4 ms·

It's not just about the rents and finances. Escaping Silicon Valley is also escaping a monoculture. Yes, the Bay has diversity in one sense (for example ethnic

It's not just about the rents and finances. Escaping Silicon Valley is also escaping a monoculture. Yes, the Bay has diversity in one sense (for example ethnic backgrounds), but in other ways (diversity of thought) it is very uniform. Urban living is also just one way of living. It's not the way everyone wants or needs to live, and those who want more breathing room can seek that out if they can work remotely. Politics also vary by geographic location, and those who are tired of issues like SF's lack of law enforcement and constant problems with homeless drug addicts have more viable alternatives now. Those who have families/friends in other places will be freer to live near them. I think this is going to be great and hope to see all tech companies adopt remote work.

paxys 6y ago
Do you really think you're escaping "monoculture" by moving to Ohio?
- Apocryphon 6y ago
  It would at least be a different monoculture. And depending on the city, even less of one as East Coasters are fleeing their own respective sky-high rents to Ohio: https://nypost.com/2018/04/25/ex-new-yorkers-are-flocking-to-this-midwest-sanctuary/ https://nypost.com/2018/04/25/ex-new-yorkers-are-flocking-to...
  - asdff 6y ago
    I think people are imagining this will be pretty plug and play, but there will be a shock for sure if your standards of living and expectations come from larger and more diverse metros. I grew up in Cleveland, and lived in those listed areas in Columbus. They feel small, like very small. The 'active' walkable part of Columbus is like 2 miles on high street, where home prices are the highest and continually higher with every year. North of this is Ohio State, which I love but it's a weird place to hang out if you are over 25 and a football game isn't going on. South of these two miles on high street are downtown, which is empty after 5pm because it's all state government buildings and offices, and the german village which is admittedly quaint but not worth uprooting your life for imo, every city has a cute older area with $5 lattes. The rest of the city is suburbs stretching out until it blurs with farmland, indistinguishable from any of the other suburbs. Most of them don't even bother building sidewalks they are so dependent on the car. Public transit in Columbus is crap, basically a pity gesture from the city saying 'yes, we do have buses' and that's about it. Cleveland is an overall nicer city than Columbus. It has older bones and is pretty well laid out on the east side with a few RTA rail lines. There are a lot of older neighborhoods that date to when Rockefeller lived here and made his fortune with Standard Oil along the riverbanks. You can get a mansion for ~$75k a bathroom right on the RTA line in Shaker Heights. The metropark system is also enormous. However, Cleveland never recovered from white flight. The population of the greater metro area has been stagnant for 50 years, while the city proper has lost half its population in that time. Despite the good bones, Cleveland feels hollowed out as a result, and there is a lot of space now devoted to surface parking lots that used to be an apartment building in a formerly lively neighborhood. Still, there are a lot more walkable neighborhoods than Columbus and more options for living, but the city isn't growing nearly as fast as other metro areas and will not shore up the damage done to city life from white flight in my lifetime imo. I'd say about half the people from my high school class still live in Ohio, the rest took better positions elsewhere. Coupled with the limited number of employers and therefore lack of jobs, and the six months of depression (sometimes it would only snow once or twice, the rest of winter everything will be grey and brown and muddy and dead, and 'scenic' autumn only lasts for like two weeks anyway), and I haven't looked back since moving west. In terms of my career, physical health now that I can be more active outdoors all year, and my mental health (Cleveland in particular only gets 80 days of sunshine a year), this was the greatest decision of my life. Plus I can actually get proper ethnic food, you should see what they call a taco in Cleveland. If I want to visit, can't beat a 5hr direct flight.
    - Apocryphon 6y ago
      Thanks for a very comprehensive description. It's a good response. Maybe Pittsburgh compares better to Cleveland?
- throwawaysea 6y ago
  Another way to look at it is that a web of many economically viable locations and ways of living produces a diversity of thought/perspectives in aggregate, whereas grouping everyone up in a few places leads to dominant and stale monocultures.

paxys 6y ago

Do you really think you're escaping "monoculture" by moving to Ohio?

Apocryphon 6y ago
It would at least be a different monoculture. And depending on the city, even less of one as East Coasters are fleeing their own respective sky-high rents to Ohio: https://nypost.com/2018/04/25/ex-new-yorkers-are-flocking-to-this-midwest-sanctuary/ https://nypost.com/2018/04/25/ex-new-yorkers-are-flocking-to...
- asdff 6y ago
  I think people are imagining this will be pretty plug and play, but there will be a shock for sure if your standards of living and expectations come from larger and more diverse metros. I grew up in Cleveland, and lived in those listed areas in Columbus. They feel small, like very small. The 'active' walkable part of Columbus is like 2 miles on high street, where home prices are the highest and continually higher with every year. North of this is Ohio State, which I love but it's a weird place to hang out if you are over 25 and a football game isn't going on. South of these two miles on high street are downtown, which is empty after 5pm because it's all state government buildings and offices, and the german village which is admittedly quaint but not worth uprooting your life for imo, every city has a cute older area with $5 lattes. The rest of the city is suburbs stretching out until it blurs with farmland, indistinguishable from any of the other suburbs. Most of them don't even bother building sidewalks they are so dependent on the car. Public transit in Columbus is crap, basically a pity gesture from the city saying 'yes, we do have buses' and that's about it. Cleveland is an overall nicer city than Columbus. It has older bones and is pretty well laid out on the east side with a few RTA rail lines. There are a lot of older neighborhoods that date to when Rockefeller lived here and made his fortune with Standard Oil along the riverbanks. You can get a mansion for ~$75k a bathroom right on the RTA line in Shaker Heights. The metropark system is also enormous. However, Cleveland never recovered from white flight. The population of the greater metro area has been stagnant for 50 years, while the city proper has lost half its population in that time. Despite the good bones, Cleveland feels hollowed out as a result, and there is a lot of space now devoted to surface parking lots that used to be an apartment building in a formerly lively neighborhood. Still, there are a lot more walkable neighborhoods than Columbus and more options for living, but the city isn't growing nearly as fast as other metro areas and will not shore up the damage done to city life from white flight in my lifetime imo. I'd say about half the people from my high school class still live in Ohio, the rest took better positions elsewhere. Coupled with the limited number of employers and therefore lack of jobs, and the six months of depression (sometimes it would only snow once or twice, the rest of winter everything will be grey and brown and muddy and dead, and 'scenic' autumn only lasts for like two weeks anyway), and I haven't looked back since moving west. In terms of my career, physical health now that I can be more active outdoors all year, and my mental health (Cleveland in particular only gets 80 days of sunshine a year), this was the greatest decision of my life. Plus I can actually get proper ethnic food, you should see what they call a taco in Cleveland. If I want to visit, can't beat a 5hr direct flight.
  - Apocryphon 6y ago
    Thanks for a very comprehensive description. It's a good response. Maybe Pittsburgh compares better to Cleveland?
throwawaysea 6y ago
Another way to look at it is that a web of many economically viable locations and ways of living produces a diversity of thought/perspectives in aggregate, whereas grouping everyone up in a few places leads to dominant and stale monocultures.