Why the Next Silicon Valley will be Austin, Texas (cnn.com) 171
After three decades in Silicon Valley, billionaire Jim Breyer chose Austin for the next era of his venture capital/venture philanthropy work, and cites "early, but compelling, signals that Austin is emerging as the next great tech hub."
While Silicon Valley's critics "make some fair points about rising living costs and government overreach," he argues that Austin's advantages are being overlooked — and they go beyond just the University of Texas:
Austin, more than any other city in the country, encourages a culture of interdisciplinary collaboration. Because the city has catered to so many types of professionals, and not just technologists, the depth of talent here is unique. Artists, entrepreneurs, doctors and professors, all at the top of their trade, frequently choose to build things together. By breaking down silos and embracing novel approaches to company-building, Austin's diverse entrepreneurs will usher in a new era of growth for the city, state and country... Austin has every type of entrepreneur that a great company needs...
Austin has attracted and will continue to attract young, brilliant talent because of its comparative affordability, outdoor culture and professional development opportunities. This vast pool of expertise is contributing to a remarkably robust climate of innovation. With Tesla, Facebook, Apple, Google, Oracle and other leading companies moving to or expanding in Austin, the entrepreneurial ecosystem will be bolstered when talent from these companies breaks away to start new ventures. Some of my best investments have been in entrepreneurs who gained valuable experience at an outstanding established company before starting their own. Five years from now, Austin will benefit from many tech company alums eager to leverage their expertise to tackle some of the world's most pressing problems...
Lastly, Austin entrepreneurs are among the most impact-driven in the world. The city, in a push to "Keep Austin Weird," emphasizes thinking outside the box. It encourages a frontier spirit where founders take big problems into their own hands — I have seen more impact investing pitches in Austin than any other geography... [T]he majority of people at startups here are determined to make the world a better place...
I think Austin founders will offer indisputable proof that companies can simultaneously earn money for shareholders and improve society.
"The things that made Silicon Valley special are not going anywhere," Breyer adds. "The Bay Area will continue to be a global hub of innovation that attracts courageous entrepreneurs, benefits from world-class institutions and nurtures talent from leading tech companies." But he's ultimately predicting a bright future for both cities, while arguing that Austin "offers a remarkable new frontier of opportunity."
While Silicon Valley's critics "make some fair points about rising living costs and government overreach," he argues that Austin's advantages are being overlooked — and they go beyond just the University of Texas:
Austin, more than any other city in the country, encourages a culture of interdisciplinary collaboration. Because the city has catered to so many types of professionals, and not just technologists, the depth of talent here is unique. Artists, entrepreneurs, doctors and professors, all at the top of their trade, frequently choose to build things together. By breaking down silos and embracing novel approaches to company-building, Austin's diverse entrepreneurs will usher in a new era of growth for the city, state and country... Austin has every type of entrepreneur that a great company needs...
Austin has attracted and will continue to attract young, brilliant talent because of its comparative affordability, outdoor culture and professional development opportunities. This vast pool of expertise is contributing to a remarkably robust climate of innovation. With Tesla, Facebook, Apple, Google, Oracle and other leading companies moving to or expanding in Austin, the entrepreneurial ecosystem will be bolstered when talent from these companies breaks away to start new ventures. Some of my best investments have been in entrepreneurs who gained valuable experience at an outstanding established company before starting their own. Five years from now, Austin will benefit from many tech company alums eager to leverage their expertise to tackle some of the world's most pressing problems...
Lastly, Austin entrepreneurs are among the most impact-driven in the world. The city, in a push to "Keep Austin Weird," emphasizes thinking outside the box. It encourages a frontier spirit where founders take big problems into their own hands — I have seen more impact investing pitches in Austin than any other geography... [T]he majority of people at startups here are determined to make the world a better place...
I think Austin founders will offer indisputable proof that companies can simultaneously earn money for shareholders and improve society.
"The things that made Silicon Valley special are not going anywhere," Breyer adds. "The Bay Area will continue to be a global hub of innovation that attracts courageous entrepreneurs, benefits from world-class institutions and nurtures talent from leading tech companies." But he's ultimately predicting a bright future for both cities, while arguing that Austin "offers a remarkable new frontier of opportunity."
Nope (Score:5, Interesting)
Most people in the world enjoy living in California.
Most people in the world are not willing to live in Texas.
Austin is a growing regional tech center, and that will continue.
But it is not possible for it to become "the next Silicon Valley."
