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I dont see how though, SF isnt a larger financial center than NYC, Chicago, and Boston. It doesnt have the government like DC, it doesnt have trade on lock like Chicago, and it doesnt have the film industry like LA.
Apple, Google, etc are nice and all but hardly what it takes to out do the others because they are privately owned enterprises, their output fluctuate and anyone can create their standard and replicate that technology, IMO
A lot of people do try to take their technology and replicate it (with varying degrees of success), but the innovations are being made there is the point. It's more than just web 2.0 stuff (though the Bay Area has a wealth of that in terms of yelp, twitter, craigslist, wikipedia, facebook, netflix, yahoo, oracle, wired magazine, paypal, ebay, adobe, sun, youtube etc.) but also the hardware that backs it (intel, amd, nvidia, sandisk, seagate, etc.) and companies that have almost nothing to do with the web (biotech, various fields of "greentech").
SF and Boston are generally ranked about on par for financial services aren't they? SF has one of the big four banks (Wells Fargo, now bigger after buying Wachovia), Charles Schwab, Visa, and a large variety of other financial services institutions.
It's also a big location for big oil/energy (Chevron as well as a host of smaller companies).
The Bay Area is represented in nearly every field out there (politics less so save for policy advisors/groups from academia, a lot of consulates, reputation for progressive policies, the supreme court of california, and many of the more powerful congressmen representing California (including both senators and the former speaker of the house)) and is usually at the top as it has a lot of top talent living there. It's weird.
I would think the Bay Area is number 2. San Fransico and some places around it are made up of great urban neighborhoods where you don't find a lot of urban places in America.
Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
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Solidly # 2, I'm a bit ashamed I'm one of the only 3 people to vote for it being 2nd. I also think the 2nd place spot is a tie between Bay Area & DMV. But both are solidly # 2.
I'm originally from Chicago, and Los Angeles is one of my favorite cities, practically like a second home to me. But both of their economies are a bit "obsolete" in modern terms compared to Bay Area & DMV. Which is one of the main factors for my decision, easily.
The Bay Area is the best overall metro after the NY Tri-State Area as far as my opinion goes. I think the Bay Area, Chicagoland, Greater Los Angeles, and Washington-Baltimore are the four metros that can compete to be the second best metro, and I think the Bay Area takes the cake.
I don't think the Bay Area is more important than Washington-Baltimore. DC is the capital, and as innovative, progressive, and technologically influential the Bay Area is, I think being the capital of the most powerful country in the world gives it a level of importance that the Bay Area can't quite match. Although not as important, the Bay Area is still a better metro area than the DC-Baltimore area because the Bay Area trumps it in just about everything else.
As far as individual cities go, I think Chicago is significantly better than San Francisco (and Oakland combined) in terms of prominence, entertainment, museums, arts/culture, food, architecture, nightlife, and overall amenities. However, Chicagoland is not a better metro than the Bay Area because the Bay Area offers a lot outside of the city of San Francisco. Aside from Evanston, Chicagoland is rather unimpressive and not diverse outside of the city. The Bay Area has Berkeley, Stanford/Silicon Valley, Napa Valley, diversity, and incredible scenery throughout.
Greater Los Angeles has the advantage of a significantly larger GDP and greater pop culture influence than the Bay Area. That is honestly it though, the Bay Area trumps it in just about everything else which makes it a much better metro.
Location: Austin, TX/Chicago, IL/Houston, TX/Washington, DC
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Some information for the hell of it. Haha.
New York City is obviously # 1 in our country, DMV (in my opinion) gets the # 2 spot, and Bay Area gets the # 3 spot for exceptional performance. Chicago & Los Angeles have a bit of an old school economy, and are kind of obsolete per se compared to Bay Area & DMV, a lot of it has to do with innovation and creative class. Then there are the upstarts of Houston & Dallas that really are making large strides and of course Boston is and always has a presence.
