Slashdot Mirror


Real Estate Firm Identifies America's 'Top 25 Tech Cities' (cushmanwakefield.com)

Cushman & Wakefield, one of the world's largest real estate firms, launched a new report identifying America's top tech cities. An anonymous reader quotes their report: Washington, DC has emerged as the promising tech city center after San Jose (Silicon Valley) and San Francisco... A dominating hub for life sciences and government, Washington, DC also serves as a significant outpost for tech companies seeking proximity to policymakers as well as for burgeoning cyber-security investment. The top 25 tech cities were determined by analyzing the concentration of factors such as talent, capital, and growth opportunity -- the key ingredients that comprise a tech stew. The heartiest of these tech epicenters are: 1. San Jose, CA (Silicon Valley); 2. San Francisco, CA; 3. Washington, DC; 4. Boston/Cambridge, MA; and 5. Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, NC...

Report co-author and Regional Director, Northwest U.S. Research at Cushman & Wakefield, in San Francisco, Robert Sammons, said that while it was not surprising to see San Jose (Silicon Valley) and San Francisco continue to dominate, that mass-transit issues and escalating housing costs in those areas have fanned a tech spillover into secondary markets such as Austin (no. 7), Denver (no. 8), San Diego (no. 9), and Salt Lake City (no. 24)... Mr. Sammons cited cost-of-living in Seattle (no. 6) as a lingering issue, somewhat mitigated by a recent uptick in residential development that's outpacing San Francisco's, as well as mass transit challenges.

There's also several cities in the Midwest among the top tech cities, including Madison, Wisconsin (no. 10), Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota (no. 11), Indianapolis, Indiana (no. 23), and Nashville, Tennessee (no. 25).

36 of 91 comments (clear)

  1. Symptom of a disease by mattwarden · · Score: 1

    The growth of D.C. is a symptom of the disease of big and growing federal government and growing centralization of power. This is growing lobbying, growing kickbacks, growing corruption, growing waste. D.C. should be near the bottom of the list in private sector wages, GDP, property values, etc.

    1. Re:Symptom of a disease by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I live just outside of D.C., it's an odd place. You are either rich or dirt poor. 47% of D.C. residents are below the poverty line and you can end up in some really bad neighborhoods very quickly if you make a wrong turn.

    2. Re:Symptom of a disease by schwit1 · · Score: 1
      I think Trump should move many federal jobs out of the DC area to spread the wealth and for continuity of government.

      As for jobs, DC finds it hard to attract businesses because of its high taxes and regulations. Maryland is not much better. Virginia is more accommodating to business and it show in the Tysons Corner area and out the Dulles corridor.

    3. Re:Symptom of a disease by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      The federal government isn't 'fixed' until DC area real estate prices have crashed!

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    4. Re:Symptom of a disease by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 1

      As for jobs, DC finds it hard to attract businesses because of its high taxes and regulations.

      I thought it was housing prices and the square mileage of ghettos and crime. No?

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    5. Re:Symptom of a disease by rfengr · · Score: 1

      The Dulles corridor is turning into a 3rd world dump. Went back recently and witnessed burkas in Loudon county. WTF.

  2. Re:San Francisco! by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    Just newly minted billionaires showing their contempt for everyone else. Nothing to see here. Move along.

  3. Re:Midwest is best by geoskd · · Score: 1

    It possible to find a house 4 BR 2 Bath home for about 1-2 K per month with 30 year mortgage. Try doing that in CA.

    Here in upstate NY, we can get 2000sqft for about $1k per month, and a decent programmer will not have to look hard to find work.

    --
    I wish I had a good sig, but all the good ones are copyrighted
  4. wrong technology . . . by swell · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There seems to be some confusion about what the word 'tech' means. We've long ago reduced machinery to a lesser category, however new and clever it might be. For some reason tech is now synonymous with digital electronics and sometimes the software that makes it function, even though there is almost nothing new in these areas in recent decades. Faster, smaller, yadda...

    It might be worthwhile to remember that biotechnology has discovered and engineered much that is new in recent decades. Knowledge in this field is increasing at a far greater rate than any other 'tech' area. Not only that but, while electronic gadgets are fun, biotech is far more likely to save your life. Let's have some respect for the work of others.

    The hotbeds of innovation are then San Diego and Boston and a few others around the globe (the US doesn't have a monopoly on *this* tech).

