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Location: In a perfect world winter does not exist
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^^^ Tech Bubble? I would think Seattle would burst much faster than ABQ since we have literally tons of tech workers here. Here its either you make a zillion dollars in tech or have a job where food stamps allowance comes with your paycheck.
Another worrying statistic is that college enrollment in New Mexico has declined from its already low level. In fact, it has lead the nation in this decline. New Mexico college enrollment drops amid push to reform | KRQE News 13. This is really disconcerting because these kids are the future of business and of the workforce in this state.
There is no denying we've lost promising tech employers over the decades, and expanding that sector is no easy feat. Just want to point out from your linked article that the decline in college enrollment is almost entirely at NMSU. The data in the article shows that the flagship University of New Mexico, by contrast, has experienced a slighter lower decline in enrollment than the national average of 2%. [(27,889-27,354)/27,899 = .019, or 1.9%]
I know how it feels when disappointments reach a critical mass and you start to feel like you hate a place. I expect that would be doubly true if I were among the minority of Republicans here, which may be the case for you given your remark about entitlements crowding out defense spending.
As a relative newcomer from Silicon Valley, I am more optimistic about Albuquerque, which I see as relatively stagnant economically right now but not in some kind of inevitable long-term decline. Albuquerque has many subtle strengths that are hard to find elsewhere (we could move anywhere, chose here, and love it) which more people may discover as places like Denver and Phoenix and Austin become less and less affordable to locals, which is almost guaranteed as newly rich and middle class folks in China chase relatively safe investments in our trendier real estate markets.
Given what's happening in the world today – including the possibility of a game-changing terrorist attack and more aggressive Russian expansionism – I also would not bet a continuing decline in defense spending, particularly for the kind of work done at Sandia Labs.
Denver, Phoenix, and Austin are becoming too expensive for the newly graduated and young families. Certain cities around the US can benefit from their lower costs of living, especially those with universities: ABQ, Pittsburgh, Gainesville, Tallahassee, Louisville, etc.
New Mexico is just so dirt poor to get anything going, though. UNM needs a half a billion investment package (including a new hospital) over the next ten years. Downtown can't even get an arena that Tulsa or Spokane have.
I would concentrate on finding private funding (or tax incentives) for start-ups that would employ 10-25 employees when mature, any industry. As far as "tech": the Intel factories of the world are no longer being built, tech has moved on from hardware to cloudware-- small firms that specialize in cloudware, business coding support, and apps should be nurtured foremost.
Denver, Phoenix, and Austin are becoming too expensive for the newly graduated and young families. Certain cities around the US can benefit from their lower costs of living, especially those with universities: ABQ, Pittsburgh, Gainesville, Tallahassee, Louisville, etc.
New Mexico is just so dirt poor to get anything going, though. UNM needs a half a billion investment package (including a new hospital) over the next ten years. Downtown can't even get an arena that Tulsa or Spokane have.
I would concentrate on finding private funding (or tax incentives) for start-ups that would employ 10-25 employees when mature, any industry. As far as "tech": the Intel factories of the world are no longer being built, tech has moved on from hardware to cloudware-- small firms that specialize in cloudware, business coding support, and apps should be nurtured foremost.
I agree with much of this, but the problem with encouraging startups in ABQ is that most of them seem to leave when they reach a certain size (Titan Aerospace, NanoMR). I'm not sure that can be solved without an educated workforce in place that makes employers confident to keep growing businesses in ABQ. And it is hard to keep educated employees when salaries are significantly lower than other cities. Even if this weren't a problem, some companies are going to want to be elsewhere (NanoMR is an example) so that they can be closer to other companies in their field.
The wife and I have cut our spending to a bare minimum. We try not to go out to eat anymore. We didn't even get each other Christmas gifts. We stopped paying extra on our mortgage and student loans. We canceled all vacation plans. Instead, we are saving every penny, and selling superfluous assets (e.g. luxury cars, gadgets, toys, etc.) to save up enough to relocate to a higher cost of living city. I just want to get out of here before one of us gets shot by some ghetto red neck high on meth in a road rage incident (RIP Lilly) or before the tech bubble bursts and hiring is suspended nationally.
Seems to me that out-of-state, tech-oriented employees value education. It's difficult to lure techies with kids to Albuquerque because of the abysmal public school system here. The local work force, unfortunately, does not have the skills to work for high tech companies. IMHO, it will take years to turn the Albuquerque economy around. It's possible, but it's not on the short-term horizon. What will happen if Intel leaves, as has been rumored?
Seems to me that out-of-state, tech-oriented employees value education. It's difficult to lure techies with kids to Albuquerque because of the abysmal public school system here.
I don't think public schools are a deal breaker for most people considering a move out here. There's private schools and the public schools are better here than in a number of other communities with booming economies. If your local school got an F, you can enroll your kid in an A or B school cluster with a minimum of difficulty.
The least-educated congressional district in the country covers downtown Los Angeles. I don't think of Los Angeles when I think of downturn. I think growing, vibrant, diverse, expensive. So it's not education alone that makes an economy.