Top 20 CSAs GMP/Per Capita Net 2008 $USD: 01. San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland, CA (CSA) $67,111
02. New York-Newark-Bridgeport, NY-NJ-CT-PA (CSA) $64,474
03. Washington DC-Baltimore-Northern Virginia, DC-MD-VA-WV (CSA) $58,883
04. Boston-Worcester-Manchester, MA-RI-NH (CSA) $54,809
05. Houston-Baytown-Huntsville, TX (CSA) $54,662
06. Hartford-West Hartford-Willimantic, CT (CSA) $53,204
07. Chicago-Naperville-Michigan City, IL-IN-WI (CSA) $52,427
08. Seattle-Tacoma-Olympia, WA (CSA) $52,064
09. Denver-Aurora-Boulder, CO (CSA) $51,274
10. Philadelphia-Camden-Vineland, PA-NJ-DE-MD (CSA) $50,534
11. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, CA (CSA) $50,333
12. Dallas-Fort Worth, TX (CSA) $49,707
13. Minneapolis-St. Paul-St. Cloud, MN-WI (CSA) $49,304
14. Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Gainesville, GA-AL (CSA) $48,653
15. Detroit-Warren-Flint, MI (CSA) $48,586
16. Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Yuba City, CA-NV (CSA) $48,364
17. Raleigh-Durham-Cary, NC (CSA) $47,235
18. Midland-Odessa, TX (CSA) $47,226
19. Austin-Round Rock-Marble Falls, TX (CSA) $46,998
20. St. Louis-St. Charles-Farmington, MO-IL (CSA) $46,042
Average Wage of All Classes: Average Wage of Service Class: Average Wage of Working Class:
Quote:
The organization identified 222 metropolitan statistical areas with at least 15,000 students, based on U.S. Census Bureau standards, and then chose the top 75. It then ranked cities in four population categories, from the largest metro areas to small college towns. The rankings are based on 12 criteria in three general categories: academic environment (with an eye toward factors such as student diversity and degree attainment), quality of life (arts and leisure, cost of living, etc.) and professional opportunity (such measures as earning potential, unemployment rate, entrepreneurial activity). The index is "based on objective data that we get from the U.S. Census Bureau or the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics or the National Science Foundation, so it's not colored by the schools providing data or by surveys of students and professors," says Lynch.
Top 10 major metros areas (Populations over 2.5 million) 1. SanFrancisco
2. New York
3. WashingtonDC
4. Boston
5. Seattle
6. Baltimore
7. Los Angeles
8. San Diego
9. Minneapolis-St. Paul
10. Philadelphia Top 10 midsize metros (Population 1 million to 2.5 million) 1. San Jose
2. Austin
3. Raleigh, N.C.
4. Hartford, Conn.
5. Portland, Ore.
6. Pittsburgh
7. Salt Lake City
8. Rochester. N.Y.
9. Buffalo
10. Nashville Top 10 small cities (250,000 to 1 million)
1. Boulder, Colo.
2. Ann Arbor, Mich.
3. Bridgeport, Conn.
4. Trenton-Ewing, N.J.
5. Gainesville, Fla.
6. Madison, Wis.
7. Durham, N.C.
8. Santa Cruz, Calif.
9. Honolulu
10. Fort Collins, Colo. Top 10 college towns (under 250,000)
1. Ithaca, N.Y.
2. State College, Pa.
3. Iowa City
4. Ames, Iowa
5. Champaign-Urbana, Ill.
6. Charlottesville, Va.
7. Corvallis, Ore.
8. Bloomington, Ind.
9. Lawrence, Kan.
10. Logan, Utah
Source: American Institute for Economic Research
Number of Billionaires In Metropolitan Area:
01. New York City: 77 02. Bay Area: 44 03. Los Angeles: 35
04. Dallas-Fort Worth: 26
05. Chicago: 20
06. Miami-Fort Lauderdale: 19
07. Washington DC: 13
08. Houston: 13
Fortune 500 Companies Per Metropolitan Area (2010):
New York City: 71 Bay Area: 31
Chicago: 28
Houston: 25
Dallas–Fort Worth: 24 Los Angeles: 23
Minneapolis–St. Paul: 20
Washington DC: 17
Philadelphia: 14
Atlanta: 12
Boston: 12
Detroit: 12
Top Metropolitan Areas for Venture Capital Investment: 1. Bay Area: $698 Million
2. Boston: $314 Million
3. San Diego: $138 Million 4. Los Angeles: $108 Million
5. Research Triangle : $72 Million Source:http://www.fiercebiotech.com/press-r...ing-pricewat-0
Top 10 Largest tech Centers in USA: 01. San Jose: 100/100
02. Seattle: 46.4/100
03. Boston: 45.2/100
04. Washington DC: 41.8/100 05. Los Angeles: 40.2/100
06. Dallas: 21.8/100
07. San Diego: 19.3/100 08. Orange County: 17.7/100
09. New York City: 16.8/100 10. San Francisco: 16.1/100
(Top 25)
11. Philadelphia
12. Atlanta
13. Edison, NJ
14. Chicago
15. Toronto 16. Oakland
17. Minneapolis-Saint Paul
18. Denver
19. Montreal
20. Austin
21. Houston
22. Huntsville
23. Phoenix
24. Wichita
25. Bethesda, MD
List of Companies Headquartered in Bay Area (And their Respective Fields):
Advertising and Marketing
Ameredia
AKQA
Automattic
SALT Branding
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
4delite
Total:6
Clothing & Apparel:
Gap, INC
Levi Strauss & Co.
