Comparing Orlando...

[I am Reality]

7 minutes ago, spenser1058 said:

Actually, first Florida was an agricultural Southern state that did not value education.  Then it became a paradise for retirees who felt they'd paid their dues back home and refused to pay for good schools. Then , just as the Urban Moderates led us into the top half of states in education for the first time, we entered the last 20 years of Republican governors and legislators who believe only the wealthy deserve a good education, so we've slipped back below average.

I actually laughed out loud.

It's only going to get worse (with the charter school thing)

[AmIReal]

^also, this^... sigh

[I am Reality]

The U.S. News & World Report released its 2018 Best Places to Live list.

Orlando was ranked #78.

The city did well with diversity, net migration, and unemployment numbers.

It did poor with "value" (defined as home costs compared to income) and crime.

Orlando's job market was also noted as doing less well than similarly-sized metros. The average wage is $43k, compared to $50k in similarly-sized metros.

The cities identified as being most comparable to Orlando were Charlotte, Pittsburg and Portland.

[orlandouprise]

I was wondering how home values made us drop since last year yet places like SF , Austin and Seattle have out of control home values that price more people out of the market than we have here...

Yet those cities are ranked WAY above us?

[I am Reality]

26 minutes ago, orlandouprise said:

I was wondering how home values made us drop since last year yet places like SF , Austin and Seattle have out of control home values that price more people out of the market than we have here...

Yet those cities are ranked WAY above us?

You're right...Housing prices in SF and Seattle are completely out-of-control right now.  It is an actual crisis there and residents are starting to leave.  (Austin may be having problems also; I have no reason to think you are wrong about it)

[I am Reality]

The past week in national tech jobs announcements:

 

Dallas:  Samsung is hiring 400+ new employees as part of an expansion/relocation.  The company already employs 1k workers at its existing office in suburban Dallas. 

Austin:  Global investment firm PIMCO selected Austin for its 3rd office yesterday.  The firm will hire 200 new employees.  At least half of the positions will be in technologies like artificial intelligence and machine-learning.

 

Raleigh:   Ipreo U.S. - a global financial services, technology, data & analytics firm - announced an expansion.  It will hire 250 new employees.  The firm already has 320 employees at its downtown office.  Average wages will be approx. $67k/year.  The 250 new jobs will add $549 million to the state's economy.  

 

Miami:  Augmented-reality company Magic Leap is currently hiring 160 new tech employees.  The company currently has 1,500 employees. 

 

Atlanta:  Fintech company InComm is adding 150 new employees.  

 

Cranbury, NJ:   WuXiAppTech is hiring 200 new employees for its expanded Laboratory Testing Division facility.  The company describes itself as a "leading global pharmaceutical and medical device open-access capability and technology platform company."

 

Raleigh:  Software company SAS is hiring 100 new employees.  The positions are in the "Fraud and Security Intelligence" unit.  The company already employs 5,200 at its corporate campus.

 

Boston:  3D -printing firm Formlabs is hiring 90 new employees with more jobs to be soon announced. 

 

Denver:   Education-tech firm 2U is hiring 100 new employees.  The firm already employs 400 workers at its downtown Denver office. 

 

St Louis:   Med-tech giant Thermo Fisher is hiring 80 new employees.  The company already employs 350 workers in St. Louis. 
 

[I am Reality]

New tech jobs announcements:

 

Indianapolis:   International tech company Infosys announced 3,000 new jobs this morning.  The company’s new campus will be located at a former airport terminal site.  Infosys had previously announced 2,000 employees in Indianapolis but announced it will expanding its original plans.  Today’s announcement is the largest jobs announcement in Indianapolis history, according to the Indianapolis Star. 

 

Atlanta:  Health-benefits firm Anthem will hire 3,000 new IT workers in Atlanta.  The company is currently building its $150 million Anthem Technology Center downtown, according to Curbed.

 

Dallas:  UK-based Basic Technologies selected Dallas for its new North American HQ.  The company will hire 100 new employees, according to the Morning News.

