After working out of shared space for three years, Raj Aggarwal’s mobile start-up is now successful enough to have its own address. But instead of staying in Kendall Square where it has thrived, Localytics is about to join the ranks of small tech companies moving out of the Cambridge hot spot.
“This has still got to be the single biggest concentration for technology companies. But that’s going to change,” Aggarwal said recently at Voltage Coffee & Art, a popular Kendall Square gathering spot.
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Come to union square in Somerville! It's biking distance from Kendall, rents are probably 1/3 of Kendall prices, and the restaurants are better.
Articles such as this do a remarkable job of directing attention to the 'issues' considered even when a headline makes one wonder at the timeliness of a report, remarking the pathetic use of surveys and the general mendacity associated with governmental decision making.
City officials commission an independent study from a reliable consultant, i.e., a consultant who has proven himself by previously supplying what is wanted by city officials.
The intent of the survey is to help officials figure out what attracts start-ups; way of saying, "Cambridge cares about you."
But MIT of course cares more. It has an institutional interest in the matter that Cambridge has not. So MIT provides what is to its advantage. Why is the city involved?
Because Cambridge does not want a reputation for being "only there for the big guys." Like Microsoft, beloved of the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority, which is of course independent of the city government. The city manager appoints only four of its five members.
When someone suggests that zoning could require a ration of 5% for the small innovators, and 95% for the pharmaceutic and technology giants, you know how serious they are about diversity.
The spiritual inwardness of Cambridge interfere with an awareness that this great city is part of a connurbation in which it has little control of the consequences of its policy making. Policy making that is instrumental in the transfer of wealth
from the less to the more affluent.