New Economy cities: Boston is magnet for high-skilled workers
By Julie Masis | 11.20.09
Stu Haber has seen the future and it is trash. His employees at Infoscitex, a Boston-area start-up, built a machine that can transform everything from carpet to yesterday’s lunch into electricity or heat without any hazardous waste.
The Green Energy Machine that Mr. Haber and his engineers call “the GEM” was originally developed to reduce the military’s waste in Iraq and Afghanistan. But in recent months the company has received inquiries from more than 1,000 potential buyers, including local towns, Caribbean hotels, and even the White House. “It eliminates 95 percent of waste,” says Haber, president of the company, noting that three tons of trash will power a 200-unit apartment complex. “You don’t need trucks to come to the site to take trash away.”
Boston is known for its world-class colleges and universities, and one reason Haber established his company here is because of the highly skilled engineers he can recruit in the area. The lead engineer on the GEM, Matt Young, received his degree from nearby Worcester Polytechnic Institute. “We have engineers who have come out of Harvard, MIT, WPI,” Haber says. “Having that brainpower available and the ability to hire from these great institutions is a great base for us.”
That’s why many economists say Boston will continue to do well in the future. According to an analysis released last year by the Atlanta Regional Council for Higher Education, Boston leads the country with the greatest number of physical science degrees awarded every year and is in second place for degrees in engineering and biological sciences.
Educational services make up an important component of the city’s economy. According to Tim Consedine, an economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics in Boston, 5 percent of Boston’s workers are employed in educational services – more than double the national average.
Educational services, together with the healthcare sector, provide jobs for more than a fifth of Boston-area workers. Both colleges and hospitals continued hiring workers during the economic slowdown, with 9,000 new jobs added in these two sectors since last year, says Karl Case, an economist at Wellesley College near Boston.
One indication of the strength of the local economy? Housing prices did not decline as drastically in Boston as elsewhere.
Yet therein lies a problem for the city’s future: The relatively high cost of housing makes it harder to attract young workers.
“If people go elsewhere, businesses will go elsewhere,” says David Trueblood, a spokesman for the Boston Foundation.
Maybe. But a lot of those young engineers are attracted to the “creative class” culture that runs deep here.
For example, at Infoscitex, young engineers are already working on the next projects: a baby bottle for infants who have difficulty breathing and swallowing at the same time, and an Army uniform with a built-in electronic network.
And they’re hoping the Obama administration will purchase one of their GEMs for the White House.
Other cities:
1. Fort Collins, Colo., builds on clean tech
2. Houston aims to move beyond the oil age
3. Huntsville eyes next launchpad for growth
4. A Seattle slew of advantages
5. The next boom cities overseas
Main story: Five cities that will rise in the New Economy
____________
– Look for us on Twitter.
Read entire post | Comments (7 comments)
New Economy cities: Houston aims to move beyond the oil age
By Kris Axtman | 11.20.09
The moment oil came spewing out of the Lucas No. 1 well at Spindletop on Jan. 10, 1901, Texas’ economy was forever wrenched from its agricultural roots and thrust into the Industrial Age of the 20th century.
Today, nearby Houston is still riding the economic gusher produced by the major oil discoveries in the southeast part of the state. But as the world increasingly sees the need to switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy, Houston is pursuing the next “Spindletop” to blow it into the 21st century.
Many say the city is poised to do well because of its ties to the global marketplace. Houston is home to NASA, as well as the largest medical complex in the world, the second-busiest port in the nation, and a strong international business sector.
“We see our future over the next decade as playing to our strengths of the past while making them relevant today,“ says Jeff Moseley, president and CEO of the Greater Houston Partnership, a business group.
One example of how that works: This June when Vivante GMP Solutions, a biologics manufacturing company, set up shop here, it needed “clean rooms,” areas with a controlled level of dust and other contamination. Area contractors could draw on expertise gained through decades of working for petrochemical companies. The clean room took shape, cheaply. “To me, Houston is the perfect intersection of old industry stepping up to advance leading-edge industries,” says Vivante’s founder and president, J. David Enloe Jr.
