Article for the Rocky Mountain News, September 17, 2005
PORTLAND, Ore. - This is a famously livable city, and its residents tend to be famously smug about the fact. Some of them recognize, though, that the city faces serious economic challenges. I'm in Portland this weekend, attending the annual convention of the National Conference of Editorial Writers, and our first panel Thursday focused on those challenges, as well as the reasons that the city's political culture is not well-equipped to meet them. The panelists were Ethan Stelzer, director of the School of Urban Studies and Planning at Portland State University, Tim Hibbitts, who runs an independent polling firm, and Sam Adams, who joined the city council in January. All three are obviously devoted to the city, and if I leave out all the good things they said about it, which I will, that's only because the good side of the story is well known and often told.
Posted Mon, 09/19/2005 - 10:26am.
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re: Seebach: Portland's business-leery attitude has had an effe
Sam,
I received this from an email list that I get (due to regestration, the refrenced article is posted below):
San Jose was the number two Smart Growth city after city after Portland. This is the front page article today and hopefully the city is learning the problems of Smart Growth planning.
THE FUTURE OF THE VALLEY
Industry report ranks region last among eight high-tech areas in quality of life
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/12660876.htm
Housing and transportation of course effect quality of Life and this is major part of Smart Growth. Housing prices now $700,000 average and VTA2020 Plan page #9 states 90,000 auto trips a day will not be possible to be made because road congestion. We must review Smart Growth. It is not providing quality of life as is advertised according to the High-tech industry.
Lowell Grattan
Los Gatos
--------- refrenced article-----
Posted on Fri, Sep. 16, 2005
THE FUTURE OF THE VALLEY
Industry report ranks region last among eight high-tech areas in quality of life
By Chris O'Brien
Mercury News
The pitches land on John Ambroseo's desk every two weeks. They come from all corners of the globe, sent by officials who promise that their region suffers none of the social ills plaguing Silicon Valley.
Why put up with high housing prices? Or decaying roads choked with traffic? Or mediocre schools? Or high taxes? Expand or relocate in our region instead.
Ambroseo, chief executive of Santa Clara-based optical equipment company Coherent, turns most of them away because he believes the economic opportunities in Silicon Valley still outweigh the social costs.
But for how long?
That is the question raised by a report being issued next week by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. When it comes to quality-of-life issues like housing costs, transportation and education, the report concludes that Silicon Valley ranks dead last compared with the other seven largest high-tech regions.
``We've enjoyed a lot of prosperity here, maybe more than any other region in the world,'' Ambroseo said. ``But a lot of people make sacrifices to be a part of this place.''
By any set of criteria -- venture capital, productivity, patents, start-ups, concentration of tech workers -- Silicon Valley remains the world's most important high-tech center. But the leadership group believes the region must address its social woes and invest more in its infrastructure to maintain its advantage.
``The competition is real,'' said Carl Guardino, president and CEO of the group. ``It's not just with other nations, but other states.''
The report, called ``Daring To Compete: A Region-to-Region Reality Check,'' will be officially released Wednesday. The leadership group compared Silicon Valley to Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Fairfax, Va.; Boston; Seattle; Austin; Portland, Ore.; and San Diego.
Among the findings:
• In the seven categories examined, Silicon Valley ranked no higher than six. When it came to housing affordability, only San Diego did worse.
• Raleigh-Durham ranks first among the eight regions overall, thanks to its low cost of housing, easy commutes, good schools, and low unemployment and taxes.
• While all the tech regions were hit hard by the downturn, Silicon Valley continues to struggle with the highest unemployment rate.
• While Silicon Valley eighth-grade students have some of the best math test scores in California, the state as a whole ranks last in the list.
• Silicon Valley still has the second-highest tax rates, tied with San Diego and behind only Boston.
While all the issues are considered important, housing that workers can afford remains easily the most vexing problem for the valley -- and the most intractable, Guardino said.
Of course, on some levels, the valley has been grappling with these same problems since its emergence as a high-tech mecca almost in the middle of the last century.
AnnaLee Saxenian is dean of the School of Information Management and Systems at the University of California-Berkeley. Her master's thesis in the mid-1970s examined the ``urban contradictions of Silicon Valley'' in a region she saw succeeding economically despite problems with housing and education.
But in the past few years, the problems have deepened, even as so many other regions have emerged as powerful competitors -- particularly overseas.
``The world has changed around it,'' Saxenian said. ``Silicon Valley in the 1970s was the only game in town. Now there are multiple centers of entrepreneurships, both in the U.S. and other parts of the world.''
Guardino said the report next year will expand to include several international regions.
International competition has increasingly become the focus for U.S. tech regions, even in Raleigh-Durham, where local officials were delighted to hear they came out on top.
A low cost of living, coupled with proximity to three major universities, has transformed the region into an important tech center.
IBM and Nortel both have sizable branches in the Research Triangle Park area. In the past decade, Cisco Systems has put 2,800 employees there. And more recently, Network Appliance of Sunnyvale expanded an office there to 180 employees.
Yet the number of employees in the Research Triangle Park is about 38,000, down from more than 48,000 during the boom. And because the region sells itself as a low-cost location with high-skilled workers, it is even more vulnerable to competition from cheaper countries with tech-savvy labor pools.
``I do have to deal with what's going on in Shanghai and Bangalore and Ireland,'' said Rick Weddle, president and CEO of the non-profit foundation that runs the Research Triangle Park.
For those like Weddle, there's still plenty to envy in Silicon Valley. While other regions beg companies to expand or move there, Silicon Valley remains unequaled in its ability to create companies from scratch. The cluster of entrepreneurs, venture capital and high productivity has created a mix that many other regions are still trying to emulate.
Among the solutions proposed:
• Encourage local governments to streamline and focus their planning to approve more housing.
• Expand funding and participating in local public-private land trust programs to help more families afford homes.
• Use new technologies to manage traffic congestion.
• Expand incentives to businesses like the R&D tax credit and create a sales tax exemption for some high-tech equipment.
``These are hard issues to tackle,'' Guardino said. ``But so was inventing the microprocessor.''
But others are less optimistic.
``The report shows the dilemma that is gridlocking California,'' said Stephen Levy, director of the Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy. ``We'd like to invest more, but we want to be taxed less. And the arithmetic doesn't work.''
In the meantime, Ambroseo will continue to review the relocation pitches that come his way.
Once a month, he receives a detailed package from a region, and on occasion invited local developers to Coherent's headquarters to make a presentation. Costa Rica made a strong presentation. Arizona was intriguing. And Scotland even managed to persuade the company to expand an office in Glasgow.
But for now, Coherent plans to keep most of its employees in Sunnyvale -- even though it keeps getting more challenging.
``I cringe when I talk to some people who live in Modesto and commute two hours each way,'' Ambroseo said.
IF YOU'RE INTERESTED
On Wednesday the Silicon Valley Leadership Group will hold a half-day forum on its report at West Valley Community College in Saratoga from 8 a.m. to noon. The Mercury News is a media sponsor. The public is welcome.
Contact Chris O'Brien at cobrien@mercurynews.com or (415) 477-2504.