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I wonder more broadly if the value prop of a “city” still holds. The value prop of Silicon Valley was a place to get coffee and work with THE cutting edge tech

I wonder more broadly if the value prop of a “city” still holds. The value prop of Silicon Valley was a place to get coffee and work with THE cutting edge tech people. In the same way NYC might be seen as THE place to meet, collaborate, build lasting relationships in finance… Does the idea of a city as a super hub still make sense? Especially in a tech world where more and more companies are fully or partially remote? Can you build lasting, long term trust based relationships without getting coffee or hanging out at least some? I also wonder what the answer will be in 1-5 years. We might still be biased by the Covid centric world.

tacostakohashi 5y ago
As a long-time big city resident that recently tried a rural house during the pandemic, my thought is that no, the "city" value proposition just doesn't hold in the same way it used to. This isn't due to the virus, they were stuffed before but we only realized when the virus hit. People have been whining about empty shopfronts, Amazon killing retail, every block being a Chase / Starbucks / Walgreens for some time now. Retail is just such a different beast now. In the not too distant past... cities had a major advantage for getting your hands on lots of stuff with both more variety / cheaper prices, for stuff like books, records/CDs, HiFi equipment, camera gear, musical instruments, these kinds of specialty items for people's profession/hobby. Now those things are all either dead (replaced by iPhones) or online, and in the meantime the bulky big-box stuff that is e-commerce isn't so good for is better outside the city at a Walmart/Home Depot/Best Buy/Staples. I think those places weren't really so pervasive 20-30 years back. So now the best retail is actually big box in the burbs + amazon, and NYC and big cities like it are just full of expensive 5th ave premium / flagship stuff, with few actual practical advantages.

tacostakohashi 5y ago

As a long-time big city resident that recently tried a rural house during the pandemic, my thought is that no, the "city" value proposition just doesn't hold in the same way it used to. This isn't due to the virus, they were stuffed before but we only realized when the virus hit. People have been whining about empty shopfronts, Amazon killing retail, every block being a Chase / Starbucks / Walgreens for some time now. Retail is just such a different beast now. In the not too distant past... cities had a major advantage for getting your hands on lots of stuff with both more variety / cheaper prices, for stuff like books, records/CDs, HiFi equipment, camera gear, musical instruments, these kinds of specialty items for people's profession/hobby. Now those things are all either dead (replaced by iPhones) or online, and in the meantime the bulky big-box stuff that is e-commerce isn't so good for is better outside the city at a Walmart/Home Depot/Best Buy/Staples. I think those places weren't really so pervasive 20-30 years back. So now the best retail is actually big box in the burbs + amazon, and NYC and big cities like it are just full of expensive 5th ave premium / flagship stuff, with few actual practical advantages.