Minneapolis & St. Paul Fantasies and Speculations

[mplsjaromir]

There's a lot of tech here, too. Remember, we are the original Silicon Valley.

That's absurd. Yes some early innovators such as Cray were headquartered in the Twin Cities. The epicenter of post semi-conductor technology has always been Northern California. There was never an active ecosystem of hi-tech education, entrepreneurship and capital in the Twin Cities, which is what is generally understood what constitutes Silicon Valley. The Twin Cities should be and is proud of what we do well, but Silicon Valley is something that no where else in the world can even begin to touch.

[David Greene]

There's a lot of tech here, too. Remember, we are the original Silicon Valley.

That's absurd. Yes some early innovators such as Cray were headquartered in the Twin Cities. The epicenter of post semi-conductor technology has always been Northern California. There was never an active ecosystem of hi-tech education, entrepreneurship and capital in the Twin Cities, which is what is generally understood what constitutes Silicon Valley. The Twin Cities should be and is proud of what we do well, but Silicon Valley is something that no where else in the world can even begin to touch.

Umm...ERA, CDC, Sperry-Univac, Honeywell, Unisys...the Twin Cities were the center of the computer universe in the '50's and '60's.

There's a nice presentation here:

http://www.cbi.umn.edu/resources/MHHC/

There's a whole list of Minnesota tech companies past and present here:

http://www.cbi.umn.edu/resources/mncomphist.html

There are a few reasons we didn't maintain top-notch status, not the least of which is the failure of the Big Iron manufacturers to anticipate the minicomputer revolution. That and the relatively small number of computers in use at the time meant that computers were not well-known, much less that the Twin Cities was the center of it.

Even today there are loads of little tech offices all over. Intel is here along with Cisco, Microsoft, Seagate, Oracle and probably a bunch of others I've forgotten.

[mulad]

The pioneers of Silicon Valley turned out to have had some good government connections, which tipped the balance in favor of central California over the likes of Boston and the Twin Cities:



There are still a lot of tech companies here, though that fact often gets obscured since so many places put up token (or at least smaller-scale) headquarters in California, New York, or the Seattle area. Cray's biggest site has historically been Chippewa Falls, but Saint Paul is now in the lead. SGI is still around. Eden Prairie is lousy with tech companies.

[mplsjaromir]

The pioneers of Silicon Valley turned out to have had some good government connections, which tipped the balance in favor of central California over the likes of Boston and the Twin Cities:

Also the weather is very inviting.

The Twin Cities definitely did very well at one point in developing the world's preeminent hi-tech firms. Silicon Valley is more than that, it really about aggressive venture capital and being attracting talent. Silicon Valley is the global destination for those in technology.

[David Greene]

Silicon Valley is the global destination for those in technology.

I would dispute that. I work in tech and have absolutely no desire to even visit Silicon Valley. I did once and hated it. Most people I work with feel the same (which I suppose is why they're here rather than there.). Of my close colleagues from grad school, a few ended up in various parts of Michigan, another went to the UK, a couple came to the Twin Cities, another went to Boston, one's in Cleveland, another landed in Colorado and there are a couple in Austin. As far as I know, no one I worked closely with in school ended up in Silicon Valley.

With remote offices becoming mainstream, I think we will see a significant number of people getting out of the Silicon Valley rat race. I have heard all kinds of horror stories about working there. Sure, you might make a bit more but the cost of living is astronomical as is the stress level.

Places like Austin, Seattle and Portland are drawing off many workers from the Valley.

Climate is a factor in recruiting to the Twin Cities but we've managed to hire from all over the country for work that certainly exists in the Valley but is specialized enough to have a limited talent pool. In other words, I'd say as a company we've outperformed our hiring expectations for these positions.

[mplsjaromir]

According to a 2011 National Venture Capital Association/PricewaterhouseCoopers Moneytree Survey 53% of all venture capital is in the state of California at about $14 Billion with Massachusetts in second at $2.9 Billion. Those number alone should illustrate the gap between California and other areas, at least in the U.S.

