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Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

washingtonpost.com

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Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#391

Post by jdhn »

dvtrn wrote: post #388
jdhn wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m going to poke the bear: why did you move out of Austin again?

You're a monster. Honestly the city just felt very superficial in a lot of ways. I was there almost a decade and a half, and in that span of time I came to appreciate different things about the city for what they were, but that pervading sense that there wasn't really much substance beneath the surface ever left, and the direction of the city just stopped aligning with my long term personal goals of buying a house. O…

Very interesting, thanks for the write up!

>I decided to leave and return to the midwest.

I’m actually in the Midwest right now and has Austin at the top of my places to move to. However, I do want to buy a house in the next 5 years, so this is making me have second thoughts.

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#392

Post by sieabahlpark »

eli wrote: post #378
JPKab wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, they have it covered already. I lived in Northern Virginia for 8 years. It's got a mediocre quality of life compared to other tech centers, extremely high cost of living, horrific traffic, and has a talent pool that is inflated on paper due to the misaligned incentives of the Federal government workforce (Federal government workers are promoted and hired based on arbitrary checkmarks like Masters degree: yes/no,…

Wait why would Congress care about employees near DC, aside from the reps for VA and MD? I could believe Bezos wants to be near the political action... but DC doesn’t really have much pull in. National politics

You have the CIA, FBI, and NSA in the area...

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#393

Post by dvtrn »

jdhn wrote: post #391
dvtrn wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're a monster. Honestly the city just felt very superficial in a lot of ways. I was there almost a decade and a half, and in that span of time I came to appreciate different things about the city for what they were, but that pervading sense that there wasn't really much substance beneath the surface ever left, and the direction of the city just stopped aligning with my long term personal goals of buying a house. O…

Very interesting, thanks for the write up! >I decided to leave and return to the midwest. I’m actually in the Midwest right now and has Austin at the top of my places to move to. However, I do want to buy a house in the next 5 years, so this is making me have second thoughts.

Look don't take my word for it, okay? You can still buy a house there, if your personal finances allow and still really, thoroughly enjoy yourself. Austin is great for that, I will definitely go back for ACL Fest and sxsw (becoming one of THOSE people heh) because at its heart it is a very fun city. My personal priorities just changed as I grew older.

I was someone who got to Austin in the very early 2000's after leaving the military up the road at Ft. Hood, enjoyed it for a few years, and slowly watched it evolve into something that just didn't excite me anymore. My experience shouldn't sour yours.

(But seriously, if you're gonna buy a house, and want to actually enjoy having a bit of land, but still be close enough to Austin to do Austin-y things, Pflugerville, Round Rock and Georgetown to the North are blowing up, as are Buda, Kyle and San Marcos to the south, with Bastrop to the east. To the west is where Michael Dell and probably Lance Armstrong lives. That's all I'll say about that)

p.s. if you absolutely feel like you have to have Franklin BBQ, don't be a rube and stand in line for 4 hours. Get some friends over, pool your money together and call in, they'll do pick up orders for anything over $40 I think and you can skip the line-or call my buddy Mark, his brisket is better anyway :P

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#394

Post by CalRobert »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #96
CalRobert wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like good transportation with terrible urban planning.

Yes, it's always inconvenient and disillusioning when people refuse to live where "urban planners" think they should live.

That would make sense if urban planners were the ones telling people not to live near transit stations, but it's generally existing residents opposing new housing.

Though, perhaps to your point, I also am not a fan of almost all planning. The nicest places to live, walk, etc. tend to be ones that arose before planning was widespread. Of course, they existed before the car, too.

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#395

Post by Apocryphon »

jldugger wrote: post #386
BoorishBears wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So for some context I’m a black male, early 20s who just moved to NC from CT. I’ll address 1,4, and 5 out of order and point out I don’t see their relevance to moving. If NC had particularly egregious holes in its gun laws or something, I’d understand 4, but it doesn’t. It just doesn’t have notably strong gun laws, which puts it in the majority of states. The other two are pretty inconsequential if you’re talking abo…

> It feels like what you’re saying is ... “why would an average tech worker want to move to somewhere that isn’t a spitting image of California and SV culture?” ... Expecting other places to coddle your tastes and expectations I mean, this was the topic at hand. I recognize it hurts to hear one's chosen home disparaged, but when you're trying to recruit candidates into a location, you can't exactly demand they put up…

Austin is a bigger deal than Denver or Portland, for tech.

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#397

Post by selimthegrim »

amazingman wrote: post #276
rayiner wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived in Atlanta for the better part of a decade as a brown guy right after 9/11. Was great.

I guess you never spent much time in the hills just an hour or so from Atlanta in almost any direction, in any of a good number of towns where “a brown guy” would have a hard time finding a restaurant willing to take his money for food.

Another brown guy checking in. My aunt and uncle practiced medicine in Murphy, NC for many years and only ever had a problem when the feds thought Eric Rudolph might be hiding in their backyard.

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#398

Post by clubm8 »

mikeash wrote: post #256
clubm8 wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But how many IAD -> SEA flights are there? It's always been the case that DCA has a limited number of long haul flights. It's nice to be able to WMATA to the airport but IAD is a short Uber away from Crystal City.

It’ll also be a reasonable Metro ride away starting in about two years.

> It’ll also be a reasonable Metro ride away starting in about two years.

Is that the official estimate? If so I'd double it :)

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#399

Post by Zach_the_Lizard »

tifnufiene wrote: post #228
octonion wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The politics and culture (which are intertwined). Even if one area or city is more liberal, you're still dealing with a conservative, and possibly racist, sexist and homophobic, state government.

Having lived in Alabama, this would be rather offensive if it weren’t so endearing; Sounds like a child who’s so certain that the closet hides a monster, that they’re too scared to go learn that the noise is just an air vent.

Having lived in Alabama as a Catholic yankee I was met with at best extreme ignorance about my then beliefs and at worst outright harassment and discrimination for having the wrong accent and wrong Christian denomination. Within the first week of moving there, we had a Klan rally in town.

Most of the other local Catholic families, if they could afford it, moved their children to private school to escape.

The schools had corporal punishment, and demanded that we call our teachers sir or ma'am, a custom that I was not used to and have encountered nowhere else. Failing to do so landed me in detention within the first month or so.

I was there for the original Roy Moore saga.

This was 15+ years ago and in a rural community with dirt roads, so I'm sure things have changed a bit and do not apply to the whole state, but checking the school website corporal punishment is still alive and well and Alabama nearly elected Roy Moore yet again.

I would never live there so long as the current toxic blend of religion and politics dominates the Southern political scene.

Re: Amazon HQ2: Advanced talks about second headquarters in Northern Virginia

#400

Post by Zach_the_Lizard »

amazingman wrote: post #389
cm2012 wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

lol man. I don't watch sports but I guess you don't play video games, watch netflix, etc.? All are equally wastes of time.

Netflix and video games don’t directly promote tribal bullshit, and they generally don’t infect the workplace with career-impacting social expectations. I have seen the latter in various workplaces, indeed nearly all of my prior workplaces. The former is just patently true.

> Netflix and video games don’t directly promote tribal bullshit

They most certainly do, at least games anyways. Clans for example have a fairly tribal sounding name.

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