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Dear Amazon, We Picked Your New Headquarters for You

nytimes.com

21–30 of 253 posts

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

#21
post #13

When the hq2 news first broke, Denver was the first city to pop into my mind, without really thinking about it. And I've never even been to Denver, just the airport.

I've visited Denver many times -- but I had the same immediate thought. Or Kansas City.

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

#22
Absolutely love, despite the fact that it's mentioned numerous times that Amazon is searching all of NA for its second hq, that both Canada, and Mexico are completely ignored. This is despite the fact that Toronto is currently the continents fastest growing tech market due to a lot of factors that would be of incredible interest to a behemoth like Amazon. Feels a like a bit of a snub of the thumb by NYT on that one...

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

#23

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…

It's also smack dab in the middle of the East Coast megalopolis, but I get the impression that supply-chain logistics are being handled at a different level.

Regarding the talent pool, as someone who works in the Philly area, I agree it has a lot of well regarded engineering schools nearby, but tech talent doesn't necessarily stay here in the quantities Amazon might find compelling.

Granted, it's a chicken-and-egg issue. The top talent tends to go where the top jobs are, and if the top jobs are in Philly, the top talent might be more inclined to stay.

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

#24
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Totally! (And, the NYT scootches closer to The Onion)

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

#27
I think a lot of cities would be well advised to steer clear, Amazon would have a pretty crazy distortion effect. It might make sense in Denver, but I can't imagine them fitting into any smaller city (~3m).

I expect it to end up in a former rustbelt or midwestern city explicitly eliminated in this article in the 'strong job growth' phase. Dallas, Chicago, Minneapolis, Detroit, Philadelphia.

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

#28
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??

It's pretty easy to get out of Boston harbor.

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

#29
Grand Rapids, MI is just WAITING for something like this to turn it into a major city. It has an awesome culture and a ton of interesting things happening. However, the available tech job pool is still low and what jobs do exist are typically at non-tech companies who happen to employ tech workers.

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

#30
post #8

Not sure if Washington, DC includes Northern Virginia (Ashburn, Herndon, Reston). AWS is already here. And a ridiculous amount of fiber seems to out through this area. I see new data centers popping up quite often. And prices are crazy expensive but probably still cheaper than the city itself. So I would pick this area if I was them. Though not sure how I'd personally feel about prices and traffic going up even highe…

As someone who lives on the opposite side of D.C. from Reston, I'd be so smug if Amazon inflicted its HQ on NOVA.
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