Florence Devouard wrote:
I have another argument to push
along, which I think would impair our grown very soon in the future.
People. People as in staff. We had the chance to find very good people
in St Pete (or had the chance some staff members, such as Brion, moved
to Florida in the past), however, we must face a fact: we are more
likely to find the skills we need for our development in a big
multicultural city than in St Pete, in particular for the senior
management.
I think the last part of your comment is key. The Bay Area is great for
wealthy people like senior management; less so for other people (the
median house costs more than US$500,000). Unless you plan to only hire
wealthy people, or to pay very high salaries, nobody can really afford
to live anywhere near a downtown-SF office. And I say this as someone
temporarily living in the Bay Area (how do I afford it? tiny, temporary
rental housing until I finish up my PhD and move somewhere more
affordable). It's also extremely expensive for visitors; any savings in
flights for SFO versus Florida will be swamped by the massively more
expensive hotels.
Since this is supposedly a grass-roots-based organization, that ought to
have been a consideration IMO.
With the way the US mortgage market is going there
could be some cheap
foreclosures to pick-up.
If that includes a small apartment building. We could have a wiki-house
as a place for visitors to find inexpensive accommodation.
Ec