But Houston has much more than energy experience powering its future. It is the largest US port in foreign tonnage and the second largest in total tonnage.
“Most US ports are primarily importing goods,” says James Edmonds, chairman of the Port of Houston Authority. “We are exporting more than we import now – and that’s a sign that the Texas economy is stable and will have plenty of jobs for the future.” Construction at the Port of Houston is racing to keep up with burgeoning ship traffic. Authorities recently completed an $81 million container terminal and plans exist for another one.
Then there is the Texas Medical Center, which may be Houston’s version of the Great Pyramids, only with windows and an antiseptic smell. More than $3 billion is going into expanding the Med Center’s footprint from 30 million to 40 million square feet – making it larger than the size of the area inside Chicago’s Loop. The complex currently serves up to 65,000 patients a day, says Richard Wainerdi, the CEO.
Still, even with the port, the medical center, and NASA, the petrochemical industry remains the flywheel of the economy – accounting for about half the area’s total output. Eager to be in the vanguard of the New Economy, city officials are trying to redefine Houston as more than just an oil and gas capital. They want it to be an energy capital – including renewables.
Last summer, for example, Houston became the No. 1 municipal purchaser of green power in the nation, with 25 percent of the city’s total electricity load coming from wind energy. (Texas leads the US in wind-energy production.) But some economists caution against teaching an old dog too many new tricks.
“For years, alternative-energy people have been saying we need to change,” says Ronald Welch, an economist in the Institute for Regional Forecasting at the University of Houston. “Thirty years ago, alternative energy constituted 3 percent of energy use in the United States. Today it constitutes only 6 percent.”
Other cities:
1. Boston is magnet for high-skilled workers
2. Fort Collins, Colo., builds on clean tech
3. Huntsville eyes next launchpad for growth
4. A Seattle slew of advantages
5. The next boom cities overseas
Main story: Five cities that will rise in the New Economy
____________
– Look for us on Twitter.
Read entire post | Comments (5 comments)
New Economy cities: Huntsville eyes next launchpad for growth
By Carmen K. Sisson | 11.20.09
You should probably leave the rocket scientist jokes at home when visiting Huntsville, Ala. The chances are good (1 in 12, in fact) you’ll meet one here. In a state beset with educational challenges, this mid-size city (pop. 396,000) is an anomaly, a figurative brain soup where intellectual capital is a commodity and innovation is the driving force behind economic recovery and future success.
When retired US Army Lt. Col. Levern Eady began looking for a place to relocate his young family, Huntsville immediately topped his list, not surprisingly. Built on the spine of its two major employers, Redstone Arsenal and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, the once-sleepy cotton town is landing on a lot of lists these days: Forbes’s best place to weather the downturn, Fortune’s No. 1 location to start a small business, Business Week’s best place to raise children, Kiplinger’s best overall city.
Mr. Eady, who spent 20 years as a military logistician, didn’t have a job when he moved to the area. But, like 40 percent of the people here, he quickly found employment in what economists call the “creative sector,” working at LogiCore, a female-owned start-up that specializes in corporate and military problem-solving.
“The intellectual atmosphere here is very high,” says Eady, sitting in his well-appointed home, which is laden with the scent of potpourri and, at the moment, echoes of the Alabama-Tennessee football game.
That may well continue to be the key to Huntsville’s success as the state – and nation – move out of recession and shift more from a capital-intensive economy to a “creativity” economy fueled by innovation. As economic powers like India and China continue to rise, the US will have to develop its intellectual acumen if it wants to compete for the technologies of tomorrow. “There’s no such thing as stability as we used to know it,” says Barry Mason, dean of the business school at the University of Alabama. “There’s just constant destruction and creation. It leaves a lot of people behind, but creates enormous opportunity as well.”
Even with Huntsville’s heavy reliance on aerospace and defense, he says enough diversity exists – particularly in biotech and other industries – to propel the city into the next decade. Places like Cummings Research Park – with 225 companies – may well serve as Huntsville’s new economic launching pad.
