It was a big year for takin' it to the streets. (via foursquare)

It's cold as a witch's tit, the Port Authority was evacuated this morning thanks to a rank gas smell, and one Betabeat reporter just burnt her arm on the heating pipe in her bathroom. Clearly 2013 is already off to a great start.

Oh, and throw one more thing on the pile: After a banner year for startup types getting their way in Washington, the New York Times reports that regulators are expected to tighten the reigns on tech companies in 2013. That means Alley and Valley types alike are looking uneasily in the direction of D.C., trying to figure out what the swamp things in the capitol district will be cooking up this year.

Welcome to the big leagues, boys and girls!

2012 was the year tech companies, who often act a bit above the fray when it comes to politics, beefed up their Washington lobbying organizations and learned to keep one eye on Congress. As a result, the startup community was able to rally the troops against SOPA and PIPA. But that was just a tiff, in the grand scheme of things.

The Times says:

“Now that the election is over, Silicon Valley companies each are thinking through their strategy for the second Obama administration,” said Peter Swire, a law professor at Ohio State University and a former White House privacy official.

The F.T.C. is getting a new chairman, for example, which will likely impact what happens with the investigation into Google's competitive practices.

Also looming large is the possibility of bills addressing either online security or (heaven forfend!) consumer privacy. It's not like Congress is going to ignore the Internet when the merest revision of Instagram's terms of service inspires near-revolt among users. That means industry can't let up the gas if it intends to get its way. Let's not even get into the headache that is the European Union.

As Intel's director of security policy told the Times,

“Industry has realized it is important to be engaged,” he continued, “to make sure government stakeholders are fully informed and educated about the role that new technology plays and to make sure any action taken doesn’t unnecessarily burden the innovation economy while still protecting individual trust in new technology.”

In short: Expect to see many more White House check-ins and sepia-toned Instas of the Capitol Building from techie luminaries.

The scene. (Photo by Michael Gold, via Instagram)

When we arrived at the Dream Hotel on 55th, there was already a substantial crowd of would-be attendees worrying that the one-hour open bar at #techdrinkup's holiday party would end before we made it upstairs. Ahead of us, two young men were debating the relative merits of Sean Parker in the wake of Airtime's abysmal numbers: "I'm a fan," said Mr. Parker's defender. "Everyone has success and failing."

What no one mentioned within our earshot: Gotham Casting would be in the house, looking for personalities to feature in a possible New York spinoff of Start-ups: Silicon Valley, Bravo's oft-maligned, Randi Zuckerberg-produced reality show. According to a recent casting call getting passed around Silicon Alley, they're looking for locals "who have a full time career and a full time lifestyle!" In a reminder email, #techdrinkup organizer Michael Gold billed the event as "not the night for name tags and demos," but rather "the night for schmoozing, boozing and good music."

When the elevator finally whisked us upstairs, the doors opened onto a scene that looked like, well, the set for a Bravo reality show. Tank-top-wearing waitresses slung drinks before a backlit bar; enormous picture windows looked downtown toward the bright lights of Times Square. As we surveyed the crowd, David Bowie's "Fame" begin to blare over the loudspeaker. Seriously.

Amid the crush we spotted events maestro Gary Sharma, and we met several of the ladies of Appular, including Haley Hammerling and Michelle Lauren Addo, who pointed out the man of the hour: casting director Justin Ruse. 

"We're finding some really great personalities in Silicon Alley," he said. Mr. Ruse has worked on projects like Top Chef, but he's a relative newbie to the New York tech scene. "It's almost like an underground world." (Vogue spreads notwithstanding, we suppose.) Then he turned the tables, asking a few probing questions about where we might find potential fameballers. Don't worry, we didn't name names--but you know who you are.

We were a bit surprised at Mr. Ruse's distinct lack of a swarm, but it seemed he was operating a bit under the radar. Upon meeting someone new, he simply said, "I'm in television," without waving an "Audition For Me" sign.

On the other hand, no one was nakedly angling for a spot either. One man frowned and said asked whether we thought auditioning might be worthwhile. Only NeNe Leakes knows for sure, and she’s too busy posing in piles of diamonds to say.

One contender emerged, in the form of a visibly tipsy woman who shrieked as she greeted Mr. Ruse. After identifying herself as a digital marketer, she complimented this reporter’s skirt and, seeing us give it a downward tug, reached over and tugged it back up. She then attempted to pull it all the way up to our waist, giggling wildly at her own antics.

Half attempting to stop the onslaught, half genuinely curious, we asked this character whether she wanted to go on the show. In response, she flung her head back and forth in an emphatic no.

