Honestly I think the thing that'll do more for startups in NYC than any initiative or a tech university satellite campus is the presence of Google (disclaimer: I work for Google). It's already had an effect on startup locations and office vacancy rates [1].

I'm not sure what our exact numbers are here but you'd have to figure there are at least 1,000 engineers in this office. That's quite a pool of talent.

While the weather in particular is glorious in the Bay Area, NYC certainly does have its charms. In the Bay Area you're living in suburbia and commuting. There are of course significant startups in SF (particularly SoMA) so you can get the "city living" life if you happen to work for those but far more are located in Mountain View, Palo Alto, Los Altos, Cupertino, San Jose, etc.

Thing is, many people I know who live in SF still own cars. One big attraction of NYC is you simply don't need to own a car. Factor in a car and IMHO it's cheaper to live in Manhattan than SF (and many parts of the Bay Area).

What's more, I have a 7 minute walk to work.

That all being said, SV is in no danger of losing its place as the beating heart of tech. Even with an office this large (Google), the mothership in Mountain View still has an irresistible call and, in all honesty, for your career (at Google) you'd be better off there than anywhere else.

The other thing that will help (IMHO) is what a mess the finance industry is in and the fact that, generally speaking, it's a soul-destroying experience to work in finance (I speak from experience).

What New York could really benefit from is a homegrown huge ($5B+) success. Of course there's no real planning for that.

[1]: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020453140457705...