[quote author="caycifish" date=1218157977][quote author="Boston2theBay" date=1218155172]
I was at an amazing USC alumni event last week in Silicon Valley. It featured 2 extremely prominent VCs (David Lane, Onset Ventures and Mark Stevens, Sequoia) and the CEO of Wind River Systems (publicly traded OS company). All three are USC Engineering School grads, and were conducting a panel for area alumni sharing their experiences that led to their success. There is an incredibly strong sense of community within the USC alumni ranks and the current administration is strengthening it tremendously, especially in Engineering. Stanford is the birthplace of the entire personal computer industry and most of the networking and internet industries, and Cal has 19 Nobel laureates and is still the center of the universe for many many academc disciplines. For OC to grow its knowledge based economy they need the local insitutions to develop their alumni communities (like USC) and place some big bets on organic growth through IP commercialization (like Stanford).</blockquote>
B2B, are you trying to argue that, in youthful terms, SV rocks, therefore OC sucks? You keep posting stats on why SV is cool like that...how does that prove anything about OC/Irvine other than it's not exactly like SV? Just because a place isn't #1 in high tech and VC doesn't mean it's Podunk, USA either.
I'm just saying...</blockquote>
not al all. Look at the title of the thread. I'm using a data driven argument agreeing with the postulation, underpinned by an analysis of OC's job market and factors that could influence growth.
For weather and beaches (and othe things) OC rocks like nowhere else. But for high paying jobs with great opportunities for advancement in an area that lives and breathes my industry, SV is the best place in the world. All depends on what you're looking for. At least the weather up here is much better than Boston. But I think a decline in high paying professional service jobs that have been a big part of the OC job picture will be a factor in declining house prices, including Irvine.
Great debate.