1. Closeness to the Stanford university ecosystem which promoted tech. Berkeley isn't too far away physically, though it may not be very near ideologically. Talent helps.
2. Matthew Effect: The (talent-)rich (cities) get richer.
3. Weather. I have lived at some point in the midwest. Shovelling snow in a morning storm so that you can get in the car to go to office is not something I'd want to do again. Maybe Denver has mild enough weather to be considered a replacement. On the other hand, Colorado is a beautiful place and it'd be sad to see it overrun by large crowds of morning commuters. Austin is a viable alternative, Texas school boards notwithstanding.
4. Covid is not a long-term trend. Nothing beats the bandwidth of a physical meeting, or a discussion over coffee.
While I think all that's true, tons of people manage to deal with states with snow including metros with major university systems. It's not a deal-breaker for most. Furthermore, there are lots of ways people can get together and collaborate. I even live near a local office that I rarely go into. I mostly meet people when traveling.
i live in denver. winters are getting warmer and drier but the summers lately have been very very hot and wayyy too much smoke from fires. still amazing weather though!
you're right on the traffic it's always sucked but not as bad as like LA of course.
with the population growth it goes right back into highways.. always building/expanding ;(
i feel like in theory we should be super bike/walk friendly; if Minneapolis can build bike highways that are used in the dead of winter we should be able too. but we don't. my neighbors prioritize and fight politically for street parking. you can't even see into intersections because they let cars park right up to the edge. they're trying to make a street near me a bike corridor - put in fake roundabouts - but it's not a protected lane and they still have parking on the street ffs.
the light rail should have been more promising too. we do have good buses though and the train to airport is nice. maybe can someday finish the boulder extension.
we're building a ton of condos in the center of denver so i really hope we get more pedestrian first voters.
And also please let's keep outdoor dining/drinking post COVID. take back the streets from cars!
I don't drive and live purposefully where i can walk or uber. it's great unless you go to the mounatins a lot.
i supported a mayoral candidate who really wanted to restore the street cars - it makes a ton of sense would love to see it return on a few of the major streets like colfax downtown to CU hospital.
I'm not sure about 4. in a corporate setting. In academia, maybe, but in corporate physical meetings the person with the greatest reality distortion field uses them to his/her way.
Could you clarify more on the ideological differences between Stanford and Berkeley? Also other universities. I had no idea that something like that even exists. Are they (also) different on the political spectrum or in some other area?
People closer to the ground can comment better. But to summarize, tenure decisions in Stanford reputedly take into account whether you are involved in startups etc. Berkeley is more traditionally academic, as far as I understand.
As for the political spectrum, Berkeley is left-liberal. I am not sure about Stanford. It is also somewhat liberal, even though conservative/libertarian think-tanks like the Hoover institution are based on the Stanford campus.
2. Matthew Effect: The (talent-)rich (cities) get richer.
3. Weather. I have lived at some point in the midwest. Shovelling snow in a morning storm so that you can get in the car to go to office is not something I'd want to do again. Maybe Denver has mild enough weather to be considered a replacement. On the other hand, Colorado is a beautiful place and it'd be sad to see it overrun by large crowds of morning commuters. Austin is a viable alternative, Texas school boards notwithstanding.
4. Covid is not a long-term trend. Nothing beats the bandwidth of a physical meeting, or a discussion over coffee.