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So why is it that San Diego has less educated residents with lower incomes in comparison to Austin?
San Diego is a beautiful place but I certainly don't rate it particularly highly economically, particularly compared to the heavyweights in CA (which is what this thread is).
Austin's economy is heavily dominated by high tech, the university and state government, each of which employ a predominantly educated work force. While distinguished in the biotech sector, San Diego also has a lot more workers in tourism, which tends to have a lower socioeconomic profile.
In some respects San Diego is kind of like a West Coast version of Austin and San Antonio put together given huge internal differences within that area. The south and east sides of San Diego would align better with San Antonio, and are much more downscale and working class than most of Austin.
So why is it that San Diego has less educated residents with lower incomes in comparison to Austin?
Not even sure what your red herring argument is. That San Diego somehow is not leveraging UCSD enough to result in higher incomes and education? It's a single institution and SD is not a university town.
Personally, I'd associate a significant portion of San Diego's income growth, which was 5th highest in the country from 1998 to 2018 (Austin was 6th), as very much tied to UCSD and the STEM cluster it fostered, which has continued to bring in high-paying jobs. Can you make the claim that Austin's wages and wage growth are attributed to UT Austin? No. Austin is benefiting from tech job relocations, which is great, but less related to UT.
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San Diego is a beautiful place but I certainly don't rate it particularly highly economically, particularly compared to the heavyweights in CA (which is what this thread is).
EDIT: I already stated that I believe Austin performs better in its state relative to its in-state competitors. I've stated it 3 times now, so what more do you want?
Last edited by newgensandiego; 02-25-2021 at 10:07 PM..
Austin's economy is heavily dominated by high tech, the university and state government, each of which employ a predominantly educated work force. While distinguished in the biotech sector, San Diego also has a lot more workers in tourism, which tends to have a lower socioeconomic profile.
In some respects San Diego is kind of like a West Coast version of Austin and San Antonio put together given huge internal differences within that area. The south and east sides of San Diego would align better with San Antonio, and are much more downscale and working class than most of Austin.
Also, the large military population and retiree population. SD also has more farms than any county in the entire country, so a decent amount of agricultural production.
So why is it that San Diego has less educated residents with lower incomes in comparison to Austin?
San Diego is a beautiful place but I certainly don't rate it particularly highly economically, particularly compared to the heavyweights in CA (which is what this thread is).
There's like this pent up animosity among posters towards Austin here. It's tangible and palpable. Austin makes people angry!!!!
There's like this pent up animosity among posters towards Austin here. It's tangible and palpable. Austin makes people angry!!!!
Would say the opposite. San Diego makes people happy. Especially when looking at bikinis on the beach in La Jolla.
I like Austin. It's just that for all the hype, it has a tiny startup scene. It's great for working at large tech companies, but I wouldn't start a company there. It's also way behind in the rapidly growing biotech industry. Given Austin's history with hardware, you'd think it would be more of a hotbed for synthetic bio and electronic biomaterials, but I don't think it has a single Series A startup in that sector.
One big challenge in Texas in non-competes. They're basically unenforceable in California which has contributed to setting up hubs where people move among companies. Texas takes the employers' side with those agreements which can make it harder to transfer between companies in the same industry.
Texas needs to do what Gov Baker of Massachusetts did three years ago with non-competes by weakening their ability to be enforced. New York is far more employee-friendly with them in Texas. It's one reason why Cal, NY, and Mass account for 80%+ of VC and I can't believe Texas continues to enforce them to the level it does. Change of law is desperately needed there for Austin to develop into something more than a big tech company outpost.
Would say the opposite. San Diego makes people happy. Especially when looking at bikinis on the beach in La Jolla.
I like Austin. It's just that for all the hype, it has a tiny startup scene. It's great for working at large tech companies, but I wouldn't start a company there. It's also way behind in the rapidly growing biotech industry. Given Austin's history with hardware, you'd think it would be more of a hotbed for synthetic bio and electronic biomaterials, but I don't think it has a single Series A startup in that sector.
One big challenge in Texas in non-competes. They're basically unenforceable in California which has contributed to setting up hubs where people move among companies. Texas takes the employers' side with those agreements which can make it harder to transfer between companies in the same industry.
Texas needs to do what Gov Baker of Massachusetts did three years ago with non-competes by weakening their ability to be enforced. New York is far more employee-friendly with them in Texas. It's one reason why Cal, NY, and Mass account for 80%+ of VC and I can't believe Texas continues to enforce them to the level it does. Change of law is desperately needed there for Austin to develop into something more than a big tech company outpost.
While I agree with everything you typed, this isn't really related to my post. Austin draws the ire of alot of CD posters for some reason.
While I agree with everything you typed, this isn't really related to my post. Austin draws the ire of alot of CD posters for some reason.
Austin is awesome and, in my opinion, it is the more impressive 3rd city relative to its in-state competition. SD is competing with LA and SF, which are far out of SD's league in numerous ways (compared to Austin vs. Houston + Dallas).
While I agree that people like to disproportionally bash Austin in part due to the media-frenzy, we don't have to be foaming at the mouth in recognizing its many successes. The same applies to San Diego...it's awesome and is generally well-liked. It also has a ton of problems like any other city. Both cities in this comparison are overachievers in their own way.
As I said before, this discussion has been very enlightening because I've learned about the many similarities and parallels between Austin and San Diego and their respective trajectories.
Austin is awesome and, in my opinion, it is the more impressive 3rd city relative to its in-state competition. SD is competing with LA and SF, which are far out of SD's league in numerous ways (compared to Austin vs. Houston + Dallas).
While I agree that people like to disproportionally bash Austin in part due to the media-frenzy, we don't have to be foaming at the mouth in recognizing its many successes. The same applies to San Diego...it's awesome and is generally well-liked. It also has a ton of problems like any other city. Both cities in this comparison are overachievers in their own way.
As I said before, this discussion has been very enlightening because I've learned about the many similarities and parallels between Austin and San Diego and their respective trajectories.
Repped. I think the sad thing about the level of hate is Austin is a pretty low key city. It's citizens don't really worry about passing San Antonio one day and their actually pretty anti-growth. I don't see any Austin apologists here tbh but Austin do get anger from both Texans and non-Texans alike.
I really don't feel a Austin hate vibe, not sure where this is coming from. I think it just requires appropriate expectations if you think you can move there and work for a startup, as opposed to big tech. It is one of the few places I'd live outside of California and it has a lot going for it, but I've met many people IRL who think getting Oracle and a Tesla factory will somehow mean startups are coming.
Austin is awesome and, in my opinion, it is the more impressive 3rd city relative to its in-state competition. SD is competing with LA and SF, which are far out of SD's league in numerous ways (compared to Austin vs. Houston + Dallas).
Time for a fact check and some context.
San Diego metro area is closer to San Francisco metro area in just about every conceivable metric than Austin is to Houston or Dallas.
As stand alone cities, San Diego could never be challenged by Oakland or Long Beach, while Austin absolutely could be challenged by Fort Worth.
Further complicating matters are the two wildcards in each state-San Jose and San Antonio.
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