High-Tech Firms Form Silicon Valley Coalition

A group of leading high-tech companies has formed an unlikely alliance in order to stem the continued deterioration of California’s Silicon Valley.

The birthplace of countless electronic innovations has been in decline in recent years as once-recession-proof corporations have trimmed payrolls and shifted manufacturing to less-expensive locations.

A new group called Joint Venture: Silicon Valley was set up earlier this year to find ways to spur the stalled region, which stretches from San Jose to San Francisco.

“We are not looking for reports that collect dust, we want action,” said Tom Hayes, chairman of the group that brings together some of the valley’s leading citizens as well as staunch rivals.

But area executives say the region’s mounting problems--sky-high housing costs, freeway gridlock, high taxes, over-regulation and a poor educational system--are driving up manufacturing costs and forcing companies to look elsewhere for plant sites.

In a recent report by the Federal Reserve Board of San Francisco, economist Carolyn Sherwood-Call found that the area has lost about 33,700 jobs since 1990.

“Although technology continues to dominate the area, in recent years the economic boom has turned to a whimper,” Sherwood-Call said.