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Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

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Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#171

Post by logfromblammo »

freehunter wrote: post #108
codeonfire wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a desolate wasteland of economic strife. Why do you think 240 cities threw billions at Amazon? The culture has to be replicated, which most of America is not willing to do.

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.

Sarcasm aside, Chicago actually is broke.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#173

Post by 68c12c16 »

_m8fo wrote: post #50

I feel as though there are too many cities. I'd be curious to know what the top 5 are. My picks, in no particular order: - Boston - Dallas - Atlanta - Chicago - Denver In all likelihood it'll be Boston or Denver.

I just don't see why Boston is in that all likelihood...

The apartment rent in Boston is already hiking towards the level of Manhattan while the living condition in many places is old and antique; and the traffic there can be as slow as 10-15 miles/hour in the area around I-95 crossing I-90 between 3pm to 6pm...The subway system is well confined within the Boston proper;and outside the Boston proper, the public buses and trains come to a stop once each hour...

The current population in the city is roughly 670,000; a 50,000 growth would be an increase of 7.5% (approximately)...and if we take account of their partners and kids, the increase would be more than 10%...

I really feel that, at least for the Boston proper, the trend of gentrification has already been pricing out many residents with regular income; and the capacity is quite saturated to accommodate another large corporation with 50,000 employees...

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#174

Post by illegalsmile »

nosequel wrote: post #89
robbiemitchell wrote: post #43

NYT walked through a process of elimination and concluded it will be Denver. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/09/09/upshot/where-...

I was happy to see that Denver pitched Amazon with talent and not tax incentives [1]. I think most in Colorado would be perfectly happy if Denver didn't win and would be very unhappy if Denver won by giving tax breaks. - [1] https://www.denverpost.com/2017/10/18/amazon-headquarters-co...

I live in CO but not front range and the front range population impacts the entire state from natural resources to transportation and recreation. When it comes down to it I would be OK if Denver didn't win though at the same time feel as if that's squandering growth and cool things for my own personal gains. Ultimately if Amazon adds 25-50K population to the front range that's a drop in the bucket of the already ~4.4M citizens living there.

When you deliberately choose not to live in a city and that city has impacts both near and far that affect you it's tough to want them to grow much especially considering their already large problems.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#175

Post by dx034 »

lamp_book wrote: post #28
nerdponx wrote: post #11

What a circus.

They missed a great opportunity to do this as a game show. Pit the mayors against each other Survivor-style and vote one off each week - they could've even staged it in the Amazon. But yeah in all seriousness this is obnoxious.

Oh yeah, but as a new season of Takeshi's castle! That would be amazing!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takeshi's_Castle

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#176

Post by asheldon »

justin66 wrote: post #143
itsdrewmiller wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They haven't said it, but probably because it's not a criterion cities can do anything about.

Having HQ2 far away from Seattle reduces business risk from e.g. major earthquakes.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#177

Post by ghaff »

cannonedhamster wrote: post #159
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.

Even for driving in for the evening, i.e. a reverse commute, Boston/Cambridge traffic has gotten sufficiently worse that I don't go in as much any longer. And the commuter rail I take on the sometimes occasions that I go in for a work day was standing room only starting at Waltham, 30 minutes outside the city, the last time I took it.

There's already the GE Headquarters and a large Amazon building going into the Seaport and building continues in Kendall Square. And this is a city that has a relatively good public transit system.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#180

Post by 68c12c16 »

xefer wrote: post #163
_m8fo wrote: post #50

I feel as though there are too many cities. I'd be curious to know what the top 5 are. My picks, in no particular order: - Boston - Dallas - Atlanta - Chicago - Denver In all likelihood it'll be Boston or Denver.

The location the Boston group has proposed for Amazon is the Suffolk Downs race track site on the East Boston - Revere town line. Perhaps with all the Amazon building the area would improve, but the place feels like a wasteland right now. It's on the other side of Logan airport so there's a lot of airport service infrastructure around. There is a huge field of fuel tanks, big box stores and highways. It's also very c…

The prospect of traffic and rent in that area can be a bit dismal, if they are to make the move....
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