informal poll for relocatees......are you coming to Austin with or without a job? (China: tech job, schools)

[ILikeSmartHippies]

I'm in TX until times in CA improve -- which should be within a couple years max. No matter how hard TX might try, austin too, it is not silicon valley or hollywood. (Hollywood isn't even hollywood anymore, if theft of digital music & movies via online networks continues on it's course.) TX could change, though it would take some major changes here, so much that it makes "austin is the new [insert future noun here]" pretty improbable, and it would take a long time.. silicon valley didn't spring up overnight either, so replacing it is quite a task.

Check back after the long hot summer & see how many people are having thoughts of moving back out of Tx..

[alan777]

Originally Posted by ILikeSmartHippies

I'm in TX until times in CA improve -- which should be within a couple years max.

Wow. I am from California originally and you are WAY more optimistic about the general health of California than I am. That State has so many problems that are so huge it is just insane. Why is it that the richest State in the Nation is going bankrupt? Can anyone in the world tell me this?

That is why I moving to Austin. As far as I have heard Texas is now where near going bankrupt.

[inthecut]

Originally Posted by ILikeSmartHippies

I'm in TX until times in CA improve -- which should be within a couple years max. No matter how hard TX might try, austin too, it is not silicon valley or hollywood. (Hollywood isn't even hollywood anymore, if theft of digital music & movies via online networks continues on it's course.) TX could change, though it would take some major changes here, so much that it makes "austin is the new [insert future noun here]" pretty improbable, and it would take a long time.. silicon valley didn't spring up overnight either, so replacing it is quite a task.

Check back after the long hot summer & see how many people are having thoughts of moving back out of Tx..

Good points.....indeed, you can't build a viable infrastructure overnight either, which is my concern in Austin, which is anti-tax/bond issues to begin with.......as I mentioned, I don't know of any public/private body that can handle the 60K a year population growth in Austin....this is pressing even WITH large job growth, but, now that job growth in Austin is 0.2 %, it should make people think....

[ILikeSmartHippies]

I'm from CA too.. CA hasn't been making money for some time, (since dot com bust), however they're still spending more than normal share on illegal immigrants, jailing non-violent offenders, the war on drugs, and legislative & public-opinion time figuring out silly obvious things like gay marriage (just legalize it and tax it and get over it already), to really pay attention to what is going on with the economy. Remember - without the major collapse in financial markets, the financial state of the state, country, or world, was relegated to no more than a 2-3 minute timeslot during any news hour (even election issue coverage ignored the economy).

CA likes to stay in denial about any economic situation.. part of the rose colored glasses donned by the democratic kool aid perhaps. I don't care about the state of CA itself, because I'm not employed by government (by choice). The tech industries will lead the recovery, and that's what I'm following.. As long as my chosen company is incorporated in a good state like TX without ridiculous tax rates of CA..

We (as a nation) are more mobile than at any time in history -- communication, transportation, construction, more liquidity for real estate (as a long term trend).. That means people should be able to move more, and move easier, than ever. So it makes sense that during this down cycle, everyone should notice more people being mobile & moving (unless stuck specifically due to market conditions). This also implies that we (as a nation) should be able to be more responsive to economic cycles: that is, if CA crashes, everyone relocates ASAP to the next best place; and when the crash recovers, or another place tops the list of opportunities, everyone can relocate ASAP again.. (leaving aside family ties & etc, which may entice people to stay where they are; the point is that we have the ability to move easier).

In a sense you can consider that CA has been in a downtrend since 2000/2001, only masked by artificially inflated real estate prices induced by government funds (artificially low interest rates). So while it looks on the news that the current recession has started with a big drop-off-the-cliff, it's been running it's course for some time, and law of averages means the course can't last too much longer.

The world today runs on intellectual property, and CA has the greatest supply of intellect of anywhere in the world. (Helped by everyone on the planet from the best schools on the planet going to silicon valley to make themselves rich. Tremendous competition results in tremendous gains.) Some of these people will relocate, sure, and a lot already have, however no place can or will beat CA on brainpower + good weather. And for that people will make the sacrifice on real estate quality & pricing to make CA powerful again.

I'm curious why austin has such low wages in comparison. It seems the population is well-educated. This normally means higher pay. Since this is the capital though, maybe there's more 9-to-5-er attitude here; i.e. less 110% worker types which usually drive competition and salaries up. I don't think it's as simple as "there's a big pool of workers that come from UT so salaries are low." In SF, there's also a huge pool of workers and salaries are much higher than real estate / living cost dictates, because tech workers in SF are really driven (and have the drive) to work 110%. I'll find out more on this point as time goes on, by taking to biz types and researchers at UT, what the real story is.

[inthecut]

Just a couple words, to add to Ilike smarthippies...and literally a couple words.....

Caltech...Stanford....Palo Alto..Silicon Valley...Genentech...Palo Alto....
Apple.....Google.....

