Former mayor of Silicon Valley: Becoming a high-tech mecca also costs money (Your letters)

To the editor:

Regarding SUNY Polytechnic President Winston Soboyejo’s comment: “I see an opportunity to build the next Silicon Valley in downtown New York with the range of companies, with the range of talent we have here, with the natural beauty of the area” (“How Leaders View CNY: Beautiful, Authentic, Bursting with Potential,” Dec. 25, 2025):

Silicon Valley is recognized worldwide as the mecca of high-tech innovation, but its success comes at a cost. Above all, we have huge and growing inequalities in wealth and income, with employed residents living in vehicles on our streets. We are still trying to clean up the dangerous substances that chip manufacturers poured into our environment decades ago.

Any region that wants to emulate Silicon Valley needs to learn from our experience and challenge industries that avoid transparency.

On the plus side, we have the highest minimum wages in the country and welcome immigrants from every inhabited continent.

Lenny Siegel

Mountain View, California

The writer was the 2018 mayor of Mountain View, the birthplace of the semiconductor industry.