tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29127973.post4125122309699340907..comments2023-10-27T03:16:03.213-04:00Comments on Burgh Diaspora: Geographic Arbitrage: BoiseJim Russellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13078184665418828961noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29127973.post-62675136277942021542010-05-15T11:13:51.803-04:002010-05-15T11:13:51.803-04:00Steve,
Excellent insight. Reminds of Mike Madison...Steve,<br /><br />Excellent insight. Reminds of Mike Madison's view of the Pittsburgh start-up culture. If your venture fails (most likely it will), then what's the safety net? There isn't a critical mass of opportunity that would make someone less risk averse.<br /><br />You also touch on (perhaps unwittingly) the Youngstown value proposition. A residence in the Mahoning Valley can give you access to the software job market in Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown, and Pittsburgh.<br /><br />The Pittsburgh-DC corridor is a counterpoint. I'm still struggling to reconcile this connectivity with that of Cleveburgh. But it's win-win for Pittsburgh.Jim Russellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13078184665418828961noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29127973.post-65704290264282817762010-05-14T21:14:27.034-04:002010-05-14T21:14:27.034-04:00Software is still clustering in expensive locales ...<i>Software is still clustering in expensive locales and acting in an economically irrational fashion.</i><br /><br />As someone who works in software I can explain some of the problems. A lot of it is as you put it, "Brain workers like to live near each other. It is easier to keep up with the latest ideas if you keep bumping into other people who work in the same field." <br /><br />Another problem is that in the software field people change jobs enough that a software engineer wants to be in an area with a sufficent density of relevant jobs. I have experienced this personally. Several years ago I interviewed for a job in Winston-Salem, NC. While Winston-Salem is a fine place to live I decided against taking the job because I thought about, "what about the next job?" This is a real problem. Many companies won't consider relocating non-local candidates and they are very centralized in a particular location. While you would think software would be a leading industry when it comes to telecommuting, nearly all employers in this field want you in one of their offices.<br /><br />The clusters of software jobs tend to be around locations of sufficient population where there is a leading university. That's why we see Silicon Valley around Stanford, the Route 128 corridor around MIT, the Austin, TX tech cluster around the U of Texas, etc. The only software cluster I can think of without a major university that leads in software is the Dulles Tech Corridor and that only exists because the Federal Government is in DC.<br /><br />There are leading software schools like the U of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign but they are out in the middle of nowhere. The only software company that I know of that stayed in the Urbana-Champaign area is Wolfram Research. Lots of startups are formed at UIUC but they end up going somwhere else such as Silicon Valley.<br /><br />This is why Pittsburgh has a huge opportunity right now. It's a major metropolitian area with a leading software school, CMU, but unlike Boston, DC, and Silicon Valley its still not expensive. Add in links to the DC area and everything else that we have talked about in the past, and everything comes together to make Pittsburgh a leading area for tech like Silicon Valley or Route 128. Of course, does this mean in a few decades we will be talking about how expensive Pittsburgh is and how economically irration it is for business to be there?Stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16903477797150798378noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29127973.post-10919280769775971912010-05-14T16:16:23.997-04:002010-05-14T16:16:23.997-04:00One could certainly use the website for relocation...One could certainly use the website for relocation purposes. In fact, I would encourage Pittsburgh to promote it with that in mind.Jim Russellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13078184665418828961noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29127973.post-71272472015215659392010-05-14T14:32:29.561-04:002010-05-14T14:32:29.561-04:00I'm not sure I see how Pittsburgh's city l...I'm not sure I see how Pittsburgh's city living website is directed strictly at retention? If I were moving to a new city/community from an overheated housing market I would definitely stand to benefit greatly from having a resource like that at my disposal. Hailing from Buffalo myself it's extremely difficult to attract outside talent to the "3rd poorest city in the nation." I wish we had something similar, so that people could begin to realize we have more neighborhoods than just the gentrified Elmwood Village and the burned-out East Side. BTW Pittsburgh is definitely my #1 favorite city. Went there on spring break this year... you just can't beat that geography or those grand entrances!DTK2ODhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07463734323031789499noreply@blogger.com