What Makes a City Appealing to High-Tech Workers?

WGR writes "The City of Ottawa, Canada is starting to re-write its Official Plan, the "charter" for a city. [A few weeks ago] we had a 5 day Smart Growth Summit that was webcast online with discussion groups and web interactivity. Ottawa is fairly strong in the high-tech sector as it is, with NortelNetworks and JDS-Uniphase having their biggest presence here and had over a $1 billion of venture capital last year. But how do you keep a livable city when you expect to have a 50% population increase in 10 years? One idea came from Dr. Richard Florida from Carnegie-Mellon University. He said that "knowledge workers" want to go to places that have the 3 T's, "Technology, Talent and Tolerance". That is, where there already is a lot of technology, where there is a rich artistic and entertainment sector, lots of educational opportunities, where there are a lot of people with similar interests and where there are people from many diverse backgrounds and lifestyles. But not necessarily low city taxes. Do you agree, and what would be your ideal city to work in?"

Comments

Portland isn't dense

[mlinksva]

If cities are going to emulate Portland, they should make a lot of noise about density, then sprawl like crazy anyway. Portland has about 3.9k people per square mile. Compare to Seattle (6.7k), Los Angeles (7.9k) or San Francisco (16.6k). Portland isn't even that much denser than Phoenix (2.8k), for crying out loud! See a complete list of densitites for all US cities of with 50k or greater population.

Things I've seen important to folks

[maggard]

Here's a list of some of the items I've seen of import to Geeks:

• A strong gay community with good protections. Seriously, lots of high tech folks are lgbt? and it's an issue. I know Austin Texas took a hit when they repealed some protections, folks from companies like Apple declined transfers on that basis.
• The same for ethnic communities. Lots of Geeks are Indian or Pakastani or SE Asian - good cultural resources like night clubs and resturaunts serving home food & grocery stores with the same are important.
• Late night services. This means having more then the cliché "Quik-E-Mart" a few miles away. Good big grocery stores that are open 24 hours are important. Hardware stores & electronic stores are that are open late also are big pluses too. Municipalities can curb their "Blue Laws" and do what they can to support 24/7 services that match many Geek lifestyles.
• Students. Students support lots of services that Geeks also take advantage of. This covers everything from take-out to music stores to a good university library nearby.
• Office space that is used to Geek needs. This means 24 hour access - none of those silly heat/ac cuts off 10pm-6am policies. Leases that can start small and grow. Electrical supplies that can support 2 or 3 computers per employee.
• Housing. Geeks want housing that can have cables run through it & a bunch of computers in the odd corners - 1930's wiring will not cut it. Houses are better then apartments - semi-furnished is always popular. Semi-adult room-mates are common and the local ordinances shouldn't be written to prevent this. Also leases that start on some synchronized date (Sept. 1 for Boston or June 1 for Montreal) are anathama.
• Network access. This means Cable or DSL that is fast, reliable, & reasonably priced without onerous burdons. No servers-forbidden policies or blocked ports or exortinate "Business Rates" for a fixed address or multiple address. This is directly controllable by a municipality when they negotiate their licenses.

A future

[Kefaa]

Specifically, I look for the following:

Alternate jobs in the same line of work. This means competition for the best jobs but also that jobs exist should I decide to move on.

Cost of living. Forget what I get paid, what do I get get to keep relative to similar money in other towns. ($95k in DC versus Baltimore)

Very good schools at two levels. First, for my children, elementary/high schools. Then for what it brings to the area one or two good technical colleges. The first is far easier than the second but most places seem to succeed or fail at both.

Good cultural opportunities. Sports, Theater, Arts.

Good public transport. Even if you build the ideal city I will still live in the suburbs and want to commute without a headache.

Fair taxes. I do not mind paying my share but it needs to be fair, and get me at once. I am tired of getting five different tax bills.

And seeing where you are from I just have to add, nice weather...

From this and the previous posters you see why this is hard to accomplish. Most cities do not have the billions of dollars necessary to start a college/university, build schools, public transportation, and cultural facilities.

Start with jobs. If you have them, they will come...