In the typical coast-centric mindset, large swathes of the Midwest are overlooked... yes Toledo, Detroit, and Flint typify the dying industrial cities that outsiders might equate with Midwest, but what about the upper Midwest- Milwaukee, Chicago, and Minneapolis? These have what many of these other cities have- affordable housing and a desire for growth, as well as decent schools and a generally liberal mindset (with some wiggle room for differing opinions). And where SF has the Pacific- we’ve got a Great Lake, and then 10,000 little ones.
31
Bye! Don’t let the door hit you on your way out.
44
Something tells me that a bunch of rich people with vacation homes in Palm Springs aren't what dictates the appeal to the bay area.
Yes, rent is crazy expensive, so it makes sense that people are constantly looking elsewhere for work, so they can put some more money in their pocket rather than the pockets of rental agencies. But, it's still the nicest area to live in the United States. The year round temperature fluctuates only 15 degrees, and it's the only place in the USA that is that consistent. There's loads of stuff to do everywhere, opportunities to meet people that I find are very much like Canadians (calm, respectful and a tad bit passive aggressive), and an ever expanding economy providing loads of available jobs.
15
I grew up in the Bay Area, and this article was painful for me to read. It seems as though readers were supposed to feel pity for the over-compensated, self-serving tech executives who are beginning to declare the Bay Area unlivable. The gentrification brought about by the tech industry in the Bay Area is the true cause of the exodus of many residents, including myself, but the article seems to miss that point entirely, only briefly alluding to it at the end. By chronicling mainly the experiences of the tech elite, this article misses the point that their migration to new cities would be an economic disaster for most of those cities’ ordinary residents, and would tear apart their social fabric as has happened in the Bay Area.
76
Kind of sad to see this. They want to leave the Bay Area because it got too expensive? They are the root cause of this problem, but have the means to escape to impoverished areas and bring their capitalist tendencies with them. Start packing once these techies move in, because the same crisis will occur.
40
I've lived in San Francisco for forty years (NYC transplant) and I can only hope that all these people will, in fact, "totally move."
45
Put a fork in LA it is way over done. LA has seen an massive migration of New Yorker's and San Franer's. Rents are skyrocketing. Also, LA gives Calcutta a run for its money with its homeless population.
10
SV techies and VC people are predators. They just use people, places, things, up and move on. They are mostly interested in decorating their egos: i.e. "being heroes" in other places. This is about ego gratification. Big surprise.
47
This article is free PR for VCs looking to take advantage of cheaper labor markets - which is not a bad thing. Also change perceptions of tech in general by spreading the wealth beyond the ‘elite’ coastal enclaves - another not bad thing. Promoting those things doesn’t require denigrating Northern CA and San Francisco in particular but it sure makes for great PR. Especially in the current political environment.
5
The first time I heard that Silicon Valley was “over” was when I was in college in the 80’s. I didn’t believe it then, either.
32
I've lived in the Bay Area for 20 years, and Ohio for 5 years. I know Akron and Youngstown. So the solution to an area that is all anti-Trump, is to move to Trump country? Hahaha. Now MA or CO, I understand. But Akron??
11
"People want to be in a place where they're the hero..."
While I hope more prosperity will spread beyond the coasts, the last thing these self-important tech venture capitalists need is more adulation.
46
Well said.
7
I only lived in the Bay Area for 4 years, as an academic, not in the tech industry. But my husband (engineer) happily lived there for over 20 years. We moved for a job opportunity in Connecticut - and the quality of life there is much better for the money. Silicon Valley is just too expensive. People never leave their part of the Bay because it takes too long to get anywhere. Connecticut is beautiful, has a great coastline for sailing and water sports, good schools, access to NYC, and less population density. You will pay way too much to get into a neighborhood with a good school in the Bay Area. It is out of control. We decided to shift to India for a couple years-- and are meeting people trying to make a difference with clean tech start ups, NGOs and so much more. The world is much bigger than Silicon Valley -- they know it, but cling to the expensive California dream.
20
Something doesn't seem right. How come this story is about technology move-outs and not about actual affordability? The people leaving SF are not only the six-figure income digitals, they are mostly the trades and crafts people who design, construct, clean and operate all of the services you use every day. Baristas to barbers, health workers and custodials, drivers and dog walkers, all moving their hourly lives to the East Bay, the way North Bay, and to the last off ramp. When rents skyrocket in Viz Valley and Third Street, watch out!
36
“Every single person in San Francisco is talking about the same things, whether it’s ‘I hate Trump’ or ‘I’m going to do blockchain and Bitcoin,’” he said. “It’s the worst part of the social network.”
Lol. With an attitude like that, you're not going to get anything out of moving anywhere else, either, because you clearly only talk to people in your own little bubble anyway.
To be clear: no, not "every single person" in SF talks about those things. Just the other techbros in the terrible, insular little world they've created for themselves in what was (and still is, if you know where to look) a much more interesting city.
49
Geez, let's all move to Peoria. No one in their right mind wants to live in Peoria. More proof money & power do not equal common sense.
7
So these guys destroy Northern California culture, pollute the place, strip it of its diversity and creative energy, and drive it to total un-affordability through funny money manipulation and speculation.
And now they're over it?
What a bunch of vampires and charlatans.
Watch what you wish for Midwest. And beware of every move these snake oil salesmen make...
88
Did the Times screen The Matrix over the weekend? This is the second time this week I've seen the word "simulacrum".
9
I am a millennial that lives a block away from the building in Detroit the article first mentioned. I was happy to read a group of tech executives enjoyed visiting my city.
9
Please, take them! They have turned Northern California into an overpriced tech wasteland.
12
And turn some of the red states blue.
26
That would be nice, but what I foresee is them turning red to fit in with their new landscape. Their allegiance to Bay-Area progressive values is transactional. In fact, that's what some of them are complaining about.
16
I just hope they don't do what they did to CA: Cause housing prices to skyrocket and long time residents to end up homeless on the streets.
14
Well, if they cause local housing market to skyrocket, long-time residents will see their house value go from $150K to, e.g. 1 million. That's a boon to long-term residents!
4
After the Parkland shooting I looked up Parkland. It looked nice so I went on Zillow after I donated to the Parkland GoFundMe site. The houses are gorgeous. Maybe a nice place to retire. After the news kept coming out about how the NRA owns this state. I read in the New Yorker about Marion Hammer of the NRA owning the state legislator. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/05/the-nra-lobbyist-behind-fl...
That she was the creator of Stand your Ground that allowed Zimmerman to kill Trayvon Martin. I live in CA where we have laws and responsible lawmakers. The house prices may sound good in other areas, but you have to look at the whole picture and ask will I be safe, will my family be safe. For myself I would like to retire to FL, but not until they stop being owned by the NRA. CA is my home.
44
“If it weren’t for my kids I’d move”? It’s for your kids that you should.
21
A long time fan of San Francisco, I think I speak for many people when I say: Feel free to leave.
32
That you do, Rafael!
1
Eh, let them shovel snow for a season. They’ll come running back to the Bay.
16
As a lifelong Midwestern, this article bugs the heck out of me. We don't need Silicon Valley "discovering" us. Believe it or not, we've been here all along.
