Is Boston's tech boom hurting smaller cities (Worcester, Springfield: insurance, employment)

[btownboss4]

Originally Posted by timberline742

Well Houston will be fine as long as we're tied to fossil fuels, sadly. I know that's not your point though.


But I think we do need to care about other regions. It's not dissimilar from caring about another person's, even a strangers health. WE are paying for it no matter what. We have to as a society. We're supporting them through the net flow of our tax dollars. The choice is to how to do that wisely. Invest in them so they can support themselves, or pay for the safety net. Right now, we're funding the safety net.

What’s better for Massachusetts some guy in Oklahoma paying OK state tax and US Federal Tax paying for OK roads or a that same guy moving to Massachusetts paying MA state tax and his Federal money going back to Oklahoma?

Honestly many of these states don’t want to invest in themselves. They cut Public school teachers salaries, refuse to expand Medicare etc.

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by btownboss4

What’s better for Massachusetts some guy in Oklahoma paying OK state tax and US Federal Tax paying for OK roads or a that same guy moving to Massachusetts paying MA state tax and his Federal money going back to Oklahoma?.

I don't know. I think this would be an interesting study. I mean, what you said is probably better for Mass, but I'm not concerned about just Mass, but about our entire country, and really, the world.

Originally Posted by btownboss4

Honestly many of these states don’t want to invest in themselves. They cut Public school teachers salaries, refuse to expand Medicare etc

You are absolutely right on that. The negative though, is Nationally they often vote against Massachusett's interests (etc) yet they're largely dependent on us financially. We literally financially support states that loath us. Not coincidently, they have a widely disproportional influence and impact politically Nationally with their voters having MUCH more power than a voter here. That is also a problem.

[yesmaybe]

Eh, companies (especially tech companies) love Boston now because of all the cheap college graduates AND the extensive public transit system which makes the logistics much easier to bring in foreign labor on work visas. There aren't many cities in the US that have both. The awful Open Office floorplan mitigates the office space cost and taxes here are lower than say NYC.

The part about needing to be near where other job opportunities are is so true, and that's why most cities can't work in todays era. The alternative is remote work but if it gets that popular, employers will just move all the work to India and China anyway.

An example would be if autonomous cars get good enough to transport people... Boston would be screwed.

[GeePee]

Originally Posted by yesmaybe

An example would be if autonomous cars get good enough to transport people... Boston would be screwed.

In what way?

[yesmaybe]

Originally Posted by GeePee

In what way?

Employers would leave because they could just put the foreign labor wherever, the actual location wouldn't matter. Just find cheap office space in some cheap part of the country and stick them there. They wouldn't have any problem getting to work without a car.

Plus Boston's roads are terribly small. It would take a huge advantage that Boston has into a huge disadvantage.

[bjimmy24]

I'm not sure the public transit has much at all to do with it. The tech workers dont typically live far away. Probably walkable to work or wealthy enough to drive. More and more cars cramming into boston these days. Its crazy. People really dont want to take the t.

[yellowstatus]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

I'm not sure the public transit has much at all to do with it. The tech workers dont typically live far away. Probably walkable to work or wealthy enough to drive. More and more cars cramming into boston these days. Its crazy. People really dont want to take the t.

.

Absolutely. Rather than level the playing field, tech has amplified the advantages of the companies with deep pockets and best talent. Hire the best and cluster them as tightly as possible. People hoping for a fairy tale revival of backwards medium and small sized cities believe despite decades of empirical evidence in the US and across the developed world.

[btownboss4]

Originally Posted by bjimmy24

I'm not sure the public transit has much at all to do with it. The tech workers dont typically live far away. Probably walkable to work or wealthy enough to drive. More and more cars cramming into boston these days. Its crazy. People really dont want to take the t.

People like the *idea* of public transit as much if not more than actual public transit. Also peak hour MBTA ridership is going up it’s just that since working class families are now wealthy tech bros non commuting trips are more likely to be by automobile. (Eg 5 people who take the T 4 times a day is replaced by 6 who take it 3 times)

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by btownboss4

People like the *idea* of public transit as much if not more than actual public transit. Also peak hour MBTA ridership is going up it’s just that since working class families are now wealthy tech bros non commuting trips are more likely to be by automobile. (Eg 5 people who take the T 4 times a day is replaced by 6 who take it 3 times)

What do you mean by the bold?

To the latter point about ridership, I think ride shares have as much to do with it as anything. As the number of people working in Boston increases, we're obviously seeing more people driving to work (hence the traffic) and more peak hour T ridership. But more of what would be off-peak trips on the T are now rideshare trips. There were 42 million rideshare trips in Boston in 2018. Compare that to peak taxi usage which was 14.2 Million in 2012 (Uber/Lyft weren't in Boston then) (Globe). While some of those rideshare trips replace taxi trips (there were about 5 million taxi trips in 2018), the vast majority were previously off-peak T trips that are now rideshares which is why off-peak T ridership is on the decline. At around midnight, it just makes sense for someone to summon a +/- $10 Uber (or $5 Uber pool) the moment they want to go and ride 20 minutes between, say, Brighton and Somerville than it does to to take 1 hour or more to do the same trip on the T. And that assumes it's not a long walk to the nearest station and you're not going to have to wait 15 minutes for the next off-peak train. That's why tens of millions of people are doing it. Between surge pricing and rush hour traffic, rideshares don't make as much sense for most. Some are still using them for regular peak commutes, but the T still beats them in terms of speed and cost effectiveness.

[BostonBornMassMade]

public transit has nothing to do with it. That's why most companies offer free parking and thats why the number of cars in Boston has skyrocketed. If public transit had anything to do with it then sunbelt cities wouldn't be booming.