It's an interesting piece, however, I think it's misguided as to what needs to be done. Detroit fell not as much because the auto makers moved away, but because

It's an interesting piece, however, I think it's misguided as to what needs to be done. Detroit fell not as much because the auto makers moved away, but because once they did, there was nothing left. This is a huge problem that I see in this area; friends with skills and desire in professions like medicine end up having to become sysadmins because it's the only way to make ends meet in the upside down economy of this area. You can't have a sustainable area economy if the working class has to commute from Stockton to do the "menial jobs". Among other things, I think it's high time that the big players -- Google, Facebook, etc -- started growing upward rather than outwards. Sprawl is a terrible waste of land, and pushes prices that much higher, and that much more out of the way of the other people who live in the area. In order for this area to remain awesome, we really do need the Google Tower, the Facebook Tower, etc, in order to give enough space for new and small people to be able to get a foothold. Otherwise, I have a bad feeling that the Fabulous Ruins of the Silicon Valley is going to have stark photographs of abandoned sprawling compounds, much like Detroit's ruin porn has now.