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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?"
Just to set a perspective I live in Atlanta, Georgia. And it is the best city I have lived in so far.
I agree with what Mu* said in general but here in Atlanta I have not really noticed the tendency to "milk to cow". For instance I live downtown with a friend of mine a stones throw from the CNN building and we only pay $1150 a month including utilities for a 2bed/2bath apartment. I think this is mainly because Atlanta just grew at a good rate with the whole boom in the 90's instead of exploding like Silicon Valley.
One of my biggest greviances with Atlanta is the lack of a decent public transport system. And by that I mean we dont have a subway, and if you live in Atlanta dont even try to say those MARTA trains constitute a subway. It only runs north/south and east/west and has way too few stops. It would be nice to have something like what Washington, D.C. has where the subway goes all the way out to the suburbs and there are parking areas at the end points.
I think a very important part of any city that wants to attract Techies is that they need to be a diverse and tolerant city. One thing I have a hard time doing is putting up with bigots/racist/holyier-than-thou types. I was raised with a philosophy of "dont knock it till you've tried it" and I try to live up to it. I believe that everyone should be able to live the way they want to live. I will not live somewhere where I am told I need to change or the people's general attitude is that I am the spawn of satan for not agreeing with them (I went through highschool once already and I would rather not do it again).
As far as taxes go I feel that anything above 30% or so is excessive unless the government can really explain it. Here in Georgia I actually lose more money to state taxes than I do to federal taxes and social security which I dont think is right... Georgia doesn't have an army last time I checked.
Wow that kindof rambled a bit.
Basically I look for interesting Technology Companies, Tolerance, Diversity, public transport, and a good education system(I will have kids one day).
Of course, with education it is not so much the city but the individual schools that are good or bad.
Rich
As to your employer being wiser to fire the non-whatever-you-are folks and going with your sort: Post their email address and I'm sure someone would be happy to pass your comment along.
Moderators: Read the original before calling this one - I refuse to dignify it with quoting but also refuse to let this sort of garbage go unchallenged. It's on topic because it's exactly the sort of issues that make one place attractive to high-tech employers/employees & others not.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
I have been to/worked at quite a few places in the world such as Chicago (Schuamberg), San Fran (San Jose, etc), Swindon (UK), Bonn (Germany), Fort Worth-Dallas, and Cork (Ireland) to name a few. I fit somewhere in the middle as far as the "geek" factor is concerned. I like to have my computer meets and a good game of head to head Quake with some friends, and I also like the out doors (biking, climbing, hiking) and the urban nightlife (house music, clubs, etc). Basically I like what cities like NYC and San Fran offer, but without all the traffic jams and with some good weather and the great outdoors. And I have found that here in Vancouver, which is the "small big city". We have all the amenities of a big city (you know, the big concerts, the Virgin Mega stores, the big city shopping and night life) but the city has the population of less than 1 million , the air is clean, never gets too hot or too cold (all year round), world's best skiing is a quick drive (Whistler) and the traffic is MUCH better than most Amercian cities. Granted, taxes are higher, but you get a pretty decent social welfare system. If you are more of a people's person, Vancouver is your place. And all the major corps have offices here (Motorola, Intel, Alacatel, HP, Nortel, IBM, etc , etc.) not to mention the chic Yaletown with all the smaller startups and incubation facilities... And as for rent goes, you can live downtown or in the Vancouver core where it is more expensive, you can live in the surrounding regions where rent is fairly cheap.. depends on how close to the beach you want to be ;)
-farshad
...and remember in your brain boggle, wrong starts with a wubble-u.
What a moron. Look, if a gay person doesn't interfere with my life, I think we should let that person live however they wish. The same goes with the use of drugs--as long as it doesn't interfere with my life, my neighbor can do whatever they want. I'm not brainwashed. I simply believe in the mantra of "live and let live".
You seem to be afraid that being around gay people will somehow make *you* gay. Sounds to me like you are a latent homosexual. You ought to experiment with this. You might find your real calling in life.
As for San Fran being a cesspool, I'm not quite sure what city you're talking about. I travel quite a bit, and I can honestly say that SF is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The nightlife, the arts and entertainment, and the city & park life is wonderful, with few equals anywhere in the world.
Spread deadly diseases to the N. American continent? OMG. What planet are you on? Given your reasoning, next we should get rid of all the women. After all, AIDS is transmitted about 10x more easily from the man to the woman during sexual intercourse than it is the other way around. So perhaps God wants to get rid of the gays and the women (please not the sarcasm). You unenlightened twit.
As for the raping of 13 year-old boys, I think we should probably focus more on Catholic priests than on the homosexual community. There are a *lot* fewer priests out there, but there sure seems to be a lot higher percentage of priests raping little children than the homosexual community at large.
Where do you get these wonderful statistics about the average lifespan of homosexuals? I'd like to see even one reference to this, regardless of how dodgy the source might be.
Your opinions are pathetic, the result of Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. Gays aren't another race of beings. They're really quite similar to you and me. In my experience, the members of the gay community are far more upstanding, on average, than the heterosexual community. Why? I'm not sure. But I've got a hypothesis that it's a result of the gay community being more open to people that aren't like themselves. Tolerance is good. And the Golden Rule is even better. Try practising it once in a while--you might find that a few of those gays you've always hated turn out to be genuinely good people. One might even become your best friend! Without "brainwashing" you to become gay (gasp!).
Or perhaps you should live in your own little world, bashing gays whenever you get the chance. I'm sure that makes you feel better about yourself--you don't have to come to terms with your own sexuality. Gays are nothing to be afraid of. They, with the exception of a few bad apples (I don't need to mention the problem with heterosexuals and rape here...there are bad apples on both sides), don't tend to impose their beliefs on others. They don't go seeking out heterosexuals so they can turn them. They are often in committed, monogomous relationships. They are usually caring, kind people. In short, they're just like the heterosexual community, except that their sexual preferences have required that they develop tolerance. It would be nice if you could learn a little, too.
--Be human.
Fast internet connections and faster women?
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
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...