I mentioned before that Google was planning on opening up shop in The Dalles. So why The Dalles? Because there’s a big frickin’ hydroelectic dam there, and Google might need the extra power. Interesting theory, and actually makes a great deal of sense.
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Google probably likes The Dalles for the low cost electric power from the local public owned utility district, a big underutilized fiberoptic cable, an industrial park that was ready to go and some nice tax incentives. Plus it is in the Columbia Gorge Scenic area with the assoicated quality of life issues windsurfing, hiking, etc.
Well now that the electric power contracts that were originally allotted for the aluminum plant in The Dalles by the BPA have expired it creates a prime environment for a company like Google to have an efficient uninterrupted flow of power for big servers.
Not to mention it has become downright hell to conduct business in California and nearly impossible to afford housing in the Silicon Valley area. The taxation on business there is quickly forcing a lot of major corporations to consider moving their interests to other states that are willing to make tax incentive for them to relocate.
The Dalles has a lot to offer a company like Google, a new and growing community college, a great school system, awesome teachers and affordable housing, not to mention a beautiful scenic place with a whole lot of history to call home.
Growing up in The Dalles was a wonderful experience. I am glad that I moved away when I did and I know I will most likely never live there again, but it still is a place that I can say we never had to lock our doors and I definitely felt safe growing up there.
I agree with the above posts regarding the availability of power from the dam as well as the low cost of property and tax incentives.
Another thing is the pool of ‘available’ (read unemployed) workers in the area. When the aluminum plant shut down, a large percentage of the community was left jobless. There is an electronics program of some sort at the Community College where some of these employees did some re-training. They may be able to fill some of the technician jobs Google will require. However, overall there is not a pool of people in the area to fill the higher end 60K/year jobs that they are bragging on providing – they will have to bring in people from the outside or current employees (read californians) to
do that work.
So all in all it’s part of the big Californian plot to take over Oregon. 😛
No, its not the power, its the dark fiber that runs all along the Columbia River that they want. Check out the following links: http://news.com.com/Google+wants+dark+fiber/2100-1034_3-5537392.html
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For those of you who may have a slight interest in employment when google arrives, consider that recruiters search the internet too and may seek to determine and remember who is positive and who is negative with regard to this
if any of you have any slight interest in a job just remember that recruiters read posts too; if a google recruiter wants to seek strong positive personalities (as opposed to negative) they can read these boards to find who would and would not be potential candidates in such a small community
One reason that Google may have chosen to locate a facility in The Dalles, Oregon is simply the attraction of the whole Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area as a draw to prospective employees. There is a lot to be said for the small town ambiance and the relatively short trip down the freeway to the city of Portland and that international airport just 85 miles west. There is so much to do recreationally within a 30 mile radius of The Dalles that it’s hard to imagine anywhere else being so flexible.
(Continued from previous post) Its not unusual for residents here in “the Gorge” to run their air conditioners and their heaters in the car or the house on the same day during the spring and fall seasons. We have snow skiing, waterskiing, parasailing, kitesailing, windsurfing, jetskiing, sailing, snowboarding, white water rafting, kayaking, world class salmon and steelhead fishing; elk, deer and turkey hunting, sternwheeler cruises, sailboat races, mountain biking, hiking, the Goldendale planetarium, the historic Maryhill Museum along with the Stonehenge (a replica of the original in England), the gorge games and much more.
(continued from previous post) The Dalles hospital is a modern facility with a spectacular panoramic view perched on the hillside overlooking the mighty Columbia River with Mt. Hood and Mt. Adams in the distance. There is a new golf course going in in Dallesport, just across the river near the area’s local small airport. The Dalles is located just below John Day and The Dalles hydroelectric dams and above the Bonneville Dam, all sources of power supplying Washington, Oregon and Northern California.
The weather in The Dalles is very much like Palm Springs, California. It’s sunny about 300 days a year, cold in winter, hot in summer, breezy year round, not much snow as a rule and located on the highly traveled of the western part of Interstate 84 which runs from Portland, Oregon all the way to Interstate 80 in Echo, Utah near Salt Lake City.
