For those of you who resonated with the ideas presented in my Silicon Valley Renaissance piece, we (myself, Dominique Trempont, and architect Bernardo Urquieta) have since opened a dialog with members of the Menlo Park City Council, and they are interested in incorporating them into the city’s revival plans. As many of you are aware, Facebook is about to move to a large campus in Menlo Park, and plans to house 9000 employees in it. Add to that the impact of their upcoming IPO – lots of angel investors and spin-off entrepreneurs are in the making.

The question we have asked the city council is how does Menlo Park play a role in harnessing this energy and momentum, and turn the city into a hotbed of exciting incubators, startups, great restaurants, cafes, boutiques, nightclubs, designers, while still maintaining what is lovely about the ‘village’ ambience. In addition, true to the ‘green’ theme, we have posed questions about how to create live-work spaces that do not require commute and an excessive infusion of cars, such that the ambience becomes one of a ‘sophisticated village’ and not a high rise and car infested nightmare.

This is an interesting opportunity to envision and engage in building the future of a city that houses the largest chunk of the world’s venture capital industry, and is about to become the home of the world’s largest social network.

Please email me if you wish to participate in this effort. You can also use this blog to brainstorm.