We thinks the imbiber doth protest too much.

Mr. Ohanian (Photo: Twitter)

Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian hosted a talk at NYU last night featuring a slew of fellow Y Combinator grads. The Rap Genius guys were all there, as was Shoptiques founder Olga Vidisheva, and Tutorspree founders Aaron Harris and Josh Abrams. The conversation mostly revolved around all of their transitions from the business world to the tech scene, but the night got interesting when Mr. Ohanian urged the panel to hate on Silicon Valley.

"We were hating on the Bay Area," he said. "And I think we should do that a little more."He then begged the aspiring founders in the audience to make a passable burrito chain in New York because it was the only thing the West Coast had to offer. The NYU crowd was quick to suggest Dos Toros, the New York chain that serves burritos "Mission-style" like their West Coast inspiration, Gordo's.

Mr. Ohanian asked the panel, "One of the things I see time and time again is that we have companies who went to the West Coast and then come screaming back to New York. What was the driving force to come back to New York?"

Rap Genius' Ilan Zechory took the question first. "It's where we lived," he said. "It's where our friends were. There are no women in the Bay Area, genuinely. We never considered moving out there. We always felt like our West Coast trips were, like, all of us in a Nissan Xterra, in like a Weston, with some weed, trying to steal bags of money to bring back to the East Coast."

Tutorspree's Mr. Harris said that the East Coast was "best for our business," but emphasized there was a major epicurean reason at play here. "Most importantly," he said. "The other side of the coin of the burrito question is that there's no good pizza in the Bay Area. You can't get a decent slice in half of the country. I'll throw bagels in there too. If I'm going to work for a long amount of time, I need pizza."

Audience favorite Ms. Vidisheva said that she couldn't manage to make her business successful while being so far away from the fashion companies in New York. Plus, there were better hires to be had in Silicon Alley. "The California mentality of 'let's chill today' doesn't fly in New York," she said.

The talk wrapped up with Mr. Zechory doling out this nugget of advice to the audience: “Don't write a business plan.” Mr. Ohanian was pretty surprised and asked him if that were really true. He confirmed and said, "We've had some tabs open...maybe we've opened a PDF." He then touted their $15 series A investment from Andreessen Horowitz and the crowd went wild.

Baby! (Photo: Percolate)

Much of Silicon Alley is still without power, and so New York's startup workers remain scattered across the city. But time and the tide of the internet wait for no man, and so many are currently working remotely--from their apartments, friends' couches, coworking spaces, accommodating coffee shops, even bar stools.

One of the companies affected is curation engine Percolate, based in Soho. In a charming show of solidarity, each of the displaced employees has taken a picture of his temporary workspace, and they've all been posted on Percolate's Tumblr.

(By the way, if that baby is seeking employment, Betabeat might be willing to look at an adorable résumé. It's never too soon to start planning our next Poachables!)

Good morning, sunshine! (Photo: flickr.com/globochem)

Bloggers: If you must accept a free plane ticket, be sure to get an old-fashioned, non-refundable paper return ticket, too. [The Next Web]

Wolfram Alpha now offers personal Facebook analytics, for the ultra-obsessed and the assiduous builders of their personal brands out there. [The Verge]

Okay, who told Richard Florida about Silicon Alley? Now we'll never hear the end of it. [Wall Street Journal]

Good news: If you're an ebook buyer, you're eventually going to get a tiny refund. Bad news: It'll be about 25 cents per book, and it'll likely take years. [Paid Content]

The founder of The Pirate Bay has reportedly been arrested in Cambodia. [TorrentFreak]

Foyer, or roller rink? Good question! (via Curbed.com)

In honor of the Zynga-enriched Pincuses, who recently closed on a $16 million Pacific Heights pile described as "very massive, very Old Money," Curbed has an envy-inducing little roundup of swank mansions belonging to wealthy West Coast techies.

Suddenly, the Valley as tech nirvana makes more sense than ever. Not since the Gilded Age has it been possible for even the wealthiest robber barons to lay claim to this much space in Manhattan.

The new home of Mark and Allison Pincus is not merely spacious but just about as historic as you can get out in California, short of moving into a Spanish mission:

The 11,500-square-foot, seven-bed, seven-bath spread was built in 1907 for the Newhall family, who owned it for 105 years before passing the title along to Pincus in exchange for his many millions. Hopefully, they weren't paid in stock.