(continued from previous post) There are at least two popular gaming facilities within easy driving distance of The Dalles, with a third scheduled to be built halfway between The Dalles and Portland in the near future. The demographics of the area are definitely indicating strong growth and an influx of more highly educated and more affluent residents choosing to relocate to the gorge area from California, the Seattle and Portland I-5 corridor, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming and from the east coast. Property prices are steadily escalating to reflect that trend. Why The Dalles? Because its the leading edge of a wave of new growth in an exciting place where people want to live. Google isn’t the only business choosing to invest in the gorge and that’s also a good indication that they are on the right track.
Does anyone know when they will open and how to apply? I commute to ptld every day from hood river and this looks like a good opportunity for employment.
Comments have been made about affordable housing. Where? Not in The Dalles. Yes prices are low, but housing is actually very tight there with very few homes available–and prices are climbing up at a healthy rate. There are no new subdivisions, and controls are extremely tight in the gorge for new construction. Unless you’re talking about hiring residents already living in the area–“new hires” are going to have a tough time finding a place to live.
Firberoptics in the dalles
Google is going to open an office in The Dalles for all the reasons that have been listed. I can speak personally about the NLR due to my involvement. http://www.nlr.net/
The internet is too slow for transferring the huge amount of data that is generated during R&D in most scientific fields. R&D in the areas of nuclear physics, astrophysics, particle physics, cosmology, metrological, genomics, proteinetics etc will generate not MB, not GB, but TB data sets and even greater a. Who does such research? Universities, NGOs, and GOs worldwide. CERN in Switzerland and Handford in the Tri-Cities to name a few, These institutions will be nodes on the new Internet2 fiber backbone. Part of this Internet2 fiber backbone passes right by the Dalles c/o NoaNet WA/OR to name one provider – their are many others. For one, Google’s search engine needs are growing exponentially to the point where the present network infrastructure can’t keep up with demands. The Dalles provides the all too familiar location, location, location for more reasons than one. I think Google is positioning itself to be the search engine of choice that the Internet2/NLR consortia will use – the Dalles provide a zero hop onto this new network. What do you think?
all the cronyism and buddyismm are the only ones in the dalles that are going to get anything out of google the locals are only going to be pushed out
And OhSoClose to Redmond! Imagine That!
I think California home prices are creeping up on us here in The Dalles now thanks to GOOOOOGLE! Do we need the jobs here ?? why, yes we do. Oh, but wait they are not for us, they belong to the people who will be moving up here: Little misleading I feel.
Now the hardworking middle class folks can no longer afford to buy homes. Thanks Google for working around the clock to build a place where residents of The Dalles can no longer afford to live.
What a culture clash! A modern and progressive mogul in The Dalles. If Google cares AT ALL about its reception in The Dalles, they had better make nice and approach the locals with a neighborly attitude and a financial answer to their potentially negative impact. If Google does not care about its local perception and reputation, then they will simply move in and lock the doors. Rajneeshpuram was not that long ago, and the locals remember the negative impact that outsiders can have on their name and community. Be careful, Google, The Dalles may be small potatoes to you, but the citizens of that tiny town can unite with a fury if they are being threatened in any way, especially by way of jobs and money. They have ridden the roller coaster of the aluminum plant, where local orchards and envioronmental impact of the pollutants also clashed. Unemployment waves are part of living in The Dalles, but this looks like a long term residency. Small town etiquette is a must in this situation if there is to be a good relationship.
We welcome Google to The Peoples Republic of Oregon. Bay Area Fagots we will rape you for all we can get, then you be kicked out the way McCall would have done it.
You are not welcome here,dig.
Reminds me of that bumper sticker I saw when I was in college in Portland in the late ’70s: “Don’t Californicate Oregon” (and that was several decades before anyone had heard of RHCP)
YOU KNOW WHEN HOME DEPOT CAME HERE MOST JOB HUNTERS COULDNT PASS A DRUG TEST, GOOD LUCK FINDING DRUG FREE WORKERS
Google and George Bush are 2 companies with same creation and expired date.Both they wanted to concer the world both they run out of power…..
Google employees moving to The Dalles: For housing, check out this link. Contact me @ 541-806-2743
javascript:ol(‘http://www.photovlado.com/images/for%20sale/index.htm’);
Oregon being taken over by californians….
Oregon is Californias Canada…ask Colbert.
“The weather in The Dalles is very much like Palm Springs, California” ? Has this person ever been to The Dalles, – or Palm Springs?
