Sometimes I like to pretend that our city leaders occasionally roll down the windows of their luxury sports coupes and let a whiff of reality penetrate their rarified air.
Surely they’re orienting El Paso towards young professionals because they’re expecting a tidal wave of young professionals and El Paso is woefully unprepared. Is Google moving an operations center here? Amazon? Apple?
No, not Apple. Apple is expanding in Austin, according to this story in the American-Statesman:
Along a winding road off Research Boulevard in Northwest Austin, Apple has quietly transformed 38 acres of wooded land into its second-largest operation in the world.
When the California-based technology giant completes the campus in 2016, it will include seven limestone-and-glass office buildings with a combined 1.1 million square feet of space with restaurants, smoothie and coffee bars along with a full-scale gym with two saunas and a spa-like wellness center with services including medical, dental and eye care, acupuncture and massage.
Why did Apple choose Austin when it could have chosen El Paso?
“Apple is the most successful high-tech company on the planet right now, and they’re choosing Austin,” said tech analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy. “The reason Apple picked Austin is that, by comparison to a lot of other cities, it offers a very educated workforce, it has a deep pool of high-tech talent, and it’s a draw for many employees around the country. Especially when you’re trying to attract millennials, Austin is a really good place to be.”
Oh. Well then, never mind.
Austin’s only drawback would be their horrible traffic situation, but they are working on that, and way ahead of …. guess who? Yeah, El Paso. They already have a frickin’ train, and we’re jackin’ ourselves off over a short run Trolley to nowhere? Gee, still wonder why any company would decide against El Paso?