Palo Alto Launches Sibling City Relationship With Bloomington

PALO ALTO, CA — Palo Alto launched its first sibling city pair on Tuesday with the city of Bloomington, Indiana, in a virtual kickoff celebration.

Mayor Tom DuBois signed the first-ever sibling cities agreement, and Stanford women’s basketball coach Tara VanDerveer — who played at IU-Bloomington — spoke about her experience with the two cities.

Harvard Professor Cornell William Brooks, a former NAACP President, also spoke at the event about the importance of coming together in communities and in the nation.

View the ceremony here:

Palo Alto and Bloomington joined together in the first-ever Sibling Cities relationship in the country. The arrangement's framework is guided by Sibling Cities USA, an organization founded by Palo Alto resident Vicki Veenker.

Bloomington, Indiana's sixth-largest city, has 80,500 residents in south-central Indiana. Like Palo Alto, it is also a college town with economies driven by tech sectors, along with travel and tourism.