keep distributional gains skewed toward existing
high-tech regions.
Census data of same-sex couples identified as "unmarried partners." (The Census did not ask people to identify their sexual orientation until 2000; the Index has been updated to include this data.) Comparing the Gay Index with the Milken Institute's high-tech rankings of 49 large regions, Gates and Florida discovered that 12 of the top 20 regions with the highest gay populations are among the top 20
high-tech regions in the United States.
And compared to other
high-tech regions, real estate in the Digital Drive is very affordable.
As this region achieves greater success in attracting high-tech industries from
high-tech regions, and developing high-tech industries internally, cultural and human resource issues will help determine the success of these strategies.
The sooner
high-tech regions like Northern Virginia learn the lesson, the better off they'll be.
Silicon Valley, Silicon Alley, and dozens of
high-tech regions in between rest on the skills of talented programmers, designers, and developers, many of whom are barely out of college - if they finished college at all.
Today, however, the daily news seems as nonchalant as the layoffs are relentless: 10,000 jobs, 2,000 jobs, 40,000 jobs; blue collar positions evaporate in what seemed only yesterday the shiny new growth industries located in the various
high-tech regions, corridors, and valleys.
In Oregon, as in other
high-tech regions, such factors as the availability of land and labor, the proximity to other high-tech firms, and the desirability of the region as a place to live were more important than tax policy.