCA of Silicon Valley’s Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event.

If you’re unfamiliar with it, it’s a lighthearted approach to the serious issue of sexual violence against women. Starting at 5 p.m. Wednesday, scores of men — from corporate teams and community leaders to college students and lots in between — will don high heels and parade around Santana Row. It’s a symbolic gesture of solidarity with women, but it’s also an important fundraiser for the YWCA’s Rape Crisis Center.

And, as always, the hope is that there are more young men out there walking who get the message. You can still register to walk at www.ywca-sv.org or come out Wednesday to support those who do.

WELL DONE, MAESTRA: The energy level of the San Jose Unified School District must seem like it’s dropping in half with the retirement of Washington Elementary School Principal Maria Arias Evans next week. The exuberant administrator — who on a trip to Washington, D.C., last year couldn’t help herself and kissed first lady Michelle Obama — closes a 33-year career in education, including the past 12 at the helm of Washington.

During that time, she used her community connections to bring career role models onto campus for her low-income students and created a strong network of parent involvement, especially with the Spanish-speaking moms she calls the “mamitas.”

“I won those mamitas over one at a time,” she said. “It did not happen overnight. It’s about relationships.”

Evans says she plans to volunteer and finally get to work writing three books she has in mind. I don’t doubt she will; All that energy has to go somewhere.

FUTURISTIC PRESERVATION: On June 8, a group of students from Notre Dame High School’s Robotics team took part in a fascinating project, laser scanning the San Jose Woman’s Club to make a 3-D model of the historic structure.

Supervised by Brian Miller of Pointz Taken, a company that specializes in digital documentation of historic structures in San Jose, the girls scanned the exterior of the building and did a preliminary scan of the interior. Interestingly, the precision of the laser scan and the computer model can identify issues with a historic structure that might not be visible to the eye.

San Jose Woman’s Club’s home is a Mission Revival building completed in 1929. The club continues to meet there, and its ballroom is often used for private and community events.

SWEET DONATION: Santa Clara University alumni and staff held a thank-you celebration Thursday night in Los Angeles for Phil and Peggy Holland, who have donated a total of $17.5 million to the SCU’s Leavey School of Business to support and expand the free small-business-training website, My Own Business Institute, or MOBI.

Phil Holland, who founded Yum Yum Donuts, and his wife created MOBI in 2000 and donated it to SCU in 2014 to foster worldwide small-business creation and economic independence. Holland sold his interest in the Yum Yum chain when he retired in 1989, but it’s good to see his legacy goes beyond glazed doughnuts.

DIGNITY PREVAILS: Sometimes, it’s the little things that count the most. The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors took a big vote last week, unanimously approving funding for five wig banks each year at Valley Medical Center for low-income cancer patients.

Cancer CAREpoint, a nonprofit that provides support services for patients, partnered with VMC on a pilot program last year, and I’ve heard that the results were amazing for patients undergoing chemotherapy. Kudos to Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez, who pushed to have the county budget include funding for the on-site wig banks.

“We have seen the transformation that takes place when cancer patients go from feeling depressed and overwhelmed to being able to face the day with new courage and strength,” Cancer CAREpoint Executive Director Rob Tufel said.

Contact Sal Pizarro at spizarro@bayareanewsgroup.com. Follow him at Facebook.com/mercurynews.aroundtown and Twitter.com/spizarro.