[robr2]

Originally Posted by Johnho771

Exactly, while it is sad to see Lego go, it brings up the underlying concern that other companies will foul. Will Melissa and Doug need to move from Wilton to Boston to find better talent?

And what has changed over the years? Where Connecticut has a range of so many business, why is Connecticut all of the sudden struggling to obtain talent? If talent from Boston schools is so important why does a whole company need to move in order to be closer to them. CT is only a couple hours away, easy enough for a recruiter to drive up and recruit from the schools.

Or course they can drive up and recruit at the Boston schools. But the job would still be in Enfield which isn't where these recruits want to work.

[BobNJ1960]

Originally Posted by Johnho771

Exactly, while it is sad to see Lego go, it brings up the underlying concern that other companies will foul. Will Melissa and Doug need to move from Wilton to Boston to find better talent?

And what has changed over the years? Where Connecticut has a range of so many business, why is Connecticut all of the sudden struggling to obtain talent? If talent from Boston schools is so important why does a whole company need to move in order to be closer to them. CT is only a couple hours away, easy enough for a recruiter to drive up and recruit from the schools.

Ct , to be frank, gained enormously from the pre Rudy G NYC is dangerous era, particularly the no Ct income tax era. We advertised on trains hoping those riding to NY corps would relo them. Many did, when suburban office complexes were the rage, and that is not want young talent wants. (Plus cities are no longer as violent as say, 1980's NYC was).

Plus, while we gained hqs then, we had tons of one income families, multiple kids. 25-40 year olds now do not fit the mold. She has perhaps one kid, carefully planned to allow her to reenter career after 8 weeks home. Women are now about 60% of new college grad population.

Our cookie cutter suburbs are not attractive to the generation representing new talent anymore. They were not going to Enfield, nor Norwalk, or any other town w/o mass walkability.

I share your concern about say, Melissa and Doug, as it follows the need for creative top talent that Lego does. Will that company, like Lego has, outgrow Ct's talent pool?

[Stylo]

Originally Posted by BobNJ1960

I do not think we can do anything about corps which prefer this nation's best pool of young educated workers, which exists solely in Boston.

The concern I have is simple: Is GE & Lego it in the exodus to Boston?

.

GE “exodus” didn’t really pan out.

Also, that’s a really pessimist view, and I don’t think there’s a shred of truth to the impossibility. There’s no reason why the state can’t do more to attract corps to cities like Stamford and New Haven. Plenty of young people would be happy to work in smaller cities like those.

The trick is, for suburban corps like GE and Lego, how can we preemptively persuade?

I wish New Haven’s leadership was better at business attraction and PR. I don’t think it’s one of the mayor’s priorities. Yale is doing all the hard work there.

[BobNJ1960]

Originally Posted by robr2

Or course they can drive up and recruit at the Boston schools. But the job would still be in Enfield which isn't where these recruits want to work.

Bingo. Now a NYC corp recruiter would likely be able to attract graduates of Boston universities.

[BobNJ1960]

Originally Posted by Stylo

GE “exodus” didn’t really pan out.

Also, that’s a really pessimist view, and I don’t think there’s a shred of truth to the impossibility. There’s no reason why the state can’t do more to attract corps to cities like Stamford and New Haven. Plenty of young people would be happy to work in smaller cities like those.

The trick is, for suburban corps like GE and Lego, how can we preemptively persuade?

I wish New Haven’s leadership was better at business attraction and PR. I don’t think it’s one of the mayor’s priorities. Yale is doing all the hard work there.

I think Stamford is somewhat sellable. New Haven is not IMO. It's not a matter of having nice restaurants; its about making a business, bottom line case, where a city you want to see grow must show it can help a corps bottom line more than all others can.

Given Lego's partnership with MIT, we had no shot. I suspect as soon as Massachusetts got its act together, which it has the last decade, we were cooked.

[Stylo]

Originally Posted by BobNJ1960

I think Stamford is somewhat sellable. New Haven is not IMO. It's not a matter of having nice restaurants; its about making a business, bottom line case, where a city you want to see grow must show it can help a corps bottom line more than all others can.

Given Lego's partnership with MIT, we had no shot. I suspect as soon as Massachusetts got its act together, which it has the last decade, we were cooked.

Agree to disagree on New Haven. It also goes well beyond nice restaurants. It’s an overall desirable quality of life on multiple levels for workers.

Also re: Stamford being “somewhat” sellable, really? It has one of the strongest corporate presences of any city its size in the nation.

Sometimes when you’re this pessimistic, your posts just fall on deaf ears.

[BobNJ1960]

Originally Posted by Stylo

Agree to disagree on New Haven. It also goes well beyond nice restaurants. It’s an overall desirable quality of life on multiple levels for workers.

Also re: Stamford being “somewhat” sellable, really? It has one of the strongest corporate presences of any city its size in the nation.

Sometimes when you’re this pessimistic, your posts just fall on deaf ears.

