Since when was Woodside "Silicon Valley?" (San Jose, San Francisco: equity, estate)

[AA702]

Is Woodside considered part of Silicon Valley? I thought Silicon Valley is just Santa Clara Valley?? Woodside is in San Mateo county.


Interesting article just shows how much money is in the Bay Area.

Yahoo! Personal Finance

[krudmonk]

"Silicon Valley" is a reference to the industry contained mostly within the Santa Clara Valley, but it extends up both side of the bay. The term itself is not a proper geographical reference.

[AA702]

I know what you are saying, but it seems to imply that Geographic Silicon Valley is immune from foreclosures. This is what I get when I first read the article.

[rickca]

A lot of people include the peninsula in "Silicon Valley" as cities like Palo Alto have a lot of tech people living there

[MichaelinWA]

There are a lot of tech people working there, too. Palo Alto is in Santa Clara County and has long been thought of as part of the Silicon Valley. And neighboring Menlo Park is ground zero for Silicon Valley venture capital.

Originally Posted by rickca

A lot of people include the peninsula in "Silicon Valley" as cities like Palo Alto have a lot of tech people living there

[sonarrat]

Southern San Mateo county, and Woodside especially, has very little in common with either San Jose or San Francisco.. I wouldn't blame someone for posting a question about it in either forum, or simply blowing them both off and posting in the California general forum. Lots of big estate plots, horse properties, and deer roaming around the forest land. Where the zillionaires live if Atherton isn't private enough for them.

[hsw]

"Silicon Valley" is sort of like the term "Wall Street" (most of the NYC financial industry actually is based in Midtown Manhattan and Greenwich, not downtown nr WallSt)....SV's a vague geographic term denoting the tech industry's home....

SV offices stretch from ?SanMateo down to SanJose....

Stanford Univ is arguably SV's intellectual epicenter, as many founders of cos., top engineers and venture capitalists are Stanford grads/dropouts....

Most affluent tech execs/VCs live in Woodside/Atherton/PaloAlto....and many of the younger guys live in City of SF....

Economically, SF is effectively an upscale, distant suburb of SV....the only relevant industries actually based in SF are essentially a few hedge funds and private equity shops....aside from those few financial guys, SF is essentially a bedroom community and a wkend home for many affluent tech guys who work in SV (some of whom have primary homes in Woodside/Ath/PA and an SF wkend house/apt)....

[sonarrat]

Originally Posted by hsw

Economically, SF is effectively an upscale, distant suburb of SV....the only relevant industries actually based in SF are essentially a few hedge funds and private equity shops....aside from those few financial guys, SF is essentially a bedroom community and a wkend home for many affluent tech guys who work in SV (some of whom have primary homes in Woodside/Ath/PA and an SF wkend house/apt)....

You have got to be kidding me. Either that, or you're confusing San Francisco with Menlo Park. There are more jobs, and in more different fields, in SF than anywhere else in the Bay Area.

[MichaelinWA]

SF has tons of jobs, but if you were to look at a list of the Bay Area's largest employers, I'd bet that you see more Silicon Valley (Santa Clara County and San Mateo County) firms represented on it, than SF ones. I remember reading somewhere about how young Google employees love to live in SF, and the company has done things to facilitate their commute (I can't remember what, exactly.)

Originally Posted by sonarrat

You have got to be kidding me. Either that, or you're confusing San Francisco with Menlo Park. There are more jobs, and in more different fields, in SF than anywhere else in the Bay Area.

[hsw]

All jobs aren't created equal, as the differential pay, net worth, and age vs net worth often indicate....

Generally, the investment banking/hedge fund/pvt equity industries are highest-paying/wealth-creating industries anywhere...(part of why Manhattan and Greenwich dwarf rest of vast NYC region in economic relevance....the many 1000's of jobs at pharma cos. in NJ or at Pepsi/GE in Westchester/Fairfield just don't pay much)

Tech is not known for particularly high pay, but rather enormous wealth creation for early employees of successful start-ups in form of stock/options, not from traditional cash pay....

Aside from a handful of hedge/pvt equity funds in SF, not a lot of high-income jobs in City of SF (at least "high-income" in sense of Manhattan/Greenwich)...

Most of SF region's high-income jobs and/or personal net worth creation are derived from SiliconValley.....the major tech cos., VC shops, many small start-ups that have been/might be sold to larger cos. (e.g., youtube, facebook, etc)....

Boston is a great counter-point....MIT is one of world's 3-4 best engineering schools....and, IIRC, graduates two times as many engineers/yr as Stanford, yet very little relative tech wealth has been created in Bos region....