Since we're talking Waterloo, what are local hackers' opinions on how a downward slide for RIM will affect the area/scene? I've been wondering this lately, especially since I've been considering looking for work in the area.
It's going to be brutal. I've been telling everyone I know in Waterloo for years not to buy any real-estate (especially those trendy lofts) because the prices will crash once RIM falls apart.
There's a lot more to this town than just RIM. I work, for instance, at the Institute for Quantum Computing, which is just one of the things that UWaterloo is pushing forward with. I'll grant you there's probably going to be some real-estate price crashes, but I don't know if it'll be as bad as all that.
You can probably add up all of the big, non-RIM, high-tech jobs in the area and still not beat RIM in sheer employment numbers.
Granted, last time I was in Waterloo was 2 years ago - but all of the (admittedly very cool) things going on there are little cakes compared to the hulking behemoth that is RIM - or soon, was RIM.
It's a little like Redmond - there are startups in the Bellevue/Kirkland/Redmond area, but if you remove MSFT none of that means terribly much.
Some perspective on the houses... have you noticed how bad 85 is every day? That is all the RIM employees that live in Milton or further away. Most of them did not move to town.
Sure RIM laying off all employees would kill Waterloo but they have a lot of cash in the bank ($8 Billion?) and have been ramping up R&D -- they aren't going anywhere for a while.
