Oof unfortunate that Detroit missed the cut, wonder why that happened; they seemed reasonably competitive from an outsider's perspective.
No employee wants to move there.
Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2
181–190 of 747 posts
Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2
#182Earlier 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…
MCI is sort of a drive for me, but then again all airports are. I'm roughly equidistant from STL, SGF, and COU, with MCI slightly farther away. Icelandair seems like it could be a great way to get to Europe? I'm actually a little bummed out by the terminal plans, since they're likely to throw away the quick-in/quick-out convenience that exists currently. Flying was so much better in the 1990s, and MCI right now is sort of a throwback to that time. However, the current design makes connecting flights through KCI sort of impossible, so I can see why the airlines don't like it.
Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2
#183Earlier 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.
Nice small mountain towns, especially those near ski areas, are expensive. But towns and cities on the plains (e.g., Ft. Morgan) are pretty inexpensive. And southern Colorado cities like Pueblo and Colorado Springs are also a lot more inexpensive. Denver and Boulder are quite expensive.
Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
FANG = Facebook, Apple, Netflix, Google? (Just based on https://www.acronymfinder.com/FANG.html - I hadn't heard that one before)
Yes though A is Amazon. It’s been used by the investing media to describe their ezcellent stock performance in recent years. Sometimes it’s FAANG to include Apple. Google kind of ruined it by rename the parent company Alphabet though!
Yeah, FAAAN doesn't have quite the same ring to it :)
Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2
#185Atlanta is right in the middle of many of the world's flight paths (there's a city outside the airport!), has lots of fiber, and the state already showed a willingness to work at all levels to get a big, logistics-dependent business with the Caterpillar plant. The latter point is probably the most important.
>(there's a city outside the airport!) You say that, but my experience is that there's a traffic jam outside the airport, and then an hour and a half later you get to Alpharetta ;)
The proposed locations are on MARTA (the main one is 15 minutes from the airport by direct rail), and certainly not all the way up in Alpharetta.
Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2
#186Its basically most of the major metro areas in North America >500 miles away from Seattle. Doesn't seem to be cutting it down much.
I agree it's a massive list to have said they've whittled it down much, but I can see some misses. St Louis isn't there, Detroit isn't there, Tampa and Orlando aren't there, Milwaukee isn't there, Phoenix isn't there, Houston isn't there, Minneapolis isn't there, Baltimore isn't there. They put out far too big of a list of candidates, but they have apparently ruled out just as many major metro areas.
I'm fairly certain that given Target already has a hold of Minneapolis, there's no way they'd allow Amazon to move in on their turf.
Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2
#187I'm surprised to see Miami make the list, since they're going to have so much work to do over the next 50 years to deal with rising sea levels. I'm not at all sure that the city will still exist in its modern form in 2050, and surely Amazon is planning that far out too.
Unfortunately, Miami's tech scene is really small, especially for it's size. Ft. Lauderdale has a bigger one, but still not very impressive. Amazon would be hard pressed to find enough qualified engineers here that I think it's not viable. I could see a smaller office opening for Latin America though, as we have communities from essentially every country in the region.
Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2
#188Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2
#189Ask 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 current airport authority will sadly fight rail at the airport tooth and nail. I believe they make more money off parking fees than the flight ops.
Moreover, the strongest / largest municipality in the region (Wake/Raleigh) seems to be the least interested in serious non-road public transport projects, as they just withdrew from their chunk of the light rail connection with Durham / CH.
Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2
#190Earlier 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.
I can't see Amazon moving to Austin.
Austin is a very popular "2nd Campus" for tech companies, but it's not a great "HQ".
1) Poor airport connectivity 2) Seriously bad traffic options, with limited ability for build out 3) Not a lot of great public transit options 4) Limited ability for free land/property tax abatements/government handouts
Austin is a strong candidate because of UT Austin, but UT Austin students primarily come from Austin or Dallas (not like they are trapped on an island) unwilling to move out.