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The local work force, unfortunately, does not have the skills to work for high tech companies. IMHO, it will take years to turn the Albuquerque economy around. It's possible, but it's not on the short-term horizon. What will happen if Intel leaves, as has been rumored?
I don't think education is the primary reason Albuquerque is lagging the rest of the country. It's a combination of culture, isolation, economic base, and momentum.
By culture I mainly mean an entrepreneurial spirit- locals here are far more likely to get (or want) a gubmint job with security and good benefits. It's not that people here are lazy- the fact so many government-sector jobs exist here merely mean that people have an alternative to starting up that marketing firm, services business, or widget manufacturing plant that they'd have no choice but to start in other communities.
With so few entrepreneurs, little stake capital from prior successes is available to take new ideas into the ground floor stage. People here retiring from the labs with generous pensions and portfolios are content to leave them in the hands of financial services firms rather than gambling a portion of them on the next hot venture (after all, what do they know about risky business?).
Zoidberg, you make a credible argument against schools being responsible for the lack of tech companies coming to Albuquerque, and I'll accept it, although I disagree.
Let's set education aside. New Mexico is ranked last in the country in unemployment and job creation. How do you explain that? I'm not trying to be a smart ass; just trying to figure out how to improve things.
I don't think public schools are a deal breaker for most people considering a move out here. There's private schools and the public schools are better here than in a number of other communities with booming economies. If your local school got an F, you can enroll your kid in an A or B school cluster with a minimum of difficulty.
New Mexico public schools are pretty bad. There are a lot of different metrics you can look at, but I haven't seen any that make NM look good, except for a low bullying rate. By contrast, NM is 47th in math test scores and 50th in reading. https://wallethub.com/edu/states-wit...-schools/5335/
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Originally Posted by Zoidberg
I don't think education is the primary reason Albuquerque is lagging the rest of the country. It's a combination of culture, isolation, economic base, and momentum.
By culture I mainly mean an entrepreneurial spirit- locals here are far more likely to get (or want) a gubmint job with security and good benefits. It's not that people here are lazy- the fact so many government-sector jobs exist here merely mean that people have an alternative to starting up that marketing firm, services business, or widget manufacturing plant that they'd have no choice but to start in other communities.
With so few entrepreneurs, little stake capital from prior successes is available to take new ideas into the ground floor stage. People here retiring from the labs with generous pensions and portfolios are content to leave them in the hands of financial services firms rather than gambling a portion of them on the next hot venture (after all, what do they know about risky business?).
I don't think there's a lack of entrepreneurship in ABQ. In fact, because of the city's geographical isolation, you have a lot more local businesses and chains than in most states. You also have a fair number of tech entrepreneurs spinning off of UNM and the labs. But if there were statistics showing that ABQ has fewer business starts and other measures of entrepreneurship, I could be convinced otherwise.
New Mexico is a poor state. It's been a poor state for a long time. Without the wealth of other states, it's hard to have the economic demand in retail, in professional services, in housing, etc., to provide for the engine of an economy. The state's geographical isolation also prevents plant sitings and other investment.
The troubling part of NM's economic record, to me, isn't so much that we're a poor state. In measures like GDP and per-capita income, NM isn't much worse than similar states. It's the trend of the economy. NM's economic growth and unemployment rate is going in the wrong direction, unlike almost everywhere else. Part of that is declining oil and gas prices hurting the NW and SE parts of the state. ABQ is actually doing relatively OK, so it may be unfair to conflate NM's economic problems with ABQ's.
I don't mean to get too off-topic though. When it comes to education, my concern is less the quality of education deterring people from moving to ABQ. You are right that if someone values education and moves to ABQ, they can find pretty good schools. The bigger concern, as I see it, is the graduates of those pretty good schools and college graduates leaving ABQ because of better job opportunities elsewhere. That's a chicken-and-egg problem, where employers don't want to invest in NM without an educated workforce, but the educated workforce doesn't want to stay without good jobs.
New Mexico public schools are pretty bad. There are a lot of different metrics you can look at, but I haven't seen any that make NM look good, except for a low bullying rate. By contrast, NM is 47th in math test scores and 50th in reading. https://wallethub.com/edu/states-wit...-schools/5335/
No argument about NM being bad on average, but that's not to say there aren't good options for people locating here. If it's important to them, they can get their kids a quality education.
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I don't think there's a lack of entrepreneurship in ABQ. In fact, because of the city's geographical isolation, you have a lot more local businesses and chains than in most states.
Would like to see numbers to support that.
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You also have a fair number of tech entrepreneurs spinning off of UNM and the labs. But if there were statistics showing that ABQ has fewer business starts and other measures of entrepreneurship, I could be convinced otherwise.
I'd say the number's low considering the number of technologies developed. Most researchers aren't entrepreneurial, leaving a long list of technologies ready for commercialization but with no one willing to shepherd the technology into industry. Licensing the technologies typically has onerous terms that take all the upside away.
I'd like to see some numbers as well, either way.
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