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How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

paulgraham.com

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Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#201

Post by leftnode »

sotojuan wrote: post #150
Cshelton wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't associate "red state culture" and a particular city in that state together. Remember, Austin is a city in Texas.... The 4 major cities in Texas in fact are either well mixed or liberal (Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio). I hardly move my car on the weekends, get around just fine. My current job I have to commute by car (actually I could ride the train technically...), but many people walk/use public tr…

> Also, what is your definition of a "top university"? Ivy? Great, well-known, research CS university. Think Stanford, Berkeley, etc. In Texas there's UT and to some extent Rice... neither in Dallas.

Yes, there is. UT Dallas is third ranked public school in Texas and a top tier STEM research school. Dallas is perhaps best suited for building a company.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#202

Post by jessaustin »

Kerrick wrote: post #166
jessaustin wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, gas stations like that in an urban setting really are awful. But then again St. Louis has long sacrificed its neighborhoods for the ill-conceived benefit of automobiles.

I live less than half a mile from the new QuikTrip mentioned above. This part of the city isn't really what I'd call an urban setting. It has a sprawling Sheet Metal Worker's Union building a block wide, a Mack Truck dealership, and a 4-lane-wide street. http://i.imgur.com/QTHKGdu.jpg

OK, probably less objectionable in that context. [EDIT:] The existence of those two many-lane streets you mention probably explains the vacant lots so close to popular St. Louis destinations. Then again, it's kind of a wonder that any public-serving business could survive in the no man's land between I-64 and I-44. Whoever decided that either of those highways, let alone both, should be routed as they are was a demented bastard.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#203

Post by drumdance »

calbear81 wrote: post #151

Detroit fits the bill on the whole lots of old buildings that were once built when the city was rich but then turned poor. You can buy a 6 bedroom placial estate in Indian Village for $350,000 and live next to estates once owned by the Fords and the Dodges, etc. It's near a world class University (UMich) and has an abundance of office space, mostly owned by Dan Gilbert. The challenge is that it's just not that safe o…

I thought about moving to Detroit but decided I would hate the weather. I lived in Chicago for 12 years. Loved the city and tolerated the weather. Then I moved to Boulder thinking I would go back to Chicago after two years. But after a year I knew I could never go back to that weather.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#204

Post by hawkice »

Surprised no one has mentioned the gravitational effect these hubs have -- Sacramento will never really blossom in the tech industry because so much talent gets sucked into SF.

But as plane ticket prices go down, those areas get larger and larger. It's worth saying: "Pittsburgh, this is time sensitive! Boston will eat your lunch by default, so make your moves quickly."

Also, if plane trips get cheap enough, look at how the Hong Kong / Shenzhen area fares. Plenty of money and tech talent, and China's pushing a lot of VC money (although, who know where that ends up). If plane tickets get below the price of a video game console before an American city pops up as a cheap-dense-livable-tech-hub, HK/SZ will probably gobble them just due to order-of-magnitude advantages (4x the VC, 30x the population of SF, with preposterous numbers of PhDs, at some point the advantages will compound into something like SF but 100x more powerful).

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#206

Post by _delirium »

Xcelerate wrote: post #128
abalashov wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but Dallas fails abysmally on the urban livability and density test. It's one giant exurb. Much of it should be reclassified as a rural area. (Speaking as an Atlantan -- we have the exact same problem.)

Atlanta — a massive metro region with the emptiest downtown area I've ever lived in. It's a bit of a paradox.

If you want a "downtownish" area of Atlanta, Midtown is really the place to look, a little over a mile north of the official Downtown. It has a lot more residents and consistent pedestrian traffic. I lived there for a few years in the 2000s and it felt very bustling to me. I almost never drove anywhere either.

Now, Downtown Atlanta is often crowded, but it's basically a giant convention center, so it depends on when there are conventions. There are approximately 10,000 hotel rooms within a few blocks of each other, so when it gets crowded it becomes very crowded .

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#207

Post by imissmyjuno »

beatpanda wrote: post #179
timr wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. San Francisco no longer has marginal spaces -- every conceivable inch of it has been claimed, developed, and/or bid into the stratosphere. And it has nothing to do with "NIMBYs" or lack of development. It's a tiny, tiny patch of land, all of the build-able portions of which have been speculated upon since the early 20th century. This is important, because while cafes and universities and whatnot are important, y…

PG was wrong to say that you cannot be too strict about historic preservation because it leads to the exact problem we have in SF right now -- there is no physical reason this city can't be more dense and remain beautiful (look at Paris for an example of how this might be possible), but there are many, many political reasons.

Can you elaborate on Paris? It was my impression it was full of historical buildings and is expanding outwards, which isn't an option for SF.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#208

Post by drumdance »

hoodoof wrote: post #116

Isn't Silicon Valley a black hole with unrelenting monetary gravity that would pull all skilled software engineers down towards it? Any young developer who is any good will go from the minor leagues to the big league attracted by the cash, leaving Pittsburgh or whereever behind. Budding "Silicon Valleys" would simply be the target of aggressive and unrelenting talent raids.

Not necessarily. Companies like Facebook and Google build offices outside of the Valley partly because it's less competitive. Google has been expanding in Boulder because they know their employees won't be poached as frequently as in SV.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#209

Post by Swizec »

spitfare wrote: post #169
Swizec wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> for a low wage job with grueling hours? Maybe it shouldn't be such a low wage job, if [good?] talent is in short supply? Just a thought. I for one would be happy to pay higher prices, if it meant we could avoid the whole 20% restaurant subsidy (tips) song and dance. Charge me a fair price and I'll pay you a fair price. There's no need for the whole "And oh yeah, we don't pay our staff enough so you're a bad person…

You're talking about serving/wait staff, whose hours are significantly shorter and wages (including tips) are significantly higher than cooking staff, which is what the parent comment was actually talking about.

Ok, let me try that again: I for one would love to pay higher prices so the entire staff can get paid normal wages and I can get tastier noms.

Re: How to Make Pittsburgh a Startup Hub

#210

Post by _delirium »

santaclaus wrote: post #7
rdl wrote: post #3

I would love to see this happen. (I'd also love to see Portland Oregon, mentioned as an alternative, get the world-class research university it lacks now.)

Given unlimited funds, could a school like OHSU or PSU realistically gear up to 'world-class research' status quickly?

Given a lot of money, sure. One angle is to offer internal research funding. If a university said: come here and you won't have to chase grants, just do good research and we'll fund it internally, you'd have a ton of people wanting to move there. Good salaries help too, but given sufficient funds, the first thing I'd do to differentiate is offer working conditions that look qualitatively better than elsewhere.
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