    --
    ...omphaloskepsis often...
    1. Re:wrong technology . . . by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      One of the most popular technology teachers on youtube sticks to mechanical technology.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      I'd really like to see the top 25 real estate cities for this stuff. Obviously not San Jose. SF, maybe; it wouldn't be the oddest thing in Golden Gate Park.

    2. Re:wrong technology . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      swell has a valid point. I know one "Genetic Engineer" who still keeps offices in SF and lectures at SFSU. But she moved her Labwork to Switzerland during Bush II, where they aren't so batshit crazy about Stem Cells having Souls.
      Texas is an interesting case, because Johnson was so intent on making his State the center of Aerospace research. It didn't work out that way. The SSC disaster sealed it; very few Physicists consider Texas as a serious place to pursue a career any longer, although TAMU and TI still attracts some. (Our little Lab on the West Coast attracted quite a few Texas Refugees.)
      NYC is sort of sad. It was _the_ Tech City right up to the Sixties. CBS, RCA, AT&T, Westinghouse, Con-Ed and GE and all the other Edison spinoffs, all had their Headquarters and Laboratories there, as well as a fair amount of Manufacturing. There were two other significant factors- Columbia University and "Radio Row". Then they had writers like Asimov who was fond of it, and the kids who haunted Radio Row read his books, and if they couldn't get into Columbia, there was always CUNY.
      It was a conscious decision to raze Radio Row in order to put up the World Trade Center, and force Tech out of the City in order to encourage the "Financial Sector".
      But as far as Tech goes, NYC still has the best Pizza.

      Biotechnology is still heavily dependent on developments in related fields, and not all Electronics involve pushing ones and zeroes around. Materials And Surface Science is pretty much all Analog, and the cutting edge stuff here is being done at the Synchrotron Radiation Sources. The National Synchrotron Light Source II is ~50 miles from NYC; another at Cornell is ~150 miles away. Texas has none, although curiously enough, Louisiana does have a Light Source. Hell, even Jordan has one, just being commissioned, called SESAME.
      There are Three Light Sources in the SF Bay Area, with two more planned. IBM has a beamline, next to the one that I worked on a decade back, and one over from that was the Intel Beamline. X-Ray Lithography and Nanomaterials. Then further over came the Protein Crystallography Beamlines.

      Now as far as saving life goes, three decades back I was working at the Bevalac, where they pioneered Bragg Peak Radiotherapy. The clinical treatment Centers at Loma Linda, Chiba, Prague, Riyadh and elsewhere were all based on the Research done at Berkeley. Unless you ever have a need to know about it, you have probably have never even heard of a Bragg Peak. But other than the Computers used for Control, the Electronics are all Analog.

  5. Washington DC - alternative explanation by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

    Given all the spying the three-letter agencies do, both on Americans and on foreigners - there's a huge demand for contract work.

    After all, the government doesn't want to pay benefits...

    --
    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:Washington DC - alternative explanation by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 2

      Given all the spying the three-letter agencies do, both on Americans and on foreigners - there's a huge demand for contract work.

      I'll say, if they are hiring and giving clearances to boneheads like Reality Winner...

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    2. Re:Washington DC - alternative explanation by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 1

      After all, the government doesn't want to pay benefits...

      I get 5 paid weeks of vacation a year, a 401k that matches up to 11%, and excellent healthcare (I have Premera Blue Cross that costs me very little). As well, there is a pension, not huge, but there.

      True, I could make more $ on the "outside", but my job is not going away, I will never be laid off.

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    3. Re:Washington DC - alternative explanation by jon3k · · Score: 1

      I've always considered taking a gov job when I get a little older. Take a huge paycut but do 90% less work and have unparalleled job security. Seems like a nice way to slide into retirement.

    4. Re:Washington DC - alternative explanation by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 1

      Take a huge paycut but do 90% less work and have unparalleled job security.

      Well, the joke will be on you. In my field, which is technical, my hours and the nature of my job parallel the civilian world. But please continue to perpetuate stereotypes, keeps my job ever more secure.

      --
      If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
    5. Re:Washington DC - alternative explanation by jon3k · · Score: 1

      I have lots of friends who work gov jobs. I know for a fact that they're overstaffed, over-funded and get paid overtime in salaried positions. It's a stereotype for a reason. If you work a gov job and you work as hard as people do on the private side then you're probably doing something wrong.

  6. Re:San Francisco! by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    I'm pretty sure Christ had something to say about judging others, too. Something about a mote and a beam, right? Where's the Christ-like behavior, creimer?

