Silicon Valley

This article is about the importance of business in Silicon Valley (San Jose), California; Silicon Valley business policy, why people leave San Jose, where they go and the consequences.

It used to be said that “As goes General Motors, so goes the nation.” Now some are saying that what goes on in Silicon Valley is more important than what goes on in Washington, D.C. I don’t think that is true overall because our disastrous war in Iraq and our huge trade imbalance made us the world’s leading nation of debt. However, considering the empty office buildings in Silicon Valley and the very serious problems of General Motors and Ford, it might be said that as goes Silicon Valley, so goes business in the nation.

I recently got a firsthand sense of Silicon Valley business policy and economy when my son Rick and I attended his daughter’s graduation from Cogswell College in San Jose. We arrived a few days early while she was still busy in college. That gave us opportunity to drive all over San Jose and environs. We saw offices of Microsoft, Apple, Intel, Google, eBay and others I can’t remember. We also saw quite a few empty offices and office buildings.

Cogswell College is an example of doing what is good for Silicon Valley. It began as a high school but was converted to a college specializing in digital imaging. It is regarded as the best college of its kind in the United States, which is the reason my granddaughter went there from her home in a Seattle suburb. As the graduates went up to the stage one by one to get their diplomas, I was surprised that two graduates got degrees in fire control science, but I soon learned the reason.

Since year 2000, roughly 45,000 people in western United States have moved to fire-prone areas. Many of those moved to the forest covered hills outside of Silicon Valley. Rick and I saw quite a few of their homes on our way to and from California’s Redwood State Park. We saw no evidence of water, sewer and telephone lines but there were electrical power lines along main roads. Elsewhere, people relied on solar power and their own diesel-powered electrical generators. We saw a number of satellite dishes, presumably for cell phones, TV and Internet access.

While we were driving by those homes, our conversation turned to arson. Rick lives in Montana where forest fires set by arsonists are not unusual. He explained how suspicion that a forest fire was started by arson is detected in Montana. Forest fires spread with the prevailing wind at the time and form a triangle with the apex pointing to the point of origin.

Strong winds blow material on fire to another spot where another triangle develops with the apex at the point of origin. There may be two or more such fire triangles but the apex of the triangle furthest upwind probably is the point of origin of the fire. If the fire is started a mile or less from a road it is likely to have been started by arson. Rick also explained one way that arson fires are started, but it not proper to repeat that here.

The simplest answer to the question of why people are moving from Silicon Valley proper to fire-prone areas is that they want to enjoy life in the forest. Some of them, no doubt are self-employed doing their business over the Internet, but others probably are employed in Silicon Valley. I don’t think I could enjoy such a life, not knowing whether or not in the near future my home would burn in a forest fire.

In short, there are compelling reasons to move out of San Jose. Traffic is very heavy and mass transportation inefficient. Just imagine a city like Seattle where traffic is very bad but there are no city busses. A friend living in Seattle said, “It would be gridlock or total gridlock.” There is a light rail line from the airport to San Jose but that is not mass transportation as few locals ride it. It’s another example of business policy to do what is good for local business. The rail lines make it easy for businesspeople who come to Silicon Valley to do business there.

Parking is hard to find. Each evening while in San Jose, Rick and I went out to dinner with his daughter and friends. The first night we went to an Italian restaurant said to be the best in town but we could not find a place to park. We gave up and being hungry, went to the only restaurant where we could park. The food was terrible and when I got back to my room in the motel, I ate the peanut butter sandwich I had taken on the plane for a snack but hadn’t eaten.

That was the pattern. Each night we went to a different restaurant and found it terribly crowded and had to wait. A waiter in one of the restaurants told us they had 300 customers in a single evening. Why didn’t someone start another restaurant? It’s the price of real estate. Evidently only a restaurant packed with diners can make a profit.

For years there has been a consistent rumor that people who leave California and move to Bellingham can sell their home in California and buy one in Bellingham and have enough money left over to live on. I asked a woman why she and her husband moved here from San Jose. She said, “Because we wanted to own our home and couldn’t afford one in San Jose.” §

Acknowledgment: Thanks to Rick Hanners for his observations.