
New York City: Data Science’s Best Bet for Growth and Opportunity - agconway
https://blog.insightdatascience.com/new-york-city-data-sciences-best-bet-for-growth-and-opportunity-5349983e0490
======
vdnkh
I live and work in NYC as a JS developer, and I feel like it's a great place
to be. The community is strong here and there's a lot of diversity in what
people do, technical or not, within the tech community. The amenities are good
and I walk to work and honestly the rents are not that bad. Manhattan is the
most expensive, but if you want to save money Brooklyn, Queens, NJ, etc. are
cheaper and all linked by (mostly working) public transit. One of the biggest
factors keeping me here is the public transit and the fact that I don't need
to drive and sit in traffic.

~~~
Swizec
As someone living in SF I’ve been seriously eyeing NYC for a while now. It
just seems like an overall better city.

The roads are better, the people seem more varied, there’s even more things to
do outside work, there are seasons (god I miss weather), and the tech scene is
probably almost as strong.

But are there many startups? It almost seems these days more startups are
coming out of Europe than out of NYC.

~~~
lobotryas
You may want to consider a gentle reintroduction to "weather", especially East
Coast winters. Snow is fun when you're on a ski vacation. Decidedly less so
when it's wet and getting whipped into your face by the wind as you trudge to
work.

~~~
brentm
The winters in NYC really aren't that bad. Yes occasionally it snows but the
storms that dump inches of snow are infrequent enough to be novel. When it's
cold it's cold but if you're wearing the right jacket that isn't bad either.

~~~
santaclaus
> The winters in NYC really aren't that bad.

I still have nightmares about those hidden pools of half frozen brown sludge
that accumulate at street corners that turn your shoes pitch black if you
accidentally step in one!

------
rm999
NYC has a great ecosystem of experienced people who know how to program, know
math, and understand how businesses/product work. In this regard there are
many amazing qualified data science practitioners.

But, the data science startup scene is not really thriving in NYC yet.
Compared to the Bay Area, I see two main issues: a lack of data scientists
with strong software engineering skills, and a lot less angel money (probably
due to very few large successful exits).

~~~
cspanopticon
>>lack of data scientists with strong engineering skills >>less angel money

absolutely. this article is a great 30k feet up review of the scene and what
you add is true.

i operate NYC but literally live 100s of miles away as my affordable housing
policy, because I am building an open data science consultancy that is revenue
driven.

what i'd add happens is that your scientists and tech people are a step
removed from the real-world disciplines put in their petrie dish. they are not
working in business settings, but institutional ones, because there isn't
quite a silicon valley thing, and public-private-partnerships in NY mostly
mean corruption, not innovation.

that said, what makes the NYC scene really amazing is that most of us are
doing our part as a civic project.

------
code4tee
NYC has a much more diverse business environment than the Valley and that
grounds the tech industry a lot more to focus on solving problems. There's
much less acceptance of "Uber for lawn gnomes" app companies and a lot more
pressure to deliver true value (in my observation).

------
ryandrake
As someone who grew up in the NYC area, and who is currently feeling the
crushing suffocation of SF Bay Area cost of living, I'd love to go back. But
aren't the problems similar? In order to afford to own a home I'd likely have
to live in Pennsylvania and commute 2+ hours--not much different than in SF.
Plus, my understanding is that back east, tech is what companies use rather
than what companies make, so at most companies you'll be in a supporting role
rather than building the products. Is this true or are my assumptions
outdated?

~~~
skj
If you can afford a child's closet in SF, you can afford a small house in NJ
that is far closer than the 2+ hours you'd need to spend each way from PA.

------
Nelkins
In case anyone wasn't aware of the existence, the Open Data Law[1] means that
there are lots of fun data sets to play with [2]. Plenty of fodder for data
science projects. And if you want to get involved BetaNYC is one of the larger
civic hacker communities.

[1] [https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doitt/initiatives/open-data-
law.pa...](https://www1.nyc.gov/site/doitt/initiatives/open-data-law.page)

[2]
[https://opendata.cityofnewyork.us/data/](https://opendata.cityofnewyork.us/data/)

[3] [https://beta.nyc/](https://beta.nyc/)

