Why I traded Silicon Valley for "Philly-Con Alley"

If you like the term "Philly-Con Alley" then great, give me credit. If you don't, well, as they say in California, "Have a Nice Day!" East Coasters tend to say a harsher version that involves a few 4 letter words... Philly is home to Comcast and the birthplace of a few DDI companies and quite a few startups, so it is a very "Techie" city. When I tell people here that I just moved to Philly from California, they look at me like I have 3 heads. "What, you couldn't stand the amazing scenery?" and "You really missed shoveling snow and sleet that much?" and "You must hate perfect weather, huh?"

Ok, let's roll back to right after the 2nd costliest hurricane in US history, Hurricane Sandy. Those of us hardy East Coasters who experienced it will never forget. Some lost their lives, a lot lost their homes and businesses, still more suffered for weeks afterward with out power, gasoline, street lights, all those things we take for granted. We were more fortunate than others, but still suffered the power outage, gas lines and the inhumanity of people taking advantage of the situation. What kind of lowlife would steal a generator powering someone's home in a disaster? Yeah, THAT kind of lowlife and there were plenty of them.

Everything was back to relative normalcy in early December when we got slammed by a Mid-December blizzard. "I'm not living thru another Winter here!", said my wife after I came in from snow-blowing our driveway one freezing December morning. We were looking forward to the prospect of being empty nesters anyway in the Fall, so I was on board with the relo plan. As far as destinations, let's just say that our choices were radically different, Arizona for her and Florida for me. As anyone who's been married a long time knows, marriage is a compromise, so we both settled on the San Francisco Bay area. Beautiful weather, scenery, no bugs, healthy lifestyle, what could go wrong?

The company I was working for at the time very generously relocated us. Moving is tough, even two blocks away, but an East Coast to West Coast move after being in the same house where you raised 3 kids is a mind altering event. It's even worse doing it in reverse after 4 years! So, we started sorting, packing, selling, donating and just throwing out stuff. Rule of thumb: If you store something away for for awhile, and don't touch that box or container for 6 months or more, you really don't need what's in that box, do you? In all, the move was relatively painless, except for the 50+ bags of trash outside our cul-de-sac at our old home and then nervously awaiting for our bed to arrive in San Jose.

For a few years we were really living the American Dream in Silicon Valley. That winter (of 2013-2014) was horrible for the East Coast and the Midwest, and we just sat on our balcony in the balmy, low humidity of the South Bay. We smiled at the reports of snow storms on TV and commiserated with our friends' posts of Snowmageddon back east on Facebook. We enjoyed the wineries, the beautiful Bay Area scenery and all it had to offer. Bought a house in a nice little town right at the start of the Santa Cruz mountains. We flew our kids out for the major Holidays, flew ourselves east for some. Life was awesomely good. But the only thing constant is change, and air miles vaporize pretty quickly, (over half a million burned up). I changed jobs and didn't travel as much, especially to the East Coast, so instead of months, it became years before the whole family was able to be together. This past Holiday season, only my wife was able to travel back east to see one of my boys and his fiancee. I really wished I could have gone but it wasn't in the cards.

I went to SFO to pick up my wife and our little chihuahua after being away for 2 weeks. The first thing she said to me was: "We have to move!" I immediately understood. The next call was to our realtor, a really great guy who's a former east coaster as well, so he got it. Plans were made, open houses arranged and before we knew it we were in his office signing off on an offer from prospective buyers. We went out to celebrate our good fortune at a local steakhouse where a close friend was celebrating his Birthday-- it was a red-letter day for sure. But California was not going to let us go so easily.

Two days before the moving truck arrived, my wife fell and broke her shoulder in an open air mall in Marin County while we were on a little mini-vacation. We aimed to visit all those close-by spots that you never visit when you live there because you figure they're local, you'll get there eventually, right? I lived in the NYC Metro area 38 years before I visited the Statue of Liberty. So this time, the move was a bit more chaotic. There was a lot of stress directing the packers in our old house (will never use that mover again) and trying to coordinate the arrival of the truck. There was too much stuff for the apartment (What do you expect when you trade 2000 square feet for 1100?), and my wife had major surgery on her shoulder here in Philly 2 days after arriving (thank goodness for the great Medical care here!) etc.

Now, we've settled into our hi-rise apartment here in Center City Philadelphia and love it. We get to see my son and his fiancee a lot, and are flying our other boys in for a few days soon so we can all be together. We miss the weather and beauty of Northern California, and some dear friends we left behind, but you can't put a price on being closer to your own flesh & blood. After all, when all's said and done, what really makes you happy is having your family and friends nearby as grow older. There is a Ted Talk with Robert Waldinger that discusses that topic exactly, you can view the video here

So again, I'm glad with our choices and lessons learned. Thanks for reading this. I'm done... I'm going to walk over to the Art Museum...no, go for a bike ride on Kelly Drive...no, Reading Terminal Market! I think it's time for an awesome Cheesesteak! Or maybe a soft pretzel, or a Yards beer...