East coast gets some respect

As a long time resident of the New York City area I have always felt a bit like a fish out of water being a technologist. New York is the world leader in fashion, finance, advertising and media but it has always played second fiddle to Silicon Valley when it comes to tech. The fact is Northern California has the right mix of great universities, strong quality of life and a community of smart technical folks.

So it is nice to see some Silicon Valley heavy weights have decided to put engineering offices in the Big Apple. Just last week Facebook announced they will be opening up a technical office in 2012. This follows in the footsteps of Google who have had a technical NYC office for a few years now.

In addition to the two big kids on the NYC block it is quickly becoming apparent that start-ups are taking a shine to the city as well. Tech companies like SquareSpace and Etsy were born and grew up in the five boros. Check out the recent list of New York based companies from NY Tech Meetup and you will quickly realize the city is doing a good job fostering small start-ups.