Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2 • Hacker News Board

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#271

Post by gjmarsh » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 6:03 PM UTC

52-6F-62 wrote: post #216

saalweachter wrote: post #62

I 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.

How far is Newark from the old Bell labs. Didn't that building just undergo renovations and is starting to house some tech companies? As much as I'd like to see Toronto happen, if I was being on the decision panel for that, the old Bell labs building would be mighty tempting for completely selfish reasons.

Not sure which Bell Labs. Newark is ~30 min both by car and train during Rush from Murray Hill... which is in the Middle of some of the nicest suburbs in the state. The other you might be talking about is Holmdel. Thats at least an hour down the GSP and I think train would be at least that.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#272

Post by adreamingsoul » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 6:04 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…

What is the basis for your assumption of "- a strong existing tech workforce and universities."?

Amazon already has a strong and diverse tech force, in fact, they have so many tech workers that it has affected Seattle's housing crises.

I highly doubt HQ2 will have that many tech workers. If anything, Amazon wants to pay less for non-tech workers because they can't write off those salaries, which implies that the location for HQ2 should be favorable for non-tech roles.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#273

Post by nsnick » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 6:04 PM UTC

lurker10000 wrote: post #132

If you haven't seen this yet, this gambling site has Atlanta, GA / Boston, MA / Austin, TX as the top three choices for HQ2. http://www.paddypower.com/bet?action=go_type&ev_type_id=2271...

It also has Portland and Cleveland as the next most likely and they have been eliminated. Gambling sites are not useful for decisions like this which are made by a small group of people. Gambling sites are useful for things like elections where you want to sample a small part of the large population.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#274

Post by lolsal » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 6:04 PM UTC

biohax2015 wrote: post #266

gizmo385 wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> my family and I would not feel fully safe or comfortable living in Texas, Tennessee, Georgia or North Carolina I'm a little surprised by this. You wouldn't feel safe? Why not?

They are probably a minority. There is rampant racism in these states and many don’t even try to hide their discrimination.

> rampant: flourishing or spreading unchecked.

I have lived in the south for 33 years (in particular, one of these states mentioned) - if you think that racism is flourishing or spreading unchecked you are misinformed. It exists, but it's dying. Please stop spreading hyperbole like this.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#275

Post by jrs95 » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 6:05 PM UTC

patrickxb wrote: post #240

I think travel between HQ and HQ2 has to be a nonstop flight for it to be viable. The cities sorted by number of nonstops to Seattle per day: Los Angeles 23 Denver 18 Chicago 14 Dallas 12 Washington, D.C. 7 Atlanta 6 Newark 6 New York 6 Boston 5 Austin 3 Nashville 2 Philadelphia 2 Raleigh, N.C. 2 Indianapolis 1 Toronto, Canada 1 Miami 1 Columbus 0 Pittsburgh 0 Montgomery County, Md. ? Northern Virginia ?

If this were true, why would cities that don’t have this even be on the list?

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#276

Post by lolsal » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 6:05 PM UTC

dude01 wrote: post #227

I could swear I read that the EU does not allow this kind of bidding war for tax reduction by companies, but I can't find it online. The US certainly allows it, which I think is a bad idea.

Why?

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#277

Post by muninn_ » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 6:05 PM UTC

justin66 wrote: post #129

bryanlarsen wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Canadian cities were in serious competition I think there'd be more than one of them on the list. There are a good number of American cities smaller than Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg and Ottawa/Gatineau on the list, let alone Montreal and Vancouver. I suspect that Toronto is the token Canadian city and won't get serious consideration. I don't blame them, in this era of Trump hyper-nationalism there'd be a huge blow…

Toronto might be the token Canadian city, but it's also the strongest contender Canada has to offer, by far. I would not rule them out. > I don't blame them, in this era of Trump hyper-nationalism there'd be a huge blow-back for choosing a Canadian city. Ironically, one reason a Canadian city would offer such big advantages - immigration - is also the main reason for the Trump hyper-nationalism. That tension is inter…

Does Canada take a large proportion of unskilled and poor immigrants?

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#278

Post by matte_black » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 6:06 PM UTC

bruceb wrote: post #68

jasode wrote: post #40

Earlier 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.

Agree. I lived in Miami and the tech scene there is a joke. Unless they want to make some Latin America play there is nothing to gain from there. The fact it’s even on the list makes me suspect that is something they are looking to do.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#279

Post by drcode » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 6:07 PM UTC

sweetishfish wrote: post #140

wyattk wrote: post #126

Something about this just makes my stomach sick... A massive corporation is pitting governments against each other for its own gain, often to no benefit of the local population. I'm scared to see the numbers of "incentives" that local politicians try and hand out to Amazon. There's little evidence that the public money used/lost will ever be recouped. One of the worst cases of this happening so far is the Foxconn dea…

With regards to your first point - it's not really costing taxpayers in Wisconsin $4.5B . At least for the tax credits portion, those are taxes that would not have been paid in Wisconsin otherwise.

I guess I also don't need to pay taxes anymore, because if I don't pay taxes those are just taxes that wouldn't have been paid otherwise.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#280

Post by codeonfire » Thu, Jan 18, 2018, 6:07 PM UTC

My post explaining why I thought other cities would not be able to replicate the growth that Amazon achieved in Seattle was removed due to censorship. Some people didn't like that idea. What a crock of shit. So goodbye "hacker" news, lol.