My point is the same.....FAR too much intellectual/tech capital and history to write California off the map....regardless of "fiscal ineptitude, the Governator, hard-line partisan politics, and the illegal problem", those aforementioned "words" are the prime driver/seed of our economic future post whatever you call the economy that is dying off/changing right now nationally....

Austin and Texas is getting just a momentary little taste of this California presense, as the state goes through a momentary crisis......when things
pick up again out there and lead the national pick-up/boom as they always do, not only will the exodus come to a halt, but people will move back THERE enmasse.......

The present is just like the Jews in exodus in Egypt.......just tiding their time till things pick up back in the promised land......and when they do, California will wake up with a flurry/vengeance.......

No hyperbole....just reality

[ILikeSmartHippies]

LOL, genentech is "no more". (Now it's Roche.) I'm happily taking my DNA $$$ to the bank! The sentiment still applies though.

One of California's biggest & profitable exports is the media made by hollywood production studios. That's in significant danger nowadays too, as everyone downloads & pirates rather than buys. It's the equivalent of steel or auto makers going bust in the midwest. The re-alignment of the entertainment industry will take place at some point.

Austin apparently is benefiting from the production studios moving here, as well. Clear sunny skies make for more productive movie shoots. I don't know how much $$$ Austin has of this market yet, though it should grow if anything else just due to much cheaper real estate prices.

[inthecut]

Originally Posted by austin-steve

Yet you gladly quote any media source that supports your negative doom and gloom views. Which is it...Do you believe what you read or not?

Can't have it both ways, or say that NPR has any special corner on credibility.

The "best of" stories and rankings at least provide the rationale for how they arrive at the list, and all cities are ranked equally based on whatever rationale was used, flawed or not. Mostly though, the problem is that they use lagging data, such as employment growth from May 2007 through May 2008, for example, which is no longer accurate.

Steve

The "best of" rankings are pretty much common consensus fluff.....look at that "best of" ranking of NC the same day it topped double digit unemployment....the whole scerario is really laughable, if it wasn't so misleading and sad.......

Frankly, I've very frightened at where we are collectively headed as a nation....We've relied on easy credit/finance, created a sprawl culture with the same, and now find we will not have access to that same growth for a very long time, as the financial markets do not have the money to bankroll the same anymore.......indeed, unless Austin has its OWN source of finance, they will have a very time keeping their infrastructure on something of a parity with growth, let alone bankroll another flurry of rapid commercial growth.......

I really hope you are right, Steve.......this may indeed be a short momentary blip in ours and the sunbelt's growth.....on the other hand, it could easily be the end of a era in many ways....and all those ways entail becoming pragmatic and frugal, saving rather than spending, and NOT bankrolling homes and commercial real estate with easy credit.......at this point, if someone knows of any other source of finance that will bankroll growth again, let the financial world know, as they are avidly looking for the same as we speak...

[inthecut]

Originally Posted by ILikeSmartHippies

LOL, genentech is "no more". (Now it's Roche.) I'm happily taking my DNA $$$ to the bank! The sentiment still applies though.

One of California's biggest & profitable exports is the media made by hollywood production studios. That's in significant danger nowadays too, as everyone downloads & pirates rather than buys. It's the equivalent of steel or auto makers going bust in the midwest. The re-alignment of the entertainment industry will take place at some point.

Austin apparently is benefiting from the production studios moving here, as well. Clear sunny skies make for more productive movie shoots. I don't know how much $$$ Austin has of this market yet, though it should grow if anything else just due to much cheaper real estate prices.

If anyplace is going to get an exodus from Hollywood, it will be Canada...it's been the choice for non-union cheap location shoots for years....prob more movies depicting Chicago and New York were made in Toronto over the last 20 years........among the whole breath of Canada..even Vancouver has a thriving film industry.....Austin is more a place for the occasional Indie shoot...ala Torentino's "Grindhouse" a few years back...
though SXSW seems to attract more filmmakers every year...

[jobert]

Texas is a "right to work" state that doesn't kowtow to unions. The same applies to La. Film is picking up here and a surprising amount of films are shot in Shreveport, of all places. Need sunny days for film shoots? We have 300+ days of sun here a year.

[inthecut]

Originally Posted by jobert

Texas is a "right to work" state that doesn't kowtow to unions. The same applies to La. Film is picking up here and a surprising amount of films are shot in Shreveport, of all places. Need sunny days for film shoots? We have 300+ days of sun here a year.

Right Jobert....and they also have a pay scale you expect from a non-union state as well.......and when a state plays the "we're cheaper than
______ game", they take the chance of another state/country undercutting them too......who knows, perhaps India itself will be the cheap place of choice for filming Hollywood movies...Heck, Slumdog won best movie, and the Indian movie industry is buzzing like never before....
If its just a matter of cost, ship it to India, along with all the tech jobs in Austin akways in danger of being outsourrced.......

Non-union can rapidly lead to no jobs at all...ask Mexico about that one...