More immediately, though, defense will continue to play a major role as the city prepares for an influx of up to 12,000 people in the next few years as a result of base consolidation by the Pentagon. In this case, Virginia’s loss will be Huntsville’s gain.
Martin Soler, an analyst at Moody’s Economy.com, says the effect of the base realignment will be felt throughout the area as demand increases for new schools, better roads, and more private-sector jobs. As long as living costs remain low, he envisions Huntsville growing “far above the national average” over the next decade.
Still, the federal government makes up 20 percent of the labor pool, leaving the area vulnerable to budget cuts. In addition, manufacturing continues to be a drag as consumers postpone big-ticket purchases like cars.
Location may also play a factor. Whereas Mobile, Ala., is a port city, allowing it to attract businesses like steel giant ThyssenKrupp, Huntsville is “a fairly remote area,” Mr. Soler says. Instead, the “Rocket City” will have to capitalize on its brainpower.
The city is putting $100 million into expanding the airport, $279 million into road projects, and is planning a “green initiative.” “If you look at our growth over the past five to 10 years, that’s exactly what I see on the horizon for the next 10 to 20 years,” says Brian Hilson, head of the local Chamber of Commerce.
Other cities:
1. Boston is magnet for high-skilled workers
2. Fort Collins, Colo., builds on clean tech
3. Houston aims to move beyond the oil age
4. A Seattle slew of advantages
5. The next boom cities overseas
Main story: Five cities that will rise in the New Economy
____________
– Look for us on Twitter.
Read entire post | Comments (4 comments)
New Economy cities: Fort Collins builds on clean tech
By Ron Scherer | 11.20.09
Melanie Sloan, a soot-covered lab technician, is trying to boil water to help save lives. But Ms. Sloan isn’t concerned with the liquid.
On a recent day, she’s in her lab steadily shoving firewood into a pipe-like stove that is heating the water. The stove is similar to those used by villagers around the world. The difference is that hers uses less fuel and produces much less carbon monoxide – a deadly gas that kills thousands of people each year.
The goal for Sloan and the nonprofit firm she works for, Envirofit, is to sell the stove in places such as India and Africa and dramatically clean up indoor air.
They hope to produce 10 million over the next five years.
Sloan’s effort in some ways illustrates one reason Fort Collins is positioning itself as a city of the future: It’s staking out a position as a nexus of clean and renewable energy.
Town fathers have been cobbling together businesses with Colorado State University (CSU) professors loaded with ideas. Today, in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, labs are doing everything from extracting oil from algae to producing überefficient engines that use lasers instead of spark plugs.
The slew of ideas has energized the business community, including a local beer company that is recycling the methane from its waste products for other businesses to use. “The city has undergone a substantial restructuring of itself from high-tech manufacturing, through the dotcom era, to one focused on research and development and production in the clean-energy sector,” says Martin Shields, a professor of economics at CSU.
Perhaps it’s not surprising Fort Collins has reinvented itself, particularly in a green way. At least 50 percent of the 140,000 residents have a four-year college degree or more. The city prides itself on encouraging alternative modes of travel: It maintains a “bike library” for residents who want to borrow a Schwinn or Trek for up to a week. As in other parts of Colorado, residents here just north of Denver enjoy an active outdoor lifestyle.
The city is eager to be a model for others, including one of the first in the nation to create a downtown section, called FortZED, that generates as much energy as it consumes. It has fitted buildings with micro wind turbines, solar panels, and fuel cells, as well as encouraged energy-saving measures. City officials believe this is one reason Fort Collins just won a federal grant of $18 million to help establish a “smart grid,” which will further reduce energy consumption.
Some local firms have diversified into clean tech. One called Woodward used to make speed controls for trucks. Now it’s working on converting diesel engines to compressed natural gas.
Other companies started from scratch, born out of work at CSU. A new $100 million solar-cell plant sprang from one professor’s lab. A lithium-battery factory came from another’s. “CSU is the innovation engine that churns out a lot of the new ideas,” says Bryan Willson, a mechanical engineering professor involved in several ventures, including Envirofit.
More green revolutionaries may be on the way. “We’re pursuing and targeting clusters of companies involved in clean energy,” says Doug Hutchinson, the city’s mayor.
Other cities:
1. Boston is magnet for high-skilled workers
2. Houston aims to move beyond the oil age
3. Huntsville eyes next launchpad for growth
4. A Seattle slew of advantages
5. The next boom cities overseas
Main story: Five cities that will rise in the New Economy
____________
– Look for us on Twitter.
Read entire post | Comments (4 comments)
New Economy cities: A Seattle slew of advantages
By Dean Paton | 11.20.09
In some ways, Seattle is the prototype city of the future. It embodies in one leafy landscape virtually all of the forces driving the New Economy – exports, an educated workforce, a vibrant high-tech base, a budding green-tech sector, and an enviable lifestyle.
One usually overlooked characteristic is how dependent it is on foreign trade. The flow of exports out of Puget Sound runs at about twice the national average. It now accounts for 1 in 3 jobs in the area.
“Look,” says Sam Kaplan of the Trade Development Alliance of Greater Seattle, “our big companies are very internationally oriented. More than 70 percent of Boeing’s sales are overseas, and 60 percent of Microsoft’s sales are overseas.”
That has paid off. Seattle has been growing at about twice the rate of the national economy since 2003, says Dick Conway, who publishes The Puget Sound Economic Forecaster.
Yet Seattle has more going for it than just 737s headed for Asian hangars. Experts say the city also benefits from a vibrant entrepreneurial climate, a deep pool of venture capitalists, and a genial tradition of collaboration. “We recruit not only from here, but from other places, too,” says Jeremy Lewis, president and CEO of Big Fish Games, a digital-media company. “So it’s not just a place where creative people are, but a place where creative people want to come.”
It helps that King County is home to as many as 68,000 millionaires, many of whom have stepped naturally into a tradition of risk-taking. “We have more business start-ups than any other state in the country,” says Steve Gerritson of enterpriseSeattle, a nonprofit business development group.
Part of the reason is the University of Washington, a research-money magnet, that has developed and patented hundreds of ideas. Many of them have migrated into the local private sector, pulling venture capitalists and top researchers into partnerships that continually fuel the entrepreneurial culture.
Yet Seattle also has become a world leader in a nonprofit “industry” that promises to create thousands of research-and-delivery jobs. Much more than simply the well-funded projects of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, this new sector of the Northwest economy now accounts for about 180 organizations focused on global health.
“Outside Geneva, Switzerland, where the World Health Organization is headquartered, it’s Seattle that is the center of global health,” says Lisa Cohen, director of the Washington Global Health Alliance. “When you look at the growth projections of these organizations, almost all of them are planning to double or triple in size during the next five years.”
The start-ups and search for healthcare solutions may simply be a byproduct of Seattle’s other “natural” advantage: high rates of education. Perennially named “America’s Most Literate City,” Seattle leads in the number of bookstores per 10,000 residents as well as in the percentage of adults with high school diplomas and college degrees. “It’s the juice that just keeps this economy constantly reinventing itself,” says Susannah Malarkey of the Technology Alliance.
Still, Seattle is hardly perfect. It suffers from notorious traffic, expensive housing, and is legendary for months of aluminum-gray skies. Perhaps most foreboding was Boeing’s recent decision to snub the area and build a second assembly plant for its next-generation 787 Dreamliner not here but in Charleston, S.C. – which may be an ominous statement about the area’s unionized, high-wage workforce.
Other cities:
1. Boston is magnet for high-skilled workers
2. Fort Collins, Colo., builds on clean tech
3. Houston aims to move beyond the oil age
4. Huntsville eyes next launchpad for growth
5. The next boom cities overseas
Main story: Five cities that will rise in the New Economy
____________
– Look for us on Twitter.
