16
2004
Today’s eWeek column is about, well, it’s about Redwood City.
It wasn’t my idea but I spent a little time in Redwood City back in 1999 when it was a dusty little out-of-the way county seat with a few tech companies looking for cheap office space, a couple of burrito joints, some bad sushi places and well, not a lot going on at the Courthouse. It was only a short drive to Palo Alto but it felt like a little time travel from one version of the Peninsula to the other.
Today, Redwood City is the site of Scott Peterson’s murder trial and a line of nice-ish lunch joints line Broadway. My buddies at MessageCast have their offices there. So does CivicSpace Labs, the non-profit Andy Rappaport is backing.
CivicSpace is part of today’s column which is about how Redwood City’s getting wired – an example of how government and politicians are taking to this whole technology thing. CivicSpace’s software is being used by the former mayor Ira Ruskin – who’s running against Steve Poizner for California Assembly. And down at the courthouse, the San Mateo Chief of Elections has hired on a big fancy geo-mapping outfit – Farallon Geographics – to find voters.