>the last few years Atlanta has overtaken LA as the top producer of feature films in the country
I've worked in the film business a bit. I'd say it's more like colonization than relocation. Atlanta is a place for filming at low costs, most of pre/post production and the organizational aspects still happens in Los Angeles. Most of the talent is still in LA and flies out to Atlanta for a few weeks. They're saving a buck on shooting, paying a bit for local work (mostly infrastructure stuff) but they aren't really generating value for the city.
The issue with any other city becoming the "SV of the XX" in my opinion comes down to VC and business culture. I think California created something unique when it came to powering ventures and crazy ideas, whereas other parts of the country tend to be more risk averse. Whenever I see new initiatives to draw startups to new cities, the common thread is low amounts of seed money with draconian term sheets from people with very little experience and no network effects to speak of.
Adding onto this point, I think one thing to recognize about the future of LA as a big media hub is the fact that tons of popular Youtubers and other independent content creators will relocate to Los Angeles due to the agglomeration of talent that exists there.
This is much more similar to how things work with SF/SV in the context of startups.
I think there's a big social component, too. I personally would pay rather extra to live here in silicon valley - extra even net additional earnings, just because I fit in ways I don't fit anywhere else I've been. (I mean, I'm not claiming that silicon valley is more inclusive than other places; a lot of people say the opposite and I have seen some evidence corroborating that view. I'm just saying, for me, for who I am, I feel like I fit here; I feel like I'm treated better here because of who I am than I am treated anywhere else. I suppose you could say that I feel like I have 'privilege' here in ways that I don't feel like I do in, say, the place where I spent most of my childhood.)
(because of the things I described above about how california privileges long term residents, I actually don't pay much more here than I would in any other place of similar density, and net earnings, I'm way better off financially here than anywhere else because I have that granfathered housing deal. (of course, my housing here is a lot less flexible.) Nobody else in the world will pay what silicon valley will pay when you have my skills and no degree. But in theory I would pay a premium to live here.)
Before I die, I want to try living in New York, partly 'cause I really enjoy the car-free lifestyle, but also 'cause I think that it's good to sometimes go to a place where you don't fit in as well, where you interact with people who have dramatically different worldviews about what constitutes an interesting problem. But for me, someone who fit in really badly where he grew up? Finding a place where I fit in was supremely important, even if I don't think it's great to spend the entire rest of my life in that place. Just having that experience of fitting in is transformative, I think.
My guess is that actor/entertainer types have similar feelings about LA; I mean, I think there's a lot of stories about that; about young theatre types running off to LA to find themselves (which I assumed meant "find people who value you") I mean, people talk about shared values; and it's not about voting the same way, mostly, or anything like that, at least for me, as it is about finding the same sorts of problems interesting. I mean, acting and entertaining is a deep sort of thing. I certainly don't understand much of it, but I can at least see that there's a lot there to understand, and if that's your bag, it seems like going and living near other people who also find that sort of thing could be important.
Agree with this. At my company, top brass is basically a cabal of baby boomer LGBT+ scientists who moved here in the 1990s/early 2000s to escape living in the closet in small minded bible belt towns. I'm not LGBT but it's pretty inspiring every day to work alongside them.
When I first started I happened to sit near our top QA exec and over the years as I got to know him he was telling me how in the 1980s his team at MD Anderson used to smuggle blood across the border from Mexico in briefcases before the FDA finally bowed to building pressure and got around to mandating screening for antibodies and accepting INDs.
Side topic, I've been in the bay area for a while but struggled to meet people, did you just go to random meetups? ie. how do I build a network here, I'm a transplant for context.
Start small- work on being more friendly with everyone - your yoga instructors, people in classes with you, your grocery guy, wherever you interact with people in the world. Fead How to Win Friends and Influence people and follow the instructions. It's dated and cheesy but really works. Work outward from your coworkers and say yes when people invite you to hang out outside of work. Reciprocate and invite them to do stuff as well. If you're dating anyone, make friends with their friends and their friend's partners. It can be a slow burn but slowly builds and suddenly the whole world is your friend- people you don't know yet are just friends who don't know they are your friend yet.
source: I don't really "network" or go to meetups but never had to job hunt, ever- just keep getting referred and pulled upward by people who are better than me and bring me along to work under them
Oh- one other great tip- pick a hobby you like and join some clubs. SF running, Dolphin Swim club, crossfit and triathlon clubs are networking (and, to be frank, dating) hotspots. GL!
I think you can do a lot worse than random meetups. I have enjoyed the toastmasters debate club[1] though I haven't been going lately. I think work friends are good sources of friends, too. I mean, work friends are work friends, and that's a different thing, but once you leave that job, there's nothing wrong with sending a few texts, and heck, work friends can be a lot of fun even when they are still work friends.
Back in the day, the Hacker Dojo was really great for meeting people. I personally think it's not nearly as good as it was (social stuff, I think, isn't going to be as good during boom times. a lot of the interesting people are just too busy and/or schmoozing less randomly, and we're in a boom time, so the hacker dojo looks like a regular co-working space rather than the coolness it was in the late aughts.) - I mean, I think it's still pretty neat, and still a good place to meet people, just not as good as it was.
A lot of it takes time; I mean, I've been here, more or less, since the late '90s. And a lot of it is just asking. After you leave a job, pick one of your work friends, send them an email and see if they wanna get drinks or something. Like, my experience is that it's okay to be a little weird. just make sure you go away when people tell you to go away. I mean, I know one guy who was my roommate and business partner like fifteen years ago, who is a super introvert. Maybe once a month I send him a text and see if he wants to get pizza. Maybe twice a year he responds in the affirmative.
doing projects with people is... super expensive, but in my life, doing a project/business with someone has been a little like how combat is in the stories, like you have gone through heck with that person and so you will forever have a connection.
I've worked in the film business a bit. I'd say it's more like colonization than relocation. Atlanta is a place for filming at low costs, most of pre/post production and the organizational aspects still happens in Los Angeles. Most of the talent is still in LA and flies out to Atlanta for a few weeks. They're saving a buck on shooting, paying a bit for local work (mostly infrastructure stuff) but they aren't really generating value for the city.
The issue with any other city becoming the "SV of the XX" in my opinion comes down to VC and business culture. I think California created something unique when it came to powering ventures and crazy ideas, whereas other parts of the country tend to be more risk averse. Whenever I see new initiatives to draw startups to new cities, the common thread is low amounts of seed money with draconian term sheets from people with very little experience and no network effects to speak of.