My working model of a good location is either in or around Ann Arbor.
Travel is going to be a concern for any location, I think. Why? I think you want visiting scholars, the ability to reach out to other organizations, the ability for folks who have become sort of part of the rationalist diaspora to be able to physically reach out and connect. You may not want to be in the major city, but ready access to an international airport seems like a good filter, as the farther the nearest one is away from you, the steeper the gradient to get anyone to come visit is.
If you run through a list of hub airports and rule out the west coast for fires and much of the south due to hurricanes, you’re left with a pretty short list of cities and very few with good nearby colleges that might be cultural fits:
American Airlines:
New York LaGuardia Airport (LGA)
New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)
New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)
Detroit Metropolitan Airport (DTW)
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG)
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)
Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP)
Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC)
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA)
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
I’m ignoring Southwest as they don’t have “hubs” per se, and smaller regional airlines.
If you rule out most of the west coast due to ongoing fire troubles, and don’t choose to go south, to avoid hurricane country, you’re left with mostly DTW, ORD, PHL, BOS, CVG, or IAD. ORD hits some serious unrest and governance issues that give me pause. PHL is also a bit of a hotbed. BOS means you probably wind up an hour and a half plus out in New Hampshire, or dealing with Massachusetts taxes.
DTW seems to be the only one that you get a good college town (Ann Arbor) within a short drive, if you want folks to have a social life and access to a local talent pool, but also don’t want to be _in_ the college part of the city over unrest concerns. So with that in mind, my working model of a good location is either in or around Ann Arbor.
It gets you a half hour from an international airport, DTW, which is a hub airport for Delta, meaning travel for visiting scholars and for folks on the fringe of the edge of the community is easy, and stays single airline, covering the US, Europe, and Australia (2 hops, but same airline).
If you want to be able to isolate away from people in anticipation of either ongoing COVID concerns or another COVID-like problem or unrest, 5 minutes out of Ann Arbor, either east into Superior Township or west, you hit farm country, and can buy lots of space. Go a bit north and you get some nicer lakefront places.
There is a sharp political gradient which gives me pause about flashpoint concerns, however, most of that ire is directed at Lansing, not Ann Arbor. It does mean that you can pretty much pick the politics of your neighbors based on where you plant your flag though.
Downsides:
There isn’t any good public transit link to DTW. (Yes, there is a bus or something, but I’ve never seen anyone make it work.) But Uber still exists for now, and cabs will likely exist after.
There are some anti-mask whack-jobs in the state legislature. On the other hand, alternatives discussed here so far aren’t any better on that front. e.g. New Hampshire has no state mask mandate either.
All of the above travel analysis is contingent on airlines still being a going concern, of course, which will probably be a function of how long it takes for things to approximate “normal”.
Thoughts on other locations:
Vancouver: Has all the breathing problems of California, and adds Canadian immigration.
Hamilton or Waterloo: Canadian immigration, no easy travel.
Seattle: Still trouble breathing, bit cheaper than the bay, but if you’re trying to escape feeling like the world is on fire it doesn’t seem to check that box. Also, CHAZ for good or ill.
New Hampshire: Gives access to MIT instead of University of Michigan, which is admittedly a better cultural fit, but is significantly further away. Though, Dartmouth, UNH might fill the gap somewhat. Politically it seems a bit more stable, which I confess may be a strong consideration.
Austin checks a lot of the same boxes, except for the hub airport one, and is arguably a better cultural fit. There was some talk in 2018 of Delta making it a “mini-hub”, but who knows where that went. I don’t have enough travel experience in/out of Austin to compare.
True. Sorry. My baseline for that passing tax comment was the previous clause about New Hampshire, as it seems a significant part of the argument trotted out in favor of New Hampshire, over all the other points scattered around Boston. e.g. northern or western MA, New Haven, Providence, etc.
I do agree that it is, as you point out, almost as strong a strike against my Ann Arbor narrative.
Austin checks a lot of the same boxes, except for the hub airport one, and is arguably a better cultural fit. There was some talk in 2018 of Delta making it a “mini-hub”, but who knows where that went. I don’t have enough travel experience in/out of Austin to compare.
I didn’t travel that much out of Austin, and mostly to other hubs, but I never had a bad time and often could get direct flights. The main hassle is just that it’s far from the other places, and so the flights take a while, but that’s always going to be true for at least some people. [I suspect it’s better to be close to some places and further from others than medium distance from everyone, but that’s not obvious.]
I’m from Madison and had a really great experience growing up there, but my current feeling is that Wisconsin is a pretty bad place to be on the political polarization dimension.
My working model of a good location is either in or around Ann Arbor.
Travel is going to be a concern for any location, I think. Why? I think you want visiting scholars, the ability to reach out to other organizations, the ability for folks who have become sort of part of the rationalist diaspora to be able to physically reach out and connect. You may not want to be in the major city, but ready access to an international airport seems like a good filter, as the farther the nearest one is away from you, the steeper the gradient to get anyone to come visit is.