If you've got a problem with your toxic work culture, maybe fix it instead of exporting it here.
40
Why is Rep. Ro Khanna putting down (some of) his own Silicon Valley constituents? I thought he was elected to represent us, not to be a counterpoint for plugging investment in Youngstown, Ohio.
--A (former) campaign donor
8
Rho grew up in Pennsylvania, was educated in The Midwest and married the daughter of a multi-millionaire from Ohio. Perhaps that is why he is interested in Ohio.
3
Cruising around in a luxury bus, noshing on vegan desserts, AND trying to get in touch with the heartland. Is there enough space the luggage compartment of that bus to bring a clue with you?
What’s really sad is that these people have been so successful in the entrepreneurial climate this community offers, yet they don’t even seem to know the community that surrounds them or realize how insular their lives are. There exist two worlds: the Bay Area and the Tech Sphere. Same hunk of land, completely different dimensions.
“Every single person in San Francisco is talking about the same things, whether it’s ‘I hate Trump’ or ‘I’m going to do blockchain and Bitcoin,’” he said. “It’s the worst part of the social network.”
First of all, everyone hates Trump so of course they talk about it. Second of all, no one I know talks about blockchain and Bitcoin and I have lived here my whole life.
37
The last sentence says it all. In what universe is that guy a hero? He's wealthy but that's it. The money worship of the Bay area is pretty obscene.
19
Until I see the money actually flowing there, I'm taking this for just common courtesy from the guests.
6
I lived in the Bay Area for 15 yrs; working in high tech ; met many wonderful , and many not so wonderful, folks with a trunkful of memories. When I moved there in the early 90s, the Bay Area still had that soul that was left over from the 60’s , 70’s & 80’s which was great to experience; but like with anything $$ pollutes and that culture that was created was catapulted/ jettisoned out of the hearts and minds of those who were were drawn to that culture in the first place. Now many are just chasing every dollar to survive there. I’m thankful for the wonderful times, incredible lifelong friendships and experiences while living there for those 15 yrs. I I left 10 yrs ago; I never looked back.
25
I left the bay in 2012 and moved to the Midwest. I was teaching (still am), and simply could not afford to live in the bay. The homogeneous politics and snobbery of the bay was annoying (and comical at times!), but it was not why I moved. All to say, yes, the Midwest is a nice place to live and affordable. IF these venture capitalists and tech folks move here I hope they are more respectful of the local culture than they have been in the bay. Peace.
16
Somehow I doubt venture capitalists will be moving out of the SF Bay Area to the mid-west - so you are safe. They will most likely stay safely ensconced in the leafy green, mid-peninsula suburbs.
3
The bay area is ridiculous, when an 800 square foot house is a million bucks, a plain little ranch house, it has gone nuts. And I really hope that other places do bring their own version of silicon valley, maybe one different, with different ideas and so forth.
However,that doesn't mean mainstreet USA is going to become the next silicon valley, this has been tried before, Utah tried it back in the days of modems (Provo, for example), there was talk of the 'silicon prairie' in Iowa, and it didn't happen.A place like Detroit, that hit the skids with the auto industry,still offers diversity, and it is an urban environment and not far from technical universities and the like. To grow tech companies you need an environment where tech workers will want to live, and they are going to want things a lot of places just can't offer: When they have families, good education systems that aren't starved for resources or where education and science are seen as threats. They want to live in places where most of the people don't assume the world is about being white and Christian with certain values (and yes, I can understand when people say that about silicon valley, places like the people's republic of berkeley), they want to live in a place where someone who is gay, or someone who has kids but isn't married, or isn't Christian or white, can feel accepted. Places flourish because of many factors, and 'flyover country' doesn't always offer these kind of things.
37
Hmm - well maybe that is a consideration of some but I think you're painting with a broad brush.
2
Ironic that the people who generate so much misery in the Bay Area now want to escape the very problems they themselves created.
We'll see how welcome they are in Ohio when families start getting kicked out of their homes to make room for overpaid hipsters. Or when entire neighborhoods are plundered, and locals can no longer afford to live in the same place where they grew up. They won't be so welcome when local businesses are killed off, artists pack up and leave, and streets are so crowded as to be unusable.
28
Cool! So then us Bay Area locals can have our City back. Maybe rebuild Playland and reopen Winterland. And a flat at 12th and Lake can be 650 a month again.
15
I have lived in the Bay Area in the very recent past. Another big turn-off of the area was that the service sector is run at very low standard compare to other places. With so much money floating around, life was easy in the service sector. A lazy and un-responsive medical assistant, tax helper or property manager seems to be able to survive the competition pretty well whereas they would have starved elsewhere. The business model of many of these people seemed to be "lying on the beach all day; letting the phone ring off the hook". Money will chase after them anyway. I have lived in almost every corner of North America, and the quality of the service sector in the Bay Area was one of the very worst. I am glad I am not there any more.
9
It's great to hear that Silicon Valley is leaving its bubble and exploring opportunities in other places. But they aren't the first to do this; Revolution, a venture capital firm in Washington D.C., started the Rise of the Rest fund to do just that. Steve Case has been funding these ventures mostly by himself, and they have given out seed money to many firms already. He's putting the money where his mouth is, whereas these venture capitalists have yet to do anything of note.
4
Why not? The Midwest has some stellar universities for STEM: University of Chicago, University of Michigan, Purdue, Northwestern, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, Case Western...and just a bit east is Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, which has the #1 ranked Computer Science program in the US.
I left Silicon Valley years ago. Buying a home involved living on the edge of financial ruin, even with two engineering salaries. The public education system wasn't all that great, either.
12
I'd rather live in a hole in NYC (which I did for 10 years) than a mansion in rust belt any day of the week.
18
I love articles like this - they come out every 5-10 years and complain about the same things, the Bay Area's expensive real estate, ideological conformity etc... But I'll start believing it when I see the first venture capitalist sell their California homes and make it through a South Bend, Indiana winter followed by a humid Midwest summer.
49
And that’s just the weather.
5
South Bend Indiana? Where Notre Dame football is god? This is an example of a place that isn't going to attract many people, having been there it is the kind of place that handily supports Donald Trump despite having a major university there (Notre Dame might have big sports programs, but it is also a very, very good school) and need I say it is a hotbed of support for Mike Pence? Tech people are not exactly people supporting science that takes a back seat to religion, they aren't into schools stripped of funding to give vouchers to private religious schools and most of them won't feel comfortable in a place where the gun culture is dominent or where people are all loving and accepting as long as you live by their rules, and places like South Bend are not exactly known as being harbingers of live and let live.
9
As a silicon valley resident for 35 years, the most surprising thing in this article is the words of our very own congressman (Ro Khanna) essentially calling us spoiled brats.
Up to this point, he had impressed me as a sharp guy with good ideas, but he won't be getting my vote again until he explains why he disdains the people who elected him.
21
Heartland mayors can speed this up by taking over an abandoned factory, installing high speed internet, modem workspaces and partnering with a local community college for training for local workers interested into switching to tech and offer a virtual workforce to Silicon Valley and whoever.
If they can send work offshore they can send it inland
3
Mayhaps offshore is has a more educated and tech savvy workforce? Nice try.
