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Literally tens of thousands of students graduate each year from NYU (16K alone) and other colleges in the area. You're right that skilled workers don't sit arou

Literally tens of thousands of students graduate each year from NYU (16K alone) and other colleges in the area. You're right that skilled workers don't sit around waiting for jobs to show up. They'll go to where the jobs are, which for tech still largely means the West Coast. And I say that as a NYC resident and tech entrepreneur. The tech scene in NY is weak, and non-existent across the river in LIC. Having an Amazon HQ in LIC would have been a great anchor around which to build a stronger startup scene: If your startup fails, hey, there's always Amazon to fall back on (instead of just the financial sector). But I'm sure the students are actually grateful that they were spared from Amazon and living close to home, and that the Bay Area residents will continue to welcome each new batch with open arms!

iterati 8y ago
As someone who worked as a software engineer in NYC for 6 years ~5 years ago, I couldn't disagree more strongly with your claim that the tech scene in NY is weak. It's second only to Silicon Valley when it comes to tech jobs.
- Androider 8y ago
  It's second, but I do think it's weak relative to the size of the city and the unfulfilled potential of what it could be. The NY metropolitan area is ~20M people, but it's clearly much weaker when it comes to tech than the bay area at only ~7M people (I'd say, a magnitude less in number of tech startups alone), and somewhat stronger than the Boston metro area at 4M but not significantly so. Having lived in all three (and now living in Manhattan for 4 years), I don't think for example there is significantly more tech meetups (maybe even less?) or startups (definitely numerically more, but not of better quality) than in Boston, while by numbers alone it should be a whole magnitude greater.
- influx 8y ago
  Seattle would like a word with you ;)
huehehue 8y ago
For the new grads, you're still getting tens of thousands of people moving out of campus housing and into the non-subsidized market, so it hardly seems different that bringing people from out of state.
- Androider 8y ago
  So the ability for your own constituents children to stay in their own home state given choice and opportunities is now equivalent to Amazon bringing in 25K out-of-state employees. Gotcha. That is about as direct a FU from the "I got mine" boomer crowd and politicians that nixed this deal to the next generation as you can get.
- int_19h 8y ago
  So then, colleges are the problem, and they need to downsize, so that there are fewer grads?

iterati 8y ago

As someone who worked as a software engineer in NYC for 6 years ~5 years ago, I couldn't disagree more strongly with your claim that the tech scene in NY is weak. It's second only to Silicon Valley when it comes to tech jobs.

Androider 8y ago
It's second, but I do think it's weak relative to the size of the city and the unfulfilled potential of what it could be. The NY metropolitan area is ~20M people, but it's clearly much weaker when it comes to tech than the bay area at only ~7M people (I'd say, a magnitude less in number of tech startups alone), and somewhat stronger than the Boston metro area at 4M but not significantly so. Having lived in all three (and now living in Manhattan for 4 years), I don't think for example there is significantly more tech meetups (maybe even less?) or startups (definitely numerically more, but not of better quality) than in Boston, while by numbers alone it should be a whole magnitude greater.
influx 8y ago
Seattle would like a word with you ;)

huehehue 8y ago

For the new grads, you're still getting tens of thousands of people moving out of campus housing and into the non-subsidized market, so it hardly seems different that bringing people from out of state.

Androider 8y ago
So the ability for your own constituents children to stay in their own home state given choice and opportunities is now equivalent to Amazon bringing in 25K out-of-state employees. Gotcha. That is about as direct a FU from the "I got mine" boomer crowd and politicians that nixed this deal to the next generation as you can get.
int_19h 8y ago
So then, colleges are the problem, and they need to downsize, so that there are fewer grads?