San Diego Struggles to Keep Its Young Tech Talent

I'm transgender, and they've promised to pass bills to make it illegal for trans people to use the bathrooms according to our actual gender. If any of those pass, I won't be able to stay here without becoming a criminal. So I intend to move to a blue state if this happens. My short list is SoCal, Chicagoland, and the Twin Cities.

Here are a number of sources:

https://www.texastribune.org/2016/04/27/bathroom-law-battle-...

http://www.dallasnews.com/business/columnists/mitchell-schnu... (this one might have a paywall)

http://kxan.com/2016/04/28/controversial-bathroom-bill-could...

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/politics/Plano-lawmaker-drafts-bi...

https://thinkprogress.org/texas-republicans-we-really-want-t...

If I have to move, my first step will be to find remote work (and I'll try to become a remote employee of my current company before I look elsewhere). Once I've secured a job that lets me work anywhere, I can then proceed to look anywhere to live without having to worry about getting a job specifically in the area. I've never lived outside of my hometown before, and I'm not looking forward to having to travel to interview.

Actually, the part of SoCal that interests me the most is the San Gabriel Valley just east of LA, for food-related reasons. Just thinking about the kind of food I'd have access to in Monterey Park or Alhambra makes me salivate.

As someone in Tech who has worked both in Sorrento Valley and Downtown as well as places like LaJolla, Point Loma and now remotely from home in Lakeside I can only say that as a developer I preferred my experience working downtown vs anywhere else. Keep in mind this wasn't me the Entrepreneur, this was merely me the software engineer working for someone else, I was living in Fashion Valley at the time and could take the trolley right up to the office across the street from the main train station and it was a great commute. My wife would bring the kids down for lunch and we'd meet up at the water fountain park at City Hall or at the Children's museum. If I had to work late it didn't matter because the trolley ran late into the night and would drop me off right at home. The dev team could walk outside of the office and go to pretty much any restaurant in little Italy or within a short walking distance so we were never limited to mall or fast food and team lunches were the highlight of the week. If you didn't want to go to a restaurant there were always food trucks on some days of the week and the views from the high rises made you feel like the kind of work you were doing was important. As an entrepreneur now having an office downtown is crazy expensive and an unnecessary commute but if you're trying to understand it from the perspective of the workers and the talent themselves, I would always pick a job downtown vs one in Sorrento Valley or LaJolla any day of the week but that's just me and different people have different desires and perspectives. I'm not a beach guy though but I can also see a beach office being a huge talent draw for you as well, I guess it just depends on the personalities of the folks you're trying to draw that's all.

I grew up in the east bay, went to college on the central coast (Cal Poly), and have lived in San Diego County for the last 6 years--specifically Carlsbad, East Village, Little Italy, and Hillcrest. I'm an aeronautical engineer who specializes in numerical analysis, so I'm not the EXACT demographic mentioned in the article but I still think I can offer some insight.

I can validate a lot of what CalRobert has mentioned. On paper and even during a during a brief visit, San Diego looks like a great city for young tech talent--great weather, cheap Mexican food, delicious beer, affordable housing (at least by SF and NY standards), and (of course) the beaches! Who doesn't want endless summer?

But on further inspection, there are definitely some environmental, structural, and cultural issues:

- _Heat_: With climate change the summers have been getting unbearably hot. Since much of the city (Uptown area) was built between the 20s and 70s, most places (with the exception of new high rise apartments / condominiums) don't have central air. Each subsequent summer I've lived here has been warmer and longer--just look at satellite imagery of the area over time--the Baja sand dunes are moving north. Due to San Diego County's political leanings, climate change is still a "controversial political issue".

- _Transit_: Southern California (and San Diego in particular) has a complete and total aversion to public transit and alternative modes of transportation. The landscape and suburban landscape don't particularly lend themselves to public transit, but it's MORE than that--it's cultural. San Diego was largely developed during the "American Dream" boom [1]--a two car garage and car for every adult. The city was planned around cars and natives like it that way. It's not as much a lack of supply or appropriate legislation as much of a lack of demand. Cars are one of the ways San Degians demonstrate wealth and exercise their "freedom"--public transit is widely reserved for the poor. Even the Regional Bike Project [2] has been met with huge resistance because it will take parking away from University Ave., as mentioned above. The Uptown Community Plan [3], which is attempting to increase population density in the "young, hip, liberal" area is being met with lots of NIMBY-ism [4].