1
If educated millennials moving to the Midwest help turn red states blue, I am all for it.
24
Good for Rep. Ryan. He is one big hope for the future of the Democratic Party. But Nancy Pilosi has called him anti-feminist for wanting to make economic issues the core of the Democratic message. As for J. D. Vance, the author of “Hillbilly Elegy," he can be quite a phony. In a Charley Rose interview he stated that no Democratic politicians is able to connect to West Virginia voters. This after well publicized accounts of how successful Bernie Sanders was in connencting to those voters.
7
Vance is an opportunist and charlatan. Can't really blame him, though, I guess -- he sees his opportunity for 15 minutes of fame.
6
"“Every single person in San Francisco is talking about the same things, whether it’s ‘I hate Trump’ or ‘I’m going to do blockchain and Bitcoin.’"
As long as your world is only tech people, this is going to be true no matter where you move. There's an entire "authentic" San Francisco outside of the Mission and SOMA--a city where my family has lived for generations before the tech boom, and likely for generations after the tech boom.
You can pay $15 for your artisanal cocktail, I'll take two pupusas, rice and beans and a beer for $10 at the local pupuseria where they know me by name. There are plenty of parts of San Francisco where you can find real hardware stories, pharmacies, etc. instead of artisanal coffee houses and stores selling $300 backpacks.
122
Perhaps now start ups in Silicon Valley will no
Longer be valued at insanely inflated valuations. Here in the Boston area we have been starting up brilliant companies but they sorely lack in valuations (except biotech and health related companies which are unreasonably valued super high). It’s just not fair.
2
When I first moved to Kalamazoo, MI, five years ago, my New York-based family thought I was dropping off the ends of the Earth. But it's been great - the perfect mix of inexpensive living, a relaxed pace, and lots of culture (3 universities, with a strong music, history, and social justice mix). Plus really great health care. Plus, the entertaining spectacle of watching the locals squawk if they have to park more than a block from their destination. Plus lots of great vegan food: www.vegankalamazoo.com !
10
This article is shallow because it does not address the pressure and insecurity that software firms outside Silicon Valley feel in raising capital. As they are ready to scale up big, many tech firms feel that that their best chance for securing significant capital is to Silicon Valley. Ryan knew what he was doing: get tech venture capitalist to be open to funding mid-western tech companies. I doubt that in any way he was trying to convince them to move to the Midwest. This article trivializes what Ryan was up to.
8
We are victims of our own success. The Hacker Ethic that Steven Levy celebrated 40 years ago is a thin veneer on today's rapacious greed seeking the next unicorn.
But the ethos of Silicon Valley still revolves around the creation of a massively scaling network of people who literally want to help others be successful without sticking out a hand expecting to be paid.
The VCs didn't point out to author the profound reasons it's cheap in the old rust belt. Risk-taking, entrepreneurship, tolerance for failure and resilience are critical to innovation, and too often lacking in the midwest.
One risks being marked for life as a loser, whereas here the question asked is, “What did you learn that will enhance the success of your next startup?"
40+ years ago I left the one of these rust belt cities featured on the bus tour and arrived in San Francisco just as below-spec microprocessors were being handed out for free at the earliest Homebrew Computer Club meetings. I gravitated to working in Cupertino but living in the City. Along the way I met many other refugees from around the country, as well as the world, who were willing to take risks. We went on to cofound a number of tech startups. None of that would have happened if I had remained in Ohio.
Early this decade I attempted to take one of our companies back to Ohio and discovered there weren't enough people there willing to take a risk, nor enough regional venture funding for single Series A.
22
A "Rust Belt safari". Exactly. Did they bring beads and trinkets for the natives? And I imagine the vegan doughnuts went over big.
One of the adventurers is so impressed with the heartland that she says: "If it weren’t for my kids, I’d totally move." I can imagine many of the locals quietly saying: "Totally don't."
But they will be rendering their official response in November.
24
When all they hear is "I hate Trump" and Bitcoin conversation, it's obvious they haven't embraced anyone in SF outside their circle of tech folks. Otherwise they might hear, " All the tech folks and those who serve them have forced out every form of diversity in the mission and tenderloin, done nothing to support the arts, created huge numbers of polluting cars driving the streets in the form of Lyft and Uber, driven up rents and ruined the skyline and not one of them knows how to converse with a stranger or a neighbor"
71
Silico Alley in Manhattan has been quite effective in hiring meaningful numbers of women and minorities. You might want to check out the free Blog "Made in New York."
2
So now that tech companies have driven the prices of real estate in the SF Bay Area beyond the reach of any mere mortal, they are turning up their noses and 'moving on'. Thanks a bunch.
29
That's ok. We still have:
- laws including gun laws
- none of my neighbors have a gun
- 14 year olds can't get married
- good organic produce
- great Mexican food
- we can ask for gluten free at a restaurant without being looked at like an alien
- more than one Bloomingdales
- great trails
- best yoga classes
- an ocean
- wine country
- Yosemite
- Tahoe
- closer route to Hawaii
Let them leave, less traffic for us.
11
I am always amazed when I read articles like this about how the Midwest is supposedly so different from the "coastal" areas. Having been born and raised in India, then lived in various states in the US, also in the UK and South America, it baffles me how small-minded and stereotypical so many journalists are when they write about America. It is almost like their social attitudes are still locked in 1920s while their political correctness is advanced totally independent of their actual thought process.
The people in the coastal states are mostly people from the midwest who moved to the coasts since the jobs were there. If you pay attention to facts you would know that farming and now manufacturing jobs have decreased drastically due to automation (and outsourcing in the case of manufacturing.) The farming labor collapse happened coincident with the Great Depression so we do not consciously think of it as such. Farming has always been a very tricky, low-margin business since time immemorial.
here is some info on the principals of some SV companies:
Twitter: Jack Dorsey - St Louis, MO; Evan Williams - Clarks, NE;
Facebook: Zuckerberg - White Plains, NY; Moskowitz - Gainesville, FL; Chris Hughes - Hickory, NC
Google: Larry Page - East Lansing, MI; Sergey Brin - Moscow, USSR; Sundar Pichai - Madurai, India
One could go on, but the point is Silicon Valley exists because it is a locus for creativity. If the Midwest (re-)cultivates that mindset, "they" will come.
101
You say "it is a locust for creativity." Yes, it is a locust. It eats away at the heart of the land and leaves behind a mess. Housing is so expensive in Silicon Valley that nobody can live there UNLESS you work for an established tech. company. Consequently, more and more people are on the streets, homeless and forgotten.
2
Excellent! I always cringe whhen liberals use the term "flyover states," and then wonder why people in the Midwest distrust coastal liberals.
1
The reason housing is so expensive here is that there are more people who want to move here than we can build housing, and that imbalance of demand and supply drives up prices.
The minimum cost of constructing a 600 sq ft residential unit in a multi-story building is about $400,000 within 25 miles of the San Francisco Ferry Building. That includes land, entitlements, construction, insurance, financing and sufficient profit to cover economic risk. I've previously built affordable housing in the bay area and determined tech startups are less risky.
