High-Tech in Sacramento - Newcomers & Leaders (Vacaville, Davis: homes, tech jobs)

[sacreole]

Originally Posted by Chimérique

So aren't we already a tech "cluster" given that we already have:

1. Intel's Research and Development facilities in Folsom - 6,000 employees
2. Apple's Original facility going strong in Ek Grove - 5,000 employees
3. Siemans Train Manufacturing facilities in South Sacramento - 2,100 employees
4. Micorn's 500 employees in Folsom
5. Several very small firms of 10 employees or less.

I don't think I would include the Siemens Mobility Plant in your listing since its in a different industry. Perhaps Sacramento does have a minor tech cluster that has potential for further growth. My point was that the Solidigm facility would spur more value-added tech research and development as was the original premise behind this thread.

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by sacreole

I don't think I would include the Siemens Mobility Plant in your listing since its in a different industry. Perhaps Sacramento does have a minor tech cluster that has potential for further growth. My point was that the Solidigm facility would spur more value-added tech research and development as was the original premise behind this thread.

...and I always forget about Oracle in Rocklin - 750 employees

Siemens for sure is a design/electronics/tech/engineering/robotics/manufacturing company.

And there are some pretty high-level tech/engineering positions at the South Sacramento facility. I'm pretty sure it is their largest train manufacturing facility. Some very sophisticated locomotives are manufactured there. Pretty much every Siemens train in the USA and much of North America is manufactured at the South Sacramento facility.

[shelato]

Originally Posted by Chimérique

In order for all that downtown subsidized-low-income-housing to work someone has to pay market rate, might as well be the folks from Solidigm, again, only time will tell if they are attracted to and willing to stay downtown. I truly hope they do-we need a more diverse crowd downtown. The powers that be, likely, will carry the sentiment, "we need folks who can pay market rate, but we can't have them buying anything downtown because they will push prices up too much".

I wonder if this is why more and more luxurious housing gets built in suburban Folsom and El Dorado Hills instead of downtown Sacramento.

Instead of another bourgeois-beige gated community in El Dorado Hills we could have one luxurious high-rise downtown- just to mix it up a little provide some diversity downtown; it will never happen as the folks that control Sacramento would never let that happen in Sacramento. The hypocrisy is mind-blowing. But what do I care I'd never be able to afford it.

There is a synergy between the housing stock and the employers. Intel got the flywheel spinning in Folsom/ El Dorado Hills when it opened its campus back in the late 80's/ early 90's. Higher value employer's allows their employees to buy and own nicer housing, but the nicer housing stock attracts a better educated work force which in turn attracts additional higher value employers.

The problem with locating your firm downtown or railyards is where are your employees going to live? Most people don't want to commute longer than 30-35 minutes. If you are planning on hiring mostly unmarried people in their 20's and gay people without kids maybe the opportunity to live in an apartment downtown works for those employees, but if your work force is going to have people who have kids too, where are the employees with kids going to send their kids to schools if your firm locates downtown/railyards? What does shopping look like in that area for those employees? How safe does the Arden Fair Mall seem? Would you feel safe with your wife or daughter walking around there after dark? If you are trying to recruit employees to your firm from out of the area with kids what do you tell them about local schools in the area? In Sac City, in San Juan, in Natomas, West Sac, Woodland and Grant Unified School Districts, school test scores are middling to awful. In most firms what is the percentage of their workforce that is still in their 20's or gay vs what percentage of their work force has or plans to have kids? What percentage of neighborhoods close to downtown also have huge favelas? Does anyone think any of this will get fixed any faster than the railyards got developed?

A better location for most of the knowledge worker employers is likely to just locate closer to Folsom/El Dorado Hills or Roseville/Rocklin, Elk Grove or maybe out of state. I am pretty sure this is how Solidigm picked its location in this region. Rent is cheaper for the employer in terms of office space, and the majority of their employees will have acess to a much better housing stock with much less of a commute and much better/safer shopping.

State employment stays near downtown because it can't easily leave. It is easier for state agencies to be managed from one office and the heads of the agency don't want to be too far from the Governor's office for meetings with the Governor. There are going to be some lobbyists that also have to be in proximity to the legislature. But the employers who don't have to be there, probably don't want to be there either because so much of the housing stock in the relevant commute shed from downtown is now iffy and getting worse, so its probably not great relocation destination for employers of knowledge workers.

Originally Posted by sacreole

Perhaps with the Solidigm campus opening in Rancho Cordova, that could potentially be a catalyst for Sacramento evolving into a tech cluster (at least on a minor scale). I certainly don't expect the Sacramento region to become another Silicon Valley or Austin. In addition, there has been a gradual return of employees to their workplaces. Even though it appears that remote work is hear to stay but IMHO things are moving towards a hybrid model.

The hope back in the late 80's and early 90's was that would happen. Packard Bell was in the old Army Depot, Elk Grove got an Apple facility, Folsom got Intel, Roseville got HP and Rocklin got Oracle. But the market went away from PC's to smart phones and employers instead of moving work from Silicon Valley to Sacramento moved jobs either out of state or overseas.So growth here stalled out, but continued to grow in places like Austin and elsewhere.

[Chimérique]

Originally Posted by sacreole

I don't think I would include the Siemens Mobility Plant in your listing since its in a different industry. Perhaps Sacramento does have a minor tech cluster that has potential for further growth. My point was that the Solidigm facility would spur more value-added tech research and development as was the original premise behind this thread.

One more that I always forget, NEC in Rancho Cordova - 250-500 employees, NEC has been in Rancho since the mid 80's/early 90's.
Solidigm is in the same location as NEC, next to the White Rock Corporate Campus, different building.

[mixxalot]

Hopefully more good tech companies move to the area. That would be fantastic news!

[Valley Boy]

Originally Posted by mixxalot

Hopefully more good tech companies move to the area. That would be fantastic news!

As long as you aren't a renter.

[mixxalot]

Originally Posted by Valley Boy

As long as you aren't a renter.

No I own a home so all good. More tech companies that move here would make me very happy indeed.

[Valley Boy]

Homeless bum just attacked a 74 year old man in Carmichael. Man collapsed at the scene and was dead on arrival at the hospital.

Thank Sacramento liberal judges, for more lawlessness! It's creeping out from Sac to the burbs!

[wburg]

Or, just maybe, it has always been a countywide problem that continually got shoved downtown until there was no more room to shove? Not quite sure what this has to do with local tech industries other than just hijacking the thread with a political agenda.

[Valley Boy]

It has everything to do with the thread. It just doesn't support YOUR liberal dysfunctional dystopia agenda. This is exactly the reason those workers will live in Folsom or *El Dorado Hills*. High income folks want Clean and safe streets and good schools. Something simply not possible in Sacramento proper.

I do agree, Sacramento's crime and homeless problem does create spill over problems. I live in Elk Grove and I know from my line of work that a large chunk of our crime comes from low income/no income Sacramento residents who come to Elk Grove to steal from our businesses.

The homeless are guided to Sacramento, because the County is responsible for most of the welfare services. And most of those agencies are at the county seat, which is the city of Sacramento. Homeless like to be adjacent to the services offered to them. Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..