Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

amazon.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

301–310 of 747 posts

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#301

Post by varroa »

dudul wrote: post #247
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…

Why do you think that it will be to no benefit of the local population? I'm uncomfortable with this process too, but isn't it gonna be great for the city that gets chosen?

One can imagine if the bid process is sufficiently competitive & transparent, if HQ2 brings $10b in economic good, cities might bid eachother down asymptotically to offer $10b in incentives, which in net would result in nearly zero economic good for the winning city or the parent country, and transfer all that value to Amazon & it's shareholders.

There's also the concern that negative impacts are being ignored, such as increased demand on infrastructure, ala the Olympics, wherein by most accounts the winning city actually winds up economically worse-off.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#302

Post by Nelson69 »

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...

Which is exactly why I think that we're a front-runner. Just like the winter Olympics all over again...

The south Denver/Tech Center area was imagined with something like this in mind, maybe a big chunk of land out east along the southern part of e-470.. It's really all the other stuff that kind of stinks, all the extra traffic, all the extra people on the ski slopes, etc..

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#303

Post by txsh »

unexpected wrote: post #190
arcanus wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 prim…

On the other hand Austin is the headquarters of Whole Foods Market which owns a lot of real estate. Until recently they built stores with cash and often owned the shopping centers their stores were built in.

Texas has no state income tax which wouldn’t be a public reason for the choice but is obviously going to be a factor.

Austin is also a good culture fit with Seattle and is a startup hub.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#304

Post by wbl »

philipodonnell wrote: post #217
bruceb wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. Nobody seriously thinks they are going to pick Miami.

My favorite part of the Miami story is the argument that Miami has affordable housing. Amazon is pretty much infamous for sending rents near their offices soaring through the roof. Got affordable housing in your metro? Amazon can fix that!

Or you could add more supply.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#305

Post by hbosch »

hinkley wrote: post #215

It amuses me to think of what will happen to Amazon’s neurotic overworking culture if their other HQ in Miami or Denver. I can’t see amazon casting a big enough cultural shadow to change those cities instead of those cities changing them.

Hm. I have always thought of Seattle and Denver having equally blue-leaning, outdoorsy, marijuana-legalizing, progressively-led cities. What are the cultural differences between them that you're thinking of?

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#306

Post by hbosch »

maxerickson wrote: post #136
ghaff wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the parent's point still probably stands. Wherever they end up, assuming there really is a 50K HQ2 in the end, they have to convince a lot of people to relocate. And a lot of people would be: 1.) Detroit, no thanks or 2.) I can live with Detroit but when I end up leaving Amazon after 2 years like so many people do, I'd have to find a job in a different location. I imagine the talent question at least factored…

My point is that the problem is largely one of perception. The hundreds of thousands of people in the area with technical educations aren't working at McDonald's.

So, where are they working?

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#307

Post by Bhilai »

I totally support this move by Amazon and Apple. My hope is Microsoft/Google/Facebook would follow. There is a desperate need for larger tech companies to move away from Bay Area/Seattle and expand into other cities which actually may have cheaper housing and where life may not feel such a challenge, specially for folks with dependents and families.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#308

Post by sol_remmy »

drumttocs8 wrote: post #249

Amazon would have the greatest impact in Atlanta. You could argue that Atlanta is the economic, cultural, and geographical center of the Southeastern United States. It has the busiest airport in the world and is a major rail hub. There are already dozens of major corporations headquaratered in Atlanta. There is no shortage of talent, with a top-5 engineering school in Georgia Tech. Yet there are things missing which…

Mass transit is NOT needed. Flat land without rivers blocking flow of traffic is all thats needed

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#309

Post by jonknee »

jhallenworld wrote: post #196
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…

>- land in the downtown core to build on, this might eliminate New York? They could rent out the space in One World Trade Center.

That's not nearly enough space, the whole thing is 3m square feet with 2/3 of it leased out. Amazon currently has over 8m occupied in Seattle with millions more currently being built.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#310

Post by drak0n1c »

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 necessary, it wouldn't be too expensive for Amazon to partner with an airline to sponsor/subsidize more frequent flights between Seattle and their HQ2 city - for airlines the difference between an axed money losing route and a money making route can be in the low five figures or even less. Airlines have done these kinds of deals before.
Post reply on HN