Syracuse, New York, has been named as the new site for Micron Technology’s $100 billion computer chip plant (Weiner). Micron Technology is considered the industry leader in the development of memory chips and reported $8.7 billion in profits in the 2022 fiscal year. The new plant marks the largest single private investment in New York history. It also means the the creation of up to 9,000 jobs over the next 20 years (Weiner). The project is additionally expected to bring 40,000 supply-chain and construction jobs to the Syracuse area and New York state (Weiner). According to Governor Hochul and Senator Schumer, Micron’s placement in Central New York will be transformative for the area, boosting the economy over the next two decades and making it one of the major centers of high-end chip manufacturing in the United States (Weiner). This news signals a huge win for Syracuse, a former rust-belt city which, like many old industrial centers, has struggled amidst globalization.
As a result of an influx of jobs from the Micron plant, the region will need to build enough housing to accommodate the tens of thousands of new residents expected to move to the area (Moriarty & Knauss). County officials are expecting a building boom of apartments and single family homes, especially in Clay and other northern suburbs. In the town of Clay, where the plant will be built, usually 50 to 100 homes are built each year in the town (Moriarty & Knauss). With the impending increase of residents, homes built each year in the town are likely to increase to 500 to 600 (Moriarty & Knauss). The town of Clay will not be the only municipality to see an increase in residents and housing demand, with estimates suggesting an increase of 125,000 in the county population over the next 20 years (Moriarty & Knauss). This represents growth of more than 25% in its population which is currently 478,000 (Moriarty & Knauss). Officials are also predicting the city of Syracuse itself will see an influx of residents (Moriarty & Knauss). While the inundation of families moving to the greater Syracuse region will certainly revive the struggling area, the question remains where all the housing will get built.
Furthermore, Micron salaries are relatively high, averaging around $100,000 per year (Moriarty & Knauss). Therefore, the new housing being built will likely be more upscale and expensive. Additionally, if the demand for housing fueled by Micron exceeds what the market can provide, rents will increase in the region. Typical rents in the Syracuse area have grown faster than those in New York City over the last two years, increasing over 26% since July of 2020 (Tampone). This is higher than the national rent growth average of 24% over the last two years (Tampone). Close to half of all renters in the Syracuse metropolitan area already spend more than 30% of their income on rent (Moriarty & Knauss). As a result, there are growing concerns that there will be a lack of affordable housing and that individuals will be pushed out of their homes as they are unable to afford continually rising rents. Rising rents will be the toughest on low income residents who already struggle to pay for housing. In order to combat this problem, county officials are working with builders to ensure a wide variety of new housing options, including affordable units (Moriarty & Knauss). Micron and the state will also fund a $500 million community benefits program which would help create opportunities for people in underserved communities in Syracuse, though further details have yet to be specified (Weiner).
Sources:
- https://www.syracuse.com/business/2022/10/micron-picks-syracuse-suburb-for-huge-computer-chip-plant-that-would-bring-up-to-9000-jobs.html
- https://www.syracuse.com/data/2022/09/rents-in-syracuse-have-spiked-harder-than-new-york-city-since-2020.html
- https://www.syracuse.com/news/2022/10/the-vision-micron-housing-boom-would-spread-far-beyond-clay-including-lots-of-urban-apartments.html
This might be a bit of an exaggeration, but this feels almost of what happened with Silicon Valley. When the technology industry exploded in the 1980s and 90s, home prices skyrocketed. For example, the average price for a home in Palo Alto, CA in 1994 was $406,300 (about $828,200 when adjusting for inflation). Today, the average price for a home there is over 3.5 million dollars and pretty much the entire area has become unaffordable. This is also happening in other cities that were once considered to affordable but have recent technological booms, such as Austin, TX. But another factor in the reason in the increase in prices was zoning laws. Many residents of these affluent towns voted down proposals to build apartments, and as a result, there have been more jobs created than housing units built. If the residents of Clay continue to uphold zoning laws, the area could soon become unaffordable. Obviously, this is only one plant, but if Central New York continues to attract technology hubs, home prices could continue to increase. Adding to that, climate change could make Central New York a more desirable area in the future, so technology companies might be more and more incentivized to open plants in the area.
Sources:
https://www.paloaltoonline.com/weekly/morgue/cover/1997_Mar_19.COVER19.html
https://www.zillow.com/home-values/26374/palo-alto-ca/
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/09/opinion/democrats-blue-states-legislation.html
Kate, this was very interesting to read, especially in the context of our mini unit on Syracuse and our field trip to the city. It is interesting to see how a new wave of industry (computer chips) is taking over a rust belt city that has seen decline as old industry and manufacturing jobs have moved out of the city. Since Syracuse built as an industrial power, the movement of the plant into this rust belt city raises some interesting question: is this gentrification? or revitalization? That Micron will boost the average income of the area and create a new upper-middle class corp in the city begs of the question of where rebuilding stops and gentrification begins. It is also interesting to see new industry being put into old industrial powerhouses. For the most part, I have not heard of this approach when rebuilding old industrial cities (instead, I’ve heard a lot about community organization and smaller grass roots efforts to build local communities). I will be interested to see how this plays out, and how it might serve as an example for other former industrial cities across the country.