I could return to my old rust belt community and find over 200 homes for sale in a one mile radius under $10,000. Too expensive? I'll take you to Cleveland where my brother-in-law lives. There are nearly 2,000 homes for under $5,000. Why are homes so cheap? There are no jobs.
Even if the Bay Area wanted to build in the style of a new Hong Kong, with 25 story towers lining the bay, we will never have enough housing to meet demand and affordability.
2
As a resident of Silicon Valley who does not work in tech, I would rejoice at an exodus of tech here.
22
Twelve tech venture capitalists take a tour of the midwest and suddenly "Silicon Valley Is Over"??? Hyperbole much?
83
The media lobves "Death of stories." Translation: "Death of" = "will not be as dominant as now."
Good lord. If these people come out here, I may have to move back to California.
34
We'll be there to greet you...with all the cannabis your heart desires, voreason !
5
Don't be fooled, Venture Caps. I lived for a decade in Ohio and people there still think that slavery was good! Why? how could someone "beat-up" something they owned, would you beat up your car??? Old habits die hard and the recent elections are sure indicators that the mid-west just slide back to the "wonderful" 50s. Just scratch the surface and the ugly will with show its face.
37
hey, 25 years ago, i was crowing about how awesome the twin cities was (and still is), but you think those east coasters/west coasters believed me? naah. but it was great. and it still is. inexpensive, accessible culture, grassroots/populist, progressive, environmentally conscious, clean, diverse and inclusive...all of it.
19
You forgot the long freezing winters and very short summers.
4
Their loss. They won't move to where you are because your winters are brutal (to them not me) and you have cold weather about half the time (which is fine by me cuz I love winter sandwiched by a cold fall and a cold spring.) I love all four seasons.
You are in a sea of red though as Clinton would've lost your state if not for Gary Johnson, a loss of ten electoral votes and a bigger hill to climb for 2020. The rest of your state outside of the twin cities, Duluth, and Rochester i.e. rural Minnesota needs to get with it. Trump does not represent their best interests!
2
Now So how many moving to Ohio.
2
San Francisco picked up the welcome mat for most long ago. The bubble has burst and now the 99% must live somewhere else. (Ironically, many are probably from the Midwest/elsewhere already.)
Great news to hear people are seeking more rational places to live.
Let's hope fresh air, wide open spaces and positive vibes bring more caring and aware voices to the planet. #AnywherebutSF
4
And hope they don't bring over-priced houses and homelessness.
2
Perhaps we need to remember the reasons that so much of the tech industry did not grow up in my native Midwest.
First, the image of hardworking heartland folks in clean efficient cities does not uniformly apply. Places such as Chicago and Detroit offer a range of defective public services and few parents would place their children in those public schools if they had any choice.
Second, a top-tier tech center requires at least one truly distinguished university and adjacent land upon which the tech center can be built. Silicon Valley has Stanford and Cal – Berkeley; Boston has MIT and Harvard; and southern California has several University of California campuses. The Midwest has a few schools of that caliber, such as Carnegie-Mellon and the University of Chicago. But the area does not have that many and so future development probably will be concentrated those few cities.
Lastly, the climate anywhere on the west coast is far more pleasant than a heartland winter with a few feet of snow, single-digit low temperatures, and roads turn into sled tracks by ice.
55
Very good comments Quiet Waiting. The interpersonal networks clustering around universities are the bedrock of innovation. States cutting funding to higher education are being incredibly short-sighted.
There are some fantastic universities in the midwest. Chicago and Pittsburgh are good examples. Ann Arbor and Boulder will do just fine attracting tech workers. Unfortunately, we Nebraskans get to watch the state government cut funding for higher education year after year. The brain drain is continuous. Meanwhile, the boosters have no problems finding the millions to hire a new football coach.
6
L.A with an endless summer? No thanks!
Plus Ohio has Rob Portman
3
Well-paid Silicon Valley employees can manage the expenses of San Francisco. The notion that those who earn $1 million are middle class is imply not true. But everything changes when the computer engineers start a family. That's when the expense of living in San Francisco really kicks in. Neighborhoods with top notch schools are ridiculously expensive. And it is at that point when the midwest becomes comparatively attractive.
14
Try attracting the educated millennial to these places though. They don't want to be in red states!
43
attract them with jobs and they will change for us the political balance and turn it blue.
4
Your statement indicates part of the perception problem we have to overcome here in the midwest. Even in the reddest of red states, you can find a section of urban 25-35 year olds that welcome diversity and free thinking. Unfortunately, most people on the coasts don't see past the red on the map.
6
Chicago is located in Illinois, which did not flip deplorable in 2016, unlike my pathetic state. At least I can claim Chicago as my birth place, although I have been a Pennsylvanian for more than 40 years now. BIG SIGH.
"But it’s not just about making money... but only 62 percent of Californians say they trust the tech industry, and just 37 percent trust social media companies..." Good grief!! This article is an advertorial placed by tech industry vulture capitalists. The people of California distrust these tech and social media companies because they have experienced first hand the destruction these companies have brought to their communities. The folks described in this article don't want to actually live in the midwest--they just want to colonize it! I'm disappointed NY Times--this article belongs in some silicon valley public relations trade journal. Does the writer even work for the NY Times or what?
25
ICK... don’t do us any favors! We have enough of hipsters in Detroit copping attitude, we certainly don’t need any “tech-sters” to add to the mix.
Yes, you would bring money to the area, but at a cost!
You made Silicon Valley and all it represents, the good the bad and the unfair, so use that capital and fix it, don’t just leave it! Quit letting unabated greed rule the day! Leaving the mess you made is LAME!
12
“If it weren’t for my kids, I’d move...”. Do it for your kids. The Midwest is a better place to raise kids. Room to grow. Choose carefully and you get both good schools and better odds of getting into a good college. As an interviewer for MIT living in the Midwest, I know whereof I speak.
8
The Bay Area is a wonderful place to raise kids, if you can afford it.
2
Outstanding! The sooner they move out of San Francisco, the sooner we can begin to repair the damage they have done to my city. They can be transported out of town in those plush "tech buses" that clog the streets and bus stops.
14
The hills have already been tortured by Mr. Peabody (the coal magnet, not the cartoon dog). Let's not add insult by building hideous condos, McMansions and boutique cafes for the imported city folk who find the area quaint and smell a good investment.
If you love the area, then great. C'mon down! Just assimilate, if you don't mind. Don't move here and start changing things because "back in San Fransisco we used to....".
Bend, OR turned into Little LA when those folks saw opportunity and moved; Colorado got popular with the in-crowd and all my hippy friends were priced out within years. I personally saw it happen in Ojai, CA when the San Franer's moved in. I don't want that to happen here just because real estate prices are good and companies smell a better bottom line. We've seen enough corporate exploitation already.
And then let's talk about the deals your elected officials are willing to cut to lure these folks to your area. How many years will locals be paying for the privilege of winning these businesses? How many local jobs will actually be created. Oh, they'll talk about how peripheral businesses will spring up to support their offices, but most of those high paying office jobs will be filled by outsiders.
Economic development is a good thing if managed well and that's were it all falls down, of course.
9
I'm terribly sorry that billionaires Thiel, Moritz and their greedy ilk are subjected to "distracting 'soul-sapping discussions' about politics and social injustice." It must take all the fun out of their OCD hoarding of money. In this era of economic inequality so great that American kids go to bed hungry at night these CEO's suffer so!
