Editing Palo Alto, California (section)

==Sister cities==
{{SisterCities|Palo Alto|seven}}
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* {{flagicon|FRA}} [[Albi]], [[Tarn (department)|Tarn]], [[Occitania (administrative region)|Occitanie]], France, since 1994
* {{flagicon|SWE}} [[Linköping]], Sweden, since 1987
* {{flagicon|MEX}} [[Oaxaca City|Oaxaca]], [[Oaxaca]], Mexico, since 1964
* {{flagicon|NED}} [[Enschede]], [[Overijssel]], Netherlands, since 1980
* {{flagicon|PHI}} [[Palo, Leyte|Palo]], Philippines, since 1963
* {{flagicon|JPN}} [[Tsuchiura, Ibaraki|Tsuchiura]], Japan, since 2009<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/visiting/news/details.asp?NewsID=133&TargetID=52 |title=Sister City Organization of Palo Alto |website=City of Palo Alto |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090804024801/http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/visiting/news/details.asp?NewsID=133&TargetID=52 |archive-date=August 4, 2009 |access-date=February 6, 2022 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
 {{Div col end}}
* {{flagicon|GER}} [[Heidelberg]], Germany, since 2017<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/news/displaynews.asp?NewsID=4027 |title=Heidelberg Adopted as Palo Alto's Newest Sister City |website=City of Palo Alto |access-date=May 2, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210111114424/https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/news/displaynews.asp?NewsID=4027 |archive-date=January 11, 2021 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1989, Palo Alto received a gift of a large, whimsical wooden sculpture called ''Foreign Friends'' (''Fjärran Vänner'')—of a man, woman, dog and bird sitting on a park bench—from Linköping. The sculpture was praised by some, called "grotesque" by others, and became a lightning rod for vandals. It was covered with a large, addressed postcard marked "Return to Sender." A former Stanford University professor was arrested for attempting to light it on fire. It was also doused with paint.<ref name="palhis">{{cite web |title=Foreign Friends: An Unfriendly Welcome |url=http://www.paloaltohistory.org/foreign-friends-statue.php |website=Palo Alto History}}</ref> When the original heads were decapitated on Halloween, 1993, the statue became a shrine—flowers bouquets and cards were placed upon it. Following an anonymous donation, the heads were restored. Within weeks, the restored heads were decapitated again, this time disappearing. The heads were eventually replaced with new ones, which generated even more distaste, as many deemed the new heads even less attractive.<ref name="palhis" />

A few months later, the man's arm was chopped off, the woman's lap was vandalized, the bird was stolen, and the replacements heads were decapitated and stolen.<ref name="palhis" /> The sculpture was removed from its location on Embarcadero Road and Waverley Avenue in 1995, dismantled, and placed in storage until it was destroyed in 2000. Ironically, the statue was designed not as a lasting work of art, but as something to be climbed on with a lifespan of 10 to 25 years.<ref>{{cite web |title=Everyone's a critic |date=June 29, 2005 |url=https://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/morgue/2005/2005_06_29.art29mb.shtml |website=[[Palo Alto Weekly|Palo Alto Online]]}}</ref>