Yuma the next Silicon Valley?

Forbes just released its list of the top 10 up-and-coming tech cities in the United States. Not surprisingly, the Phoenix metropolitan area was not on the list. In my still young lifetime, I have seen Walmart replace Motorola as our state's largest private sector employer. The good, and surprising, news is that Yuma ranked 10 on the list of the 10 up-and-coming cities for tech. Why? Mostly the presence of the Yuma Proving Grounds, a long time military presence in the community. For those who think the private sector does it all and government does not bring new ideas to the market or create good jobs, well, those people shouldn't be reading this, since the internet was an invention of the U.S. government that eventually was expanded for other uses. Although I am about to embark upon graduate school through Northern Arizona University's distance learning program, perhaps our state should recognize that it may well be time to invest in a real university in Yuma. While Western Arizona College teams with NAU to offer university degrees to Yumans, the offering is limited, and the research that takes place through the program is nil. Ultimately, it comes down to politics. After all, most of the opposition to the 1958 ballot initiative changing Arizona State College's name to Arizona State University came from Tucson.