43
Interesting how in Ohio it's become a Democratic Party parlor sport to cast aspersions on Vance and on his book, Hillbilly Elegy. Everyone worried that he will return to the state and run for office as an attractive native Yale-educated Republican - and given Democrats' lackluster candidate pool the criticisms amount to a preemptive strike on an as-yet-unannounced candidacy.
4
Silicon valley techies are too savvy to be schemed out of their share by VC's. The Midwest has much easier marks.
Vulture capitalist pod people are circling Wall Street's road kill in the heartland. Gentrification Alert!
Welcomed as 'heroes'? That's the same line served up with the invasion of Iraq by the U.S. military. Politicians really need to update their propaganda lines. It should come as no surprise that $ is behind both canards.
If they think Silicon Valley is insular, just wait until they invade the heartland. We learned decades ago that when these vultures circle, they're looking to make money, not find new artisanal soap or tattooed barristas with new faces. If they decide to actually go 'slumming', gentrification will quickly follow.
Their new cheaper digs will made to look just like their old digs but of course everyone else will have to pay for those new amenities and services. They will avoid taxes by taking advantage of loopholes and business incentives paid for by taxpayers who will find they can no longer afford to pay taxes to stay in their own homes.
Here's what is usually unspoken - many locals hold it against outsiders, especially Californians.
10
Gosh - what to say? For starters, places like Los Angeles were made for people like Peter Thiel, as is stand-your-ground Florida for Mr. Clark. The San Francisco Bay Area was, and always will be, a place where dreams are made manifest. The midwest, not so much, unless you want to live on government subsidies growing corn. The best locations attract the best talent. End of story.
5
Wow. Tell it to the stellar faculty at the IU Jacobs School of Music. You know, the city that produced Joshua Bell. Tell it to the University of Chicago and the scientific researchers at Purdue University. They will be so pleased to know that they have no talent on their staffs. Who knew?
4
Good points, but what's with the suits?
5
"Recently, Peter Thiel, the President Trump-supporting billionaire investor and Facebook board member, became Silicon Valley’s highest-profile defector when he reportedly told people close to him that he was moving to Los Angeles full-time, and relocating his personal investment funds there"
He should have moved to the Trump tower or the White House. He woulda felt more homely.
12
The dream of getting away from/getting revenge on the center is ever new and ever dumb. If it were true, cities would be evaporating ... but cities and centers exist because the generate things with significantly more efficiency. I advise and mentor a dozen startups and run my own. I can have lunch with any of my network in an hour. You just can't have that out in beautiful empty xyz.
Look at China. Manufacturing powerhouse right? All in concentrated areas that get too full, too expensive ... because any person who really understands the game knows you move to the center of what you do no matter what. I think NYC will have a vibrant tech culture, it's big enough. Boston has the schools ... but is maybe too small. There is a threshold that becomes self-reinforcing. Some places might become local areas, some places are essentially adjuncts of Silicon Valley, works work there (Boulder, Bend) but at Silicon Valley places. That's a nice life ... unless you want to move companies, start companies etc
2
I 've lived in the heart of Silicon Valley for 22 years. It's growth has been obnoxious at times, but my 3/2 condo is worth more than 4 times what I paid for it in 1997.
This article is rather shallow, like most of them from the NYT on Silicon Valley. People are coming and going in the Valley, just like they have been for the past 30 yrs. Only more people are moving in rather than moving out. It's that simple.
5
"“Some of the engineers in the Valley have the biggest egos known to humankind,” Mr. Khanna, the Silicon Valley congressman, said during a round-table discussion. “If they don’t have their coffee and breakfast and dry cleaning, they want to go somewhere else".
Perhaps coincidentally, a local SJ paper reports "lawmaker Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) is the fourth-richest Californian in Congress" http://www.sanjoseinside.com/2018/03/06/rep-ro-khanna-named-4th-richest-...
It's just terrible when the plebes want the same services a guy like Khanna takes as a matter of course. How can he feel special and entitled?
17
They need the coffee because they were up a 2am on Skpe with Indian and stayed up until 10 pm doing the same. In between calls to India at 9am they get ready to go into the office for a full 8 to 10 hours. They may be on the bus to commute, but this is good as they are too sleep deprived to drive safely. They are overworked and need a little pampering so they don't keel over. Not sure the work ethic in Ohio can handle these hours. We shouldn't have to do this in Silicon Valley either, but someone had the bright idea to save money by moving half the jobs to another continent.
OMG, the Midwest is so cute? I moved here from New York almost 20 years ago and I have met better educated, more sophisticated and less provincial people in the Midwest than many New Yorkers and certainly more so than the average programmer aka "engineer" in Silicon Valley. So, if these leeches think they are going to move to the Midwest and the local rubes are going to fall all over them, and worshiply offer up our artisan cheese - they are going to be in for a rude awakening.
35
This is how you bring back jobs to the former rust belt. Create an economy in an industry that America excels in - high tech. Not by imposing stiff tariffs in hopes of bringing back jobs to low margin, highly competitive industries like steel, or trying to revitalize dying industries like coal.
8
When Intel was an ascendant company back in the 80s, they made a conscious effort to grow everywhere but California. Their HQ is still in the bay area but their largest offices are in OR, AZ, NM. Clearly there is precedent for expansion outside of the bay area. Microsoft is another example of non-California growth story. I find it amazing why the newer growing companies don't follow this path. After all, they can afford to pay less when they have their workforce outside of California.
4
I would tell these Investors to go check out Chattanooga, TN. The "Gig City" has unparalleled internet speeds and an already growing Techie/Hipster culture in the city similar to that of the early stages of Silicon Valley. It's also a beautiful city hiding in a valley on the Tennessee river where some startups have already set up shop: Skuid and Bellhops. According to Wallethub, Chattanooga is the 4th best city to start a business in. I see a lot of potential for growth in this city and it is a wonderful place to live and start a business.
3
Chattanooga is the county seat of Hamilton County which voted like this in 2016:
Trump 78,733
Clinton 55,316
Johnson 5,443 (x .8 = 4354.4 rounded to 4,355 would've went to Trump)
No thanks!
8
You're so right! How could I possibly forget that the most important thing about where you start a business is how everyone in that county voted in a presidential election?
2
I live in one of the most troubled cities in America and yet I don't think I'm alone in hoping these people do not come here and import their ridiculous ideas as to what makes a city vibrant. However, reading this article illustrates a sobering point: there are few cities in this country that have affordable housing, abundant public transport, a wealth of nightlife options, world-class arts and culture, excellent dining, green spaces, and a robust economy. Chicago has almost all of these but unfortunately the market here pales in comparison to the coasts. The economic and social mobility once afforded to Americans who chose to move to major cities is becoming increasingly out of reach.
11
I have been traveling to San Francisco and the Valley ( Menlo and Mountain View) for decades. I have lived in Cleveland for the last 22 years. It is a no-brainer for tech companies to slowly expand their operations to the "heartland." I have worked "remotely" in every position I have enjoyed and my colleagues agree that SFO and the Valley has become so prohibitively expensive to live ( and the salaries the corps must pay) that geographical expansion is long overdue. Cleveland could be transformed positively upon a foundation which is already providing an outstanding quality of life for most of it's residents. The growth could also serve as a terrific boost for those who seek to elevate their skills, incomes and opportunities. Cleveland is open for business!
