[JimboOmega]

One thing that's left out is that young people want to move to certain cities because other young people also live there.

The economic/networking benefits are huge, of course. But you can't ignore the "cool" factor.

It's not just some ephemeral thing. Being in a "cool" city means vastly more and better dating opportunities. Also social ones - more like minded people - but dating ones in particular.

Young people with disposable incomes want to hang out and date others like them, and that's one of the biggest draws of a city like San Francisco.

[sirkneeland]

As a 28 year old single male who isn't about to impress women the world over with his athletic prowess, the dating pool is probably the biggest reason I live in San Francisco as opposed to some nearby cheaper suburb or even another city. It's not to be underestimated.

[eli_gottlieb]

That's not really a draw of San Francisco unless you're a female heterosexual or a homosexual of any kind. The gender ratio is pretty damn skewed.

Also, the old "odds are good, but goods are odd" saying shows how people actually feel about living in monocultured, gender-skewed environments.

[JimboOmega]

According to this, 50.7:49.3. I would not call that "damn skewed". http://www.city-data.com/city/San-Francisco-California.html

Also the same article suggests that 2.2% of households are gay male, while .8% are lesbian. That means the heterosexual ratio is even better.

Now I'll grant that it's easy as any place to run in circles that are skewed, and as much as we might wish (and often work) for it not to be the case, there are many more men involved in developing. If you only work and go to tech events (or other heavily gender skewed events, like Magic:The Gathering events), it might seem pretty skewed. But it's really not. There's a lot going on in the city.

Even then, "[the] odds are good, but [the] goods are odd" sells developers well short.

[eli_gottlieb]

Well then, I was just plain wrong and deserve all those downvotes.