Here in the heart of Silicon Valley you can definitely sense a shift in attitudes and a migratory pull. This used to be the center of the universe for anyone in a technology oriented field and a place where you just had lunch with your friend at Oracle, or Sun, or Adobe, or Intel, or whatever when you had a question, were looking for a new job, or needed advice. Now many talk about it being too costly to stay, between taxes and real estate, and how the weather (which is truly exquisitely temperate) is not worth the price. I came here 40+ years ago from the northeast for just those things (weather, jobs, professional opportunities). Now friends and colleagues who have lived for decades here, many of whom are native Californians, have recently departed for rural states. Some are working remote and some are retiring. But they are leaving, seemingly in droves. Real estate is down slightly and the freeways are less crowded. It’s not scientific, but I’ve been through several boom-bust cycles here and this one feels different. One point of writing this is to say that the migration from California appears to be real, but the destinations are varied. Another point is that these things are cyclic and motivations are complex. Technology has its say as well. It is almost impossible to predict how the current migration will settle out. If we were to contemplate moving HQ, it would be a mistake to assume what’s happening now will always be the future. On Dec 31, 2021, at 3:32 AM, John Robert Stratton <N5AUS@n5aus.com<mailto:N5AUS@n5aus.com>> wrote: All See the following articles that quantify the shift of the US population from the Northeast, Midwest and West to the South. https://www.dailyinfographic.com/united-states-domestic-migration-2021 https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2021/12/new-us-census-data-major-mi... This directly impacts our efforts to hire or retain competent and productive employees and again highlights the continued, and worsening, lack of business sense in remaining headquartered in a failing economic environment. The mantra was once "move west"; in this century, hard data says it is "move south." _______________________________________ John Robert Stratton N5AUS Director West Gulf Division Office: 512-445-6262 Cell: 512-426-2028 P.O. Box 2232 Austin, Texas 78768-2232 _______________________________________ _______________________________________________ arrl-odv mailing list arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org<mailto:arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org> https://reflector.arrl.org/mailman/listinfo/arrl-odv -Kristen (K6WX) "Your eyes ... it's a day's work just looking into them" Laurie Anderson (--... ...-- -.. . -.- -.... .-- -..-)