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Comment by tester756 | Hacker News Reader

Is Ohio becoming tech heartland?

Do datacenters actually do anything to draw in engineering or a significant number of tech jobs? Beyond just HVAC and a few server operations people.

us-west-2 certainly hasn't done much to make The Dalles, Oregon a tech hub (or even Portland for that matter)

They don't, though at least this development seems to have enough footprint to do something interesting. A lot of people I talk to get excited "Google is coming to town" and it's like, you don't want warehouses (datacenters) moving in, you want engineers, designers, marketing teams, c-suite to move in. Intel is an example for Columbus of one of those things you really do want to come into town, which is why it's such a big deal.

Hard to say yet, but it isn't impossible and the triangle between Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Columbus isn't the worst option. There are a bunch of universities in range to draw talent, including Carnegie Mellon, OSU, and some smaller state and private schools. The land is cheap and the cost of living is pretty low.

Seems at least semi-possible given all the recent investment. I've lived in Columbus for the last decade or so and generally enjoy living here.

I view all this development with some trepidation as more high-paying jobs and big salaries threaten to do to Columbus and the surrounding area what has happened to lots of other tech cities though. Housing here is still _semi_ reasonable but definitely increasing fast, and the city has a fairly small footprint compared to other major metros.

Even so, it's an exciting time in a state which I think is usually fairly underrated as flyover country.

I'm not sure it will be as long as the ohio republican party is in total control of the state. Between the rampant gerrymandering and corruption, abortion stance, lgbt stance, attacks on public education and critical race theory, and recently declaring natural gas is green energy, its hard to imagine that this will foster an innovative and progressive environment long term.

After growing up in Pennsylvania you could not pay me to move back to one of these states in the Northeast. First of all there's barely any tech jobs so even if you were payed really well by Google or Amazon you would be at their mercy. If they fired you you'd be pretty much fucked.

Yes, there's even a shirt for it: https://www.homage.com/products/the-silicon-heartland

Makes sense for tech companies to be in the Columbus area, Ohio State has an excellent CS program.

The big markets in Columbus are banks and insurance.

Healthcare, government, education too.

I really don’t like that shirt. Nicknames are earned. They have to be organic!

Is Phoenix a tech heartland? How long has Intel been around that area? My guess is no.

I thought Chicago/Illinois had a good shot at becoming the midwest tech hub, but Ohio seems to be making a good run at it. Don't get me wrong Chicago has tech companies, but Columbus is making some major gains there.

Chicago could have been but they have long been hostile to businesses. And it's a big country. So you can see why some of these cities provide crazy tax incentives.

Which is a shame since Chicago is a great city and Illinois is a blue state that has a much better history with individual rights (outside of guns). I think that's something that younger tech workers really want in a place they plan on being in for a while.

Always has been

Ohio invented outer space after all.

The state of Ohio has birthed more astronauts than any other state. Mostly because people are so desperate to get out of Ohio they’ll go to space to escape. UofM has the most astronauts that made it to the moon. And a flag on the moon.

Good natured ribbing :)

> UofM has the most astronauts that made it to the moon

The Wikipedia page suggests that the US Naval Academy has had 3 graduates walk on the moon with UofM, Purdue and West Point all having 2. Good company to be in, for sure.

I have many extended family members in Ohio. What I've heard is that most feel like public education is going down hill. It used to be that any sufficiently advanced high school student would get to attend classes at nearby colleges for free (and receive credit) if their local school didn't have a course they were qualified for. The current program has been very watered down and is underfunded, so very few kids actually get to take advantage of it. Just one of many negatives I've heard over the years.

Like in most other red states these days, the GOP controlled statehouse is trying to ruin public education further by passing don't say gay bills or preventing the teaching of the racist history of this country. One can't really be optimistic until the gerrymandering situation is fixed, because as it stands the republicans cannot ever lose their majority.

I'm not sure if you've ever been to Ohio, but no.

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