Ordie
03-02-2008, 05:20 AM
I had an interview with one of the high tech firms not to long ago. The person who interviewed me gloated that he wanted to give free laptops to 3rd world countries to bridge the digital divide.
I said good, why don't you start by driving down the freeway for two exits into East Palo Alto and start giving them away. He looked at me and said, Isn't that place dangerous?
SAVING THE MIDDLE CLASS
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Silicon Valley is still the place to be if you're an entrepreneur with a big dream. But as the latest Silicon Valley index shows, it's a difficult place for everyone else. If that difficulty continues, expect it to have tremendous - and ominous - effects on the region's ability to provide services for its residents, to assimilate its new immigrants, and to retain its children.
The 2008 index reports that Silicon Valley boasts a robust share of high-income (more than $80,000/year) jobs - 27 percent of the total. That's just one figure proving that the region has bounced back from the dot-com bust with its reputation intact. Despite fierce competition from international cities and regions who would love to best the valley's reputation as the top hub for the next big things, the valley is still on top thanks to its highly educated workforce (44 percent of residents have at least a four-year college degree, compared with 27 percent nationally) and its openness to innovation (the region has already captured 21 percent of the nation's clean-tech venture funding).
That's superb news for valley businesses and big spenders, but it doesn't appear that much of that good fortune has trickled down to everyone else. The valley's largest concentration of jobs is at the mid-wage level - jobs that pay between $30,000 and $80,000 - and those jobs are eroding. Mid-wage jobs totaled 52 percent of total jobs in 2002 and fell to 46 percent by 2006. Taking their place are lower-wage jobs, which saw a five-point spike during the same period.
What will happen as the valley becomes a home for only the wealthy and the poor? We've already experienced some of the results. Children who grew up here have been leaving - forced to move to where they can buy homes. The businesses that have been begging the federal government for an expanded H1-B visa program so that they can bring in Ph.D.s from other countries - because the lower-income people who live here have to work and can't afford to get that kind of education.
These problems will only get worse as the middle class erodes. In addition, we'll face new problems. How does the valley expect to assimilate its immigrants - nearly half of the valley's population speaks a language other than English in the home - if there's no middle rung for the second generation to grab? How does the valley expect to maintain its position as an educational powerhouse if assistant and adjunct professors - much less regular comprehensive schoolteachers - can't afford to live here? What will happen when there are no electricians left to wire the buildings, no secretaries to keep offices running smoothly, and no police officers who are willing to make a two-hour commute?
How can we reverse this trend? Bay Area residents could support smarter growth. That means encouraging higher-density housing on the few open lots that we have available. It means breaking down barriers that make it so difficult - and expensive - for developers to build in urban areas.
"If there was just one thing that would make a difference, it would be having a larger stock of housing at affordable price points in the Bay Area," said Sean Randolph, president of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute. "But the main reason it hasn't happened is because a lot of communities don't want to see growth."
Or, a less polite way of saying it: the Bay Area is full of not-in-my-backyard attitudes that hurt the region in the long run.
There are other things that have to happen: The state has to make vocational education and job retraining programs a priority. The state and local governments need to rethink some of their more onerous business regulations. We need to restructure our educational system so that it's preparing our children for the careers that are available here.
Housing, job creation, education. There are no mysteries about the solutions, and no shortage of excuses, especially in tight budget times. What is lacking, all too often, is the political will to act.
Source:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/03/02/ING9V9P9I.DTL&type=printable
I said good, why don't you start by driving down the freeway for two exits into East Palo Alto and start giving them away. He looked at me and said, Isn't that place dangerous?
SAVING THE MIDDLE CLASS
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Silicon Valley is still the place to be if you're an entrepreneur with a big dream. But as the latest Silicon Valley index shows, it's a difficult place for everyone else. If that difficulty continues, expect it to have tremendous - and ominous - effects on the region's ability to provide services for its residents, to assimilate its new immigrants, and to retain its children.
The 2008 index reports that Silicon Valley boasts a robust share of high-income (more than $80,000/year) jobs - 27 percent of the total. That's just one figure proving that the region has bounced back from the dot-com bust with its reputation intact. Despite fierce competition from international cities and regions who would love to best the valley's reputation as the top hub for the next big things, the valley is still on top thanks to its highly educated workforce (44 percent of residents have at least a four-year college degree, compared with 27 percent nationally) and its openness to innovation (the region has already captured 21 percent of the nation's clean-tech venture funding).
That's superb news for valley businesses and big spenders, but it doesn't appear that much of that good fortune has trickled down to everyone else. The valley's largest concentration of jobs is at the mid-wage level - jobs that pay between $30,000 and $80,000 - and those jobs are eroding. Mid-wage jobs totaled 52 percent of total jobs in 2002 and fell to 46 percent by 2006. Taking their place are lower-wage jobs, which saw a five-point spike during the same period.
What will happen as the valley becomes a home for only the wealthy and the poor? We've already experienced some of the results. Children who grew up here have been leaving - forced to move to where they can buy homes. The businesses that have been begging the federal government for an expanded H1-B visa program so that they can bring in Ph.D.s from other countries - because the lower-income people who live here have to work and can't afford to get that kind of education.
These problems will only get worse as the middle class erodes. In addition, we'll face new problems. How does the valley expect to assimilate its immigrants - nearly half of the valley's population speaks a language other than English in the home - if there's no middle rung for the second generation to grab? How does the valley expect to maintain its position as an educational powerhouse if assistant and adjunct professors - much less regular comprehensive schoolteachers - can't afford to live here? What will happen when there are no electricians left to wire the buildings, no secretaries to keep offices running smoothly, and no police officers who are willing to make a two-hour commute?
How can we reverse this trend? Bay Area residents could support smarter growth. That means encouraging higher-density housing on the few open lots that we have available. It means breaking down barriers that make it so difficult - and expensive - for developers to build in urban areas.
"If there was just one thing that would make a difference, it would be having a larger stock of housing at affordable price points in the Bay Area," said Sean Randolph, president of the Bay Area Council Economic Institute. "But the main reason it hasn't happened is because a lot of communities don't want to see growth."
Or, a less polite way of saying it: the Bay Area is full of not-in-my-backyard attitudes that hurt the region in the long run.
There are other things that have to happen: The state has to make vocational education and job retraining programs a priority. The state and local governments need to rethink some of their more onerous business regulations. We need to restructure our educational system so that it's preparing our children for the careers that are available here.
Housing, job creation, education. There are no mysteries about the solutions, and no shortage of excuses, especially in tight budget times. What is lacking, all too often, is the political will to act.
Source:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/03/02/ING9V9P9I.DTL&type=printable