Gymboree
Bebe
The North Face
Mountain Hardwear
JanSport
Marmot
Western Mountaineering
Total:9
Beauty:
Bare Escentuals
Total:1
Biomedical:
McKesson Corporation
Buck Institute for Age Research
Chiron
Genentech
Gilead Sciences
Total:5
Construction & Real Estate
AMB Property Corporation
Bechtel
Total:2
Electronics:
Dolby Laboratories
FusionStorm
OQO
Sega of America
Watkins Computer, Inc
AMD
Adaptec
Agilent Tech.
Anchor Bay Technologies
Apple Inc.
Adaptec
Applied Materials
Bay Imaging
Cisco Systems
E-mu Systems
Fujitsu Computer Products of America
Genesis Microchip
Hewlett Packard
Hitachi Global Storage Technologies
Hitachi Data Systems
Intel
JDS Uniphase
Integrated Device Technology
Logitech
LSI Corporation
Macrotron Systems, Inc.
Maxtor
Monster Cable Products
National Semiconductor
NetApp
Nvidia
Philips Lumileds Lighting Company
Rackable Systems
Rambus
Sanmina-SCI
SanDisk
Seagate Technology
Silicon Graphics
Solectron Corporation
Sony Optiarc America Inc.
Sun Microsystems
Supermicro
Super Talent
THX
Digidesign
Juniper Networks
Foundry Networks
Terayon
Xilinx
Total:49
Energy
Pacific Gas & Electric
Calpine Corporation
Chevron
Total:3
Entertainment:
Industrial Light & Magic
Lucasfilm
LucasArts
Electronic Arts
Kerner Optical
Netflix
Pandora
Pixar
Dreamworks Animation
Skywalker Sound
Lucasfilm Animation
Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc.
Total:12
Financial:
Bank of the West
Bank of the Orient
Charles Schwab
Esurance
First Republic Bank
Pegasus Aviation
Stone & Youngberg, LLC
ThinkEquity Partners, LLC
Thomas Weisel Partners
UnionBanCal Corporation and Union Bank of California
VISA
Wells Fargo & Co. and Wells Fargo Bank
WR Hambrecht + Co
Fisher Investments
Franklin Templeton Investments
PayPal
Robert Half International
Total:17
Food & Drink:
Ghiradelli
Adina World Beat Beverages
Anchor Brewing Company
Boudin Bakery
Del Monte Foods
Amadillo Willy's
Basic American Foods
Black Angus Steakhouse
C&H Pure Cane Sugar
Clif Bar
Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream
Häagen-Dazs
Jamba Juice
Jelly Belly
Odwalla
Peet's Coffee & Tea
PowerBar
See's Candies
Total:18
Internet:
BitTorrent Inc.
Blogspot
Craigslist
Digg
Flickr
Linden Lab
OpenTable
RarityGuide, Inc
Revision3
Salesforce.com
SixApart
Technorati
Twitter
TypePad
Whiskey Media
Wikimedia Foundation
Yelp, Inc.
YouNoodle
Zynga
Ask.com
eBay
Google
Yahoo!