Re:Nope (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, I think Phoenix has a better claim than Austin with the existing Intel plants and the recently announce TSMC build out: Taiwan Semiconductor’s Phoenix plant likely three times larger than originally announced [abc15.com]
Re:Nope (Score:5, Insightful)
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Eight billion people on this planet also should not exist. How many kids do you have?
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Boise (Score:2)
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Phoenix is techie enough now that it regularly celebrates Holi and Diwali.
Weirdness: I had a citation link here but it gets rejected as "ASCII art."
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Phoenix does not have the TECH BASE. Boulder would be SUPERIOR to Phoenix, but I have to say that Boulder and Austin are very similar.
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Having tech manufacturing won't make it "the next Silicon Valley" either.
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windy and aigh
Go Daddy came from the Phoenix area and Uber moved there, historically major players were Honeywell (Garret turbine/Allied signal), Motorola (now On Semi, General Dynamics), and just a ton of little aerospace support companies.
There is a pretty large base of developers, we used to have Oracle events and more recently MS code camps with relatively large attendance. Google didn't find what they were looking for, but the Valley of the Sun (original nickname when mainly a tourist trap) has been ca
Most people follow gold rushes not comfort (Score:4, Insightful)
They're willing to live in tiny shared spaces in CA and work brutal hours to make sweet, sweet money.
As CA becomes more crowded, expensive and less pleasant relocating to places which still have advantages CA is losing will become more attractive.
The next "Silicon Valley" could look like a Shenzen built from scratch. It could look like anything if there's enough sweet money in play. CA won early when land was affordable (no longer), it was less crowded (game over) and less infested with people one is ideologically obliged to adore but may not want to step over on the way to work. CA had the military and aerospace industries but those are mobile too and benefit from cheap land with looser use restrictions.
Re:Most people follow gold rushes not comfort (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Most people follow gold rushes not comfort (Score:5, Funny)
Sixth, you're in the middle of Texas, a gigantic negative all by itself. Flat, boring, with nothing to do outside, and too frelling hot to do it even if there were something.
Re: Most people follow gold rushes not comfort (Score:2)
Re:Most people follow gold rushes not comfort (Score:5, Insightful)
Nope, sounds like the people of Austin understand what work-life balance means.
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"You know it is bad when you (contractor) are the only one there Saturday night to get something done. The culture here is 9-5. So that is a huge problem."
Nope, sounds like the people of Austin understand what work-life balance means.
You realize you're not disagreeing with him, right?
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Sounds like someone who has a hidden agenda. The culture in Austin is 9-5? LOL. No city has a "culture" that could be characterized so broadly. Dell in its heyday was absolutely NOT a 9-5 culture, but it very much was an Austin one.
Your whole post is vapid bullshit.
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The culture here is 9-5. So that is a huge problem.
I've worked in an investment banking context for a decade where they think the same way. You know what ISN'T happening in banking? Anything novel. When you're motherfucking buried under ours of bashing out code/ spreadsheets / gruntwork you're not innovating at all. You may get a lot DONE, but you're not coming up with the next big thing which is what Silicon Valley had going for it: idea generation first, then brutal execution. It's now mostly the latter, and it's being done by a workforce that only d
Re:Nope (Score:4, Informative)
You've obviously never been to Austin. It's actually something kind of special, with all the ingredients to potentially be a next-big-tech-center. A huge top-10 university, a large professional, highly-educated, generally tolerant and progressive local population, combined with the business friendly state structure and low taxes? Good food, good entertainment, and a nice-looking landscape? Yeah, it's got potential. Building something in California or Seattle is next to impossible. Building something in Texas basically requires a pinky-swear that any fire you cause won't spread to your neighbor's property.
You might ask why the hell would any sane tech company want to go to that gun-totin, bull-riding, Trump-lovin, redneck place? Maybe the rural areas are like that, but the big cities down there are different. Especially Austin.
Re:Nope (Score:5, Interesting)
First day on the job in Austin (land surveying 1986), somebody comes up and says, "we're taking up a donation to build a wall and keep all you Northerners out", heard the same joke almost daily for the next year and a half. No variations, no expansion on the meme, no real response if you say (as in my case) "Actually, I'm from Arizona", then dig into the that they ain't really even Westerners.
Eventually, the Savings and Loan scandal hits hard, and everybody is on the street looking for a job, and I hear, "why don't you just go home", which I did, never to return. This results in a complete loss of talent (which they had to import in the first place) whenever there is even a slight bump to the economy.