Zynga zinger! Of course, as Curbed points out, Mrs. Pincus is the cofounder of decor-frenzy-inspiring ecommerce site One Kings Lane, so really it would've been unimaginable for them to live in anything less.

We also noticed that Mr. Mark Zuckerberg, though settling for a mere 5,000 square feet, somehow managed to find a home in Silicon Valley that looks almost unbelievably Westchester-like:

via Curbed.

Also, there is a croquet lawn. You're not getting that in the West Village, no matter how idyllic your townhouse.

Meanwhile, Jack Dorsey inhabits a cliffside mansion with a retractable roof and a view of the Golden Gate Bridge, while Larry Page apparently just keeps buying up surrounding properties.

Perhaps the jokes on both coasts, though: Mark Cuban lives in a 24,000-square-foot Dallas monstrosity that, frankly, might as well be Wayne Manor. Then again, even the Vanderbilts had to go as far as Asheville, North Carolina to build the Biltmore.

Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Bollinger. (Photo: NYC Mayor's Office Instagram

This morning, the right honorable Mayor Bloomberg ventured north to the Columbia campus for what was teased on Twitter as a "big announcement." It turns out that Columbia will not be left out while Cornell-Technion and NYU Polytechnic rake in all the glory, because the Lions are getting their very own tech project, the Institute for Data Sciences and Engineering.

Sound familiar? That's probably because the project is what the university originally pitched, way back in October, for its very own applied sciences campus. For those keeping score at home, that brings the city's total up to three tech campuses. Are you excited for science yet?

According to a press release, the city will provide $15 million in "financial assistance," including "discounted energy transmission costs and partial debt forgiveness." So not $15 million in cash, but that's nothing to sneeze at, nevertheless. As for what it'll create, the agreement between town and gown promises 44,000 square feet of new space for engineering and applied sciences on Columbia's campus by 2016, as well as 75 additional faculty over the next 15 years.

Says the statement:

 The focus of the new institute will be on advances in the data sciences, attracting high-caliber faculty in specific fields of study, and expanding Columbia’s research capabilities and funding, and building upon the school’s recent successes in engineering.

Mayor Bloomberg took the opportunity to submit a first draft of his mention in the history books:

“This historic partnership is newest element in the applied sciences initiative that is, by far, the largest and most far-reaching economic development effort City government has undertaken in modern memory,” said Mayor Bloomberg. “It will create tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in economic activity, and it will encourage the growth of the tech sector in New York City and solidify our leadership in the innovation economy for decades to come.”

Not to be outdone (venture too far off message), President Bollinger added:

“We know from experience that the creativity and dynamism of this new Data Sciences Institute will be ignited by collaborations that are possible because they are part of the wide diversity of intellectual excellence that defines not just a great urban research university like Columbia, but the genius of New York City itself.”

Frankly, we're starting to suspect that Hizzoner re-reads that Ken Auletta piece on Stanford every night before he goes to bed.

The crisp Ms. Quinn. (Photo: courtesy of the Coalition for Queens)

It was merely mid-morning when Betabeat arrived at enterprise-focused accelerator Tipping Point Parters for a presser, and already everyone in attendance seemed to be wilting. The exception: City Council Speaker (and, let us not forget, mayoral candidate) Christine Quinn, who looked downright jovial. Perhaps she was just that excited about her coming announcement.

Or perhaps she was simply thrilled to be wearing what looked like seersucker, while the rest of us suffered in the heat.

We were gathered into a rather claustrophobic--but very well air-conditioned--startup space, complete with white lighting fixtures and random whiteboard. The occasion: The creation of two new programs meant to feed engineers and other much-needed tech talent into the city's startup sector.

The first, which bears the decidedly unsexy name of "the Advanced Software Development Program," will offer select computer science students at CUNY instruction and lectures by "industry professionals." The curriculum was developed in conjunction with companies like Tipping Point, to align as closely as possible with industry needs.

Ms. Quinn also admitted that, excited as the city is about the Cornell-Technion and NYU Polytechnic campuses, there will be some people for whom it's "out of financial reach." "We want to make sure those folks have exactly, if not a better chance, at being leaders in the tech community as anybody else."

Since we are all contributing taxpayer dollars and everything.

The second program involves the Coalition for Queens, the borough's very own NYTM-style boosters and organizer of the brand new Queens Tech Meetup.) The nonprofit is partnering with CUNY and Skillshare to launch its own series of practical tech classes, and money from the city will help them get off the ground. Some will be held in the coalition's Long Island City headquarters, and the team is working on sourcing other locations. Instructors will include advisor (and New York Tech Meetup cofounder) Dawn Barber, as well as experts from firms like Ogilvy & Mather, Covington & Burling, OKFocus and Barrel NY. Classes will start this fall.

