There are definitely some major differences, but there are comparisons as well.
The big comparison is how Detroit was mostly a one-horse town -- automobiles -- and it was economically ruined when that industry changed. Keep in mind that the industry didn't die... there are more cars now than ever. It just shifted in such a way as to unseat Detroit as the Silicon Valley of the automobile revolution.
Of course Detroit had other problems: race relations, corruption, etc. But those are problems that can be dealt with if a region has a good economic base. If it would have kept its Silicon Valley of the auto crown, I don't think they would have been big issues.
(Edit: Nowadays, Detroit is actually a potentially attractive contrarian place to go. Start here: http://omnicorpdetroit.com/blog/ )
When this happened, wages collapsed. When that happened, the leveraged real estate pyramid fell. When that happened, tax bases collapsed, infrastructure collapsed, crime soared, and everyone left. Kaboom.
This scenario could definitely happen to The Valley. Another scenario that could lead to a slower decline would be if SV completely priced out everyone but CXO-level people. This would transform it into a closed circle-jerk of high-ego CXO types, all of whom would be convinced (as such personality types generally are) that they've got everything all figured out. The Valley would become like a giant IBM-in-the-70s or Microsoft-in-the-90s, and the market would eventually leave it behind.
http://www.amazon.com/Detroit-Biography-Scott-Martelle/dp/15...
There are definitely some major differences, but there are comparisons as well.
The big comparison is how Detroit was mostly a one-horse town -- automobiles -- and it was economically ruined when that industry changed. Keep in mind that the industry didn't die... there are more cars now than ever. It just shifted in such a way as to unseat Detroit as the Silicon Valley of the automobile revolution.
Of course Detroit had other problems: race relations, corruption, etc. But those are problems that can be dealt with if a region has a good economic base. If it would have kept its Silicon Valley of the auto crown, I don't think they would have been big issues.
(Edit: Nowadays, Detroit is actually a potentially attractive contrarian place to go. Start here: http://omnicorpdetroit.com/blog/ )
When this happened, wages collapsed. When that happened, the leveraged real estate pyramid fell. When that happened, tax bases collapsed, infrastructure collapsed, crime soared, and everyone left. Kaboom.
This scenario could definitely happen to The Valley. Another scenario that could lead to a slower decline would be if SV completely priced out everyone but CXO-level people. This would transform it into a closed circle-jerk of high-ego CXO types, all of whom would be convinced (as such personality types generally are) that they've got everything all figured out. The Valley would become like a giant IBM-in-the-70s or Microsoft-in-the-90s, and the market would eventually leave it behind.