How do you balance maintaining old Austins local charm with new and bigger development?
I think as far as the next emerging technology, this city is going to be concentrated in two general areas. I’m going to say those are renewable energy and medical technology. I think that’s where we need to go to give us some degree of diversity. The rest of the diversity, I think, comes about naturally by putting a big emphasis on nurturing small local businesses and diversity will naturally occur as a result. About 70 percent of the people who work in Austin work for a company that employs fewer than 100 people (nobody knows exactly how to define a small business, so that’s one good measure). So, if we put our effort where 70 percent of the people are, then I think we have a better chance of success than if we are concentrating on the remaining 30 percent, although we have to pay attention to both.
