The Next Silicon Valley: Jacksonville?

[Jason]

It seems that the article's points, when supported by our up and coming logistics and manufacturing capabilities, should describe us a the next aerospace and engineering hub.

[ProjectMaximus]

No, just no.  To all this.

That's all we get?  Come on Simms!

He used up his entire MJ word count on the Oakland comparison.

[simms3]

Why read the editorial?  It's either a parody on all of the towns in this country clamoring to be the "next Silicon Valley" or it's actually serious and not worth the time.  I do appreciate being famous on this website though.  Ya'll love me.

[codemonkey]

No.

The points in this article don't describe the environment of high tech hubs. The high tech alleys/valleys are in close proximity to the top research science and engineering universities in the country.  They have high taxes, expensive housing and commercial real estate and are among the most progressive culturally and politically.  Jacksonville is none of these.

Georgia Tech is the only top flight research graduate program in in the southeast that ranks among Stanford, Cal Tech, MIT Carnegie Melon and some of the Ivy league.  UF is very good but it is a tier below them. FSU and UCF two tiers below.  Sorry, UNF isn't even in the discussion, they don't even crack recent list of the top 250 computer science graduate programs. UNF simply doesn't have the budget to offer curriculum in cutting edge specializations.

At the end of the day most tech companies migrate to or start in the these tech hubs because of the quantity of talent available. They need it to grow. And while we do have some very talented people here the difference in the volume of talent between Silicon Valley and Jacksonville is like the difference between shooting a bullet and throwing it.

Jacksonville may be surging in tech jobs but these are not high tech jobs. What's the difference? Are we implementing existing technology or are we inventing new technology? Most of these jobs are corporate jobs handling decade old technology.

Now let's investigate this article further.  Who wrote it?  A social media company that's typically hired by public relations and marketing companies to churn out articles and distribute throughout the Internet. These articles will likely later be cited as authoritative sources in sales/marketing promotions.

They don't write these articles for free. Now who around here would pay to have something like this written and provide them with these low tax, inexpensive housing arguments typically used to market Jacksonville?  Perhaps a conservative wealthy backer of a certain annual festival?

[Tacachale]

Well Adam, you got your wish after all. It's a Christmas miracle.

[ProjectMaximus]

They don't write these articles for free. Now who around here would pay to have something like this written and provide them with these low tax, inexpensive housing arguments typically used to market Jacksonville?  Perhaps a conservative wealthy backer of a certain annual festival?

Yeah, I always thought Rummell paid Forbes and CNN writers too.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/joelkotkin/2013/02/07/the-cities-winning-the-battle-for-the-biggest-growth-sector-in-the-u-s/
http://money.cnn.com/2014/02/21/smallbusiness/jacksonville-startups/

[RattlerGator]

No, just no.  To all this.

I'm completely with simms3 on this; it's a crazy position. However, Gainesville is well on its way to carving out a small niche:

http://www.wuft.org/news/2015/07/28/gainesville-thrives-to-become-floridas-technology-hub/

But it's absurd for any location in Florida to be spoken of as a possible Silicon Valley. That doesn't mean Jax can't, or won't, boom -- but it won't be like that. The San Francisco Bay area has a stranglehold on the whole "nerve-center of technology & software" thing and it's hard to see that fact changing any time soon.

[simms3]

The technology sector has adequate relief valves that meets the industry's general criteria to thrive in several key metros already:

Seattle
New York
Boston
LA
Austin
San Diego
Denver

And even going beyond these, it has strong metros in Portland, Chicago, Raleigh-Durham, Atlanta, DC, and Minneapolis.  I see no reason why Jacksonville cannot become more competitive in STEM and TAMI industries, as it should because that is the direction the whole world is going in, but the gap between Jacksonville and other cities is growing wider by the day, not narrower, despite the fact that Jax is still growing and broadening/deepening its economy.  The simple fact of the matter is that there are dozens of cities already doing so even more quickly.

I can vouch that for these companies it becomes all about the talent pool.  Nearly every grad out of a top 10 or 20 program in most of the key areas (engineering, finance, law, medicinel) wind up between a select 10-20 cities, with the vast majority of anybody out of a top 5 program winding up between NYC, SF, Boston, and DC.  That's what these companies are tapping into.  There will have to be some convincing that these graduates are not worth higher salaries and are not necessarily "better" than graduates of standard state schools or regional colleges before companies feel a compelling reason to exodus their beloved chosen cities for those like Jacksonville.

All of this is correlated to a thread I started recently highlighting a Bloomberg article that took a short dive into the theory that there are real haves and have nots with cities, just as there are with people:

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php/topic,25587.msg429370.html#msg429370

And that the gap between the haves and have nots is widening, but that all cities (like all people) are seeing improvements in their quality of life/wealth/value, etc.

My negative nancy view is that Jacksonville probably falls moreso in the "have not" camp than the "have", but I'd love to be proven wrong.  I do commend people like Rummell for really working to bring about real change and to change the public perception of the city.  He has an uphill battle with no tailwinds yet, but the day will probably come for a turning point, hopefully.

[Sentient]

Sounds to me like "cheap cost of business and abundant workforce".  I'd say we're the next Mumbai or Manila before the next Silicon Valley. Companies move operations to Jax in order to "near shore" as a cost cutting measure.  That's still good, but we're not Silicon Valley.

exactly why I came here...  All the real talent I had to bring from NE or Chicago...  but then those people had to deal with the hidden tax of a broken public school system which required going private in nearly all cases...  so that charge ate up gains they made in after tax income and real estate costs...  Jax is an expensive place to really do business in at a high level.  and isolated.