Texas will need to become California before it will ever act as a host to a long term Silicon Valley that does not evaporate on the first down turn.
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Okay, but who wants to be a prisoner within city limits? One notable thing about Silicon Valley is how LGBT-friendly and non-white-friendly and immigrant-friendly the Bay Area is. Texas, not so much. Presuming you are both correct and telling the truth about Austin, peachy for Austin. But I can drive an hour out of San Francisco in any direction except west; and not be surrounded by people who hate me for existing and want to murder me. And as much as I like SF, I would not want to be a prisoner here,
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Building something in California or Seattle is next to impossible.
You're either too stupid, or too ignorant, to contribute to this conversation successfully.
If you look at what he said in context, he meant building actual buildings. Not building companies. And while there was certainly hyperbole there, there is truth in how difficult it is to build new buildings in large Californian cities and Seattle.
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I don't think it would be like Silicon Valley, but it could be its own unique Economic Circle. The problem is SV is now the home of "old tech". Computers for the sake of being a computer and software isn't the next big and great thing. Embedded devices, wider services, AI are used together to make a different product. In which we need new thinking not old SV business man thinking of the last generation. I know boomers and gen Xer don't want to think of themselves as old, but we are getting old and stuc
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People in California often leave the cities on their days off and enjoy outdoor activities. It is a big part of the quality of life.
Same for Seattle and Portland, both of which have more tech industry than Austin.
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Most techies are pot heads. Pot is wildly illegal in Texas and most pot heads will be completely unwilling to move there once they have already become accustomed to legal pot. Alcohol is bad for the tech industry and pot is good (it feeds imagination and creativity).
Until they legalise pot, Texas can not do much in tech or anything else requiring creativity when competing against states with legalised pot.
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Most techies are pot heads. Pot is wildly illegal in Texas and most pot heads will be completely unwilling to move there once they have already become accustomed to legal pot. Alcohol is bad for the tech industry and pot is good (it feeds imagination and creativity).
Until they legalise pot, Texas can not do much in tech or anything else requiring creativity when competing against states with legalised pot.
LOL, you think "illegal" means you can't get weed in Texas? Weed is literally everywhere in the metro areas, especially in Austin.
"Wildly illegal"? Every major city in Texas including Austin is "cite and release" for minor marijuana possession.
I could walk out of a downtown Austin hotel and find pot within 30 minutes. If "most techies are potheads", there is *plenty* of weed available in Austin, and the APD generally looks the other way unless you're selling a bale of it out of your pickup in public.
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Um, the average income of the average human on this planet is much much lower than than the average Texan's income. Same for standard of living. The fact is, most people in the world would love to live in Texas, or anywhere else in the US.
Just bear in mind that large sections of the worlds population would not like to live anywhere in the USA, even if you paid them. One of the problems with Americans in general is that they think everyone wants to live there. Fun fact they don't.
First off (Score:4, Funny)
Austin is not even a valley.
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oh my god! what's next - Dr.Dre is not a real doctor!?
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Gnarls Barkley issue their own degrees now? :)
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Austin is not even a valley.
And CNN is not news. If an article starts with "Why", it's not news, it's an opinion.
CNN stopped being a news organization a loooong time ago. Which is a shame. They used to be my primary source of news. Now I avoid them like the plague, and they just showed you why.
Not until texas sucks less (Score:4, Funny)
can you even smoke pot there yet?
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can you even smoke pot there yet?
In a recent poll conducted by UT, 60% of voters in Texas support legalization.
Texas voters support legalizing pot [marijuanamoment.net]
But Texas does not have ballot initiatives, so legalization would have to go through the legislature. The Texas legislature is much more right-leaning than the average Texan.
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The banks make way too much money laundering money for the cartels to permit their todies in the legislature to legalize any drugs.
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can you even smoke pot there yet?
Austin is one of the hardest places in the country to avoid smoking pot.
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Austin/Travis county, getting caught with pot will get one a citation, not a ride to jail.
I don't recall saying anything about anybody going to jail, and Austin isn't the only jurisdiction in Texas that does cite and release. Dallas, Houston and San Antonio also use the practice..
Now, Williamson County, or other counties have no mercy, and will haul someone with any amount of marijuana to jail.
No, Williamson County [kxan.com] also has a cite and release policy for minor marijuana possession.
Because of the expense in checking if hemp has THC or not, Austin LEOs tend to not even bother checking, unless someone has kilos of the stuff.
