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How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

economist.com

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Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

#321

Post by wat10000 »

rorylawless wrote: post #220
johnisgood wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is widely known that public transport in the US is god awful. Public transportation is lovely in most European countries, IMO.

It isn’t universally awful in the US. Washington, DC’s system is great and should be the cornerstone of any revitalization that isn’t so reliant on the federal government.

DC's system is OK. It suffers from being both a commuter rail system and a city transit system mashed together. It needs more tracks so that maintenance can be performed without massive delays and so express trains can be run. Coverage is lacking. It's good if you're going places it serves, but there are a lot of places it doesn't go, like Georgetown. And the hub-and-spoke model makes it quite painful for a relatively decentralized city. Going between, say, Bethesda and Tysons is physically possible but takes ages because you have to go all the way downtown first.

It gets a lot of things right and is great if it has a good route for the trips you want to make when you want to make it, but mostly it shines because the situation is so much worse in any other American city that's not New York and maybe Chicago.

Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

#322

Post by inglor_cz »

matt-p wrote: post #317
inglor_cz wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is interesting how infrastructure silently reflects society of its time. In 1906, people travelling with three suitcases would likely have servants carrying them, and no one cared particularly about comfort of servants.

I'm not sure they'd of gotten the tube at all, unless perhaps to connect to a mainline station for a trip to the country? I still feel it more likely they'd of been driven, either by horse drawn or maybe even car (at least to the station) even in 1906.

I remember some rather old photos with very well-dressed people waiting for the tube... so probably "it depends". Compared to horse-drawn carriages, the tube was fast and not prone to traffic jams.

Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

#324

Post by Bnjoroge »

rorylawless wrote: post #220
johnisgood wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is widely known that public transport in the US is god awful. Public transportation is lovely in most European countries, IMO.

It isn’t universally awful in the US. Washington, DC’s system is great and should be the cornerstone of any revitalization that isn’t so reliant on the federal government.

I wouldnt call dc's metro "great", maybe relative to other cities, it is, but globally it's subpar. Often late, dirty, limited reach etc

Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

#325

Post by Bnjoroge »

quotz wrote: post #273
eloisant wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's pretty good in NYC. I heard it's nice in Boston too.

Its good in NYC for american standards. For european standards the NYC subway is abominable. The smells, the grime, the homeless, its honestly like visiting the 6th ring of hell. Source: I am a european living in NYC.

The bitter truth.

Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

#326

Post by youngtaff »

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #240
youngtaff wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although Yes CrossRail was partly funded by a levy on London homes and businesses, London get's more funding per capita for public transport than anywhere else in the country Imagine what we achieve if we invested London levels of money in transport across the rest of the country

Imagine if the money spent on transport in London wasn't funding things like fake jobs to carry people to massive pensions because TFL employees can't be made redundant.

What have you got against TfL employees?

Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

#327

Post by walthamstow »

killingtime74 wrote: post #81
walthamstow wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm fairly well travelled. Lived in Tokyo for a bit. There's no perfect city. London has the best combination of all attributes, for me. Have you lived in London and Sydney both, or are you just reading numbers off of Google and "best city" lists? Sydney is boring and in the middle of nowhere.

I'm from Sydney and yes lived in London, Melb, Auckland and Hong Kong. My main recollection of London was narrow streets. I think we like being in the middle of nowhere (geography, nuke missile target, conflict), surrounded by ocean. It is true, it's the one downside, it takes a long time to fly anywhere else.

Fair enough. I think if you like to travel, go away for the weekend etc then Sydney is not on the list. London has cheap euro flights, hub airports etc. I'm sure the QOL is good in all of those places of course, nice place to raise a family etc.

Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

#328

Post by lbreakjai »

walthamstow wrote: post #304
lbreakjai wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Food only takes you so far. The housing stock is simply terrible. Extremely small, damp, badly insulated ... I lived in four boroughs, from poor Southwark to rich Richmond. Had a couple of friends sharing a luxury flat by the Emirates stadium, you could hear the neighbours two doors down. It was alright in my twenties. Built a career, made a ton of money before the IR35 reform, but you sort of felt like everyone had…

> It's not that interesting outside of zone 1 Bizarre take. Zone 1 is the absolute worst part of London, full of tourists and unimaginative morons. Paris is ruthlessly segregated by race and class, not what I'd call charming.

The crowd is perhaps due to the concentration of world class museums and historical sights. I know it's hip to play blasé and so much cooler than the mindless drones, but there's a reason people are flocking to zone 1 instead of Peckham Rye.

> Paris is ruthlessly segregated by race and class, not what I'd call charming.

As opposed to London, where you famously are as likely to see people of all walks of life and income comingle in a tesco in Dagenham as you are in Kensington.

Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

#329

Post by lifestyleguru »

ctrlmeta wrote: post #182
lifestyleguru wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There goes another 15% of your net income on train tickets. Eating out every time (because have no time for proper value shopping) and you are basically working in exchange of food, housing, and commute.

Where are you pulling this random 15% number from? And a ridiculous number too. It's more like 2% to 3% unless you spend your entire day traveling. I just checked how much I pay for travel. My monthly travel expenses is £150 total. That's like between 2% to 3% of someone's net income (depends on how much net income you make). Do you know it is impossible to 15% of your net income in travel because there is a weekly f…

Extrapolated from past earnings, but yeah if rent takes 60% of net salary then monthly train will more in the 5-10% range of net salary.

Re: How London became the rest of the world’s startup capital

#330

Post by notepad0x90 »

slgeorge wrote: post #232
notepad0x90 wrote: post #74

The big disadvantage is wages, and how everything is so...formal and bureaucratic, for lack of better terms. For example, I couldn't even hope to get employment in tech in the UK or Europe without a degree. Work hours and wages too, less pay given the tradeoffs makes sense, but getting paid more than others for the same role is a big problem, even if you have more skill/talent/experience. Or simply working long hours…

Do you have an experience working in Europe or the UK? > I couldn't even hope to get employment in tech in the UK or Europe without a degree Maybe this is how it looks from the outside, but it's not how it works in reality. My evidence is I've been working in 'tech' for 25 years and having hired people across the UK, Europe and North America. Tech is one of the most accessible career paths, particularly for areas tha…

I have no experience working in the UK, my impression is entirely based on what people there have told me. I've also looked at job postings there. In the US you'll see "or equivalent experience" tacked on, but not in UK, Canada, EU job posts I've seen so far. But I'm very glad to hear you say it's different.
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