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Dear Amazon, We Picked Your New Headquarters for You

nytimes.com

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Re: Dear Amazon, We Picked Your New Headquarters for You

#11

Post by blinkingled »

> We asked the economist David Albouy to rank these metro areas for us with an index he uses to measure how much people would be willing to sacrifice, in terms of housing costs and commutes, to live in desirable places. On that basis, we cut Charlotte, N.C.

My experience being that neither housing costs nor commute times being horribly bad around CLT - this bums me out. It's actually a great city with lots of nature around it, ATL is 4hr drive, housing costs in nearby areas (Fort Mill, SC e.g.) aren't anywhere near as bad as say Atlanta suburbs. It's not NYC to be sure - culture wise not very hip but I did not think the mid-career experienced people Amazon would be hiring would mind that at all.

Maybe the NYT was too literal when they considered CLT or maybe I don't understand what exactly the sacrifice would be in terms of housing costs and commutes.

Re: Dear Amazon, We Picked Your New Headquarters for You

#12

Post by hbk1966 »

acconrad wrote: post #9

Oh cool Boston is making it pretty far (I live and grew up here) > … and workers can easily get around — and out of town … Haha yup and that's when it drops off- WAIT WHAT??

I'm surprised DFW was knocked out at that stage too. From what I hear traffic is horrible in Denver.

Re: Dear Amazon, We Picked Your New Headquarters for You

#15

Post by pj_mukh »

rmason wrote: post #2

This really burns me. The Times compared the metro population of Grand Rapids (1 million) to Detroit's population (670,000) in order to disqualify the city in their first round. But metro Detroit has a population of 4.5 million so the Times either was sloppy with their criteria or they deliberately snubbed Detroit. Detroit may be a dark horse in this competition but with Dan Gilbert going all out to win I don't think…

Detroit seems like a fantastic choice. Both Toronto and Chicago are fairly close. All the great Michigan and Ontario schools can be tapped and the city has tremendous potential to grow. Hopefully, they'd be nicer to their local population ala Facebook/East Palo Alto.

Re: Dear Amazon, We Picked Your New Headquarters for You

#16

Post by sumeno »

rmason wrote: post #2

This really burns me. The Times compared the metro population of Grand Rapids (1 million) to Detroit's population (670,000) in order to disqualify the city in their first round. But metro Detroit has a population of 4.5 million so the Times either was sloppy with their criteria or they deliberately snubbed Detroit. Detroit may be a dark horse in this competition but with Dan Gilbert going all out to win I don't think…

I agree that this is sloppy reporting. Amazon said they want metropolitan areas that have a million people, not necessarily cities with a million.

Re: Dear Amazon, We Picked Your New Headquarters for You

#17

Post by virtuallynathan »

I'm surprised to see Philadelphia eliminated so quickly, it ticks almost all of the boxes, and has a very large number of engineering schools (UPenn, Penn State, Drexel, Temple, Princeton, Rutgers, etc). It's transit is better than many of the other cities, and it has 2 major development plots in the city with existing full tax abatements.

Not to mention its proximity to NYC and Washington, DC via Amtrak (~1h20m to NYC, ~1h50m to DC)

Transit: http://www.septa.org/site/images/system-map-1400-lrg-03.30.1...

Locations w/ Tax Abatements: http://navyyard.org

http://www.schuylkillyards.com

Re: Dear Amazon, We Picked Your New Headquarters for You

#18

Post by trgv »

maxharris wrote: post #5
mtmail wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

John Smith put out a document outlining his preferences and released a document 'submit your proposal" ( https://www.amazon.com/amazonhq2 ).

The New York Times is a newspaper, not a city. And ultimately the decision rests with Amazon, not anyone else. The wording of their headline should reflect that, because the way it is written currently is quite disrespectful.

The headline is clearly meant to be tongue-in-cheek, as is the article itself, at least to some degree.

Re: Dear Amazon, We Picked Your New Headquarters for You

#19

Post by brownbat »

> The company has asked for very specific information on all the state, regional and local incentives communities are willing to offer, and the timelines for how long it would take to approve them. Amazon concludes its proposal by stressing that this a “competitive project.” So let the competition among cities begin!

Sigh. I know these could be good in some situations, but sometimes I wish cities had a most favored company law: every business that employs people gets the same tax benefits as the company that got the best deal. Cities could only agree to things that were good for businesses generally, rather than letting one or two ignore the rules for five years before they suddenly relocate to shop for a better deal.

Relevant Planet Money: http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2016/05/04/476799218/episo...

Re: Dear Amazon, We Picked Your New Headquarters for You

#20

Post by tehlike »

virtuallynathan wrote: post #17

I'm surprised to see Philadelphia eliminated so quickly, it ticks almost all of the boxes, and has a very large number of engineering schools (UPenn, Penn State, Drexel, Temple, Princeton, Rutgers, etc). It's transit is better than many of the other cities, and it has 2 major development plots in the city with existing full tax abatements. Not to mention its proximity to NYC and Washington, DC via Amtrak (~1h20m to N…

Lets hope not, for the sake of people living there. Obviously half joking, but phily is one of the places im considering to move eventually, most likely for retirement.
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