As a californian possibly relocating to the Dalles, I take issue with some of the posts submitted on this site. I have been visiting the Dalles for the past twenty years.I have found the people of the Dalles to be friendly and polite, even though our license plates clearly show we are “Californians”. It was because of these experiences and our want to assimilate and adapt to the life style in the area that we purchased a “retirement” home in the Dalles. We enjoy the Dalles the way it is and have no intent of “Californicating” the area. If by using that term you are referring to us driving up home prices by investing in the area and wanting to make it our home than I guess you are right. But economic growth and more prosperous times are right around the corner for everyone in the Dalles area and with the limited amount of building allowed in the Gorge area everyone will benefit while keeping that “small town feel”. The secret has been out for awhile about the beauty and recreation in the Dalles , it took Google to bring it to the national spotlight. This is not a “fly-by” Google is undertaking but a long term investment in “our community”.
I remember the Home Depot drug test fiasco, and yes, it was hilarious.
It’s funny what people will say anonymously that they wouldn’t in person. Having lived in The Dalles for several years (to the point that most people in town would recognize me on sight), I have to say, GOOGLE did nothig to hurt the town. Ignorance, lack of interest in education, relying on an aluminum plant to re-open (four years too long), and an underlying drug/alcohol problem (not unommon in an financially struggling area) is causing the problem.
I’d like to point to one post as an example:
“ilo said on 09/07/06 @ 02:10 AM:
Google and George Bush are 2 companies with same creation and expired date.Both they wanted to concer the world both they run out of power.”
Ilo, you kill me! Ha Ha!
How funny to see folks complaining about Californians when you all voted to Californicate yourselves through Prop 37.
How pathetic is this?
You don’t need us Californians, you idiots voted to do it to YOURSELVES.
Must be the incest.
LC
Laughing Californian – I am sure that the people who voted this in WERE from California! You see, every area of Oregon is being invaded by Californians. McCall didn’t make the signs big enough and someone took them down too soon.
Good move Google, hope you liven The Dalles (aka Pleasantville) up a little. It’s a great town, where great things are born… including myself. I can’t believe nobody has mentioned it’s right on I84, you can get to Portland within the hour.
Travis…even though I am from California, I have lived in the northwest, in Puget Sound. My husband is an avid windsurfer and we come up every year, we frequently hang out at the park on the river(that unfortunately is very dirty with diapers, dead fish, and trash, we always send the kids out to pick up trash and haul out more than we leave). We think the Dalles is a great place! That is why we bought a reitrement home and several other homes that we plan on renovating to beautify The Dalles. YES…an hour to Portland. Again, added value. No wonder Google moved on in. If the waterpark or golf course is ever built(rumor a few years ago) this place would really liven up.
Also Hood River is really nice, I’d have to say it’s much more modern than The Dalles even though they are neighbors. Sometimes I think it should be on the other side of the river because it somewhat reminds me of cities in western WA. Consider yourself lucky with the river pollution, I currently live in Alaska where thousands of salmon spawn and die every year making the banks of most rivers and streams look like a nuclear accident has occured. Good luck getting the kids to pick that up. And about the drug use in The Dalles, that would be highly frowned upon. Home Depot is a large corp like Google, but that’s where the similarities stop. I’m sure Home Depot faces that problem across the nation, where Google has a higher standard because of the industry they are in. I should mention one more thing before I finish this, and I’m sure the person that commutes everyday can confirm, sometimes they have to shutdown I84 due to icy conditions–just a heads-up.
Hood River is a short 17 min. drive by I84 and has many highly educated residents living there that have to commute to Portland to find work. If google is looking for a qualified local workforce they should seek out the Hood River residents.
I agree that Hood River has many highly educated people living there. But I doubt more so than The Dalles. I couldn’t find a consensus for education in Hood River and The Dalles but I did find that The Dalles almost doubles Hood River in population.
http://www.oregon.com/towns/population_alpha.cfm
I am orginally from The Dalles. Born and raised their . Moved away for emplyment some 27 years ago. Just recently my wife and I sold our home in Sacramento and moved to The Dalles. Upon our return we learned the housing prices went up about forty percent because of Google and over the past year the housing prices have declined. Also, there is a new subdivision being built, Mill Creek Crossing off of Mount Hood Street.
i think google is trying to take over the dalles, i think we need to over throw their corperation before they employ thirty thousand monkeys to kill all the humans off, JOIN THE REBELION!
