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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

#81

Post by tomschlick »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #46

I know they eliminated Pittsburgh right out of the gate, but I think it has a bunch of things going for it. It's one of the few places where housing is cheap (but a pretty beautiful downtown) but young tech workers would love to live: tons of stuff to do but lots of knowledge workers with CMU. Biggest obvious issue is no direct flights to Seattle, but if Amazon built a headquarters there it seems like it would be eas…

Also, they eliminated PGH based on the 1 million population without accounting for the city borders being much smaller than normal cities due to how Allegheny county is structured. The metro area is ~2.5 million and is about the same size as most city borders.

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

#82

Post by toast0 »

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #25

Why doesn't Amazon choose a city that almost meets their criteria and invest the wealth they generate there back into the city? Then we get more good cities instead of overinvesting into any single city.

Most of their criteria aren't that flexible. Nobody is going to reroute interstates or move airports for Amazon. They might be able to get a transit line extended or a new station added to an existing line. Population/education might be negotiable if there is a site with awesome transportation.

Cell coverage would certainly be fixable, though, if the local officials commit to reasonable planning approvals, and can convince carriers to play ball.

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

#84

Post by stevenwoo »

technofiend wrote: post #77

Actually I would challenge the idea Houston doesn't have enough of the professionals required. Houston was eliminated as not having enough white collar workers. Yet they left in Austin which is far smaller because at least 12.5 % base of their base has the right skills. It makes sense to compare desired jobs versus the general population but not without context. Seriously with six million+ people here, do you really…

I haven't lived in Houston in 30 years but wouldn't it have been eliminated on the mass transit/transportation/traffic congestion round or possibly the amenities via outdoor recreation round and definitely the culture of inclusion due to the GOP state priorities on bathroom bills? I loved Memorial Park when I lived inside the 610 Loop but the options after that at that point in time required a significant amount of time in the car. The other amenities of restaurants/arts/music were pretty good, though.

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

#85

Post by drewcon »

walterkobayashi wrote: post #53

Boston has crumbling infrastructure. A Big NO

It really doesn't. Big dig and associated/dependent projects have taken care of a lot that.

Also "Boston"!= Boston...which is basically a euphemism for Eastern Massachusetts, Northern RI, and Souther NH. You could do this project in Nashua, Worcester, Providence, Waltham, outside 128, and it would make double or triple the cost sense of downtown Boston/Cambridge/Somerville.

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

#86

Post by santaclaus »

cjslep wrote: post #57
blinkingled wrote: post #11

> 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…

I spent the first 18 years of my life growing up in Charlotte during the 90s and 00 housing and bank boom, and have revisited friends there fairly often since. Can't say I am rooting for Amazon to locate a HQ there. Downtown has never really had any appeal for an under-21 besides Discovery Place (is that even still around?) which is more geared for the pre-13 age group. Post-21 more recently it seems to have been rev…

More importantly, the BBQ in the Triangle is superior to that of Charlotte.

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

#87

Post by technofiend »

stevenwoo wrote: post #84
technofiend wrote: post #77

Actually I would challenge the idea Houston doesn't have enough of the professionals required. Houston was eliminated as not having enough white collar workers. Yet they left in Austin which is far smaller because at least 12.5 % base of their base has the right skills. It makes sense to compare desired jobs versus the general population but not without context. Seriously with six million+ people here, do you really…

I haven't lived in Houston in 30 years but wouldn't it have been eliminated on the mass transit/transportation/traffic congestion round or possibly the amenities via outdoor recreation round and definitely the culture of inclusion due to the GOP state priorities on bathroom bills? I loved Memorial Park when I lived inside the 610 Loop but the options after that at that point in time required a significant amount of t…

Depends on where Amazon ends up. We definitely are weak on public transportation but have a couple of international airports.

With 600 square miles of area, it's tough to have a single metro system serve that entire area and frankly with our weather few people choose to stay outside and wait on transportation unless they just have to.

Which is why you see things like Exxon's move to the Woodlands. There's enough local infrastructure and housing to support their corporate HQ. Unless Amazon decides to buy an inner-city coporate park here they may end doing the same by going to Clear Lake, Sugarland, etc.

Houston is sort of like Austin in that it's an oasis of less conservative politics but the even so the bathroom bill didn't pass.

There's plenty to do outdoors here: I regularly play disc golf, cycle and kayak in the summer. But you do need lots of sun screen, water and to acclimate to the heat. Otherwise you will suffer. I don't think it's any different that living in the South West. You need to know how to deal with the heat.

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

#88

Post by all_blue_chucks »

The major factor that isn't mentioned: state income tax. Washington has no income tax. It's no small coincidence that it has so many billionaires living there.

But Seattle is trying to impose a 2.5% income tax on high earners. This might be Jeff's way of reminding them they have to compete to keep his business around.

Also, a 0% income tax rate makes a HUGE difference in attracting tech workers who earn $200k+...

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

#89

Post by hirsin »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #46

I know they eliminated Pittsburgh right out of the gate, but I think it has a bunch of things going for it. It's one of the few places where housing is cheap (but a pretty beautiful downtown) but young tech workers would love to live: tons of stuff to do but lots of knowledge workers with CMU. Biggest obvious issue is no direct flights to Seattle, but if Amazon built a headquarters there it seems like it would be eas…

Not to mention a starving international airport that would be desperate to help make flights to Seattle happen. I know I'd be on the first one.

And really, Pittsburgh is fantastic. Good schools, good commute even if you live in a suburb, great food and alcohol scene, with an arts scene and history to rival any major city (Carnegie and Warhol for starters).

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

#90

Post by danjayh »

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…

As others have stated, Detroit was eliminated for sluggish growth, not low population. Having said that, I'm definitely in their target demographic (35 yrs old, BSCE and MSEE, 10 years software development experience and team leadership experience), and I think that their 'has the right labor pool' filter is a bit off. I'd guess that Amazon is looking to rein in their labor costs a bit, and often a large city with some tech (but not a ton) can provide a very good labor pool at a reasonable cost. They got rid of a lot of places I'd be willing to re-locate to in that round (I can't stand huge cities), but perhaps I'm alone in my desire to live in a place that has low cost of living, reasonable traffic, and abundant housing+land.

PS - I actually currently live and work near Grand Rapids. I have 11 acres that didn't cost me a fortune, and I love it. GR would probably have also failed their 'amenities' filter, which I think is also wrong - any place with broadway, concerts, sports teams, good restaurants/breweries/bars etc. is probably good enough for most young people.

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