    Look at the Apostles who followed Christ. What did they do most of the time? Argue.

  7. Re:Midwest is best by beelsebob · · Score: 1

    Sure, but then, it's possible to find 4BR/2Bath homes for ~2.8k a month near Silicon Valley (say, Scott's Valley, Freemont, Dublin, Morgan Hill), and you'll get paid about 3k more a month than in the mid west.

    The thing that matters when you do your sums is your total cash left at the end of the month, not how much rent/mortgage costs.

  8. Re: Lack of decent Internet access in most Seattle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Netflix works great over these speeds. You maybe an exception but I think 99 percent of people need FAR less bandwidth than they realize.

  9. Re:1 2 3 4 5, Yup by NotQuiteReal · · Score: 4, Informative

    1 San Jose, CA(Silicon Valley)
    2 San Francisco / San Mateo, CA
    3 Washington, DC Region
    4 Boston / Cambridge, MA
    5 Raleigh / Durham /Chapel Hill, NC
    6 Seattle, WA
    7 Austin, TX
    8 Denver / Boulder, CO
    9 San Diego, CA
    10 Madison, WI
    11 Minneapolis / St. Paul, MN
    12 Baltimore, MD
    13 Oakland / East Bay, CA
    14 Portland, OR
    15 New York City, NY
    16 Chicago, IL
    17 Atlanta, GA
    18 Los Angeles, CA
    19 Columbus, OH
    20 Orange County, CA
    21 Dallas / Ft. Worth, TX
    22 Kansas City, MO
    23 Indianapolis, IN
    24 Salt Lake City, UT
    25 Nashville, TN

    --
    This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
  10. Re: Lack of decent Internet access in most Seattle by geoskd · · Score: 2

    Netflix works great over these speeds. You maybe an exception but I think 99 percent of people need FAR less bandwidth than they realize.

    Of course, the corollary to that is that 99% of people use far more bandwidth than they realize.

    --
    I wish I had a good sig, but all the good ones are copyrighted
  11. Re: Wonder where... by RotateLeftByte · · Score: 1

    At least in Canada, Trump isn't the head of government. Think on the brightside.

    --
    I'd rather be riding my '63 Triumph T120.
  12. Re: Wonder where... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Yeah, lived all over the US and Canada, why? What was your beef with Canada? There are similar cultures in Canada and in the US, although I'll grant you it can be colder. But not necessarily colder than the Mountain West.

  13. Canonsburg PA not in that list? by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 1
    Canonsburg PA is the World Capital for Finite Element Method. It is not in that list? Sad! Just this week Finite Element Method got inducted into S&P500. All those nerds mumbling "kappa mu nu Mesh nu del cross Mesh Galerkin epsilon Mesh Green's curl Mesh divergence Hermitian k-epsilon" are having a ball there. IIT to F1 to PhD to H1B to Green Card to Citizen to CEO of S&P500... He is the last one now. He won't be the last one for long.

    This was the quality of H1B before Cognescent and TCS and Infosys crashed the party and brought in imbeciles from Mohammad Badsha College of Engineering, Boondocks district, Middle of Nowhere, India...

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  14. SJ=OldTech; SF=New hotness by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    SJ is aging former tech hipsters who are now rotting in suburbia doing things like hardware appliances for storage and being generally conservative and tech-laggards, while the current generation of kool kids on the cutting edge of software are all in SF. Go to any tech meetup in SF vs SJ and you'll see the difference.

    Thats what one would expect a real estate firm's ranking list - to them, Old Tech == New Tech == Tech.
    It's like asking your cat to rate greek islands.

  15. Re:Lack of decent Internet access in most Seattle. by PPH · · Score: 3, Informative

    Having high bandwidth/low latency is more a requirement of MMORPG players than high tech. I've used X11 over DSL. It works. It works just fine on 10 Mbps network connections. Perhaps the desktop you are using just doesn't work well over networks.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  16. Re:San Francisco! by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    He wrote a short story on amazon about pooping on the sidewalk, the one reviewer gave it 2 stars.

    That was The Cabbage Patch Doll Fight: A Christmas Shopping Tale, about the Cabbage Patch doll in the early 1980's. Overall rating for that ebook is 3.5 stars.

    He wrote on slashdot that the problem was that $1 ebooks just aren't popular anymore.