So uh – some of you seem to be getting weird ideas. For one, if you are already living in The Dalles or Dufur your house is worth a lot more than it was. If you aren’t – too bad. I guess you weren’t dedicated enough to get the job. Also, if you can’t find somewhere to live, try Dufur. Its right outside The Dalles, has a lower rate of crime/drugs, and its housing is slightly lower.
Arafell you might want to mention how small Dufur is. My link says the pop. is 600 people vs. over 12,000 in The Dalles. You only get a general store, post office, small school/high school, restraunt/bar, and other small local services. Not that it is a bad thing, I just thought people should know.
For those who would like to get a better idea what The Dalles is like, there are several videos of the local are on my wife’s and my web site at http://www.ricexpats.com Go to the Video Sharing link to view videos
Thats why Dufur is a fairly good place to live – not as much crime and not as many people come hand in hand. You have Kramers, which is almost always open in case of emergency in terms of supply, and you have the Pastime, which is good if you don’t want to travel far or cook. Also, by weird ideas I was talking about randy – listen, I don’t think there are even that MANY monkeys in North America.
Ha ha ha ha , so how many people here are actually from the dalles? hmmm lets see here hmm , uhh about 7 out of 43. Well so far google has been not bad or good. I mean they won’t do anything with schools cause they’re so freaking secretive. Then I guess they have made jobs aviliable. They have essintailly commandered a local cafe for themselves ( One I really loved now I can’t go) now for things about the dalles. I admit we have a few druggies but, hood river has the same amount it just looks like more cause we have a few more people. Also in the dalles we have a great supply of computer savvy people. (me being one) And the river is just of dirty in hood river. (it’s not like it’s a different river down there) The reason hood river looks better is cause all the oregonians have been pushed out by increasing real estate prices due to lots of rich people (cough californians cough) to the dalles (me being in) well I guess thats enough for my rant/argument/being bored with a computer.
I’m not from The Dalles, but I visit my family there about once a year if not more. Last Fall I went down and we were actually prospecting a place to buy. Real estate is getting more expensive, but compared to the rest of the country it didn’t seem that impractical. I did notice a bunch of condos/town houses popping up that were never there before. My uncle is involved with a lot of the construction there and told me about a few more areas where real estate was being built. That should keep the rise of real estate cost from climbing as fast… but high real estate prices are only bad for the people that don’t own, otherwise it is a good thing. And yes The Dalles does have drug users and probably a dirty river (considering the size)… but I believe if they wanted to fix any of it they could, much like most of the cities in Oregon/America.
I have to weigh in with my comments. I was born and raised in The Dalles, moved to the Portland metro area for 18 years, and moved back to The Dalles in 2001. I’ve seen a lot of changes here over time. I also work closely with the business communities in both The Dalles and Hood River. The Dalles is a blue-collar, working-class neighborhood. Both communities are considered “rural Oregon”, although we are only an hour to an hour and a half outside of the Portland area. Google selected this area to locate because of the availability of power via The Dalles Dam, a fiber-optical network, being on the backbone of the internet, and the surrounding support of the community. Google has put a lot of money and effort into working with Columbia Gorge Community College to build the technical training program needed to provide education to train local workers. They also give back to the community by providing volunteers to help with a myriad of local fundraising events. The local residents are, overall, pleased to have Google here, even if it did double our housing prices that first year. You have to keep that fact in perspective. It maybe increased the value of a $65,000 house to $130,000… however a similar house in Portland might sell for $250,000. And while the changes in Hood River may have attracted a “richer” resident, those changes have been hard on the local residents. Housing prices are significantly higher in Hood River, and there are a lot of trendy shops that none of the locals can afford to shop at. My observation is that Hood River is turning into a “vacation home” locale, leaving many houses vacant during the winter. I’ve also noticed the people buying second homes there seem to be from Arizona, not California. The Dalles has a laid-back personality, the sun shines 300 days a year, we are less than an hour from year-round snow skiing and white-water rafting, scenic mountains, and have one of the richest historic regions in the country (www.historicthedalles.org). After an initial adjustment period, Google has stepped up to the bat to be a part of our community and The Dalles is happy to have them here.