Menlo Park Renaissance (Part 4)

If we can bring together the Silicon Valley–style entrepreneurship, with taste, style, culture, food, wine, and art in a well-thought-through city center, Menlo Park can indeed become that eclectic creative cauldron so rare and elusive. Housing this creativity should be a series of great public spaces, terraces, patios, plazas and boulevards.

Menlo Park Renaissance (Part 3)

Parts of Silicon Valley are extremely beautiful. My favorite is Woodside. However, other parts of Silicon Valley are plain vanilla. San Jose, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, San Carlos, and Redwood City – these towns have no style and not much to offer in terms of aesthetics. Silicon Valley has never really paid attention to style or

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Menlo Park Renaissance (Part 2)

Perhaps of all the American states, California, because of its wine country, has placed the most emphasis on cultivating a food and wine culture. Among our natural advantages, we count great local produce and local wine. In fact, Napa Valley has become one of the country’s greatest tourist destinations.

Menlo Park Renaissance (Part 1)

When I first wrote the piece Silicon Valley: The Next Decade, I did not think that an opportunity to implement the ideas expressed in it would come so soon. Even as I wrote the follow-on piece, The Next European Renaissance, I had not yet started the subsequent discussions with the Menlo Park City Council. However,

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The Next European Renaissance (Part 5)

Developing ideas and insights that create major shifts and trends, solve humanity’s important problems, improve the quality of life for people around the world, lead to prosperity, and result in lasting achievements – this is our quest. The question we are exploring is whether Europe’s recognized enthusiasm for culture in its various forms – food,

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The Next European Renaissance (Part 4)

Remember, we started this discussion with the premise that the next renaissance will be at the confluence of technology and the arts. By “technology,” I am referring primarily to information technology and computing. As for other technologies, there are significant expertise and major industries such as automotive and aeronautics in Europe. German brands like Porsche,

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The Next European Renaissance (Part 3)

Today, Europe is in trouble economically. Chronic debt crises, stagnating GDPs, staggering unemployment – all point to a bleak future. The future belongs to the Chinese, the Indians, and the Latin Americans. But does it, really? Isn’t there an innate intelligence and resilience in the European way of life?

The Next European Renaissance (Part 2)

In Avignon, as we visited the magnificent Palais des Papes where Pope Clement V moved the seat of the papacy from Rome in 1309, we saw posters for the annual arts festival everywhere. What a celebration of the performing arts it is!