"Laplanche said Upgrade chose Phoenix because of the access to talent and the lively, walkable downtown area that’s close to light rail and has lots of restaurants, bars..."

Oh, the changes in the past decade.

Can't wait for for the first 110 degree day, or when someone shits himself on the rail. Welcome to Phoenix, y'all!! :P

They are coming from San Francisco, our downtown wildlife/hobos are mild by comparison.

weather, ehy they'll get used to it.

I love Phoenix but can you imagine having to leave SF to come here for work?

Not everybody likes San Francisco. It's extremely expensive, very crowded, can be slightly chilly a lot of the year, lots of dense fog and not too mention...can have a MAJOR earthquake at any time that has the potential to kill a lot of people with lots of damage.

But I would still live there....:sly:

Yeah well a Ferrari can be problematic and expensive too but I'd still prefer it over a Civic. :runaway:

Yes, SF, such a miserable place. :???:

I've enjoyed my visits to San Francisco, but many transplants and visitors to Phoenix from the Bay Area remind me of the infamous "Smug Alert" episode of South Park. I confronted one of them about the bad attitude and the response was "at least I have something to be smug about."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e6Ffukcsbw

I know quite a few people that are from the bay area, they don't seem to miss it that much.:shrug:

He's not wrong though.

okay, i'm chiming in, unwanted i'm sure. San Francisco is over-rated imho. was just there on business and it's dirty, grimy, crowded, and weird (in a bad way). it's everything that makes California good (less and less so) AND bad (more and more so)...sorry, just don't get it. but, yes, i'm a boring Arizona native and probably just culturally illiterate. Californians...please stay in your "paradise". you are ruining what was once a GREAT maverick state...

I live in SF and have for 4 years.

It has a lot of advantages from an urbanist's perspective, but it has a lot of dysfunction like filth and crime and idiots on the board of supervisors and slooowwwww transit that can make it really unlivable. I could go way on, but it's offtopic.

However, no tech company is going to "move" from San Francisco to Phoenix until Phoenix is actually amenable to people with money, there's a local equivalent of venture capitalists on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, and they can hire and attract quality engineers and professional talent. I've been gone from Phoenix for five years and I haven't seen anything to indicate the city has made any significant strides in this area.

Moreover, this dovetails into this greater confusion between actual tech companies that have their management and engineering talent in the Bay Area and "tech companies" that expand to Phoenix to hire a bunch of customer service representatives or other low-wage work.

Christine Mackay's confusion of this along with her dis against California more or less guarantee the second-rate nature of Phoenix's business development. People here are way too savvy to be confused by fluffers like her.

I don't think comparing SF to Phoenix is a good comparison anyway. I mean they're both large cities, but it's a complete different geographical & urban difference. Compare Phoenix to Houston or Dallas. San Fran compares to Chicago or New York. I mean just look at the density per square mile. SF is like 14,000 more than Phoenix.

Regardless, I would say Phoenix beats SF in terms of weather, privacy, athletics, and cleanliness. San Fran is definitely going to slam Phoenix in terms of anything related to urban development, but not everyone has a preference of that or even on that scale. Some people in the company will probably like the move & some will absolutely hateit.

The experience of life and travel tells you
 

Most all major cities in the U.S.A. have their pluses and minuses. I like to consider myself a citizen of the west which includes the Mountain and Pacific Time Zones. I have a home in San Diego and condo in Phoenix and grew up in Phoenix. I enjoy large parts of both the bay area and Phoenix.

http://www.bizjournals.com/phoenix/n...facturing.html

God damnit Stanton quit drawing businesses away from the core you stupid ass!

Seriously? leave lavean for housing and flex industry concrete boxes, Phoenix already has WAY to many local business development inactivates.

Oldest Bashas' in Phoenix to close this week
 

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/...eek/100555960/

Looks like the development at 7th ave and Osborn is moving forward. Does anyone know where I can find more info on it's current state? Haven't found much

Nobody looking at 59th Ave and Broadway or wherever would consider opening up downtown or the core. There aren't shovel-ready sites, the land that's there is too expensive, and large-scale manufacturing doesn't belong near downtown anyways.

I'd actually like to see this get developed because then downtown might become the actual center of things instead of being about as far west as anyone would want to go.

This ^^ 100%

The type of business which will open on a freeway corridor in the suburbs is almost always a different type of business than the one who wants to be downtown. Freeway corridors, while called "technology" centers or whatever, are going to attract lower wage jobs or places that need truck access.

I can tell you that things have absolutely changed in Phoenix. I work for a company that is moving ALL operations here from high-cost locations (SF, NY, LA) *because* they can find more than customer service reps (BA's, PM's, technologists, etc.) at 1/2 the cost simply due the lower cost of real estate and COL. California's best days are behind it. Not saying Phoenix's best days are ahead but the dynamic IS changing. Companies are moving jobs here because of an attractive mix of talent and value. There's very little value to found in Cali outside the bleeding edge technologists that, I agree, are difficult to come by outside the major knowledge centers like SF, LA, NY, Boston and DC. But the times are a changing for real in Phoenix this time. I would be very surprised if you didn't see this trend continue and Phoenix emerge as a major hub of technology talent. On par with Silicon Valley? Of course not. But Silicon Valley is singular. SF is not. It's a once world-class city that is succumbing to pitfalls of a cultural and socio-economic landscape firmly divided by the haves and have-nots. And the -nots are increasing faster than the haves. The trend will continue and once critical mass is achieved, even the top talent will be cultivated and kept here. Not ALL of it. But a lot of it.

I don't think this is new news but it's news nonetheless.

http://downtownphoenixjournal.com/20...vation-begins/