Ranking is about more than tech assets
The most gratifying thing about Columbus’ elite ranking as a place for young info-tech professionals, on a list of more than 500 American cities, is that the ranking is by its own definition about so much more than just technology.
As reported by business writer Tony Adams, online technology Right Click has just released its list of the 2017 “Best Cities for Young IT professionals.” Of the 542 U.S. cities included on the list, Columbus ranks fifth, behind only San Antonio, Savannah, Winston-Salem and El Paso.
It’s significant that the two Texas cities on that list are famously attractive destinations, and that Winston-Salem is part of North Carolina’s Piedmont Triad that includes the Wake Forest Information Quarter for information technology research. Columbus and Savannah are in some pretty lofty company.
The principal criterion for the Right Click list, as reported in Adams’ story, is that of “livable communities that have a high number of jobs in the technology industry.” It also takes into account such economic factors as cost of living, earnings, housing and other practical matters. The presence here of information tech employers TSYS, Aflac and Delta Data is of course a major factor.
But it’s also about what it’s like to live here: “From the Chattahoochee River rapids to the Midtown historic district,” reads the Right Click summary, “there’s a lot to see, do and explore in Columbus. (And that’s before you count the city’s growing technology community.) “Columbus scored exceptionally well for cost of living and comparative salary … In addition to big dividends, Columbus is a great place to go if you’re looking for varied career options, affordable living and a new adventure each day.”
You don’t have to work in information technology for those kinds of assets to matter. Sometimes we need an outsider’s view to remind us of that.
Grim justice
Two young people will no longer be young when and if they get out of prison, and a third will be there until he dies. All because of the senseless, brutal and recklessly public murder of a fourth.
Gang violence is an all-too-common menace, here and elsewhere, and murder is murder under any circumstances. But it’s not surprising that this cold-blooded, premeditated killing drew an exceptional amount of interest. Not only was the victim shot 10 times, but the callous disregard for the lives of everybody in the vicinity is tantamount to a violent crime in its own right: The shooting took place just outside the Peachtree Mall food court on a Saturday evening.
Prosecutor Pete Temsgen called the gang responsible for this bloodletting “a predatory gang … they commit violent crimes.” The defendant who actually pulled the trigger, who will serve life without the possibility of parole, Temesgen said, is “unrepentant, shameless and violent.”
In a sense, four young lives have been cut short. The three still living got infinitely more mercy from the court than they showed their victim.
This story was originally published May 25, 2017 at 5:25 PM with the headline "Ranking is about more than tech assets."