Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2 • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#151

Post by cephaslr » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 3:47 PM UTC

After reading these comments it makes me realize just how limiting transportation is and how big of a drag it is. Austin/Boston/DC/Atlanta/Denver/others are all great locations with transportation issues. Even some of the more rural locations such as RDU would quickly fill up with 50k new tech workers join the existing the two-lane highways. It seems like the best solution currently is the Apple/Google wifi buse with 90 minute 1-way commute part of your workday.

The highway system itself is an innovation from the 50's and (In My Humble Opinion) lack of continued innovation on the US transport system since has significantly contributed to the loss of US technical/economic leadership since then.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#152

Post by adventured » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 3:47 PM UTC

corpMaverick wrote: post #138

planteen wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Denver isn't gaining 10K people a day - that would be insane! This article says 13K people in a year to Denver city & county: https://www.denverpost.com/2017/03/28/denvers-growth-spurt-s... It looks like Colorado's population is around 5.7 million with an annual growth rate of 1.4% - so about 80K people per year for the state. http://worldpopulationreview.com/states/colorado-population/

Do you know why is housing in Denver so expensive ? It seems to have good density. Even small towns in Colorado look expensive.

Colorado has grown increasingly affluent. It has a GDP per capita above Australia, Sweden and Denmark. It's a very desirable location to move to. Simultaneously like a lot of the US, they haven't been building up new housing inventory very aggressively since the great recession.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#153

Post by pwinnski » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 3:47 PM UTC

arcanus wrote: post #115

larrydag wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in Dallas. - Currently has a large Amazon distribution center in the suburbs - Strong tech workforce and universities in the area. Other Tech companies in the area Dell(formerly EDS), ATT. Regional centers of Verizon, IBM, Microsoft, Alcatel/Lucent - Low property values and favorable tax structures. Plenty of areas to lease locations or to build in the suburbs or downtown. - International airport that is the hub…

> Google HQ2 is rumored to be looking at Dallas. Do you mean Apple? Dallas should be a very credible option, even if it might be #2 in Texas, behind Austin.

Austin's airport makes it difficult to see that city working for Amazon.

I hope it goes anywhere but Dallas! I live in Dallas.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#154

Post by optimuspaul » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 3:52 PM UTC

codeonfire wrote: post #135

freehunter wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All those poor, broke cities like New York, Chicago, Denver, Miami, Pittsburgh, Austin, Los Angeles, man they look to Seattle like a shining beacon of economic prosperity and liberal ideas. If only New York had the kind of money that Seattle does, then things would be different.

Yeah there is a lot of money in New York. It is all dead money sitting in accounts and low risk investments. There is no new money being generated. Amazon feeds off of growth, not having wealth. Growth wise, those areas are doing...what exactly? Trying to get their politicians to get Amazon to put an HQ there. Having money is not a business.

> dead money sitting in accounts and low risk investments

and real estate.

Real estate costs alone should probably strike most of them from the list. Not just for Amazons cost for building but their workforce will need to live somewhere and house costs are generally high in the candidate cities. But I guess if SV is an example, people don't consider living expenses when choose a place to live.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#155

Post by southphillyman » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 3:55 PM UTC

tinduck wrote: post #116

No New Orleans, Detroit, or Memphis. I really wished they considered a majority African American community that has the capacity to grow. This is just going to increase inequality. Sad really. Let's hope for Atlanta.

>I really wished they considered a majority African American community that has the capacity to grow

Philadelphia and Newark are on the list

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#156

Post by optimuspaul » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 3:56 PM UTC

EADGBE wrote: post #145

jessaustin wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/ka…

I'm disappointed how few midwest cities there were. Minneapolis and St Louis would be excellent cities that have great tech scenes and plenty of room for growth. I do think that Austin and Nashville are great choices as well, but most of the rest seem silly to me.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#157

Post by Erik816 » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 3:56 PM UTC

matt4077 wrote: post #120

rcchen wrote: post #5

Oof unfortunate that Detroit missed the cut, wonder why that happened; they seemed reasonably competitive from an outsider's perspective.

That is sad, indeed. Amazon has the scale where they could have essentially created the social infrastructure they want.

Amazon can't create social infrastructure. They can create buildings and jobs, but the social infrastructure of a city are things like government policies and quality, existing tech worker base, etc. They have little to no ability to move the needle on those things on any kind of reasonable timescale.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#158

Post by cat199 » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 3:57 PM UTC

saosebastiao wrote: post #147

bruceb wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

plus direct access to ports on the atlantic..

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#159

Post by cannonedhamster » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 4:01 PM UTC

cephaslr wrote: post #151

After reading these comments it makes me realize just how limiting transportation is and how big of a drag it is. Austin/Boston/DC/Atlanta/Denver/others are all great locations with transportation issues. Even some of the more rural locations such as RDU would quickly fill up with 50k new tech workers join the existing the two-lane highways. It seems like the best solution currently is the Apple/Google wifi buse with…

This is why I'm hoping it doesn't end up in Boston proper. Traffic is already unbearable for a large chunk of the state during rush hours.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#160

Post by dx034 » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 4:03 PM UTC

chollida1 wrote: post #3

Nice to see Toronto on the list, though game theory suggest that we're only here because having a Canadian Candidate has the potential to have all 3 levels of government involved rather than just state and city. I'm not really sure how to go about handicapping the finalists. Given the current political climate, Toronto is interesting because it's the only city that gives Amazon some escape form the US government. You…

Denver appears to be the current favourite (also chosen by the NYT as the winner) but doesn't have any flights to Asia except for Tokyo[1]. But I guess being sufficiently connected within the US is enough, not sure how many flights to China they need.

[1] https://www.flightera.net/airport/Denver/KDEN