 

Washington, D.C.:   Software company Cvent is hiring 125 new employees at its Tyson’s Corner HQ.  The company is undergoing a “global” expansion.  Cvent’s Austin and Dallas offices are also hiring 20 workers each.

 

Austin:   Chip-maker AMD is currently hiring 132 new employees at its Austin HQ.

 

New Orleans:  Artificial-intelligence firm iMerit will hire 100 new employees, according to the Times-Picayune.

 

 

[I am Reality]

Vancouver:   Amazon announced 3,000 new jobs this afternoon (in addition to the 1,000 positions announced for Vancouver just a few weeks ago.)   Amazon is renovating the 1 million+ square-foot post-office located downtown.

Charlotte/Nashville:  Global investment firm AllianceBernstein announced Charlotte and Nashville are the finalists for a major office.  AllianceBernstein wants to move a large percentage of jobs out of its NYC HQ.   It opened an office in Charlotte with 550 employees just last year.  

 

[I am Reality]

I mentioned Nashville's vote on a $5.5 billion light-rail system in another section yesterday.

The proposal was defeated, although it was heavily supported by the local Chamber if Commerce.

I guess the plan was too ambitious and/or expensive.  That seems like a lot of money.

Or maybe the voters didn't want higher taxes.

The defeat effectively ends Nashville's Amazon HQ2 bid (already considered a long-shot).

In other Nashville news, it was selected by investment firm AllianceBernstein for hundreds of new jobs.  (see my above post). 

[bqknight]

Haven’t seen this posted. I’ll leave it here: 

INC Article

[I am Reality]

Pittsburgh and Seattle have been selected for new Facebook artificial-intelligence labs.  

FB AI-labs are already located in NYC, Silicon Valley, Montreal and Paris.

 

[orlandouprise]

On ‎5‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 9:45 AM, bqknight said:

Haven’t seen this posted. I’ll leave it here: 

INC Article

Awesome! Hope the trend snowballs

[I am Reality]

U.S. News & World Report released its annual report of the Best High Schools in the U.S.

Schools in the metro did particularly bad. 

The highest ranked school is Orlando Science Middle High Charter.  It is ranked:

#25 in Florida and

#269 nationwide.

For a metro as big as Orlando's, it couldn't land a school higher than #25 STATEWIDE?  I've never even heard of the school.

Other local schools in the top 50 in Florida are:

WP

Timber Creek 

Olympia

 Hagerty &

Osceola Co. School of the Arts.

As I've been saying, a strong economy starts with a strong education system.

[dcluley98]

3 minutes ago, I am Reality said:

U.S. News & World Report released its annual report of the Best High Schools in the U.S.

Schools in the metro did particularly bad. 

Ahem.  "poorly"

[HankStrong]

I'm declaring Orlando the National Champion of Cities.  Best city ever.  There is no legit comparison in the world.  Number one with a bullet!

Thread closed.  Story's over.  Turn out the lights.  Elvis has left the building.  Good night.

[JFW657]

1 hour ago, I am Reality said:

As I've been saying, a strong economy starts with a strong education system.

Why did u sedd that?

Kin I has a kworter?

[I am Reality]

1 hour ago, HankStrong said:

I'm declaring Orlando the National Champion of Cities.  Best city ever.  There is no legit comparison in the world.  Number one with a bullet!

Thread closed.  Story's over.  Turn out the lights.  Elvis has left the building.  Good night.

Some people seem to enjoy mediocrity.  

There is no need to be threatened by something better.  

It's good to want better.  A rising tide raises all boats.  And if you can't compete, find somewhere else where you can. 

[JFW657]

2 hours ago, I am Reality said:

Some people seem to enjoy mediocrity.  

There is no need to be threatened by something better.  

It's good to want better.  A rising tide raises all boats.  And if you can't compete, find somewhere else where you can. 

That having been said, now please tell us whose definition or opinion of what constitutes "better" will be used as the standard.

Yours?

How about mine?

Because I think my better is better than your better.

[I am Reality]

You want to know a decent standard?  

Okay...how about a standard where our best metro school is ranked higher than #25 IN THE STATE? 

Is that asking so damn much?

What kind of person would possibly have a problem with that, other than an apologist for horrible schools?

