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Over 1/4 of valuation of the US stock market is Bay Area companies. We certainly have tried all we can in California to create onerous regulations, ridiculous rules, and other things to chase business away, but the innovative atmosphere is hard to match. I feel it when I go back east now, even NY can feel old school and conventional in terms of business thinking.
I think California and the Bay Area have a lot of problems to deal with. Namely, San Francisco...not so much the other cities in the Bay Area. San Francisco is the largest city in the Bay Area, but not the most important, I don't believe....at least, per capita. And, the other Bay Area cities are, luckily, free of the homeless issue that's bogging SF down.
I think California and the Bay Area have a lot of problems to deal with. Namely, San Francisco...not so much the other cities in the Bay Area. San Francisco is the largest city in the Bay Area, but not the most important, I don't believe....at least, per capita. And, the other Bay Area cities are, luckily, free of the homeless issue that's bogging SF down.
SF is neither the most populated nor the physically largest city in the Bay Area.
I think California and the Bay Area have a lot of problems to deal with. Namely, San Francisco...not so much the other cities in the Bay Area. San Francisco is the largest city in the Bay Area, but not the most important, I don't believe....at least, per capita. And, the other Bay Area cities are, luckily, free of the homeless issue that's bogging SF down.
Yes, here east of the Oakland Hills (15-25 miles from DT SF), the climate is amazing, year round outdoor tennis/golf, less windy and foggy, green in the winter, and a real summer with highs in the 80s unlike SF. It's like LA but with more rain to support more plant life. We also don't have the homeless/poop issues.
That said, SF is absolutely the economic engine here. All the high paying jobs are there.
SF is neither the most populated nor the physically largest city in the Bay Area.
During this decade, most of the venture funding has shifted to the city though. Up until 2010, the South Bay (aka Silicon Valley) raised more VC than the city, that shifted throughout the decade and now SF startups are outraising South Bay startups 2 to 1.
Firms know that in the intense battle for talent, they have to be in the types of cities (superstar cities) that attract top talent. And top talent likes going to where they can max out their pay. But, also interestingly, when high-paying jobs are created, they also produce this service-job ripple effect because now there is more demand (from the new highly-paid knowledge worker) for people like servers, bartenders, yoga teachers, babysitters, food delivery guys, etc. The problem is that these service workers are paid poorly. But they go to these superstar cities anyway because it's still better than what they could get in their hometown of Billings, Montana or Zanesville, Ohio.
I'm also a bit of a conspiracy theorist, so I think this is all part of the rich capitalists' plans. Destroy the middle class, place 90% of them in ****ty McJobs solely designed to service the highly-paid smart people with their advanced degrees who will use their smart brains to keep the billionaires as billionaires (while being allowed to at least make enough to take care of their families and take comfort that well at least they're not one of the McJob-havers).
It's also why cities like NYC have such excellent public transit systems. Those were built to allow the poor to shuttle in everyday from 2+ hours away to work their ****ty McJobs (cuz otherwise, they'd just move away, and you'd have to start paying them more to keep them there). The rich don't use public transit.
The top talent also likes certain place for lifestyle, and it's often about living in urban, walkable, diverse, interesting areas with good transit. Especially with younger recruits. All the more so in industries that recruit internationally a lot, like software and biotech. Good air connections to get back home or have the parents visit are also important.
As for your conspiracy theory, you're giving people too much credit. Even if most rich people act in their own self-interest most of the time, they're thinking about their own business rather than economic-class dynamics.
As for transit, in many cities including mine (a US superstar city), a lot of six-figure earners ride, and the average income of riders is often similar to the region overall.
I think California and the Bay Area have a lot of problems to deal with. Namely, San Francisco...not so much the other cities in the Bay Area. San Francisco is the largest city in the Bay Area, but not the most important, I don't believe....at least, per capita. And, the other Bay Area cities are, luckily, free of the homeless issue that's bogging SF down.
I have friends who live in SF and the "homeless" issue while problematic is over hyped according to them.
They just deal with it but to hear some political pundits talk about it they make it seem like the entire city is some vast cesspool.
It is not.
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