The vast majority of LEOs in Texas do not check THC levels for misdemeanor possession of marijuana. In fact, no Texas state crime lab will test suspected marijuana in low-level cases. [texastribune.org]
Someone with a lid or two of the stuff might have to dump it on the ground, but that's it.
Once again, no. Cite and release policies requ
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can you even smoke pot there yet?
Another point in favor of Phoenix.
Alternative title (Score:5, Insightful)
"This billionaire just bought a bunch of office buildings in Austin, Texas and is hoping to turn a profit."
Well... (Score:3)
There are similarities.
Distinct among Texas cities, he said, Austin lacks shelter space and affordable housing. When Austin officials lifted the ban on public camping in June, the homeless became more visible, especially in areas outside downtown, where they had previously gathered around the city's few shelters."
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San Francisco has an area of about 47 square miles and has around 8,000 homeless.
Austin has an area of about 272 square miles and has around 2,500 homeless.
One of these things is not like the other.
Fascinating, yet San Francisco isn't part of Silicon Valley.
Remember where you are (Score:5, Insightful)
Evangelicals still have TX by the balls. For example, they will happily piss on LGBTQ because they think God wants them to.
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Evangelicals still have TX by the balls. For example, they will happily piss on LGBTQ because they think God wants them to.
In all fairness, they are following the words of their savior. It's even written in their little book.
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They cherry pick the Bible. Literally interpreted, eating the wrong food on the wrong day and cussing at your parents are felonies. I don't see them harassing parent cussers the way they do LGBTQ.
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They cherry pick the Bible. Literally interpreted, eating the wrong food on the wrong day and cussing at your parents are felonies. I don't see them harassing parent cussers the way they do LGBTQ.
A) I was being sarcastic
B) It's amusing how for four years they completely worshipped someone who broke four of the ten commandments:
1) You shall not commit adultery
2) You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor
3) You shall not steal
4) you shall not covet your neighbor's wife
Re:Remember where you are (Score:5, Interesting)
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And thus, you understand my point.
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Your version of the Bible might use slightly different words, but I'm sure the meaning will be the same.
(And for what it's worth, this is purely an intellectual exercise, and a direct response to your post, nothing more...)
Actually Jesus never mentioned homosexuality
He might not have. However Leviticus 18:22 says: "No man is to have sexual relations with another man; God hates that".
Ah, you might say, but that's the Old Testament. Surely that's no longer relevant to Christian beliefs, or the New Testament?
Unfortunately Jesus is reported in Luke 16:17
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Leviticus is still considered Canon, not Apocrypha. And the church flopped back to we-hate-teh-gheys just the other week. So yes, it is still relevant.
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In all fairness, evangelicals don't actually follow what's in their little book.
Re:Remember where you are (Score:4, Insightful)
Buttsex was illegal until 2003 [wikipedia.org], and not some unenforced law either, people were actually being arrested.
I believe it applied to straight buttsex as well as the gay.
I live in Houston, I've been to Austin a few times. It has this reputation of being distinct from Texas, but that's overblown, despite the constant railing against Austin liberals!, which is in part simply because it happens to be the seat of the (actually very conservative) government.
You get a few hipster and hippie amenities. If good bands stop in Texas, it's typically in Austin, and I remember there was a kava bar. But that was a few years back, who knows, maybe they made it illegal now. It might be slightly better than Houston, but it's not very long you go without a reminder of what regime you're living under.
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The innovation of Texas is largely based on the oil industry being a highly technical field. So TI was instrumental in the integrated circuit, Compaq created the PC compatible. Engineering firms are as prevalent as California, but the focus is on mor
Not for long-red state values are a losing battle (Score:2)
Evangelicals still have TX by the balls. For example, they will happily piss on LGBTQ because they think God wants them to.
Texas WILL go purple considering current trends and eventually blue. Here's why:
Evangelicals, particularly those who think its OK to hate gay people...dumb as shit, not very good business people. Sure, you've got the Chick-Fil-a guy, the My Pillow Guy and probably a dozen major business figures I'm not aware of, but they're noational/regional businesses. Regional business is nice, but international business is far more valuable. You don't want to draw money from the next state, you want to draw busine
For Current Crop of Secretly Alt Right Tech 10^9s (Score:2)
The offices better have some large UPSs (Score:2)
Or maybe their own tiny nuclear power plants.