- _Population Flux_: San Diego seems like a revolving door of people. I constantly meet people who "just moved here". What attracts them? The beach and the weather. Who benefits most from those? Attractive people because they can exercise one of their major strengths. Don't get me wrong, people are allowed (and encouraged) to be beautiful and San Diego IS a beautiful city (except when you look at the 40+ age range who have been weathered by solar radiation). Since that's the demographic that's attracted to the area, more substantive attributes that are popular in areas like the bay area--intelligence, creativity, passion, drive, ambition for things other than image or material wealth, etc.--are in shorter supply. Granted, as money REALLY started to flow into the Bay Area in the 90s, much of the hackers, geeks, and political dissidents, were displaced by people looking to make money. But, hey, at least they were doing something rather than just trying to appear beautiful and wealthy. This would be a huge issue it didn't make people so depressed--our largest alternative press paper, the San Diego Reader, seems to be entire funded by teeth whitening, weight loss, and depression treatment advertisements. The population flux issues are compounded by the large military population in San Diego. Since many of them are on one to three year assignments--they don't really invest in the area, and it's hard to blame them. It's a really difficult lifestyle.

- _Wealth_: San Diego is _the worst city_ for long-term wealth building in the United States [5]. I read story after story on Hacker News about the housing problems in SF and NY, and the cost of living IS obnoxious, but so are the salaries. As a single data point, I currently make about 100K in a very specialized discipline with a masters degree and ~6 years of experience. If I moved to the Bay Area, Seattle, or Pasadena, it would be substantially higher. If I moved to Charleston, Wichita, or Huntsville (other aerospace hubs) my salary would decrease but the money would go MUCH further. What really matters is salary divided by cost of living or average real estate prices. According to the study "San Diego [is] a good fit for people with a substantial nest egg because they can purchase a home and build equity", which most people in this crowd looking to move (with the exception of new graduates) could probably afford. HOWEVER, the real estate market in San Diego is also incredibly competitive. I started looking in 2012, constantly fought against all cash developers, and FINALLY got an offer accepted in 2014 after offering 30K over asking price. Rent prices are also skyrocketing right now, which makes moving here as a new graduate increasingly difficult.

- _Politics_: San Diego skews conservative and is semi-corrupt. Our last mayor resigned due to a sex scandal [6] which led to a mayor election, the results of which CLEARLY shows the neighborhood class segregation throughout the county [7]. In the midst of all of this, the Balboa Park Centennial Committee (charged with planning a celebration for the Balboa Park Centennial) squandered 2.6 million in taxpayer funds with little to show for it [8]. More recently, we've had huge problems with the homeless population [9] and the city's response has been to close shelters [10][11] and BLAME the homeless for their "laziness" while completely ignoring material conditions and mental illness. Coronado Island (rich, independent city which includes a huge naval base) regularly rounds up homeless people and drops them off in East Village, a neighborhood I used to live in. There are many homeless encampments around the city, bike theft has increased, and the cops seem to mostly harass them. Our police chief also resigned in 2014 due to sexual harassment and fourth amendment violations [12]. It's safe to say that class and racial tensions are high.

Continued in next comment...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_flight

[2] http://www.keepsandiegomoving.com/RegionalBikeProjects/uptow...

[3] https://www.sandiego.gov/planning/community/profiles/uptown

[4] http://www.rescuehillcrest.com/

[5] http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/economy/sdut-sa...

[6] http://www.kpbs.org/news/2013/aug/23/san-diego-mayor-bob-fil...

[7] http://www.kpbs.org/news/2014/jan/29/many-polls-many-differe...

[8] http://www.kpbs.org/news/2014/mar/24/centennial-committee-me...

[9] https://hillcrestsoutheast.nextdoor.com/news_feed/?post=2908...

[10] http://www.kpbs.org/news/2014/jul/01/san-diego-winter-homele...

[11] http://www.kpbs.org/news/2015/apr/01/san-diegos-tented-homel...

[12] http://www.kpbs.org/news/2014/feb/25/san-diego-police-chief-...

The article cites pay, location and happening as factors, though I also think there just isn't demand for young tech talent in SD. San Diego is where older folks/retired military go to raise families or retire proper as they land relatively cushy positions in the big sectors we do have here (Qualcomm et. al). New grad and junior positions are there yet still too few.

There is startup culture in San Diego, and maybe this is just because I was down south, but tech firms seemed to comprise only a small number of them. Of the ones I had met, they were either in "We're only interested in those with years of proven experience" (albeit they were typically working in advanced areas) or "We just graduated too and can nary afford to pay anyone" phases.

On top of all that my offers were too low to comfortably move out of my family's flat (perhaps I am entitled). Inadvertently, I'm now in the Bay Area.

Take this with a grain of salt. I studied abroad and my network at home was neither expansive nor tech-oriented. I'm also led to believe I couldn't obtain appropriate security clearance so military contractual work was a no-go.