Fight. We have to fight to bring back and protect the economic vitality of our region. It is in our interest, the state’s interest, and given the importance of our region nationally, it is in the interest of our country.

We in Silicon Valley haven’t just lost employment, income, property values and local taxes in this country-wide economic crisis. We have continued to lose our competitive edge, and if we don’t fight for progress, when the economy turns our region, our Silicon Valley, will not just lag behind, it may stay behind.

In presentations over the years I have made in Asia and Europe on economic development and what makes Silicon Valley work, I have usually pointed to what most everybody else does: The triangle of tremendously important universities, Stanford, UC Berkeley and the University of California at San Francisco; the ease of national and international travel to and from San Francisco International Airport, Oakland and San Jose; a highly educated, available workforce; and an accepted culture of risk taking. But, there also has always been more.

One of the unstated assumptions is that we had at least a stable if not highly supportive state government that could make decisions and invest in key public services important to our quality of life. It didn’t even seem we needed to talk about such a basic assumption. We need to be clear that a dysfunctional state government does impact our overall quality of life and the climate necessary for economic success.

One factor not often talked about is the role of federal investment in research and development in our region, and federal purchase of our products. Significant federal investment and purchases were a critical “stimulus” to our region long before the word “stimulus” became part of our lexicon. That federal funding is often going elsewhere now.

Due to the vitality and attractiveness of our region, we also had been a magnet to people from around the nation and around the world who want to be here to be part of or lead creative and entrepreneurial efforts. We assumed they would keep coming. We have been the world heart of the Venture Capital community and probably assumed that we would remain so. But people are not coming like they once did, and the glow of Venture Capital has faded.

We have been a great place to live and have presented tremendous opportunity for public and private education. We expected that would remain true. We also had real progress in transportation, improving transportation infrastructure and an improving train system (taking as many as 11 million or more car trips off our roads each year), and probably expected we would make even more progress. But our educational systems are under siege, and our transportation and public infrastructure face tremendous short- and long-term challenges.

For years, we have had challenges to our prosperity, including the high cost of housing, a jobs-housing imbalance, the need for better public transportation to prevent increasing congestion and the overall high cost of doing business in our region and state. It seems that despite the challenges, many people by and large thought we were still able to succeed and we need not really worry. Well, that thought has always been doubtful, and when you add in all the other challenges, it is more doubtful than ever.

Due to the environment post-9/11 and federal policies and a changing world, the net migration into our region of foreign-born, entrepreneurial people has decreased. As a result of the continued high cost and lack of available housing, the jobs-housing imbalance and the overall high cost of doing business, and now a challenged transit system, businesses have continued, difficult obstacles to success, and there is no quick fix in sight.

Our region did not become prosperous due to an “entitlement.” We have to get over our complacency. Our ultimate vitality is not assured, even if the economy comes roaring back.

For a more detailed view of the state of our region, and things we can do to make a difference, check out the Index of Silicon Valley published by Joint Venture Silicon Valley and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation at www.jointventure.org.

Jim Hartnett is an attorney and former mayor of Redwood City. He can be reached at hartnett@hslawoffice.com.