"With these two new programs, we're addressing the skills gap in the tech sector in two different ways," said Ms. Quinn, calling them "important steps to ensure the city's tech sector continues to grow and will help more new yorkers get back to work in well-paying, cutting-edge jobs."

The cost to the city: $101,000 for the CUNY program, and $65,000 for the Coalition for Queens classes. Ms. Quinn pointed out that this, in the grand scheme of things, is not that much money. It's certainly far cheaper than a $2 billion applied sciences campus. But it sounds like there's a limited number of students that the CUNY program, at least, will impact: She put the number at 20 for the program's first year (and added that they've already received 70 applications).

She was followed by Art Chang, CEO of Tipping Point Partners. After a genuinely heartwarming ode to software engineering as stepping stone to the American dream, Mr. Chang hopped on what sounded like a personal hobby horse: "What everyone should also be focused on is the impending crisis in the $300 billion enterprise software market, whose crumbling legacy systems power our  economy, our society, and our government," adding that, "The transformation of these systems should be a national priority" and it's impossible without more software engineers.

Did we mention that Tipping Point Partners focuses on enterprise software?

Next up: Adam Milligan, who is helping to build up the New York office of San Francisco-based Pivotal Labs. "Oh, dump that San Francisco," Ms. Quinn interjected with a facial expression that just screamed, "Ugh."

He meandered through the need for people skills on software development teams, before finishing strong with a (somewhat) rousing appeal to local pride: As soon as he arrived in New York to help launch Pivotal's office here, "I almost immediately started hearing conversations about programs like this, about mentorship, about technical educations--conversations that I didn't really hear in San Francisco." Cue loud, satisfied laugher from Ms. Quinn.

He added: "I believe that programs like this are the most important thing that the technology industry will do in the next decade, if not longer."

Not to be outdone by the Manhattanites, Coalition for Queens founder Jukay Hsu stepped up to point out that Queens has no fewer than 2.5 million residents. "There's incredible potential in the borough to help expand the talent pool here and to help contribute to New York City's growing tech community," he said.

Maybe what Queens needs to get some attention is start a borough beef?

Let's make a deal! (Courtesy CB Insights)

The latest CB Insights report on venture capital investment just dropped, and we've spent the morning digging into the data. Local entrepreneurs might want to sit down, because this is gonna sting a little.

Overall the quarter was a big one, with 812 deals adding up to $8.1 billion. The report points out that's the biggest single quarter since the dot com days. (And what with Digg and Yahoo dominating the headlines, you'd be forgiven for getting a little confused on the year.) Seed stage investments made up 22 percent of those deals, which fits with our anecdotal sense that startups are springing up like mushrooms after a rainstorm.

In terms of deal volume, New York held onto the number-two spot for the second quarter in a row. A big part of that is digital: The report calls California and New York a "two-headed monster on the internet front," and points out that "larger funding deals enable Florida and Washington to challenge Massachusetts for the #3 spot."

However, here comes the down side: Internet is pretty much the only thing New York does. The report goes so far as to call the city's venture capital sector a "one-trick pony," adding that that 70 percent of deals and 80 percent of funding go to Internet businesses.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts remained the runner-up in terms of overall funding. It's also worth noting that, if one digs into the details, New York and Massachusetts are awfully close in terms of deal volume, as well. Check out this chart:

(Graphic courtesy of CB Insights)

That's not exactly what we'd call a shut out.

California, to no one's surprise, is still number one, laying claim to 45 percent of the nation's total VC deals, and 58 percent of the money. Color us deeply unsurprised, nor do we expect that lead to suddenly evaporate any time soon.

Then again, Massachusetts and New York are pretty close in the grand scheme of things.  Hey Boston, wanna join forces?

Look at her preen. (Photo: flickr.com/aka_kath)

Pop quiz: In which of America's central business districts will you have the hardest time finding an office? Answer, according to a report from Bloomberg News, based on data from Cushman & Wakefield: The area between 30th St. and Union Square, a.k.a. Midtown south, a.k.a. Silicon Alley. Color us utterly unsurprised.

The article informs us:

The area known as midtown south has replaced Midtown as the most desirable location for companies to lease space, the brokerage said. Midtown south... has the lowest vacancy rate of all central business districts in the nation, at 6.1 percent, according to Cushman & Wakefield.

We also feel like it's worth floating the possibility that proximity to the original Shake Shack might be a consideration.