Stamford IMO is likely maxed out at a terrific level. It's doing best amongst our cities, but to grow means to attract more.

It also faces competition now, as South Norwalk and Greenwich were wise to emulate its shuttle system, which was a great draw just Stamford had not that long ago. I think Norwalk will outgrow Stamford going forward.

New Haven needs more than buses, but rather shuttles from the train station (not train to Union, bus to Church, 3rd mode of transit from there). It also needs earlier Metro North service, as its not conducive to travel to work on time in that direction. None arrive until well after 7, and no one riding would work at Union Station. But to make shuttles work, you first must attract many corps to one location (think Merritt 7 or any Stamford office park.) Corps share the cost allocated amongst them.

The disadvantage NH, Bridgeport, Waterbury face is business structures there were not built with aggregating them in mind. They were built with suburban drives in mind, which is not the mindset of young talent.

Stamford corrected its early decades mistake of having trains w/o additional easy to use service to office parks. Can NH do that?

[SteveM85]

Originally Posted by Stylo

Agree to disagree on New Haven. It also goes well beyond nice restaurants. It’s an overall desirable quality of life on multiple levels for workers.

Also re: Stamford being “somewhat” sellable, really? It has one of the strongest corporate presences of any city its size in the nation.

Sometimes when you’re this pessimistic, your posts just fall on deaf ears.

Both Stamford and New Haven are off the charts killing it no doubt, one hundy percent.
I know several with recent grad kids in Stamford. One is in a house near DT with college roommates. Others are DT and Harbor Point. They have friends from out of state that came along. They go nuts when you ask them how things are there. Younger workers and grads are flocking to Stamford like never before. These are not just anecdotal. It’s indisputable cold hard facts.

[Stylo]

Originally Posted by BobNJ1960

Stamford IMO is likely maxed out at a terrific level. It's doing best amongst our cities, but to grow means to attract more.

It also faces competition now, as South Norwalk and Greenwich were wise to emulate its shuttle system, which was a great draw just Stamford had not that long ago. I think Norwalk will outgrow Stamford going forward.

New Haven needs more than buses, but rather shuttles from the train station (not train to Union, bus to Church, 3rd mode of transit from there). It also needs earlier Metro North service, as its not conducive to travel to work on time in that direction. None arrive until well after 7, and no one riding would work at Union Station. But to make shuttles work, you first must attract many corps to one location (think Merritt 7 or any Stamford office park.) Corps share the cost allocated amongst them.

The disadvantage NH, Bridgeport, Waterbury face is business structures there were not built with aggregating them in mind. They were built with suburban drives in mind, which is not the mindset of young talent.

Stamford corrected its early decades mistake of having trains w/o additional easy to use service to office parks. Can NH do that?

New Haven can certainly improve its transit. The street car idea was the right idea, but maybe too lofty. That said, there’s a free shuttle from the station to downtown now, and the State Street station is super close to downtown. It’s more walkable than many cities we have. The Church St South development is critical, as it’ll make the walk from Union to downtown less creepy and desolate.

There could be more office buildings built for HQ’s that are reachable by current transit. The site across from Union Station would be excellent. There’s still plenty of underused lots and parking lots that can be converted. Maybe even mixed use high rise (retail, office, apartments).

The outliers of newer office space are Science Park and District. There’s plenty of parking though. I know younger people that work in both and they don’t mind car commuting (one walks from apartment in East Rock), because it’s pretty easy in this area. Not all young people want to be car-less, that’s too broad a generalization. It’s not like NYC, Boston, or even Stamford where car commuting is terrible. So while more transit connections would be good, the city is still in pretty good shape overall for commuting.

[mdovell]

Originally Posted by robr2

Sports are valuable because they are watched live most of the time. The number of people who sit through commercials during sports is very high.

Disney doesn't need to sell ESPN to finance movies or shows for Disney+ or Hulu. They generate enough cash from those to be able to do both.

Right the commercials doing sports are very highly priced. But at the same point all of them were released on the internet on YouTube literally a few days ago. I spent a half hour of my lunch on Thursday and saw all of them. If it's so valuable you wouldn't be able to see them all beforehand.

Disney is a huge corporation and there's competition within it for money. I'd imagine Netflix is the same way. So if your resources aren't making more money for the company I'd imagine there's probably some form of cuts. I'm not saying they'll close down ESPN but I wouldn't be surprised if they sold it off to somebody else or something else. NBC's now owned by comcast, CBS is owned by Paramount. Maybe Amazon could go for the whole thing or Google regardless there's a number of companies now competing in sports.

This is another situation where the mother company of a division is calling the shots and it's all completely outside of Connecticut. Maybe Facebook can make a grab for it and put it under Facebook watch? We don't know. Maybe Apple could make a grab. Imagine if every single Apple device was directly connected to ESPN content. Content is King and if you want it you're going to pay top dollar for it.