9
Excuse me but the SFO and Valley have been so prohibitively expensive to live because of you and people like you who were, are, and always will be willing to pay $2000 or more on a 400 sf or smaller studio apartment. You drove up the rents and housing prices there and now you want to do the same for Cleveland which doesn't need Silicon Valley, it needs its unemployed and underemployed working and gangs eradicated.
6
Venture capitalists are like lobbyists. They don't represent a broad spectrum, they represent special interests. This is hardly the foundation upon which to argue that 'Silicon Valley Is Over'. Venture capitalists represent venture capitalism, not Silicon Valley.
Mind you, here in the bay area of San Francisco we could use a little less venture capitalism. As John Price noted, it would be nice to get our city back. We could do with a little more Emperor Norton, and a lot less land speculation.
18
The telling line from the article "If it weren't for my kids, I'd totally move".
In other words, they'd rather raise their children in a place where the community's educational priorities favor textbooks over touchdowns. In any given community, there's only so many qualified people to work for these tech companies-because most techs come from places where there are other opportunities available. It's no surprise the tech sectors crop up around universities and other tech companies.
We always hear these stories about tech jobs moving to places where they don't occur normally, but there's a fundamental problem-you can't grow crops where the soil can't support it. Dell tried this a long time ago with moving a technical support center to Twin Falls, ID. After the agreement with the city ended, the 500 jobs they had got cut to 100. People either had to leave town to keep their employment, or accept demotions into customer service reps. Other tech firms did not follow Dell to Twin Falls.
64
Berlin, New Hampshire, in the White Mountains, is the Detroit of New Hampshire, on a smaller scale. The largest employer went under in 2006 and the city lost half it's population. Surrounded by pristine mountains, rivers, and outdoor wonderlands, it is a fantastic area. The city has a modern hospital and terrific infrastructure. Being in the White Mountains, and next to the highest peak in the northeast(MT. Washington), it is usually about 10 degrees cooler. The place has tremendous potential. It's about 3 hours north of Boston.
4
Ah New Hampshire, the state with the biggest voter suppression in the land as you can't register to vote online and/or even print a voter registration form from their election site as neither way to register to vote is available. What a progressive state!
4
The conversation is about high tech recruiting, not politicians. NH is a lot more progressive and business friendly than you are aware of.
Inventor Dean Kamen, moved here from New York about 30 years ago. He has pretty much single handedly taken a broken down old mill city, Manchester, and turned it into a high tech, job growing, powerhouse. His latest project is
a new industry aimed at mass-producing human organs. His historic FIRST organization, to get students involved in STEM careers, is now a worldwide success story. So joke all you want Mr. Voter dude. While you've been asleep, high tech has exploded here, and we have 4 Democrat women representing us in Washington. Enjoy your dreams!
4
The Silicon Valley was not started by venture capitalists and investors on a bus tour looking to find investment opportunities. It came out of the conditions necessary for modern innovation, including investment in education, communities open to hungry and ambitious immigrants and a belief in science and technology.
Ask the bus driver to take you to the statehouse in Ohio or Indiana or any other neighboring red state. There you'll find a race to the bottom in terms of education and infrastructure investment, not to mention widespread skepticism of the benefits of science and learning and a loathing of foreigners. Exactly the opposite of what made Silicon Valley and what keeps it the leader.
229
I disagree- the larger population centers in the Midwest are not too different from coastal cities, except for less traffic and expense. Most of these cities are anchored by universities and have a healthy mix of people and immigrants.
7
Amen!
1
Jane, the larger population centers anywhere are not that different from coastal (US) cities. Think of major cities anywhere in the world and they all have commonalities - good and bad. Excellent universities, crumbling public infrastructure, too many people, too many types of people, the Gays(!!), not enough respect for religion and authority, and don't get me started on guns!
Almost all midwestern cities, even Southern and Western ones like Salt Lake City, have Democratic mayors and city councils. Not exactly what we think of when we say "Midwest" right? We need to start distinguishing provincial from urban and suburban to really understand the political and social differences.
4
None of this is going to work unless everyone stops trying to remake the Midwest in the vision of Silicon Valley. It would be wonderful to have more industry back in the Midwest - but do it Midwestern-style. Don't expect to export Silicon Valley to Ohio, or to make Detroit look like San Jose. These places have their own histories, their own characters, AND, most importantly, their own ways of life that are deeply different from that on the coasts. Not better, not worse, but different. This is fine. This is great. Respect that culture and work with it properly. Only then will these efforts work. Note: I'm a Wisconsin native, and lived there through college. I also lived in St. Louis and upstate New York, and now live in the Bay Area.
60
If midwestern style was that valuable, the places wouldn't be going broke and the property values niot going in the tank. One of the problems with people going into new areas is takuing into account the kind of welcome they get even if they are not promising 10,000 new jobs. Everyone benefits from social interaction, that is learning and accepting how the othe half lives, it doesn't mean I have to be like you to get along. I have lived in a few places including overseaa and have managed to enjoy all of the differences in all of the places.
1
Does this mean we can get our city back?
51
Possibly and I'd love to join you.
2
"Oh my god, this is so cute!" Um...wow.
Kind of reminds me of being on the main drag in Saratoga Springs a couple of Sundays ago. Two couples (so clearly upper East Siders) with their brood in expensive tot clothes (nothing says toddler clothing like silk) and one pushing a really expensive stroller stops in front of a cheese shop and screams "Oh my God they have cheese! I never thought you'd be able to get cheese up here! It's so unexpected!
Fortunately, other than a quick visit they will never move to any of these places. Would kind of destroy them, you know?!
79
Excuse me but your location is "Boston." What makes you someone to speak for Saratoga Springs, NY? "So clearly Upper East Siders" how, Bostonian? You do know that that couple and New York city people in general are the life's blood of that town, right? Deal with it when they put money in pockets.
I love the small town mentality of scoffing at the big city visitors behind their backs after they take the big city money (to go with the big city money in taxes.)
Take it from a NYC: the Upper East Side is a wasteland of apartments and run of the mill stores with very few unusual places, so I could see this couple going gaga over the cheese store because the UES doesn't have one.
Why would living elsewhere "destroy" New Yorkers?
2
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say she means that it’s the places that her anecdotal New Yorkers (and the Silicon Valley venture capitalists of the article) move to that will be destroyed.
Also, I assure you, there is cheese to be had on the Upper East Side. At grocery stores, bodegas. Maybe even a cheese shop! You don’t have to do without cheese, or to invade the heartland to procure it. It’s terrible that you’ve believed otherwise for so long.
1
Hey, can that bus keep rolling on to Connecticut? We're desperately in need of outside investment and housing is cheeeeeeep.
6
YEs! New London is an amazing place and would love the business. It's got a great downtown, nice restaurants and abundant housing in need of sprucing up.
3
Yeah - just so there is no confusion - venture funds create absolutely nothing - they are parasitic on the talent that actually does create things.
