Richard Florida and Joshua Gans just published an article in Politico called: Trump Is Making Canada Great Again. The overarching argument is that as the US closes its borders, Canada benefits. The best and brightest from around the world are coming here.
This fall, international student applications at the University of Toronto were up 70% compared to last year. And numerous companies in Toronto are reporting “steady, double-digit increases” in the number of job applications from Americans.
This is exactly what I was getting at when I made the pithy prediction that Amazon is going to choose Toronto for HQ2. It’s about access to human capital (though I acknowledge the political reality of selecting a city outside of the US).
Perhaps here or here might work for a location.
Here is an excerpt from the Politico article that starts to speak to the importance of foreign-born workers in the US:
As of 2013, foreign-born workers in STEM fields—science, technology engineering and math—accounted for nearly a fifth of workers with bachelor’s degrees in the United States, 40 percent of those with master’s degrees and more than half of those with Ph.D.s. In the San Jose metro area, consisting largely of Silicon Valley, immigrants comprise more than 55 percent of adults who hold advanced degrees.
Here is a chart showing the US and Canadian metros with the highest percentage of foreign-born residents:

And here is a chart showing which metro areas receive the most venture capital dollars (in millions of US dollars):

As to be expected, Toronto, Vancouver and Miami lead in terms of the percentage of foreign-born residents. Though, I would bet that Toronto’s foreign-born population is far more diverse than those of Vancouver and Miami.
However, when you look at venture capital dollars invested, Toronto is nowhere near the top. Vancouver isn’t even on the list. And I suspect that some of you are surprised to see Miami sitting in between Chicago and Seattle (arguably a city that overperforms in tech relative to VC dollars invested). I was.
Perhaps Trump will help with this by making Canada great again.
Over the weekend Richard Florida sent out a tweetstorm that compared Toronto and New York City, and made the argument that Toronto’s “incredible diversity, density, and industry mix” is making the city feel a lot more like New York and London compared to any other North American city.
He even went so far as to say that, even though it may not be the bigger metro in terms of raw population, Toronto increasingly feels like North America’s second city after NYC. I’m obviously incredibly biased in this discussion, so I would be curious to get your thoughts in the comment section below.
If you can’t see the embedded tweetstorm below, click here. Regardless, you’ll likely need to click through to see the entire thread.
1. Just back to Toronto after a week in NYC: Got me thinking about what Trump could mean for US cities.
— Richard Florida (@Richard_Florida)

The Wall Street Journal recently asked: Venice Beach Is a Hot Place to Live, So Why Is Its Housing Supply Shrinking?
According to Issi Romem, chief economist at BuildZoom, it’s because Venice Beach is the toughest place in America to build housing.
Here are some numbers from the WSJ:
“The Venice Beach population is shrinking even as the local economy has boomed. The neighborhood had about 27,000 residents in 2015, about 3,800 fewer than in 2000, according to U.S. Census data. At the same time, the ZIP Code has added 4,000 new jobs, according to Jed Kolko, chief economist at employment website Indeed.”
And here is a chart that speaks to the relationship between housing prices and housing supply:

Richard Florida and Joshua Gans just published an article in Politico called: Trump Is Making Canada Great Again. The overarching argument is that as the US closes its borders, Canada benefits. The best and brightest from around the world are coming here.
This fall, international student applications at the University of Toronto were up 70% compared to last year. And numerous companies in Toronto are reporting “steady, double-digit increases” in the number of job applications from Americans.
This is exactly what I was getting at when I made the pithy prediction that Amazon is going to choose Toronto for HQ2. It’s about access to human capital (though I acknowledge the political reality of selecting a city outside of the US).
Perhaps here or here might work for a location.
Here is an excerpt from the Politico article that starts to speak to the importance of foreign-born workers in the US:
As of 2013, foreign-born workers in STEM fields—science, technology engineering and math—accounted for nearly a fifth of workers with bachelor’s degrees in the United States, 40 percent of those with master’s degrees and more than half of those with Ph.D.s. In the San Jose metro area, consisting largely of Silicon Valley, immigrants comprise more than 55 percent of adults who hold advanced degrees.
Here is a chart showing the US and Canadian metros with the highest percentage of foreign-born residents:

And here is a chart showing which metro areas receive the most venture capital dollars (in millions of US dollars):

As to be expected, Toronto, Vancouver and Miami lead in terms of the percentage of foreign-born residents. Though, I would bet that Toronto’s foreign-born population is far more diverse than those of Vancouver and Miami.
However, when you look at venture capital dollars invested, Toronto is nowhere near the top. Vancouver isn’t even on the list. And I suspect that some of you are surprised to see Miami sitting in between Chicago and Seattle (arguably a city that overperforms in tech relative to VC dollars invested). I was.
Perhaps Trump will help with this by making Canada great again.
Over the weekend Richard Florida sent out a tweetstorm that compared Toronto and New York City, and made the argument that Toronto’s “incredible diversity, density, and industry mix” is making the city feel a lot more like New York and London compared to any other North American city.
He even went so far as to say that, even though it may not be the bigger metro in terms of raw population, Toronto increasingly feels like North America’s second city after NYC. I’m obviously incredibly biased in this discussion, so I would be curious to get your thoughts in the comment section below.
If you can’t see the embedded tweetstorm below, click here. Regardless, you’ll likely need to click through to see the entire thread.
1. Just back to Toronto after a week in NYC: Got me thinking about what Trump could mean for US cities.
— Richard Florida (@Richard_Florida)

The Wall Street Journal recently asked: Venice Beach Is a Hot Place to Live, So Why Is Its Housing Supply Shrinking?
According to Issi Romem, chief economist at BuildZoom, it’s because Venice Beach is the toughest place in America to build housing.
Here are some numbers from the WSJ:
“The Venice Beach population is shrinking even as the local economy has boomed. The neighborhood had about 27,000 residents in 2015, about 3,800 fewer than in 2000, according to U.S. Census data. At the same time, the ZIP Code has added 4,000 new jobs, according to Jed Kolko, chief economist at employment website Indeed.”
And here is a chart that speaks to the relationship between housing prices and housing supply:

Housing supply, alone, isn’t going to solve all of our problems. But it certainly matters. Also, what’s up with Chicago?
Housing supply, alone, isn’t going to solve all of our problems. But it certainly matters. Also, what’s up with Chicago?
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog
Share Dialog