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Why are business types not flocking to Provo?

Utah County civic leaders were on a high earlier this month after learning Provo ranked among the top 10 American cities in which to start a business or career.

Provo, with its high number of college grads, low pay scales and crime-free streets, came in sixth in a Forbes magazine survey, behind predictable leaders such as Madison, Wis.; Austin, Texas; Washington, D.C.; and Atlanta. Salt Lake City ranked 65th.

By Glen Warchol
The Salt Lake Tribune

http://www.sltrib.com/2004/May/05222004/business/168686.asp

Provo proudly displays the Forbes ranking on its Internet home page.

Unfortunately, Forbes could not leave well enough alone and asked its online readers to vote for the city among the top 10 to which they would be unlikely to move.

Readers were asked: "Which City would you least like to relocate to?" They put Provo at a dismal No. 2, after humid, crime-ridden and expensive Washington, D.C.

"There’s a perception that there is such a tight Mormon network here. It can be perceived as something hard to break into," said Shauna Theobald, regional director of the Small Business Development Center at Utah Valley State College. "I’m not sure what you do to address that."

That close-knit network has its benefits, she said. A strong "return to Zion" mentality has brought successful and influential business leaders, who also are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, back to Utah County, she says.

Those leaders bring savvy and startup money with them. "It can be a very positive thing," Theobald said.

Evelyn Rodriguez, a high-tech professional who left Utah a year ago to become a marketing consultant in San Jose, Calif., agrees Utah presents an intimidatingly closed business culture to outsiders.

"One of the reasons that Silicon Valley does well is that there are extremely strong social networks in play here, but they are flexible. Newcomers can break in," Rodriguez says. "In Provo, it’s a tight social network, too, but it’s not that adaptive."

Forbes editor Kurt Badenhausen, who put the list together, was somewhat perplexed by the voting, but said it squared with a statistic uncovered in the survey: Provo ranked at the bottom of the top 10 cities — and 103rd among 150 cities, overall — for net migration.

"Obviously, people aren’t flocking to Provo," he said.

Leon Przybyla, at Brigham Young University’s Technology Transfer Office, relocated to Utah in 1991, after 47 years as an entrepreneur in Palo Alto, Calif. He is familiar with the attitude that might be diagnosed as Provobia.

"There is a perception about Utah that it is not a place where you will have culture," Przybyla says. "Even Mormons [outside Utah] don’t understand it. Either way, people have attitudes. But that changes when you get here. It takes discovering."

Detailed information about the Forbes ranking is available by visiting http://www.forbes.com/bestplaces.

Least preferred cities

Visitors to Forbes magazine’s Web site were asked which of the magazine’s "Top 10 cities in which to start a business or career" they would least like to relocate to? They answered:

1. Washington, D.C.

2. Provo, Utah

3. Huntsville, Ala.

4. Boise, Idaho

5. Atlanta

6. Madison, Wis.

7. Austin, Texas

8. Lexington, Ky.

9. Richmond, Va.

10. Raleigh-Durham, N.C.

© Copyright 2004, The Salt Lake Tribune.
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