Posted by Paul, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Apr 13, 2010 at 12:28 pm

Now really, Walter. This is Palo Alto, not Harrisburg. We're exceptional, we do it right, we always succeed where ordinary cities always fail. Those new anaerobic digesters will put Palo Alto on the map like nothing else we've ever done. People will come from all over the world to see them and have their pictures taken. It's Destination Palo Alto as never before. They're even putting in a new hotel right there to handle all the new tourists. Even if we have to cut all our city workers and pave our own streets and fix our own sewers to pay for them, they're worth it. Trust city hall.

Posted by Walter_E_Wallis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Apr 13, 2010 at 3:56 pm
Walter_E_Wallis is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online

Paul, I forgot to caption the picture. That is me and Joseph Q. McCarty, my radio truck driver, standing in front of a partially anaerobic digester. Thank God for the pole in the background, proving that I was vertical and the observer slanted. It has been that way ever since, mostly.

Posted by Me Too, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Apr 13, 2010 at 4:30 pm

Good point Walter. As any venture capitalist will tell you, all new companies sound good before they have to actually deliver anything. And so you need to make a portfolio of small bets, not one big one. The city should not be a venture capitalist or an experiment where big dollars are involved. If we miss out - oh well. We can afford to miss out - what we can't afford, like Harrisburg, is a giant white elephant.

Posted by Paul, a resident of the Downtown North neighborhood, on Apr 14, 2010 at 1:04 pm

Spin is everything, Walter. Looks to me like you were leaning on a pole that was falling over. How about showing us the next picture on the roll?