YouTube
Facebook
Total:24
Media:
AllBusiness.com
Americana exchange
Bebo
CBS Interactive
Chronicle Books
CNET
Craigslist
Current TV
High Speed Productions
Juxtapoz
Thrasher
Dwell
LiveJournal
MacWorld Magazine
Mevio
Mother Jones Magazine
PC World Magazine
VIZ Media
Wired Magazine
XLR8R Magazine
University of California Press
Communication Arts
Total:19
Miscellany:
ABM Industries
Ammunition LLC
Blue Shield of California
Catholic Healthcare West
FusionStorm
Recology
Schlage
State Compensation Insurance Fund
URS
Total:9
Non-profit
Internet Archive
Room To Read
The Sierra Club
Wikimedia Foundation
Total:4
Professional Services:
Elanex
Onyx Research, Inc.
Total:2
Retail:
Good Vibrations
Gymboree Corporation
Williams-Sonoma, Inc.
Longs Drug Stores
Orchard Supply Hardware
Ross Stores
Safeway
Restoration Hardware
Walmart.com
Software
Adobe Systems
Autodesk
Business Objects
Intuit
McAfee
Mozilla
Oracle
Sybase
Symantec
VMware
Tibco
Total:11
Other:
Fireman's Fund Insurance Company
Total:1
Consumer Goods:
Clorox
Tesla Motors
Total:2
Healthcare
Kaiser Permanente
Total:1
Honestly people take a close look at some of these company names that are headquartered in the Bay Area. Names such as: VISA, PayPal, AMD, Nvidia (every computer gamer knows this), Chevron, Tesla (yes the car company), Lucas Films (Yes think Star Wars), Netflix (Los Angeles may have the larger Film Industry but you use Bay Area companies to rent movies! ), Dreamworks Animations (Yes, the same company that gives Los Angeles some might in movie production), SanDisk (Ever bought a flashdrive before?), Flikr (80% of the City-Data people use this to post pictures, its a Bay Area company), and so on and so forth.
Honestly look at the list, there is no way in Sam Hell (unless you live in Southland) that Los Angeles impacts you more than Bay Area (Unless you work at some movie theater), how many of you use a VISA Credit/Debit Card? It's a Bay Area company.
Point noted.
Also Port of Oakland, not as large as Port of Los Angeles but is definitely increasing in prominence faster than any other Port in the West Coast (besides Seattle).
Video Game Companies in America: 01. Bay Area: 140 02. Los Angeles: 100
03. Seattle: 72
04. Austin: 55
05. New York City: 50
06. Boston: 46
07. Chicago: 25
08. Dallas-Fort Worth: 24
09. Washington DC: 19
Honestly there is probably no industry in terms of economical diversity that is not present in the Bay Area, one of the most diverse economies in the country. The only thing not present in the Bay Area is the Seat to the Federal Government.
Clothing, Finance, Retail, Tech, Software, Hardware, Port, Automobile, Telecommunications, Food & Drinks, Banking, Video Games, Internet, Film Industry, Other Media, Agriculture, Airport, & anything else that can be named. And unlike Los Angeles, even in its own state it has a far larger connection with Sacramento (California's Capital) than any other Metropolitan Area.
Government Jobs Within City:
(Skipping the first 41 cities) 42. San Francisco-Oakland
(Skipping some till I get to Los Angeles on the list) 69. Los Angeles
Fortune Global 500 (2010): New York City-Newark-Bridgeport – 28 Chicago-Naperville-Michigan City – 10 San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose – 10
Minneapolis-St. Paul – 7
Houston-Bayton-Huntsville – 6
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Gainsville– 5 Baltimore-Washington DC – 5
Boston-Providence – 5
Dallas-Fort Worth – 5 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside– 4
Philadelphia-Wilmington – 5
Detroit-Warren- 4
That should do it for now. But really in terms of importance there's no argument for the Top 3 that I can statistically see. Top 5 are: New York City, Washington DC-Baltimore, Bay Area, Chicago, & Los Angeles for sure, but Top 3 are: New York, DMV, & Bay Area.
Do American people even move to the Bay Area? You never hear of Americans moving there, just Asians from the third world.
I've been there. SF is just a very weird and filthy place. San Jose smelled like Indian food.
Do American people even move to the Bay Area? You never hear of Americans moving there, just Asians from the third world.
I've been there. SF is just a very weird and filthy place. San Jose smelled like Indian food.
I love Indian food! Frybread tacos are amazing!
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), Dreamworks Animations (Yes, the same company that gives Los Angeles some might in movie production), SanDisk (Ever bought a flashdrive before?), Flikr (80% of the City-Data people use this to post pictures, its a Bay Area company), and so on and so forth.
