Posted by: John_Hamilton on 01/06/2013 11:37 PM
Updated by: John_Hamilton on 01/09/2013 01:49 PM
Expires: 01/01/2018 12:00 AM
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Dear Silicon Valley and Bay Area, Please Send 500 Families and Jobs Here!! ~By John Hamilton (Updated 4 Traffic Lights)
Arnold, CA...We are looking for 500 families to bring your offspring and your jobs here! Why? Great Schools, Lower Home Costs, Great Communities, 35 Wineries, Snow Skiing, Mountain Biking, Hiking, Cross Country Skiing, Golf, Concerts, Snowmobiling, Water Skiing, Fishing, Wine Tasting and of course Frog Jumping. To top it off is what we don't have...traffic lights. There are only 4 traffic lights (Updated...I forgot about the one between Bret Harte and the parking lot on Murphys Grade Road) in all of Calaveras County...
Most of us who live here would like to see our winery to traffic light ratio of 35 to 3 stay intact and the rural nature of our area remain for generations to come. We also know this is why many of you reading this live here, own second homes here and plan to retire here. This is the first in a weekly series on highlighting our area and hopefully coaxing more than a few of you to make the move here while your kids are still in school and join our communities full time and while you are at bring your flexible, low impact high tech careers with you!
Why high tech? Why here? Well you would be amongst friends as according to county ownership records over 7,000 properties here are owned by people from Silicon Valley and the Bay Area. There are current or former senior executives at Cisco, Apple, IBM, NVIDIA, Netflix, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and by our humble calculations at least 3 members of Forbes Magazines list of top 100 venture capitalists.
We will be highlighting the high tech industry folks who are already here and pointing out that if you make the move you will be among friends and you will make new ones. Our goal is not to have everyone polish up their business plans and turn them from elevator pitches to chair lift pitches but to let our viewers know that we have loving caring communities, schools and teachers that produce great test scores from their students and make them great citizens as well.
We would love to see a vibrant high tech segment to our local economy. You are still close enough here to head back down the hill to get to meetings but far enough away to actually live. I am even a recovering tech industry veteran. I was VP Sales of a medical software company for several years and spent waaay too many nights “sleeping” on red-eye flights to the east coast for another round of presentations. Much of what we dream as a permanent part of our economy is already happening here on a part time basis.
Calaveras county and the Mother Lode is perfect place to raise a family. Our residents even passed bonds to make capital improvements to our schools. As an example Bret Harte High School now has a state of the art facility complete with new aquatic center, science complex, tennis center, performing arts center, football field and more. What is doesn't have is enough students. Traditionally it was at about 1,000 students but now it is down to 700 and doesn't look to be picking up anytime soon.
Calaveras County was hit hard in the economic downturn like many other areas. Many segments of our economy are now at pre or above downturn levels. One vital segment in still lagging and that is working age middle class families and their jobs and their kids. Our old economy here for local families was weighted heavily on construction. The construction segment suffered enough that many young families had to leave the area to find work in what was one of our largest employment categories.
For those of an entrepreneurial bent you will feel right at home as Amador, Calaveras & Tuolumne Counties rank very high on the percentage of self employed as a percentage of the population. Every one of those stores, restaurants, wineries and small businesses you patronize while you are up here represents the hopes and dreams of a local family.
Yes we would also love manufacturing and other industries but those take time and need to develop facilities and infrastructure. For high tech in many instances all we need to do is sell you on our area and schools. Many of you are already sold on the area and have invested here so you are definitely qualified leads as they say in the sales field.
Many of us in the business community would like to see our business sector have enough opportunities that our young kids could choose to stay, live and raise families in the area they have grown up in and call home. Most of them now are forced to leave unless they can work for a family business or start one of their own. Outside of the Government and quasi government sectors like education and local utility districts jobs that would support a family are few and far between. By you moving here and living your lives here you can change that.
Our weekly series will highlight locals who have made the jump here and are continuing their tech careers or have moved on to build build businesses in another industry segment. As a teaser our first profile will be of an uber nerd from dot com era who has made his next mark in the business world as one of the worlds foremost experts on rubber chickens and great wine.
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