I Think SF is Over Rated (San Jose, San Francisco: appointed, neighborhood, movies)

[ImRandy]

Weather has nothing to do with the rise of Silicon Valley. All that was required was essentially money and nerds. Stanford attracted well educated people and leased space to tech companies like HP. The government provided research money to Bay Area schools and Venture capitalists provided money for start-ups for those graduates. These new companies hire smart people from both the local population and the rest of the country and in turn people leave those companies and start more start-ups and the process begins again and at a faster pace. Shockly Semiconductors spawns Fairchild, Fairchild spawns Intel and AMD, etc. With this happening the area develops a reputation for opportunity and innovation which attracts new companies and organizations like PARC which spawn more companies (3Com, Adobe) and attract more people. Very over simplified but essentially that's the way it works.

It's a similar thing with where different people settle. Chinese come to San Francisco because there are Chinese there. Filipinos come to Daly City because there are Filipinos there. Mexicans settle in many parts of California because Mexicans are there. People like to fit in and have something in common as well as to be able to make a buck. If I were looking to move to a different country I would find it very helpful to find an area where other Americans have done the same. Not only can I communicate with them when I have problems but chances are I'll have things in common with them.

As for earthquakes. Most people don't concern themselves with them other than having a few supplies and a plan in case the house falls down. They'll happen when they happen. Personally I'll take the occasional large earthquake on the West Coast over the yearly threat of hurricanes like on the Gulf and East Coasts or tornadoes in the Midwest. Either way, life is risky, you put your coin in and take your choice.

[rah]

SF was historically the only major point of debarkation for immigrants on the west coast, and in the 1800's, THOUSANDS of chinese immigrated here because of the gold rush and to work on the transcontinental railroad. As they all arrived in SF, many of them stayed here. So that's why there's such a large chinese (and asian) population. They've been here a long time. As for Mexicans, and other hispanic people, there a very large number of them living here too, though it's not quite as high as southern California. Remember that califonia was colonized by the Spanish and then ruled by Mexico before becoming part of the US. SF's name comes from the Spanish, as do many street names, and many of it's neigborhood names come from Mexican ranchers and such, who used to own the land.

[dmann304]

You guys are the best for information about locals.

That explains why the Tech industry is based there.

Rich nerds do make up the Tech industry but why do you have to be a nerd to opperate a personal computer?

Yea the Bay area is different than most metro areas cuz they don't need a city in the top 3 largest, they have many citites to make one i supose.

I always thought the more people in a city, the more there is to do and more going on and more popular.

But there is a Tech following in Texas too but they don't refer to it as a silicon valley.

What im lost in is the Tech industry stays in the Bay Area, but what about all the brown outs they had, doesn't that make people want to leave and do business elsewhere?

My brother works in Sunnyvale and he says its a total differnet world from Chicago almost night and day.

[missingcol]

Yes, it is amazing that so many high tech giants reside in Bay area. When talking about HP, Adobe, Intel, you can also mention Oracle, Cisco, Apple, Yahoo, Ebay, Google, Sun, .... Do I miss any?

[danking27]

San Francisco is so fuvking weird...hella stands out than any other city...has the most fog in the nation...hella weirdos...hella cool...cool ass place

[fizbin]

Originally Posted by dmann304

. . . Chicago has . . . better food.

Uh, no . . .

[ImRandy]

Originally Posted by dmann304

You guys are the best for information about locals.

That explains why the Tech industry is based there.

Rich nerds do make up the Tech industry but why do you have to be a nerd to opperate a personal computer?

Yea the Bay area is different than most metro areas cuz they don't need a city in the top 3 largest, they have many citites to make one i supose.

I always thought the more people in a city, the more there is to do and more going on and more popular.

But there is a Tech following in Texas too but they don't refer to it as a silicon valley.

What im lost in is the Tech industry stays in the Bay Area, but what about all the brown outs they had, doesn't that make people want to leave and do business elsewhere?

You of course don't have to be a "nerd" to operate a PC. But somebody who simply uses a PC isn't usually the type of person who develops a new technology or product and has the entrepreneurial spirit to start a new company based on that invention.

Silicon Valley doesn't mean ultimate technology. It's just a nickname for the area that now happens to have very positive cachet. Texas doesn't call their tech areas Silicon Valley, that's true, they call them Silicon Hills and Silicon Prairie (and a number of other places in the midwest also use Silicon Prairie for their areas including Chicago). You'll hear more about Silicon Valley worldwide because of its size (number of large companies) and age.

Brown outs are usually short term problems. There's no reason to move a company for a solvable short term problem. Continuing problems which cost more than the move could be a very good reason to move as would any situation where it offers a long term strategic advantage. For the most part you see few companies moving out of Silicon Valley because it still has the cachet and all the original elements are there, the money, the spirit, and the nerds. What you will find though is more and more are opening offices/labs in other locations across the US to tap the local talent. A much cheaper and more cost effective prospect than moving the entire company.

[dmann304]

so why are these people called nerds? A funny name though.

What bugs me about SF, is all the attention and they want people to know there it.

Example, when ever i watch a clip that displays maps like google earth or even live maps, SF is the focused area of choice in the maps.

I swear if i never looked up SF in an alminac or picked up a PC about it i would swear there the biggest city in the US.

Maybe thats a good reputation making people believe they very well could be the largest US city cuz of all the media attention they get kinda like DC which isn't much 570,000 isn't that much for a city either.

[ImRandy]

Google Earth used to zoom in not on San Francisco but on the Google headquarters. Don't think it still does but you can't really fault the company for that. If I'd created the software or my company owned it I probably would have it zoom in on me too.

[City Boy]

Why do people keep trying to figure out why people love SF? Millions of people every year from around the world go to SF and continue to visit years later. If you think it's overrated , overrated to who? The millions who love to visit every year? How can something be overrated when people enjoy it for their own personal reasons? WTF