3 ms·

I do not understand the benefit of designating a block (or any geographic area in the city) and then incentivizing tech companies to move there. What's the bene

I do not understand the benefit of designating a block (or any geographic area in the city) and then incentivizing tech companies to move there. What's the benefit? Moral support? Serendipity. One of the advantages of SF, is the high density, which results in more fortuitous chance meetings. it seems like weirdly expensive, constrained, noisy space whose only benefit is proximity to the kinds of companies that would also take on expensive, constrained, noisy spaces. Expensive, crowded, and noisy don't necessarily contribute to serendipity. Meanwhile, isn't the biggest disadvantage to the midwest the limited funding options? I think the idea is that another startup hub somewhere else can show a degree of success and start attracting early funding, perhaps in some kind of niche.

danschumann 9y ago
What he said. And you can get all the benefits without increasing the cost. Like I said the city should incentivize it. Downtown Oshkosh is pretty much the same price as everywhere else Oshkosh.
tptacek 9y ago
I should be up-front and say that I am extremely skeptical about the value of this kind of social serendipity for creating viable startups. I think social networks are important, but really they're so anchored to status that if you're the kind of person who was going to benefit from them, you were going to benefit no matter where you lived. But as for the rest of your message, you're basically asking the same question I am. Why try to cram all the startups into some weird "startup block"? Later Put it this way: to believe that cities should start centralized startup districts, don't you have to believe that distance is so unimportant to startups that it's fine to be in a locale that has 1/1000th the number of startups as SFBA, but also so important that you prescribe what cross streets they set up on in your own town?
- stcredzero 9y ago
  don't you have to believe that distance is so unimportant to startups that it's fine to be in a locale that has 1/1000th the number of startups as SFBA, but also so important that you prescribe what cross streets they set up on in your own town? One would have to believe that networks and modern infrastructure can make certain factors of distance unimportant, while one can still encourage enough beneficial interactions in a smaller community outside of SFBA. This is why I brought up the idea of a particular niche. It seems very unlikely one could compete in all areas, while there have been many historical precedents for explosions in rates of creative realization and/or production resulting from concentrations of specialists in a particular craft. The real problem with distance being unimportant in tech, is that any such bloom could be quickly drawn to SFBA and relocated there. For such a thing to work, there would need to be something else keeping the group of specialists in the outlying community.

danschumann 9y ago

What he said. And you can get all the benefits without increasing the cost. Like I said the city should incentivize it. Downtown Oshkosh is pretty much the same price as everywhere else Oshkosh.

tptacek 9y ago

I should be up-front and say that I am extremely skeptical about the value of this kind of social serendipity for creating viable startups. I think social networks are important, but really they're so anchored to status that if you're the kind of person who was going to benefit from them, you were going to benefit no matter where you lived. But as for the rest of your message, you're basically asking the same question I am. Why try to cram all the startups into some weird "startup block"? Later Put it this way: to believe that cities should start centralized startup districts, don't you have to believe that distance is so unimportant to startups that it's fine to be in a locale that has 1/1000th the number of startups as SFBA, but also so important that you prescribe what cross streets they set up on in your own town?

stcredzero 9y ago
don't you have to believe that distance is so unimportant to startups that it's fine to be in a locale that has 1/1000th the number of startups as SFBA, but also so important that you prescribe what cross streets they set up on in your own town? One would have to believe that networks and modern infrastructure can make certain factors of distance unimportant, while one can still encourage enough beneficial interactions in a smaller community outside of SFBA. This is why I brought up the idea of a particular niche. It seems very unlikely one could compete in all areas, while there have been many historical precedents for explosions in rates of creative realization and/or production resulting from concentrations of specialists in a particular craft. The real problem with distance being unimportant in tech, is that any such bloom could be quickly drawn to SFBA and relocated there. For such a thing to work, there would need to be something else keeping the group of specialists in the outlying community.