Having lived in the SF Bay Area (not Silicon Valley, but we were in "Silicon Gulch" in the 1990s) and now living in New York, I have to say that I do not see NY

Having lived in the SF Bay Area (not Silicon Valley, but we were in "Silicon Gulch" in the 1990s) and now living in New York, I have to say that I do not see NY as the next Silicon Valley. It takes more than just access to VC. The cultures are too different in the two areas. New York has always been about commerce, literally since its founding as New Amsterdam. Finance is in the DNA, it's in the air, it's in the water. What is not here is a culture that values technology and knowledge for its own sake. We don't have a Stanford or an MIT here. There's no feeder for the kind of thinking and culture you need to create a Silicon Valley. The reason Xerox PARC flourished is because it was far away from the East Coast headquarters, and had the autonomy it needed to pursue research. If it had been in or near NYC, it's likely the pressure to come up with only short-term applied innovations would have been too great. I get that Bloomberg wants to get a great tech university, but it will be born out of the desire to see more money, not the desire for knowledge for its own sake. New York City will remain a financial engine, and continue to be a great place for VC and technology to come together, but it won't be the next Silicon Valley.