[mtraininjax]

Jacksonville will expand its healthcare initiatives before it expands its silicon valley programs. Why no one is including Mayo and the recent MD Anderson connections in healthcare shows how dreamy the people commenting, except Simms, really is.

[ProjectMaximus]

But it's absurd for any location in Florida to be spoken of as a possible Silicon Valley. That doesn't mean Jax can't, or won't, boom -- but it won't be like that.

Interesting

http://www.forbes.com/sites/navathwal/2015/02/12/5-markets-poised-to-be-the-next-silicon-valley-for-real-estate/

My negative nancy view is that Jacksonville probably falls moreso in the "have not" camp than the "have", but I'd love to be proven wrong.  I do commend people like Rummell for really working to bring about real change and to change the public perception of the city.  He has an uphill battle with no tailwinds yet, but the day will probably come for a turning point, hopefully.

We need more Mark McCombs. I think he's single-handedly creating more STEM focus than any other group or initiative on the first coast.

[jaxlongtimer]

Love Jax and it has many natural assets.

But, as noted by others, man-made assets/infrastructure here to support a future SV are greatly lacking, unfortunately.  Such as: Tolerance of immigrants & LBGT, which make up a big part of Silicon Valley's work force; open mindedness to, and acceptance of, new ideas and cultural & societal trends; lack of world class graduate level electrical engineering, mathematics & statistics, computer science, robotics, gaming, communications/networking, virtual reality, digital special and graphic effects, biotech, material sciences, manufacturing, etc. programs (many talents of which today combine into making single products like the Iphone); lack of major research facilities (government,  university & corporate); lack of first rate public schools; lack of experienced high tech venture capital funders who can both understand the investing risks and guide start ups to success, etc.

If you have ever been to Silicon Valley, which one really must visit to fully grasp its immensity, it is a 30+ mile stretch down both sides of San Francisco Bay incorporating SF, Oakland, San Jose and all points in between and surrounding.  There are literally thousands of tech companies HQ'd there, filling every niche imaginable, besides the obvious ones such as Google, Apple, Intel, Ebay, Facebook, Yahoo, Oracle, HP, Adobe, Cisco, Tesla (SV may be the next "Detroit" too!) etc. along with big presences by Microsoft, Amazon, IBM, Xerox, NASA, Defense Dept., etc.  If one company fails, someone gets laid off, or a company booms & goes public and the techies want the next big challenge, they are in quick demand at the latest start up or established tech company.  This attracts the best and the brightest which just feeds the cycle of expansion there.

By the way, I have relatives working in the high tech industry there.  And guess what, they relate that a significant number of "nerds" there could care less about.... sports!  They can't even name the NFL teams in Oakland or SF/Santa Clara!  So, don't think the Jags will bring this crowd to town.  Now those giant video boards... that may appeal more to the tech crowd  !  And, techies often desire uptown urban-style living over being in the suburbs or, at least being near mass transit stations, as spending time in an auto is not at the top of their lifestyle list.  Jax is far from matching urbanized/developed areas in SV where people can easily walk/run/bike/mass transit to their favorite places.

Bottom line, SV is a multi-trillion economic engine that dwarfs tech hubs pretty much anywhere else in the world, not just in the US.  Like Detroit (cars), Hollywood (movies), Houston (oil), Wall Street (finance), Broadway (theater), Chicago (food mfg.), etc. SV possesses a unique and massive infrastructure, synergy and critical mass within its industry(ies) that may be nearly impossible to replicate on such a scale anytime soon short of a new technological revolution drawing on a new combination of resources.

As noted, Jax's opportunities probably lie more in applying the tech emanating from SV to the areas of finance, medicine, logistics/transportation, manufacturing, defense, etc.  We can see this in Jax companies like FIS, Vistakon, Mayo, Saft, CSX, etc.

I be don't want to seen as dissing Jax.  It's just that, like people, each community has certain strengths and weaknesses that both create and limit certain types of opportunities.  We need to honestly assess ourselves, improve wherever we feasibly and reasonably can, and exploit our strengths.   There is nothing wrong with bench marking ourselves against the very best but Jax needs to finally and forcefully vision, plan and execute on making real and significant progress toward benchmarks set by places like SV instead of just daydreaming and jawboning about them as if they will magically fall upon us if we just maintain the status quo.

[Adam White]

I think one issue I have with articles like this is the whole "X will be the next Y" approach. I doubt Jacksonville will ever be the "next" silicon valley. But that doesn't mean it can't or won't develop and grow that sector (tech or whatever you call it). It seems like an area where there is room for growth - which is great. Can we not just appreciate that for what it is and for what opportunities it presents?

[finehoe]

Jacksonville will expand its healthcare initiatives before it expands its silicon valley programs. Why no one is including Mayo and the recent MD Anderson connections in healthcare shows how dreamy the people commenting, except Simms, really is.

What are you talking about "dreamy"?  Virtually every comment here says 'no way is Jacksonville the next SV'.

[jaxlore]

Until the Jacksonville mindset shifts to a progressive growth model this can never happen anytime soon. There is more emphasis on manufacturing, the port and jaguars then there is in bringing Tech here. Finance, Insurance and health care are not flashy tech jobs that are going to lure the creative class of millennials that could build a silicon valley. And while the Culture and Arts scene is certainly growing calling it robust is still a stretch.