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By Steve Levy
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About this blog: I grew up in Los Angeles and moved to the area in 1963 when I started graduate school at Stanford. Nancy and I were married in 1977 and we lived for nearly 30 years in the Duveneck school area. Our children went to Paly. We moved ...
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About this blog: I grew up in Los Angeles and moved to the area in 1963 when I started graduate school at Stanford. Nancy and I were married in 1977 and we lived for nearly 30 years in the Duveneck school area. Our children went to Paly. We moved downtown in 2006 and enjoy being able to walk to activities. I do not drive and being downtown where I work and close to the CalTrain station and downtown amenities makes my life more independent. I have worked all my life as an economist focusing on the California economy. My work centers around two main activities. The first is helping regional planning agencies such as ABAG understand their long-term growth outlook. I do this for several regional planning agencies in northern, southern and central coast California. My other main activity is studying workforce trends and policy implications both as a professional and as a volunteer member of the NOVA (Silicon Valley) and state workforce boards. The title of the blog is Invest and Innovate and that is what I believe is the imperative for our local area, region, state and nation. That includes investing in people, in infrastructure and in making our communities great places to live and work. I served on the recent Palo Alto Infrastructure Commission. I also believe that our local and state economy benefits from being a welcoming community, which mostly we are a leader in, for people of all religions, sexual preferences and places of birth.
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I Like Downtown Palo Alto
Uploaded: Aug 26, 2012
I have worked in downtown since 1969 and we have lived downtown since 2006. So downown is a big part of my life on daily basis.
Mostly what I read on Town Square is complaints and mostly from people who do not live and work here.
I don't understand the complaints that downtown has changed for the worse unless people are hoping downtown returns to the anti-war bustle of my generation in the 1960s.
Downtown (and Stanford) have continued to grow and evolve as central and critical parts of one of the world's innovation centers.
Seeing all the enthsiastic young folks smiling and happy and working hard gives me hope for the future. They and I generations apart share a connection to this small area where I live and work.
Yes, downtown will grow and if the current plans for the corner of Hamilton and High don't work out, something else will becasue people want to work in downtown. Posters can complain about evil plots by developers and council people (anyone have any proof?0 but buildings get built because investors think there is demand and my work certainly supports that. The Bay Area has added mroe than 100,000 during the past 12 months, far above teh 33,000 annnual gains we projected for ABAG in the long term.
If the business owners want to provide input, i think it should be carefully considered.
And if posters want to about how a building looks (in a neighborhood far away from where they live) please send me your name and address and a picture of where you live so I can see if it offends me.
There are plenty of shopping choices in the area and i think what goes into downtown retail should be the choice of the owners and the market. I am happy with what is available to me and think further growth will expand my choices. I am happy to see empty stores being filled as the economy recovers and more people work downtown.
I would think most residents would agree with planners that growth as much as possible should be focused in existing centers.
As I walk down University each art festival weekend and whenever the street is used for a community event, it reminds me that I live in a vibrant part of our community and region.
Democracy.
What is it worth to you?
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