Based on your post, I disagree with you - your "better" is NOT better than my "better." 

[prahaboheme]

1 hour ago, I am Reality said:

You want to know a decent standard?  

Okay...how about a standard where our best metro school is ranked higher than #25 IN THE STATE? 

Is that asking so damn much?

What kind of person would possibly have a problem with that, other than an apologist for horrible schools?

Based on your post, I disagree with you - your "better" is NOT better than my "better." 

Central Florida has 20 of the top 100 schools according to the USNews rankings that you love to obsess over. It's crowded at the top. Also, it's important to note that many of the schools on this list are relatively new, such as Lake Nona and the Osceola County School of the Arts. 

If you insist on taking such a narrow simplistic view all the time, you are never going to be happy with anything. I encourage you to think broader, and with a more complex outlook.

[JFW657]

3 minutes ago, prahaboheme said:

Central Florida has 20 of the top 100 schools according to the USNews rankings that you love to obsess over. It's crowded at the top. Also, it's important to note that many of the schools on this list are relatively new, such as Lake Nona and the Osceola County School of the Arts. 

If you insist on taking such a narrow simplistic view all the time, you are never going to be happy with anything. I encourage you to think broader, and with a more complex outlook.

Not only that, but there are currently a total of 4269 schools in Florida.

To be 25th or in the top 50 out of 4269 is outstanding!!!! Top 0.5% I think.

And we do that with a high number of foreign language speaking students to whom English is a second language.

"I am Reality" seems to be rather removed from what he purports to be.

And BTW, there are 98,817public schools in the US.

How does 269th place out of that sound, IaR?

[UrbanRy00]

In addition, the us news and world report best schools always seems to be a little deceiving to me.  Out of the top 25 in Florida, the vast majority are very specialized arts or science schools.  I'd be interested to see a ranking of public schools with more than say 1500 students each.   

I think 1. Central Florida would be represented much better than they currently are in the report for Florida and 2. Give us a better indicator of how education stacks up in the region

[I am Reality]

14 minutes ago, JFW657 said:

Not only that, but there are currently a total of 4269 schools in Florida.

To be 25th or in the top 50 out of 4269 is outstanding!!!! Top 0.5% I think.

And we do that with a high number of foreign language speaking students to whom English is a second language.

"I am Reality" seems to be rather removed from what he purports to be.

And BTW, there are 98,817public schools in the US.

How does 269th place out of that sound, IaR?

There seems to be a real problem with facts  on this website.

People just make things up to fit their narrative.

There are 762 high schools in FL.

You were only off my 3,500 schools or so.  (That is actually an improvement after the college rankings fiasco last week).

As a parent of a child going into high school next year, I would take no satisfaction if he went to the 96th best HS in FL.  I have never heard anyone say "we're #96".

I  would expect better.  And you should too if you have children.  I am shocked I am the only person disappointed by the rankings.  Is everyone else just okay with the schools?  (If so, shame).

5 minutes ago, UrbanRy00 said:

In addition, the us news and world report best schools always seems to be a little deceiving to me.  Out of the top 25 in Florida, the vast majority are very specialized arts or science schools.  I'd be interested to see a ranking of public schools with more than say 1500 students each.   

I think 1. Central Florida would be represented much better than they currently are in the report for Florida and 2. Give us a better indicator of how education stacks up in the region

I meant to say earlier that people will make lame excuses.  I'm late, but let me say...people will make lame excuses. 

Funny how there are ALWAYS alternative reasons, other than the most obvious reason.  Loser mentality.  

[AmIReal]

I just did a very cursory look, but by MSA it looks like in the top 25 Miami got 16, Duval 5, Brevard 2 and Sarasota and Orange 1... Tampa 0. Is that right? 

If so, I'd like to say congratulations to Orlando Science Middle High Charter. You guys rock and you set a great example for our other schools! I'd also commend The Miami area for their tremendous showing. Good job.

[AmIReal]

I think there were 762 schools on their list, but Florida has over 2400 high schools. Many did not make the list due to not meeting one or more of the first 3 criteria on their stated requirements.