    The problem is 1) people are unwilling to pay $1 for 1,000+ words, 2) a $1 dollar ebook can only be discounted to FREE, and 3) I'm no longer a big fan of FREE. My solution is to commission new artwork, consolidate my titles into fewer ebooks (2,500+ words), and raise the price to $1.99.

    Kristine Kathryn Rusch has a long article on how the business change over the last 50 years and why indie authors need to develop their own personal brand.

    http://kriswrites.com/2017/06/07/business-musings-brand-image-brandingdiscoverability/

    The reviewer said they were expecting a story, but it was only a short transcript of a vague memory.

    You would think that the price and the word count in the description would give hint that this ebook wasn't a magnum opus. It's easy to write a critical review when it doesn't cost you any money.

  17. Here's the deal with Seattle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    A lot of people commute from outside of "Seattle" and even King County.

    Cost of living (houses) is a non issue if you're prepared to pick something along the Sounder south line stations. The issue is people *want* to live in some trendy Seattle neighborhood.

    Meanwhile I'm a 1hr commute via short bus ride and then rail to work, bought a 1800sqft house on a 1/3 acre lot just around the corner from a commercial area (dont have to go far for anything) in the low low 200k range 3 years ago.

    Most people think Seattle ends at Renton, very few look at the commuter rail, how quick it is and how far it gets you, they see Kent, Auburn, Sumner and Puyallup as not cool "too far away" places to live. Puyallup/South Hill is a ton better than most places around Seattle in general to live unless you've got 600k and up to spend.

    1. Re:Here's the deal with Seattle by Hognoxious · · Score: 2

      Meanwhile I'm a 1hr commute via short bus ride

      Is that a short (bus ride) or a (short bus) ride?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  18. Re:Midwest is best by michael_cain · · Score: 1

    But then I'd have to live in upstate NY. After moving to the Denver area 30 years ago, I discovered that I was born to live in a high-altitude semi-arid climate. If you're going to live in a place that has all four seasons, Denver-Boulder has about as mild a version of them as is possible.

  19. Re: Midwest is best by kaiser423 · · Score: 2

    Albuquerque, NM meets that bill too. High altitude, semi arid and mild versions of all 4 seasons. Los Alamos National Labs, Sandia National Labs, Air Force Research Labs, Honeywell, Raytheon, Facebook and other major tech companies. Somewhat surprised it didn't make the list. Not a start up hot spot, but lots of non-IT engineering tech work happening there (and some pretty major super computer work).

  20. Re:Midwest is best by ZenShadow · · Score: 1

    You have a very strange definition of "convenient."

    Want to work in Westlake? Yeah, okay, I might buy that. Not to the Valley or beyond though. Hell, just driving from the Valley to Santa Monica sucked balls, and that commute is around an hour shorter than Ventura to Santa Monica.

    There's a reason I left, and it wasn't just the cost of housing...

    --
    -- sigs cause cancer.
  21. Top 25 cities for those not already with work? by sethstorm · · Score: 1

    It's one thing to be in a top list for jobs, but how many of them are friendly towards those that don't already have work?

    --
    Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
  22. Re:Midwest is best by AVryhof · · Score: 1

    I wish we had more tech jobs around here. I'm always getting offers around my area (Syracuse) and housing is very affordable... but the pay isn't exactly great. On the other hand, I can afford to live here. There is also lots to do, I have the Adirondacks just a few hours North East, Finger lakes about an hour South West, hundreds of other parks and natural areas within that radius. All four seasons, so I get to hike, bike, sled, look at foliage, etc. The only thing that isn't really conveniently located is the Ocean.... but I'm OK with that. Can't have it all.

  23. Re:Midwest is best by ranton · · Score: 1

    Sure, but then, it's possible to find 4BR/2Bath homes for ~2.8k a month near Silicon Valley (say, Scott's Valley, Freemont, Dublin, Morgan Hill), and you'll get paid about 3k more a month than in the mid west.

    The thing that matters when you do your sums is your total cash left at the end of the month, not how much rent/mortgage costs.

    But in the Midwest if you are willing to live an hour outside of the major metropolitan areas you get an extra 1500 sq ft on your home for the same price, plus a nice yard. I'm not saying that automatically makes it better, but it's disingenuous to say you can get the same benefits of Midwest life near the Valley. It just matters what is important to you.

    Then again the OP you replied to outright said the Midwest is best, which is a far more ridiculous claim.

    --
    -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke