Why does Google's proposed fiber map [2] include not a single city in the northeast or the Rust Belt?
Chicago, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh are all major cities that are at least "on the map" as far as tech is concerned. I know for a fact that the local authorities in Detroit, Cincinnati and Cleveland would bend over backwards for any project that has even the slightest whiff of economic development.
I can understand NYC being a special case that they don't want to deal with, but there are plenty of other cities in the region.
Chicago is the king of Politics and needless regulation. Cronyism isn't something talked about in back allay's, it's a legitimate way to get a job/win a contract. No one looks twice at that. All comcast has to do to keep Google out is tell Rahm that he shouldn't let it happen and BOOM - no google in Chicago.
It becomes especially obvious in the winter when you see only certain parts of the city getting cleared immediately after a snow storm, those parts are where the alderman of that neighborhood lives, or a friend of the mayor lives on that block (and they'll do that, just plow a single block). Th rest of the city is plowed as well but it takes a couple days as the plows first have to do their crazy routes to make sure that major donors are all taken care of. I didn't really notice this until our alderman changed (I guess I used to live fairly close to the old one). The new alderman lives nearly a mile away from me and thus my block is one of the last in the city to get cleared where as in previous years, it was done directly following major streets. (the streets nearest to her are all plowed and clear immediately, and they're of the same significance that my street is, so it's not like balance was suddenly restored, they just moved the favor elsewhere).
It's really the only reason I'm a republican: this city is all blue and completely corrupt, I don't at all understand how people look at Obama, or Durbin, or Pelosi and don't see someone who has no morals and is in it for I don't even know what (as Obama seems to not even care about the power his position offers).
First, they have the growing low-regulation cities of the south which have plenty of customers. Second, they have the high-tech centers of Portland and San Jose which have so many tech customers that Google wants to serve them even though it is not low-regulation.
Poorer regions, non-tech regions, and high-regulation regions are all less interesting. Detroit, for example, hits the trifecta of all three disadvantages.
With the exception of NH (maybe Maine too?) the north east offers even more red tape than we have outlined in this article. Higher labour/fuel costs too.
Why does Google's proposed fiber map [2] include not a single city in the northeast or the Rust Belt?
Chicago, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh are all major cities that are at least "on the map" as far as tech is concerned. I know for a fact that the local authorities in Detroit, Cincinnati and Cleveland would bend over backwards for any project that has even the slightest whiff of economic development.
I can understand NYC being a special case that they don't want to deal with, but there are plenty of other cities in the region.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7265600
[2] https://fiber.google.com/newcities/