When a bunch of twenty-something entrepreneurial tech geeks get on a bus for a whistle-stop tour then maybe something is happening... and just so we are clear - that is not happening.... ever.
38
Why are those people in a bus?
Because they are up all night working with India or some other place on another continent. Then about 9 when those other places go home they must come to work for a full day. They get about 4 hours of sleep a night. Do you really want they driving in traffic to work with that little sleep?
I wonder if the Great Lakes, lack of earthquakes (see Kathryn Schulz's New Yorker article from 2015), and immunity to the worst effects of climate change have anything to do with their interest in the Midwest?
11
Probably not.
1
My worst nightmare, coming true. I'm desperately awaiting the point at which I can take my California-native spouse and decamp for my native Midwest, and have focused all my retirement financial planning on that scenario. The LAST thing I need is for people on the west coast to figure out what we Midwestern natives have always known - that so-called flyover country is a wonderful place to live if you're not a bazillionaire. And it is so even if you are. Great people, beautiful seasonal changes, affordable housing - there's nothing like 30 years in southern California to make you realize the real value of what you left behind. Here's hoping the mongrel hordes of tekkies don't get there before I can!
76
oh yes, that midwestern weather is sooooo much better than the perfect climate of CA. Hmm. Please lock the door behind you!
9
Ummm... You can rest easy by taking at a look at the map of the US which is drawn to scale. The "mongrel hordes" of techies live in a small area along the coast, primarily in and around cities. There is ample land in the interior to take up all the people who come there.
If anything, your post unwittingly exposes the close-mindedness of folks from the interior (and this is true of all countries, and all eras.) Provincialism is what is harming some of the communities in the Midwest. Most of the jobs in rural areas come from the "hordes" who live in the cities. If people would just realize that, and also that we live wherever by our own choice in this country, life would be much simpler and we would have much better government.
3
Some of us like the snow . Cross country skiing anyone ?
1
Mr. Khanna is my Congressman. I am appalled at his comment that "Some of the engineers in the Valley have the biggest egos known to humankind. If they don't have their coffee and breakfast and dry cleaning, they want to go somewhere else." It sounded for all the world as if he were trying to ingratiate himself with the group by being cleverly flippant while dismissing his own constituents. Not even in a private cocktail conversation is that acceptable. If he is going to behave like a jerk in public away from home he is quickly going to discover what it’s like to be a one-term congressman at home.
47
You should vote him out for the simple fact that he is basically encouraging business from the district he represents to relocate outside of it thus cost jobs.
Seriously, what is a CALIFORNIA HOUSE MEMBER doing travelling to the Midwest in hopes that people move there. Shouldn't he be trying to get businesses to relocate to HIS DISTRICT?
43
I don't know, I think it's true - I lived in the bay area for four years from 1997-2000 and then in Seattle for 14 years, and still maintain ties to the bay area. It is my favourite place in the whole world (though my wife isn't that fond of SF). Even though I wasn't born there, I often say I was born to live there (here I am referring to the bay area that includes everything except the tech industry).
There are problems and advantages with every place in the world but this is one of the tech industry's problems. The smart people actually think they are wise. I even used to be one of them. The same problem exists with certain other industries too, where success is equated with being smart (sometimes it is) and with being wise.
4
He's right.
1
Is there no downside: tech spreading its negatives around the country as well...?
3
And so the locusts prepare to migrate to virgin territory. I grew up in San Francisco in the Fifties, when it was a family town. There was an upper crust of old money, but family ownership of some of the largest industrial and commercial businesses provided employment for thousands of white and blue collar folks. When the funny money began to flow, those families cashed in. The local economy has been so inflated by Silicon Valley, that it has become impossible for a working-class family to rent a decent apartment within miles of SF, and those lucky enough to have a nice home are being evicted to make room for tech workers with too much money.
I no longer live there, but when I visit San Francisco it grieves me to see how harsh and awful my hometown has become, as the bedroom of Silicon Valley. I say good riddance; let the locust plague move on.
72
I second that
1
Maybe Elon Musk can help the Silicon Valley caravan colonize Mars. Real estate is pretty cheap there right now.
9
And while it is the red planet, no Republicans so far.
I've been reading these articles for years that people are going to suddenly move from the Bay to the most affordable place in the entire country overnight. Why such a leap? People move from the Bay to Portland/Seattle/Boulder/DC/NYC/Boston then they move to a less expensive coastal city then to the sun belt and then, finally, there is the mid-west. We have a long way to go until that happens....
9
There are less expensive coastal cities? where?
What made Silicon Valley? The gun belt (gov money to military), plus mid west non-materialistic and egalitarian values (no pomp, no hierarchy) great universities, Stanford Berkeley, a culture which put brains and ideas ahead of money and status, and tech itself, a critical mass of firms and like minded people which snow balled. Then came the realtors, and the millions of Chinese buying up housing as a hedge, and for the schools, rather than working in tech. This diluted the energy.
What moved Silicon Valley to San Francisco? The shift away from tech to advertising. When "tech" became online advertising the young people hired wanted a city entertainment, not a western bar with a bunch of geeks who generously shared ideas. Everyone became a hipster.
I knew it was over when sitting in a Palo Alto coffee shop some 8 years ago, with my ultra nerdy friends, a large van drove up, and out got some models and their photographers. They wanted to use us as a background lending geek to some advertising.
Now its all about money money money, not about ideas.
28
Ebbs and flows are the hallmark of all towns that go on to be boomtowns that recede into being regular old towns. It's the nature of the evolution of commerce & industry. It's likely that the US will not be the mecca it was these past one hundred years. After all this shaking around, the dust will settle where people find their own hometowns equipped with the same efficiencies of all other places that cause them to migrate and in another couple hundred years, if we are not going living on Mars, a la Musk, we will probably go back to living in clans, like we did back then. It's like bell bottoms, they always come back in style. That's the history of the world: yesterday, today and tomorrow. Smile.
1
Great article. A lot of us wish it would be "over" as well, but I wonder if and when it will happen. There were similar bus trips and entreaties from delegations of Ohioans during the dot-com boom of the 1990's as well, and, so far, Silicon Valley is still the place to be. A lot of the most successful people I meet from Silicon Valley are immigrants or kids of immigrants, so one bit of advice to the Texans or Indianans trying to lure business to them: dial down the xenophobia a couple notches, okay? People want to move to places where they will be as accepted as they are in the Bay Area.
201
I, too, salivate at the low prices in real estate listings from my hometown in western Pennsylvania - and then I make my yearly holiday trip back, and realize why I left.
232
Dude -- you live in Texas! Good luck with that!
3
Mr. Big....Austin is a very liberal, progressive oasis in the conservative Texas desert (except for the state capitol building/complex, which is a medieval dungeon of 'Christian' hellfire and brimstone).
7
Like Bernie Sanders, et. al, Brendon needs to get out a calculator and do some work.
As in: why, during the summer, are there so many flights out LGA to the Midwest? Because it is less expensive, even with the flight cost, to buy a cottage there than to buy out at the Hamptons. (Duh.)
Defy anyone to make this, simpler. Even kids know, you can buy, only so many comic books. Really.
