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"Today, the commuter-rail system that once made it comparatively easy to live in suburban New Jersey and work in Manhattan is falling apart, and commutes from other New York suburbs, whether by road or rail, are also becoming unworkable. Increasingly, this means that only the very rich can still afford to work in Manhattan, much less live there, while increasing numbers of working- and middle-class families are moving to places such as Texas or Florida, hoping to break free of the gridlock, even though wages in Texas and Florida are much lower."
I wish they used median income rather than average per capita. Average is highly skewed by the .01%ers that have benefited tremendously from the recent ZIRP/NIRP policies of central banks. The .01%ers are highly concentrated in NYC which is used as the point of reference for the entire article. I can't be sure, but I suspect using median income (or ignoring NYC because of its obvious skew) would result in a different set of conclusions.
I look at Seattle and ask why it has grown so fast the last few decades and for the most part, all due to creative/smart people launching businesses that become world class (Microsoft, Amazon, Expedia, Costco, Starbucks, etc.). Stanford hatched Silicon Valley and Harvard/MIT launched Boston's tech rise but why Seattle? My theory is Boeing brought a lot of intellectual capital to Seattle and that's what drives the creativity streak....but open to other ideas.
New York I believe is almost entirely due to Wall Street and the large number of Fortune 500 companies located there and DC is due to the flood of Fed monies driving that.
I look at Seattle and ask why it has grown so fast the last few decades and for the most part, all due to creative/smart people launching businesses that become world class (Microsoft, Amazon, Expedia, Costco, Starbucks, etc.). Stanford hatched Silicon Valley and Harvard/MIT launched Boston's tech rise but why Seattle? My theory is Boeing brought a lot of intellectual capital to Seattle and that's what drives the creativity streak....but open to other ideas.
New York I believe is almost entirely due to Wall Street and the large number of Fortune 500 companies located there and DC is due to the flood of Fed monies driving that.
After living in Seattle for most of my life I can surely attest to it''s great geographical location as opposed to that of the mid western states. Having that abundance of nature close to the centers of commerce has made Seattle (and Portland) a destination for many who have tired of the weather extremes and the overrun, overpriced suburban sprawl of cities such as Boston and San Francisco.
High tech being an entirely new model for business and their surrounding communities has presented us with new challenges with regard to use planning and it's boundary driven mentality. A good example is the Eastern Washington region that offers a completely new and challenging locale in which the state could offer real incentives for business development with a complement of suburban housing offering families a decently priced lifestyle. The US has no firm policies in place to create a better spread of population and it's corollary employment opportunity.
I rarely go to Seattle anymore simply because it has morphed into an unrecognizable mass of urban bling coupled with an incredible amount of big city rudeness, traffic, and high cost of living. Like many cities that enjoyed their moment of fame only to burn brightly for awhile.
Seattle now has the scale of an impersonal metropolis, the tremendously advantaged living cheek to jowl with some of the worst of humanity, an army of the hopeless wandering the streets lined with upscale shopping venues, if this is the reward for luring the high tech wonders to the north west it doesn't look like much of a prize.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Originally Posted by jertheber
After living in Seattle for most of my life I can surely attest to it''s great geographical location as opposed to that of the mid western states. Having that abundance of nature close to the centers of commerce has made Seattle (and Portland) a destination for many who have tired of the weather extremes and the overrun, overpriced suburban sprawl of cities such as Boston and San Francisco.
High tech being an entirely new model for business and their surrounding communities has presented us with new challenges with regard to use planning and it's boundary driven mentality. A good example is the Eastern Washington region that offers a completely new and challenging locale in which the state could offer real incentives for business development with a complement of suburban housing offering families a decently priced lifestyle. The US has no firm policies in place to create a better spread of population and it's corollary employment opportunity.
I rarely go to Seattle anymore simply because it has morphed into an unrecognizable mass of urban bling coupled with an incredible amount of big city rudeness, traffic, and high cost of living. Like many cities that enjoyed their moment of fame only to burn brightly for awhile.
Seattle now has the scale of an impersonal metropolis, the tremendously advantaged living cheek to jowl with some of the worst of humanity, an army of the hopeless wandering the streets lined with upscale shopping venues, if this is the reward for luring the high tech wonders to the north west it doesn't look like much of a prize.
Yes, it struck me that way one day last week when standing at 2nd and Stewart, and a Lamborghini went by, passing the homeless sitting on the sidewalk smoking joints.
Besides the great location for trade with Asia, I think a lot of it had to do with the 80s-90s development of high tech and internet businesses coming here to partner with or otherwise take advantage of the proximity to Microsoft as it took off in it's most prosperous monopoly years. Companies like Costco and Starbucks started here because of the opportunity to sell to the new and growing crop of financially secure residents.
“Being around smart people makes us smarter and more innovative,” notes Moretti. “Thus, once a city attracts some innovative workers and innovative companies, its economy changes in ways that make it even more attractive to other innovators. In the end, this is what is causing the Great Divergence among American communities, as some cities experience an increasing concentration of good jobs, talent, and investment, and others are in free fall.”
This is the primary reason people like the Bay Area
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