New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told attendees at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in Manhattan that his city is clearly superior to Silicon Valley in every way. He advised software developers and other geeks to migrate to the Big Apple instead of Boston or California because “We already have more information and media jobs in New York City — 315,000 and counting — than any other metropolitan area in the nation. And during the first quarter of this year, venture capital funding in New York increased by 19 percent, even as it went down in Silicon Valley and the rest of the nation. That’s true. This is where it’s happening.”
To back up the sales pitch, the city offers loans to tech startups and invested $3 million in a tech investment fund. The city has also invested in a mobile app (NYCWay) and plans to create a media lab in partnership with “a major university.”
