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Google Building Tech Center Near Portland

Posted by timothy on from the portland-sucks-tell-your-friends dept.

jdray writes "It seems that everyone's favorite search powerhouse, Google, is building a tech center in The Dalles, Oregon. About 45 minutes by interstate highway from Portland, The Dalles is a small, economically depressed city near the world-famous Columbia River Gorge. The $60,000 average annual salary of Google employees is about double the average for Wasco county. With all the outdoor sports (windsurfing, hiking, mountain biking, skiing) in the area, sports-minded geeks should be flocking to apply for a job at the new facility."

6 of 328 comments (clear)

  1. 45 minutes?!? by Brian+Knotts · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you drive 120 miles an hour, maybe. It's at mile marker 82 or so. Do the math.

  2. Additional information for slashdotters by Brian+Knotts · · Score: 4, Informative

    We're all conservative rednecks out here and it's always windy, and we get snowstorms and ice storms.

  3. $$$: Motivation for The Dalles, Oregon by reporter · · Score: 3, Informative
    The principal reason that Google's management is building a technology center in Oregon is that building and running such a center in Oregon is cheaper than building and running such a center in Silicon Valley. Similar reasoning applies for why the management chose an economically depressed city in Oregon.

    Even now, taxes in California are high, and so is the price of property. Why else would management explicitly build a technology center far away from an elite university like Stanford University or UC-Berkeley?

    If more companies would do what Google is doing, then the Californian government will start to lower taxes and to limit the number of legal/illegal immigrants flooding into the state. The latter is the cause of the high prices of apartments and residential homes.

    $200,000 gets you an excellent, spacious house in most places in Oregon or Texas. That same $200,000 gets you, barely, a small noisy condominium in Silicon Valley.

  4. It's a lot cheaper there.. by EvilStein · · Score: 3, Informative

    "Google, based in Mountain View, California, is expected to pay $1.87 million for the parcel of industrial-zoned land 85 miles east of Portland, with an option to buy three other area sites."

    Dude, around here, (Mountain View) 1.87 million will get you diddly squat. 1.87 million for 30 acres near Portland, OR isn't all that bad. That's a beautiful area, not far from Portland or the PDX airport (lots of flights to Seattle and down here to the Silicon Valley every day) and Portland also has a lot of young professional types.

    Not a bad move overall. :)

  5. Re:Google building a new complex... by XorNand · · Score: 5, Informative

    Probably not since that's what they call their existing complex.

    --
    Entrepreneur : (noun), French for "unemployed"
  6. Re:$$$: Motivation for The Dalles, Oregon by cot · · Score: 3, Informative

    "the number of legal/illegal immigrants flooding into the state. The latter is the cause of the high prices of apartments and residential homes."

    Say what now?

    What fraction of the homes in california are populated by illegal immigrants? Now, what fraction of the NICE houses? Do you think that most illegal immigrants are taking high paying jobs and moving to Los Altos and Palo Alto and driving up the cost of property? You really think they're having such a dominant effect on the market, or are you just scapegoating?

    I'm all for creating and enforcing reasonable immigration laws rather than the current don't as/don't tell open border situation, but someone's gotta pick the lettuce and I'm quite sure that nobody posting here is doing it.

    --