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Amazon to Build Second HQ in North America

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Re: Amazon to Build Second HQ in North America

#211
post #175
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And anyone wonders why the USA does not have money for healthcare, higher education, high speed rail, etc. etc. I am in West Africa and everyone continually asks about the corruption. At least here it's up front and honest. The guy with the AK-47 just wants $5. In the USA, it's the guys in suits getting billions.

I mean, if you don't like the tax cuts your city government offers Amazon to try and get their headquarter, you can vote them out come the next election.

But as happened in Marietta Ga recently, the government officials had already committed the county to 600 million for a new stadium. They got voted out, but the county is still stuck with the bill.

Re: Amazon to Build Second HQ in North America

#213

The RFP is rather more interesting than the marketing page: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/Anything... The 2nd criterion is basically the total amount of sweet, sweet taxpayer dollars available to subsidize them: Please provide a summary of total incentives offered for the Project by the state/province and local community. In this summary, please provide a brief description of the incentive item,…

Yea, this is pretty clearly an RFP directed at politicians soliciting taxpayer money. That said, if given the choice between my city ponying up for a stadium (or datacenter that will support 50 total jobs) and an actual Amazon HQ that's comparable to Seattle, I know which way I'd lean. Unfortunately, a big reason politicians go for these kinds of proposals is that they sound great as "accomplishments" in stump speech…

Totally agree! 50,000 people making 100k+ per year is a lot of taxes, it will increase land values. Please come to my city so my house can double in value. Hm...

Re: Amazon to Build Second HQ in North America

#214

Thinking about what cities should lay out the red carpet, if I were a city official in, say, St. Louis or Detroit, I'd be putting together an incentive plan worth billions. Amazon could turn around an entire mid-size city.

Have a look at what St. Louis offered to keep the NGA in the city:

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/st-louis-prepares-f...

Re: Amazon to Build Second HQ in North America

#215
post #177

If you take their transit and airport requirements seriously, Atlanta and perhaps Miami are top contenders. I'm biased, but the list of requirements looks like a description of a currently undeveloped area of downtown Atlanta that has been targeted for redevelopment: https://atlanta.curbed.com/2017/6/30/15900526/downtown-atlan... http://atlantaintownpaper.com/2017/08/lawmakers-want-revive-...

Looking at the RFP, minus the mass transit, it seems like it was written for Atlanta. And Atlanta has so many urban infill areas available for development.

Re: Amazon to Build Second HQ in North America

#216
post #198
post #84

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned Pittsburgh yet. uber did some early self driving pilots there. CMU is there. Google has a large office there. Amazon has also started hiring software engineers for an office in Pittsburgh too. Cost of living is very cheap. Many upsides to Pittsburgh. I don't know what the city could afford in terms of subsidies though.

They mention at-site transit in the RFP, and the transit in Pittsburgh seems light.

To the suburbs, yes. Just a few park-n-ride lots.

Inside the city to downtown is pretty good though. Lots of busses to downtown and oakland from the most popular neighborhoods (East Liberty, Shadyside, Lawrenceville, etc).

Re: Amazon to Build Second HQ in North America

#217
post #209

You have to consider that this may be a political move by Bezos. The term "anti-trust" has been brought up a lot lately in regards to 'Big Tech.' If Amazon becomes a big employer in a lot of low population states, it would effectively be buying itself those states's Senators and creating an 'Amazon Industrial Complex.' On the other hand, Bezos might want to just move the margins and try to make a purple state blue. F…

As a generalization, the people who want to work for Amazon tend to be more on the progressive wing, and an HQ in a heavily conservative region would make it harder to hire talent. I would guess places like Denver/Boulder (where Google has a site coming), Boston, Portland, or Las Vegas are much more likely than Austin, Charlotte, or Salt Lake City

Although Austin is in Texas, it is famous for being independent. It's also fairly progressive.

Re: Amazon to Build Second HQ in North America

#218
post #193

Silicon Slopes? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Slopes - Population > 1,000,000 - Serviced by 2 great universities (UoU, BYU) - Utah is a top 5 state for # of Unicorn Companies From the wiki I shared: "The Utah Governor's Office of Economic Development allows a variety of grants and tax incentives to companies willing to either relocate or expand their enterprise" Note: I live in Seattle, not Utah.

Socially, Utah could not be more different than Seattle. SLC is one thing, but that's one small slice of a much bigger state. You'd be able to attract people who live there already, but there's 0 chance someone like me would be interested in living there. Note: I work for Amazon, but have no input at all in this process. This is the first I'm hearing about it.

I completely agree with that generalization

The people who want to work for Amazon wouldn't like living in Utah, and the people living in Utah wouldn't like the people who work for Amazon

I've been in tech in Southern Utah for almost 20 years, and it's extremely difficult to find qualified people.

If I didn't have a house I love, and family around, I would have left a long time ago.

Re: Amazon to Build Second HQ in North America

#219
post #209

You have to consider that this may be a political move by Bezos. The term "anti-trust" has been brought up a lot lately in regards to 'Big Tech.' If Amazon becomes a big employer in a lot of low population states, it would effectively be buying itself those states's Senators and creating an 'Amazon Industrial Complex.' On the other hand, Bezos might want to just move the margins and try to make a purple state blue. F…

As a generalization, the people who want to work for Amazon tend to be more on the progressive wing, and an HQ in a heavily conservative region would make it harder to hire talent. I would guess places like Denver/Boulder (where Google has a site coming), Boston, Portland, or Las Vegas are much more likely than Austin, Charlotte, or Salt Lake City

Anybody who says People's Republic of Austin (ref: Bernie movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JREkqCvLzSo) is not on progressive wing is kidding.

Also, Whole Foods is head-quartered in Austin, so there could be "synergy" there.

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