Amazon could only benefit from having multiple state and municipal governments in competition within any general metro area that they are seriously considering. I think it's a bit telling that Washington, D.C., Montgomery County in Maryland and "Northern Virginia" are all on the list, as well as both Newark and New York City.
Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2
141–150 of 747 posts
Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do any of those cities have good international flight options? I live in Montreal, the the options are very limited compared to Toronto. I expect Montreal would be completely ruled out because of the language laws, incidentally. Fine for a branch office, unacceptable for a second HQ. So, I'm not sure you're right about Toronto being a token candidate. I believe it's the best candidate in Canada. But, moving to Canada…
> I do wonder what kept Vancouver off the list though. Housing crisis.
And probably the fact that it's so close to Seattle. Geography matters to a company like Amazon and putting up a large hub right next to the first one isn't the best choice.
Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I do wonder what kept Vancouver off the list though. Housing crisis.
More likely the same thing that kept Portland off - they want more distance between HQs.
Or the fact that their employees would need to sell their organs in order to afford single-bedroom apartments.
But I'm curious, have they actually publicly stated that they want a lot of geographical distance between the old and new HQ? It's an assumption that informs a lot of what's being said here.
Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do any of those cities have good international flight options? I live in Montreal, the the options are very limited compared to Toronto. I expect Montreal would be completely ruled out because of the language laws, incidentally. Fine for a branch office, unacceptable for a second HQ. So, I'm not sure you're right about Toronto being a token candidate. I believe it's the best candidate in Canada. But, moving to Canada…
> I do wonder what kept Vancouver off the list though. Housing crisis.
Moreover, it's less than 150 miles away from Seattle
Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2
#145I'm so glad Kansas City wasted all that time pandering [1] to them. I bet Sly really thought he'd make a dent. Absolutely not surprised though. Oh well, same old same old. Look at all the dots on the edges. [1] http://www.kansascity.com/news/business/article180878701.htm...
Oooh... the cringe is strong. (EDIT: this refers to Mayor Sly's actions in your link, not to your comment!) Realistically, KC doesn't have an international airport. It's a fine national airport, because it's easy to get close to your gate really quickly, and there's a pretty complete set of connections to the West and many parts of the East. To fly internationally, however, requires a layover at O'Hare. One doesn't s…
Hey, but we've got some deal in the works for nonstops to Iceland! (tongue-in-cheek). [1]
I really didn't intend to get high and mighty on my Midwest horse.
Also, I don't know how well you know the airport situation, but they're really, really trying to work on it. [2] Honestly I'm not sure where they're at in the process though, there's been some hiccups.
[1] https://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2018/01/09/kansa...
[2] https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/todayinthesky/...
Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2
#146Ask for Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area to build better transportation, and that's the pick
That's a multi-decade project. They should get started now and will be competitive for whatever the Amazon of 2040 is. The first step is a backbone rail line that starts in Chapel Hill, runs up to Duke, then through Durham to RTP, to the Airport, and from there to and through Raleigh. Then add spurs and spokes to cover the region and funnel people to the backbone. Good luck getting the legislature to authorize, much…
The Chapel Hill-Durham section of that is already in planning: http://ourtransitfuture.com/projects/lrt/
Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
My guess is that Amazon isn't _seriously_ considering all 20 cities equally. Instead, they privately already have 2 or 3 particular cities in mind and the other 18 cities are just there for negotiating leverage for the 2 they really want. The problem is that the cities themselves don't know if they're "really in contention" or just "disposable chess pieces". Again, that's just my guess.
I agree. Nobody seriously thinks they are going to pick Miami.
I'd be willing to bet that Miami is a favorite amongst at least a couple of people actually making the decision. Miami is the capitol of and gateway to Latin America, and Latin America has enormous potential for growth of ecommerce.
Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2
#148Please please pick Toronto. My immigrant future in the US is still uncertain after being here for 12 years. Would be great if Canadian tech ecosystem gets a boost so that I and countless others in my position have options
Are the U.S. and Canada your only options? What about China or India? Maybe Brasil or somewhere like France?
Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2
#149They really should just go to Honolulu. Who wouldn't want to work there?
Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2
#150I wonder if New York is just New York City, or New York Metropolitan region. I guess including Newark makes the latter unlikely, but with IBM shuttering a chunk of its operations here, the Hudson Valley is full of empty IBM office parks and desperate local governments, while close to infrastructure.
It's pretty far from a decent airport. HPN and SWF have flights to only a few destinations and the only mass transit that services them are buses. Poughkeepsie to EWR is no less than 2.5 hours on public transportation and 1.5 hours by car. About the same for JFK. Newburgh and Fishkill are even worse.