Research Triangle Park is on the list of 14+ cities that Alex classified one tier below our top thirty (as of one month ago): “Moved to backburner; had varying levels of initial interest but also flags; investigated and deprioritized; plausible something could bump them back onto our radar, but seems unlikely.” Along with places like Ithaca NY, Salt Lake City UT, Pittsburgh / CMU, Princeton NJ, and Providence RI.
I wasn’t involved in the decision process, so I don’t know why those fell to the backburner (maybe Alex or Blake will chime in later). Them being classified like that is both a positive update (we thought they were promising enough to seriously consider them) and a negative one (we’ve already investigated them and ran into obstacles or flags).
I wouldn’t be shocked if someplace on that list makes it to our shortlist in the future, and am in favor of hearing more impressions/arguments/considerations about places like those. I mentioned there’s maybe a 50⁄50 chance we change criteria (to pivot away from our focus on finding a campus) soon, in which case I expect the set of promising places to look pretty different.
I pitched a particular campus near Providence, RI in an email to Alex which I think meets at least most of the criteria I’ve seen. I’ll mention a few more general thoughts in favor of RI here:
Great beaches, state parks, and hiking trails
Less than an hour drive or train ride to/from Boston (same as I think you’d get from southern NH—Boston rush hour is going to be rough for driving regardless of which direction you’re coming from)
Providence itself is a decent city, although it doesn’t have a big tech scene
Multiple good colleges/universities within a few hours away (Brown is right in Providence)
Less snow in RI compared to NH (NH snow tends to stick around longer too)
Tick/mosquito control may be feasible for the property itself (https://www.bigbluebug.com/mosquito-and-tick-control), though this wouldn’t help for anyone planning to hike all over the state (although if you stick more to beaches than hiking trails, it’s not as much as a problem compared to NH in general)
I live in NH and have family in RI that I visit a few times a (non-plague) year. In general, RI has always seemed similar to southern NH to me both aesthetically and culturally (but with more ocean instead of lakes). So if MIRI were thinking about places in southern NH, I would think RI would have a lot of similar tradeoffs (besides maybe taxes, which I’d guess is better for business/property in RI but worse for individual/sales/income).
No Raleigh/RTP? They make the top of the city rankings for the US. I spent some time there and concur. https://www.numbeo.com/quality-of-life/region_rankings.jsp?title=2021®ion=019
Research Triangle Park is on the list of 14+ cities that Alex classified one tier below our top thirty (as of one month ago): “Moved to backburner; had varying levels of initial interest but also flags; investigated and deprioritized; plausible something could bump them back onto our radar, but seems unlikely.” Along with places like Ithaca NY, Salt Lake City UT, Pittsburgh / CMU, Princeton NJ, and Providence RI.
I wasn’t involved in the decision process, so I don’t know why those fell to the backburner (maybe Alex or Blake will chime in later). Them being classified like that is both a positive update (we thought they were promising enough to seriously consider them) and a negative one (we’ve already investigated them and ran into obstacles or flags).
I wouldn’t be shocked if someplace on that list makes it to our shortlist in the future, and am in favor of hearing more impressions/arguments/considerations about places like those. I mentioned there’s maybe a 50⁄50 chance we change criteria (to pivot away from our focus on finding a campus) soon, in which case I expect the set of promising places to look pretty different.
I pitched a particular campus near Providence, RI in an email to Alex which I think meets at least most of the criteria I’ve seen. I’ll mention a few more general thoughts in favor of RI here:
Great beaches, state parks, and hiking trails
Less than an hour drive or train ride to/from Boston (same as I think you’d get from southern NH—Boston rush hour is going to be rough for driving regardless of which direction you’re coming from)
Providence itself is a decent city, although it doesn’t have a big tech scene
Multiple good colleges/universities within a few hours away (Brown is right in Providence)
Less snow in RI compared to NH (NH snow tends to stick around longer too)
Tick/mosquito control may be feasible for the property itself (https://www.bigbluebug.com/mosquito-and-tick-control), though this wouldn’t help for anyone planning to hike all over the state (although if you stick more to beaches than hiking trails, it’s not as much as a problem compared to NH in general)
I live in NH and have family in RI that I visit a few times a (non-plague) year. In general, RI has always seemed similar to southern NH to me both aesthetically and culturally (but with more ocean instead of lakes). So if MIRI were thinking about places in southern NH, I would think RI would have a lot of similar tradeoffs (besides maybe taxes, which I’d guess is better for business/property in RI but worse for individual/sales/income).