No, it will be in Asia (Score:2)
this is not ascii art
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Civilisation go from east to west not the other way arround
The proto-indo-european originate from the Caucase and to India
Mutiple civilisiation develop in India and spread to Persia and Egypt
These civilisation Spread west and give birth to the Greco-Roman civilisation
After the Rome's collaps, the civilisation go to either Germany-France and in the west arabe world (Maroc and Espagna)
After the Reconquista, the civilization and the place where innovation take place was England
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The to the East-Coast North-America, in the Victoria Era,
Montreal and New York was two richest cities in the world. These region and their surronding see the invention of the telephone, car, etc.
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Now the innovation that is the heart of the civilisation the West-Coast USA
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Next step, is futher West, Hawaii, Tahiti, Asia, Australia, who know today where it will be, but the Duck move of the last guy in the White house make China to develop all their software inland, and everyother country rely on China for their technologies.
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Oh, horsepucky. India invented civilization on its own, the same as Egypt, China, Mexico and Peru. Europe had civilization introduced to it from Egypt and Mesopotamia. The Spanish barbarians entered the Americas, and by virtue of being the filthiest people in the history of the world were carriers of, and immune to, diseases that killed 90% of the population and destroyed two of the four highest civilizations on the planet.
Austin is not the only place (Score:3)
Re:Austin is not the only place (Score:4, Informative)
Because the billionaire in question has probably bought a bunch of office buildings and other investments in Austin, and wants to drum up some business.
Just change the name of the billionaire and city, and you'll get the next story.
Another bullshit article (Score:5, Interesting)
And most work is remote now; which it is, ever fewer people care about expensive, stupid "office space" when you can just give employees "raises" by letting them work from wherever from a laptop and you don't have to pay anything. So why should those employees move somewhere as crap as Texas when they can live fucking anywhere? Move to Tahoe, or the middle of Montana, to Boston or outside the US entirely. "Austin is" bullshit no one cares about, that's what it is.
Nope (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Nope (Score:5, Insightful)
1. Texas allows non-compete agreements. California does not. Silicon Valley companies are great BECAUSE all the employees could change jobs tomorrow.
IMHO a related but even more key factor in the Silicon Valley tech explosion is the law that says (my paraphrase from memory) if an employee :
- Makes an invention.
- Not using company time and resources
- And the invention is not in the current or expected business plans of the employer.
- Then the employee gets the rights to the invention
- Regardless of employment patent and IP assignment terms to the contrary
- And employers have to include this as an appendix in the employment contract paperwork.
So if a techie has a bright idea that's not in his company's business plan he can patent it, collect a few techie friends, set up a company, rent a garage across the street, provide or get some angel funding, and develop it.
This has made companies bud off more companies like yeast. It has also made Silicon Valley the go-to place for techies with bright ideas who want to try for the big bux - as an inventor, other company principal, or early hire. That in turn produced a sea of talented people to start these companies.
States trying to become the home of "The Next Silicon Valley" need to clone this law. Otherwise they're at a terrible disadvantage to California, which already HAS the law and the collection of talent, and has to break other stuff big-time for a state without this law to stand a chance.
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1. Texas allows non-compete agreements. California does not
Yet another point in favor of Phoenix.
the clock on the bank one said 110 degrees (Score:2)
The clock on the bank one said 110 degrees
well (Score:2)
lets see if they can keep the lights on before we start sucking their dicks.
Doomed again, eh? (Score:2)
These "Silicon Valley is doomed. $x will punch out and totally destroy Silicon Valley in $y years. Get out while you still can!" stories crop up every so often. Just since I've worked in the industry; the list of places that were supposed to wipe us out and take over as Silicon Valley's replacement include:
- Seattle
- Portland
- Boston
- New York's Meatpacking District and surrounding environs
- Some neighborhood whose name I forget in Chicago
- Orlando
- Singapore
- Hong Kong
- One of the London neighborhoods s
Buzzword bingo (Score:2)
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Agreed.
Now let me say first - if you love California, that's awesome. I hope you continue to love it there your entire life.
The weird thing about that is, Texas is turning blue as people mine there to take advantage of comparatively low cost of living and high wages, fleeing the results of California policies.
They can't get a job that pays a liveable wage in California now that California has both chased away the big bad corporations (aka jobs) and made it very difficult if not outright illegal to build hou
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The housing prices in California are sky-high because people want to live here. If people are willing to pay more for something, it obviously is considered to be better. People obviously prefer living here, why else would somebody pay 5 to 10 times the amount? Call it a delusion or whatever. The only reason someone moves to Texas is because they can't afford California.