So, Silicon Valley destroyed San Francisco along with other parts of CA and now they want to do the same to middle America.
33
Disturbed by the patronizing attitude, clear from the first and final sentences.
60
Sure. Forgive me for being skeptical.
17
Please move to Detroit. Des Moines, Dayton or anywhere but Atlanta. We're full and we need the trees that are left.
3
For real, regarding Atlanta. People here are dying to get Amazon's HQ2. What a disaster that'd be except for people who love living in a corporate office park.
These companies are imperilist vultures who want cheap labor and housing and want to drive out the non-tech people, nothing more or less.
Do not let them gentrify the Midwest!
39
Come on... do you really think there is enough money and enough hipsters/techno-geeks to gentrify the entire Midwest? 200,000 migrants from San Francisco and Silicon Valley could do wonders for the economy of Detroit, but they would hardly gentrify the whole city, let alone the state of Michigan, let alone the Midwest as a whole. San Francisco is a small area surrounded on three sides by water, and Silicon Valley is wedged in between San Francisco Bay and the hills. Detroit used to be a city of well over one million population, and it is surrounded by a vast contiguous suburban area. The chance that land prices would rise to a level that would drive the non-tech people out of the whole area is nil. Look at a map!
7
Um, other than the farmers, it would be great if they drove out, say, our remaining religious bigots...
4
One factor companies consider when expanding is the extent to which they will be welcomed. If attitudes such as the ones you expressed in your comment are typical of New York City, I doubt you'll need to worry about a lot of these folks arriving anytime soon.
St. Louis should be top of the list for investors. Top-notch cultural attractions, thriving pubic transit, and a population of Bosniaks determined to do well with every opportunity they can find. And daily non-stops to San Francisco if one gets homesick!
5
Bosniaks? You mean residents of St.Louis which are way more than Bosniaks.
2
"pour over coffee served by tattooed baristas." Seriously?
Hipsterdom is a word that must also be entirely banished.
"This is nicer than San Francisco!'' ugh. Ms. Li was just being polite.
14
I live one mile north of Berkeley, about ten minutes from San Francisco at midnight, maybe an hour and a half at rush hour, from 5:00 am to 10:00. There is little housing available because of racism ( Who would live with THEM? ), water (an ocean, a large bay, good sized rivers), unsuitable building sites ( earthquakes and loose soils don’t play together well) AND billionaire MIMBYISM. The coast is is nice, and those who own it, well, they own it. Logic dictates that many jobs must find other homes. Gun nuts, white supremacists, and Christian cultists, make your cases.
5
Oh, yes ... the Midwest is so cuuuute!! I mean, who knew it was there??
134
These people are, once again, proof that you can be absolutely brilliant and still have no idea what's going on.
There are plenty of perfectly nice, beautiful, and livable cities in this country that don't exist on the coasts. They needed a bus tour to be reminded of that.
112
What proof do we have that these people are brilliant?
1
I love these stories of techies abandoning the high cost of Silicon Valley for other places. I've loved reading them every five years or so for the past three decades. Just because it NEVER happens doesn't lessen my enjoyment of these stories.
Keep dreaming, Rust Belt.
152
As this year's record-low ratings for the Oscar telecast showed, walling off your industry from the rest of the country and looking down on the "hicks" isn't a recipe for business success. Spreading out the technology industry could be good for the Midwest, good for the coasts (where overblown real estate prices have lead to an epidemic of homelessness), and good for the cohesion of the United States as a whole.
10
That's kind of a mind-blowing set of conclusions to put together.
1. There is no link between the Oscars and Silicon Valley. No-one with any power would go on the record and call Rust Belters "hicks", probably because they are not. If other states have a large population of software engineers and good infrastructure, it will happen. (Do they?)
2. If you lived here, you would see that the very large majority of homeless are in no condition to be buying a house. They are drawn by generous services in this area, decent weather, and a population that won't crack down on them.
7
Whenever an area is defined by a technology by those companies located there it has a short lifespan. Boston’s Route 128 was micro computer ecosystem. Today it’s everything but. Before it’s SiliconValley they grew stone fruit.
There isn’t a lot of Silicon in the valley now it’s software development and related services.
The only reason to be in a major expensive city is if you are customer facing. Programming is like manufacturing it can be done in lower cost areas. Apple has more employees in Texas the California.
6
Applause for Rep. Ryan
Wow!
Friendly, polite people; moderate cost of living; a generations long tradition of efficient and effective production and hardworking folks; welcoming local and state gov'ts that want your business to locate in their town; great universities and tremendously talented pools of skilled and eager young (and older) professionals that missed the prima donna lectures ...what's not to like?
One might suggest, "Welcome to the real world."
Investor money going to work with the talented people who may be more skilled and "grounded" in their "heartland" value systems and tradition of working smart and profitably for all. Plus there aren't any requirements to pay ludicrously (and wastefully) huge office leases, housing prices, taxes, and utility bills. More benefits for the invested bucks!
Win = Win!
18
The spread of current and future technology to what we used to call the rust belt is much more promising than promising to revive coal, steel, and other nineteenth-century technologies.
143
Except the folks who need the jobs won't have the skills for a high tech invasion. Heck the consulting company my husband works for can't find enough qualified candidates in nationwide searches.
A steel worker, for instance, may have operated robotic machinery but probably doesn't have the college degree tech companies are demanding.
Coal country in West Virginia lacks much of the infrastructure necessary to support the tech industry. Cell service is spotty (we had to put a mini cell in our home for my network consultant husband's use), most roads are two lane, disruptions in internet service are frequent. Vegan polenta pizza and pour over coffee baristas - scarcer than coal mining jobs.
1
People are moving out of SF. Really? Sounds like it should be a ghost town by now. And yet it's not. If anything, they keep building more housing and apartments. It's a peninsula, so the infrastructure doesn't change, just the demands on it. Traffic wait times have tripled in the last few years.
6
The fact the infrastructure does not change was a big reason we decided to move out the Bay Area. The amount of time we spent in our car or on ageing, inadequate public transport became horrendous as well as a drain on our resources and sanity. The Bay Area may be still be "desirable" but it is becoming increasingly unliveable except for a very few extremely wealthy people. I know more people who have moved away from the Bay Area than people who want to move there (the situation was reversed not too long ago). They moved away despite liking the city.
9
As a Northern California native and a current resident of San Francisco - who does not work in the tech industry - let me wish all the VC and tech folks the greatest and best of luck in their efforts to colonize other parts of the country. It will be a win-win-win as far as I can tell.
178
Win-win how? By making studio apartments in Dayton minimum $1000 a month because every slumlord and McApartment broker will be chasing the same techie dime? These companies will price out non-techie people wherever they sink their vulture talons.
28
Kevin, I am sorry to say this but I suspect a lot of the country wants the VC and tech folks contained in California so as not to ruin their own areas through colonization. Now, I know someone will respond with " we welcome them with open arms," and that is fine if they can come and not drastically disrupt affordability and if they can leave their egos at the door. We will see I guess.
3
Yep, get lost. I fit the same description as you and all I see here is complaining from the super-affluent about the environment their presence created when they arrived and spoiled arguably the most livable place in the world. I love California for California, not for what’s living on top of it.
2