Palo Alto is a city in California with a population of around 70,000 as of 2020. It was first settled in the 1840s and grew modestly as an agricultural community in the late 19th century. The founding of Stanford University in 1891 brought some growth, but Palo Alto remained a relatively small and sleepy town for much of the early 20th century, unlike the explosive tech-driven expansion that transformed the broader Silicon Valley region in our timeline. Palo Alto has a relatively affluent, well-educated population and is known for its high quality of life, excellent public schools, and abundance of parks and green spaces, but lacks the global tech company headquarters and startup incubators that dominate the landscape in our world.