With countries trying and failing to emulate Silicon Valley Countries Seek Entrepreneurs From Silicon Valley I think Silicon Valley is the place for growing tech companies. I wouldn't want to work on Wall Street, but I am thankful that I live in same country that it exists.

To add to the MSP discussion. One thing that is often overlooked is the amount of precision machine shops in the area. A big reason why medical device manufacturers choose the area.

[FISHMANPET]

If you hate urban areas and love the suburbs and driving hours to get anywhere, then Silicon Valley is a dream city.

San Francisco is probably the only "Silicon Valley" urban area that's of any interest, and that's so expensive and takes an hour to get to places like Google (by private bus at least, thankfully) that it's not even worth it.

[David Greene]

If you hate urban areas and love the suburbs and driving hours to get anywhere, then Silicon Valley is a dream city.

Precisely.

[mplsjaromir]

If you hate urban areas and love the suburbs and driving hours to get anywhere, then Silicon Valley is a dream city.

Precisely.

Could not agree more.

[web]

well they have caltrain vta amtrak and express buses.......many running 16-20 hours a day

[mulad]

Meh, our transit system is just as good as what they have. Caltrain does really well for a commuter train, particularly one outside of the Northeastern U.S. They get 47,000 daily riders on a single 77-mile line. Even LA's Metrolink only gets 41,000 daily on a 512-mile system. But everything else is pretty weak by comparison. The San Jose metro area isn't as big as the Twin Cities (2 million vs. 3 million), but they are packed pretty tightly between mountains and San Francisco Bay (and they're in a combined statistical area of 8 million). Yet VTA light rail has 34,000 riders on 42 miles, while we manage the same just on the Hiawatha Line. VTA's bus network carries 104,000 daily riders, while Metro Transit does 230,000. Their Amtrak service is a little bit better since they have one long-distance train (Los Angeles-Seattle) Coast Starlight) plus two round-trips of the Capitol Corridor to Oakland and Sacramento following the same route. There's also the Altamont Commuter Express which runs 86 miles but only has 4 commuter-oriented round-trips daily.

The express bus networks operated by the tech companies are definitely interesting. That's a difficult thing to compare with anything we have. Most of them run from San Francisco, though, and I'm not sure many routes would exist without that densely-packed source of workers. Stamen estimated that they carry about 35% as many people as Caltrain, so probably 16,000 to 17,000 riders. Their existence is also probably a side-effect of the infighting between the various transit agencies in the Bay Area. We have significantly better coordination and cooperation around here.

[web]

san jose and san francosco overlap. hell even oakland too.
and ok vta is one.....but so is samtrans and muni and ac transit etc etc etc........san jose and silicon valley is the whole penninsula

[Wedgeguy]

There will needs to be lead time to design and market and get financing in order. That does not happen in a month or two. Also you have to look at when you anchor tenants lease is up so that your building is coming online just before their lease expires. Also companies looking to move to or expand here will be watching the economy for which direction it will be going in the future. They will take their time to analyze whether they move into an existing building or a new space that can be designed just for them.

[MNdible]

Anybody think that Dayton will be making a big announcement as part of his European trade tour?

[nordeast homer]

Maybe he'll announce a new tax on bubble gum and oxygen.

I would doubt we'll hear anything earth shattering. Probably just plans to ship more corn and soybeans.

[tabletop]

This seems like the appropriate thread to post this article about a hypothetical visualization of what a 1970's era subway system would've looked like in Minneapolis. As great as it would've been to have the subways, we may have dodged a bullet... Andy Sturdevant explains: http://www.minnpost.com/stroll/2013/06/ ... stem-1970s

[spearson]

The infrastructure would have far outweighed the 70s aesthetics. That stuff can always be changed.

[Avian]

Maybe Wells Fargo is preparing to bring their HQ back to Minneapolis..... The current WF tower would be HQ. Main campus here:

[mattaudio]

Is that on the eastern face of the jail block, or east of 5th Ave S?

I like.

[Avian]

On the parcel east of 5th, where Ryan said it wanted the exclusive rights to develop it until June 2016.