Local Blogs
By Stuart Soffer
E-mail Stuart Soffer
About this blog: Growing up in Brooklyn, NY I lived in high-density housing and experienced transit-oriented services first hand. During high school and college summers I worked in Manhattan drafting tenant floor plans for high-rise office buildi...
(More)About this blog: Growing up in Brooklyn, NY I lived in high-density housing and experienced transit-oriented services first hand. During high school and college summers I worked in Manhattan drafting tenant floor plans for high-rise office buildings. This could have been a career option, but my interest in computers - unusual at the time - led me to the computer science program at the University of Wisconsin. A programming job on Page Mill Road brought me to Palo Alto after college. Since 1993 I consult on bridging law and technology, and serve as an expert witness in Intellectual Property litigation. We moved to Menlo Park's Linfield Oaks neighborhood in 1994. Neighborhood traffic issues motivated my initial volunteering as a Menlo Park Planning Commissioner, followed by a stint as a Chamber of Commerce board member and most recently a finance/audit committee member. I advocate community volunteering for meeting people, the neighborhoods, and understanding the myriad issues that somehow arise. As hobbies I collect contemporary art and vintage cameras. And? fly helicopters, which offer rare views of the nooks and crannies of the Bay Area.
(Hide)View all posts from Stuart Soffer
Where Housing and Innovation Coalesce
Uploaded: Jul 4, 2020
Okay, what can we do about housing? - The Venn housing model for Menlo Park.
When I was in school in Madison, WI, I and a small allegedly well-behaved consortium rented a house from a professor who was on leave for a year. The house was designed by TAA (Taliesin Affiliated Architects – disciples of Frank Lloyd Wright). This house and its history influenced my tastes. Another attribute of Madison are several Tax Islands (subsets of the city, namely Shorewood and Maple Bluff) within the city limits, where for whatever reason the property tax is lower (so I was led to believe).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taliesin_(studio) Taliesin Studio
In a formerly run-down dilapidated corner of Tel Aviv, adjacent to a highway, some local visionaries built a living and co-working complex with the mission to promote the sense of community within large cities. This is Venn, which I visited a couple of a year ago. The name commemorates English mathematician, logician and philosopher, John Venn, of Venn Diagram fame. See, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Venn
See, https://www.forbes.com/sites/startupnationcentral/2019/06/25/how-israels-venn-arrived-at-the-future-of-urban-community-living/#6d2eb03a7355
Community.
What is it worth to you?
Comments
Post a comment
Sorry, but further commenting on this topic has been closed.
