A Silver Lining for Businesses in Inland California

Imagine Western Ave several years from now. What could it be?

A possibility envisioned by Chris Gabrieli is a busy and thriving business area symbiotically cooperating with Harvard's new campus with a variety of "hot new companies solving medical, environmental, and other challenges by turning great ideas into great products and companies."

Thousands of miles from Allston, the Inland Empire Center for Entrepreneurship could be a model for what could happen in Allston. The "inland empire" is the San Bernardino and Riverside counties east of Los Angeles, and a story in the NY Times yesterday describes the success happening there as a result of "the concerted support for small enterprises and start-up companies from the area’s universities and nonprofit organizations."

There already is a Center for Entrepreneurship in Allston and if it were interested in doing a bit of local thinking maybe some great businesses could be getting started sooner rather than later along Western Ave.