I grew up in the San Joaquin Valley and it's one of the most impoverished areas I've seen in the United States. It's ranked the least educated, highest drug consuming population in American for a few years running. There aren't a lot of opportunities for tech or business outside of agriculture.

There are a few people changing that in Fresno though. If you're interested in what it looks like to bootstrap tech in an area like this you should checkout bitwise [0]. They have been doing some good stuff there and have started to turn Fresno in a hub for tech for the SJV.

[0]http://bitwiseindustries.com/

The San Joaquin valley has more in common with other natural resource extraction areas such as the coal fields of Kentucky and West Virginia than it does with the Santa Clara Valley, just a few mountain ranges over.

I've always wondered why more back-office type of work doesn't move from the Bay Area over to Stockton, Fresno, or Merced - places that aren't that far away by car outside of rush hour.

> I've always wondered why more back-office type of work doesn't move from the Bay Area over to Stockton, Fresno, or Merced - places that aren't that far away by car outside of rush hour.

I used to wonder about that when I worked in Silicon Valley in the late '80s. It was the typical '80s startup where we often worked long hours. Generally, no one had time for much during the week other than work, a little sleep, and maybe an occasional movie. It was the weekend generally when people did their non-work fun stuff.

I grew up in the San Joaquin valley near Merced from 8 until I left for college. My Mom was still there when I was in Silicon Valley, and I'd visit her on major holidays. While visiting, I'd look at the real estate section in the local paper and compare to Silicon Valley.

What I saw was that the cost of reasonably nice Silicon Valley housing you could afford a nice, large house in the Merced area, on a few acres of land, with some luxuries like a pool and hot tub, and still have enough left over to afford to drive to San Francisco every other weekend and spend that weekend in a nice hotel, and eat at nice restaurants. It's only a couple hours drive between Merced and San Francisco.

Oh, and that Merced area house would not be in an HOA, and would be in an area with few zoning restrictions, so on those weekends you are not heading to San Francisco you have great flexibility to pursue your hobbies and interests. Ham radio operator? Put up as big an antenna as you like, and as many antennas as you like. Amateur astronomer? You've got reasonably dark skies. Have a lot of noisy tools in your home machine shop? No one cares--your neighbors are too far away to hear you. Into gardening? You've got lots of room for that. Like animals? You've got room for many pets, and you don't have to limit yourself to small ones that can spend most of their time in an apartment.

That analysis was for the late '80s. Merced is certainly quite different now. Back then, it was an ordinary place...it was not on the top of various "worst" lists. I have no idea if putting a company there now makes more sense or less sense.

I grew up in the San Joaquin Valley. I usually called it "the asshole of California", but I suppose "the armpit of California" is an equally apt moniker.