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I lived in NYC for 12 years prior to moving to Silicon Valley and spent 8 of those years in the finance industry. NYC government created a symbiotic relationsh

by Johnie 13y ago

I lived in NYC for 12 years prior to moving to Silicon Valley and spent 8 of those years in the finance industry. NYC government created a symbiotic relationship with the finance industry. NYC used the tax revenue from the high income earners to build up local infrastructure and make the city a better place. In the 12 years that I was there and the many more that I've been there in the region, the city had improved drastically. This was to the betterment of everyone. Part of what made NYC great was its transportation infrastructure. It moved millions of people around the city at all times of the day. There was no class structure in the Subways; the 1% rode the subways alongside the service workers. People got a sense that everyone benefited from the increase in income and tax revenue. This was dramatically different on the west coast. In the Bay Area, the local government create policies (limiting housing specifically) that don't benefit the long term future of the region. Compared to NYC, SF governance is pretty dysfunctional. When I first moved out here, I was shocked by how lacking the transportation infrastructure was. I always had the vision that Silicon Valley and SF was high tech and that the public transportation infrastructure must be better than NYC. This was not the case. This lead to the high income earners to create a separate transportation system that benefit them (Uber, corporate shuttles, etc). This leads to a lot of friction between the haves and have not.

gms 13y ago
In other words, the woes in Silicon Valley are due to local government mismanagement than anything else.
rayiner 13y ago
You hit the nail on the head about transit, because the Bay Area's poor transit system exacerbates the problem creating by gentrification and rising rents. I used to work in Midtown, and commute in from New Rochelle, a city that's mostly working class hispanics with a few yuppie high rises near the train station. The ~18 mile trip used to take just over 35 minutes on Metro North, and the service was highly reliable as well as highly available (8 trains to GCT between 7:02 am and 8:47 am). One stop closer to Manhattan was Pehlam, an upper middle class white area. The next stop after that was Mt. Vernon, a working class black area. There were two other lines through Westchester, each stopping in dozens of towns and with similar service. In sum, it was very practical to work in Manhattan but live in a town where rent wasn't totally unaffordable for people outside the upper middle class. There is nothing comparable in the Bay Area. Rising rents don't just mean moving a slightly longer walk away from the train, or down another stop, but possibly moving somewhere else entirely.

by Johnie 13y ago

gms 13y ago

In other words, the woes in Silicon Valley are due to local government mismanagement than anything else.

rayiner 13y ago

You hit the nail on the head about transit, because the Bay Area's poor transit system exacerbates the problem creating by gentrification and rising rents. I used to work in Midtown, and commute in from New Rochelle, a city that's mostly working class hispanics with a few yuppie high rises near the train station. The ~18 mile trip used to take just over 35 minutes on Metro North, and the service was highly reliable as well as highly available (8 trains to GCT between 7:02 am and 8:47 am). One stop closer to Manhattan was Pehlam, an upper middle class white area. The next stop after that was Mt. Vernon, a working class black area. There were two other lines through Westchester, each stopping in dozens of towns and with similar service. In sum, it was very practical to work in Manhattan but live in a town where rent wasn't totally unaffordable for people outside the upper middle class. There is nothing comparable in the Bay Area. Rising rents don't just mean moving a slightly longer walk away from the train, or down another stop, but possibly moving somewhere else entirely.