Silicon Valley came in last? What?

According to a survey by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, Silicon Valley came in dead last in an annual ranking of 12 U.S. technology hubs. The region's notoriously high cost of housing, high level of traffic congestion, high unemployment rates and other quality-of-life issues brought the score of the region to the bottom of the list.

Top of the list - making it the nation's top-ranked tech hub - is North Carolina's Raleigh-Durham area. Its ranking was helped by relatively affordable housing and a booming job market. Education is also highly ranked as well as low sales tax and cost of utilities.

The No. 2 city is Seattle, follwed by No. 3 - the greater Denver area. Although Denver suffered from traffic problems and soaring housing prices, it more than made up in the area of the number of startups in the emerging alternative energy niche.

Of course, it's not all over for Silicon Valley. It was clearly top of the list in the amount of venture funding it attracts - $8B, which is four times more than its closest domestic rivals.

I suppose one could always make the case that all of that technology leadership for so long has raised the cost of housing and improved the economy. Isn't that always the argument we make in Sacramento as to why we should be supporting the technology community?

Gillian Parrillo
The Sacramento Executive