Forbes Ranks Framingham 3rd Geekiest City In U.S.
BOSTON (CBS) – Considering we are home to Harvard and MIT, it's not a shock that a local city has been named one of the geekiest in America.
What is surprising is which city Forbes magazine picked. The Forbes report named San Jose, CA, capital of Silicon Valley the geekiest city in the country and Boulder, CO came in second.
In third place? It's Framingham, Mass.
"Definitely accurate," Says Brock Jacobites, an employee at Framingham's Bose Corporation.
It's accurate because it fits the mold, the magazine says geeks work in engineering, technology, science or math and Framingham has the most in the state. Close to 26,000 and most of them are Bose, Genzyme or Staples employees.
WBZ-TV's Diana Perez reports
Vish Sankholkar who works at Genzyme explains, "There's a lot of ideas around in this area."
Minus the taped glasses or pocket protectors, Staples e-commerce Vice President Brian Tilzer says his geek-fleet is the real deal, "(they) use blackberries, tablets. Love the latest and greatest gadgets."
What they don't love so much is that nerdy title, "I think we probably prefer techies and e-commerce people," says Tilzer.
But Framingham isn't really even a city it's a town, so the fact that it ranked so high just doesn't make sense to people in places like Cambridge. There are lots of gadgets and tech businesses there too so many that some there call it geek central.
"I really think Cambridge deserved that spot," says Sara Choi who works in Cambridge.
Tom Chambers also in Cambridge doesn't particularly think he holds the title but he can see why Cambridge should, "MIT is here, a bunch of technology buildings around."
Good thing Framingham isn't greedy about its geek status. Steve Heider also of Bose says "if they (Cambridge) want the title that bad they can have it."
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Mark Katic reports
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Jacobites doesn't see why they both can't have it, "I've met some pretty geeky people from Cambridge but a lot of geeky people from Cambridge come here to work so we can share the title because a lot of them are here."
We thought so too, until we spotted someone in Cambridge reading the newspaper sideways… maybe Framingham deserves it after all.
Forbes magazine ranked Lowell sixth in the country. The Boston - Cambridge area was fifteenth.
