With arts and dot.com, San Francisco and San Jose trying to become more like each other.

Byline: Chris O'Brien

For most of their existence, about the only thing that San Jose and San Francisco seemed to have in common was the first part of their names. And for a long time, residents of each city probably wouldn't have had it any other way.

San Jose is known as the capital of mighty Silicon Valley and a center of industry and technological innovation. San Francisco is an internationally known city with a thriving arts and cultural scene.

Now the rivals are doing something once unthinkable: Trying to become more like each other.

San Jose wants to cure its chronic case of San Francisco envy by building its own arts institutions, developing a downtown that is more destination and less ghost town and even luring a major league baseball franchise from Oakland. Local leaders believe making the city more livable is essential to attracting the employees the high-tech industry craves.

San Francisco, on the other hand, is desperately remaking itself into a technology haven as it embraces the dot-com industry, embarks on building a massive biotechnology campus and tries to put on a friendlier face for new business. After losing almost 10 percent of its jobs in the 1990s and many high-profile corporate headquarters, the city decided it needed to find a new source of economic growth.

It remains to be seen how …