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On the other hand, if California policies have created a situation so bad that you have to move halfway across the country to get from it, perhaps - don't bring those policies with you.
Except that isn't happening. What is happening is people are leaving high cost areas, specifically San Francisco [capolicylab.org], and moving elsewhere in the state. Further, there was a smaller number of people moving into the state [knowridge.com] in 2020 than who left
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As someone who has lived in both places (Score:2)
> I have lived both places and
I've lived in both places too. Guess what?
The reason I left California isn't because I wanted to be in California. I didn't leave with the hope that California would follow me around the country. I left because I personally don't like it.
If you like it, wonderful. Keep living there.
I don't come to California and demand that CA become Texas. That would be stupid. It's just as stupid the other way around.
The CA lifestyle is somewhat ephemeral (Score:2)
It peaked when it was affordable which was before explosive growth. Now it makes sense, as with slash-and-burn agriculture, to conquer fresh territory, use it as long as that pays, then do it again.
The US has ample land such that we can effectively abandon cities we no longer need and we're a mobile society. CA is too small to fit the entire tech industry so it must gentrify fresh conquests.
For the individual this doesn't matter as you're free do go and do as you like. CA tech is here to stay but the place
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Texas is turning blue because more of its citizens are getting educated.
Re:Texas is purple, heading for Blue (Score:5, Interesting)
In San Francisco, 95% of residential building permits are rejected.
Many other coastal cities in California have similar rejection rates.
The result is housing prices so high that many fully employed people live out of their cars. The homeless rate in California is nearly 10 times higher than in Mississippi, where housing is most affordable.
Homeless rate by state [statista.com]
Rising housing prices also mean the rich get richer while the poor live on the streets. California has more income inequality that almost any other state.
Income inequality by state [wikipedia.org].
Disclaimer: I live in California.
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Why haven't all the people who don't like the high cost of housing (and the fact that building new housing is impossible) gotten together and tried to get a ballot initiative on the books as was done for weed and other things. Try and get a ballot initiative passed that would change state law to encourage (rather than discourage/block) the building of new housing in the state.
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The people living in SF, who benefit from rising prices, get to vote.
The people who want to live in SF, but can't afford to, don't get to vote.
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There are an awful lot of people living in the broader bay area right now who are paying a hell of a lot in rents. These people absolutely have the right to vote for a proposition that would allow more housing and lower property prices in whatever area they are in.
Re:Texas is purple, heading for Blue (Score:4, Informative)
Housing prices are just one factor that drive people into homelessness. Here in TX (I'm sure CA as well) you can wait 6-12 months and get a Section 8 apartment for $90/mo, which you could scrape together begging by the traffic light. And yet there are still people who've been homeless for years.
Also, the south exporting the homeless to CA is a real thing. Someone I went to school with literally got on a Greyhound to CA and slept in Golden Gate Park for a year and a half. His family didn't want him, and it turns out it's more gay-friendly there and the drugs are cheaper.
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1 in 8 seems like a lot to me, to have moved there to be homeless.
A homeless person is less likely to be from out-of-state than a non-homeless person.
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In San Francisco, 95% of residential building permits are rejected.
Many other coastal cities in California have similar rejection rates.
No, they're not. Building permits are not rejected on the whim of the building department. And the building code is not a secret black box.
All it takes to get your building permit approved is to actually follow the rules.
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Citation Required.
Even if true, how many of those permit applications are for new multi-unit housing (condos and apartment buildings)? How many are rejected for not being in conformance with zoning? How many of them are rejected for not following code and then eventually corrected and approved? (In my experience outside of San Fransisco, permits are almost never approved in the first round.)
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Your own link doesn't even back up you statement.
A higher Gini ratio means more inequality. Many people think "bigger is better" and understand it incorrectly.
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Most of what you say is riddled with hyperbole.
Where exactly is it "outright illegal" to build housing in CA?
In the People's Republic, racial redlining of neighborhoods has been rebranded as "Environmental concern." You just can't get permitted to build new multifamily housing in any place where iit is actually needed.
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Austin is on the edge of the Balcones fault which to the West is the Hill Country and to the East is farmland. Source? My dad is from the hill country, and my mom is from the farmland. I'm just an ex Dell IT guy who has been slashdotted several times, and whose great great great grandfather is buried next to Stephen F. Austin. Look at all the flatness. https://photos.app.goo.gl/55kyoWxJNjComxF46 It is cool that you think movie depictions of Texas are real. Last time I was in Cali was E3 2019. Oooof.