If you run through a list of hub airports and rule out the west coast for fires and much of the south due to hurricanes, you’re left with a pretty short list of cities and very few with good nearby colleges that might be cultural fits:
American Airlines:
New York LaGuardia Airport (LGA)
New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)
Philadelphia International Airport (PHL)
Washington Ronald Reagan National Airport (DCA)
Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT)
Miami International Airport (MIA)
Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD)
Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport (DFW)
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
United:
Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR)
Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD)
Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD)
Houston George-Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH)
Denver International Airport (DEN)
San Francisco International Airport (SFO)
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
Delta:
Boston Logan International Airport (BOS)
New York LaGuardia Airport (LGA)
New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)
Detroit Metropolitan Airport (DTW)
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG)
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)
Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP)
Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC)
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA)
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
I’m ignoring Southwest as they don’t have “hubs” per se, and smaller regional airlines.
If you rule out most of the west coast due to ongoing fire troubles, and don’t choose to go south, to avoid hurricane country, you’re left with mostly DTW, ORD, PHL, BOS, CVG, or IAD. ORD hits some serious unrest and governance issues that give me pause. PHL is also a bit of a hotbed. BOS means you probably wind up an hour and a half plus out in New Hampshire, or dealing with Massachusetts taxes.
DTW seems to be the only one that you get a good college town (Ann Arbor) within a short drive, if you want folks to have a social life and access to a local talent pool, but also don’t want to be _in_ the college part of the city over unrest concerns. So with that in mind, my working model of a good location is either in or around Ann Arbor.
It gets you a half hour from an international airport, DTW, which is a hub airport for Delta, meaning travel for visiting scholars and for folks on the fringe of the edge of the community is easy, and stays single airline, covering the US, Europe, and Australia (2 hops, but same airline).
If you want to be able to isolate away from people in anticipation of either ongoing COVID concerns or another COVID-like problem or unrest, 5 minutes out of Ann Arbor, either east into Superior Township or west, you hit farm country, and can buy lots of space. Go a bit north and you get some nicer lakefront places.
There is a sharp political gradient which gives me pause about flashpoint concerns, however, most of that ire is directed at Lansing, not Ann Arbor. It does mean that you can pretty much pick the politics of your neighbors based on where you plant your flag though.
Downsides:
There isn’t any good public transit link to DTW. (Yes, there is a bus or something, but I’ve never seen anyone make it work.) But Uber still exists for now, and cabs will likely exist after.
There are some anti-mask whack-jobs in the state legislature. On the other hand, alternatives discussed here so far aren’t any better on that front. e.g. New Hampshire has no state mask mandate either.
All of the above travel analysis is contingent on airlines still being a going concern, of course, which will probably be a function of how long it takes for things to approximate “normal”.
Thoughts on other locations:
Vancouver: Has all the breathing problems of California, and adds Canadian immigration.
Hamilton or Waterloo: Canadian immigration, no easy travel.
Seattle: Still trouble breathing, bit cheaper than the bay, but if you’re trying to escape feeling like the world is on fire it doesn’t seem to check that box. Also, CHAZ for good or ill.
New Hampshire: Gives access to MIT instead of University of Michigan, which is admittedly a better cultural fit, but is significantly further away. Though, Dartmouth, UNH might fill the gap somewhat. Politically it seems a bit more stable, which I confess may be a strong consideration.
Austin checks a lot of the same boxes, except for the hub airport one, and is arguably a better cultural fit. There was some talk in 2018 of Delta making it a “mini-hub”, but who knows where that went. I don’t have enough travel experience in/out of Austin to compare.
MA taxes are not that different from MI? In Ann Arbor you would be paying 4.25% income tax and 6% sales tax, compared to 5% and 6.25% in MA.
True. Sorry. My baseline for that passing tax comment was the previous clause about New Hampshire, as it seems a significant part of the argument trotted out in favor of New Hampshire, over all the other points scattered around Boston. e.g. northern or western MA, New Haven, Providence, etc.
I do agree that it is, as you point out, almost as strong a strike against my Ann Arbor narrative.
I didn’t travel that much out of Austin, and mostly to other hubs, but I never had a bad time and often could get direct flights. The main hassle is just that it’s far from the other places, and so the flights take a while, but that’s always going to be true for at least some people. [I suspect it’s better to be close to some places and further from others than medium distance from everyone, but that’s not obvious.]
+1 to Ann Arbor.
I’ve also heard hearsay about Madison, WI being good.
I’m from Madison and had a really great experience growing up there, but my current feeling is that Wisconsin is a pretty bad place to be on the political polarization dimension.
Madison checks most of the same cultural boxes, but it loses out on the ease of international air travel.