Quote:
Originally Posted by wwmiv
Although I agree with the grander premise, I do think the final two sentences are wrong and ignore that Austin has had a tech presence longer than Seattle and before Microsoft ever existed.
1957: Austin Are Economic Development Foundation (local group dedicated to luring manufacturers of electronics and scientific equipment)
1962: Tracor
1967: IBM
1969: Texas Instruments
1974: Motorola
1977: UT’s IC2 Institute
1982: Microelectronics and Computer Consortium
1984: Dell
And I’m not so sorry, but Austin has plenty of “supertalls” beyond the above. Tesla and Elon Musk, for instance, or Samsung’s single largest plant anywhere. IBM, for instance, houses most of their design work in Austin.
Compare these dates to Seattle:
Seattle’s presence in recruiting computing tech started in 1962 at the World Fair, Microsoft was founded in Albuquerque in 1975, and most contemporary accounts describe Seattle as “emerging” as a tech center when they relocated in 1979. Biographies largely describe this as being for familial reasons, and leas for business and recruitment purposes. Austin had long established itself as a tech hub before Seattle ever got off the ground.
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While you are probably right about Austin compared to Seattle, Seattle has the HQ of the two largest tech companies and tens of thousands of their employees, which gives it the bigger impact. What you say could be similar to Phoenix, but perhaps on a smaller historical scale with Phoenix. Phoenix had large Motorola semiconductor plants (I think it had 20K in 3-4 plants in the early 1980s) as well as Intel and now TSMC and other tech companies, but not the HQs of them or any of the biggest, most influential ones. So, I don't think many would compare the tech impact of Phoenix to a place like Seattle.
Thinking about Nashville, I don't understand why it is so expensive compared to other cities in the South, like Atlanta, Charlotte, or even Louisville. But I do recall that a few of its suburbs are among the highest income areas in the nation (I think its Franklin), and that also surprised me. I would think the high housing costs would deter businesses relocating but it apparently has not.
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