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Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

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Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#421

Post by tptacek »

femto113 wrote: post #386

My money is on one of Nashville, Indianapolis or Columbus with Pittsburgh as a dark horse. Amazon is going to be looking to build a major campus (say 5-10 big buildings) right in the center of town (as they've done here in Seattle) and that's just not feasible in expensive cities like LA, Boston, NYC, Chicago or DC. Denver is too far west, Miami, Atlanta and Raleigh too far southeast. Newark and Philadelphia don't ha…

I don't think Amazon is going to pick Chicago, but there are underdeveloped areas in/near the center of the city in Chicago. There are parts of Chicago that are quite expensive (like West Loop, where McDonalds is moving its campus), but Chicago is really big.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#422

Post by 52-6F-62 »

gjmarsh wrote: post #271
52-6F-62 wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Sorry, I meant Holmdel. Interesting, thanks.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#423

Post by planteen »

runevault wrote: post #85

With how bad traffic/congestion is right now (in spite of our light rail/bus infrastructure) I'm surprised Denver is in the top 20. Especially since last by my understanding the city was offering a less rich incentive package than a lot of the other cities.

I'd say the congestion in Denver is less than Atlanta, DC, and Boston. Those cities are all front runners as well.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#424

Post by jly »

wafflesraccoon wrote: post #30
rcchen wrote: post #5

Oof unfortunate that Detroit missed the cut, wonder why that happened; they seemed reasonably competitive from an outsider's perspective.

I assume Detroit has a lot of the same problems that St Louis has, they are both great little cities with an up and coming tech industry but hiring skilled talent and conniving them to move to the area is a nightmare.

Detroit is shifting fast in this regard. It still has problems, but it's not the city it was 10 years ago, which is what I think a lot of the perception still is.

The Detroit bid put together by Dan Gilbert and team highlighted the fact that almost 50 million people live within a 5 hour drive of the city, with a huge collection of major research universities. Another big push or two like Amazon HQ2 can provide, and I think the city and metro area become highly attractive as an economic destination like Chicago dominates today in the same region.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#425

Post by lloyd-christmas »

wfo wrote: post #381
s4vi0r wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're overestimating the trumples. He has an abysmal approval rating, and the types of people who tend appprove of him (e.g. rural poor) aren't exactly big spenders/prime consumers or whatever. Trump will raise a stink about it, but I'd be very surprised if anyone normal/reasonable felt Amazon opening hq2 in Canada to be like a personal attack against America or something.

Just an aside, Trump supporters are NOT poor or the working class, this is a myth. The poor are non-voters and if they vote it's mostly Democrat by and large. Trump voters for the most part were middle class suburbanites or exburbanites.

Do you have a source for this? Historically, republican voters are both poorer and less educated (which in and of itself has class implications). However, none of those demographics are relevant if they are all located in solid red states. Given that most people seem to attribute the swing state losses to the 'we need jobs' votes coming from the manufacturing and steel industries, the swing implies it's due to jobless (poor) and/or working class voters, the exact demographic you say was not the determinant.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#426

Post by mindcrime »

chollida1 wrote: post #344
sol_remmy wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"a strong existing tech workforce and universities" Hate to say it, but Northern Virginia and Raleigh have Toronto beat on this

You might be right, I don't know everything that is in Raliegh and Virginia. But Toronto has perennially top 25 world ranked universities, Waterloo and Toronto. Toronto may not be the best of these 20 cities for workforce and universities but they can more than hold their own in this regard.

The Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area is pretty strong from the education and workforce point of view. Locally there are three highly rated research universities: UNC Chapel Hill, Duke, and NC State University, along with a number of smaller schools: NC Central, Shaw, St. Augustines, Meredith, William Peace, Wake Tech, Durham Tech, etc. Go just a little further out and you have Campbell, Elon, Wake Forest, UNC Greensboro, NC A&T, and the like.

And the area is already known as a strong tech hub, with companies like IBM, Cisco, Microsoft, EMC, and many others having a long-time established presence here.

I can't really compare to Toronto since I don't know much about that area, but I'd say one of the strongest reasons to consider the Triangle relates to the workforce and the education scene.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#427

Post by ng-user »

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…

Do you have sources for the claim that ATL is the busiest airport in the world? Just curious because I've never heard this before.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#428

Post by mindcrime »

2bitencryption wrote: post #327
sol_remmy wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"a strong existing tech workforce and universities" Hate to say it, but Northern Virginia and Raleigh have Toronto beat on this

I'm really feeling Chicago here. Big tech workforce that's almost purely finance... but the talent is there. Proximity to one of the largest airports in the world. Chicago is a major city with lots of culture, food, attractions, etc. The proposed sites are absolutely enormous and perfect for a huge mega-complex like Amazon would want to build. Relatively short flights to both coasts, since you're smack in the center…

Chicago is a major city with lots of culture, food, attractions, etc.

Personally I love Chicago, and it's one of my favorite cities to visit in the US. And that's at least in part due to the food scene: Au Cheval, Cantina Laredo, Lao Sze Chuan, Petterino's, Wishbone, Star of Siam, Sushi Pink, etc. But... personally speaking I would not want to live and work in Chicago full-time for one big reason: the weather. It's just way too damn cold there for me in the winters.

Now obviously a lot of people do choose to live there, but I can't help but think a warm weather city would be more favorable in some regards, as far as attracting talent goes. But maybe other people don't weight weather as much as I do, or just enjoy cold. Who's to say...

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#429

Post by mindcrime »

ng-user wrote: post #427
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…

Do you have sources for the claim that ATL is the busiest airport in the world? Just curious because I've never heard this before.

http://www.businessinsider.com/the-10-busiest-airports-in-th...

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#430

Post by wfo »

lloyd-christmas wrote: post #425
wfo wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just an aside, Trump supporters are NOT poor or the working class, this is a myth. The poor are non-voters and if they vote it's mostly Democrat by and large. Trump voters for the most part were middle class suburbanites or exburbanites.

Do you have a source for this? Historically, republican voters are both poorer and less educated (which in and of itself has class implications). However, none of those demographics are relevant if they are all located in solid red states. Given that most people seem to attribute the swing state losses to the 'we need jobs' votes coming from the manufacturing and steel industries, the swing implies it's due to jobles…

First link on google on poor voters going Democratic:

http://www.businessinsider.com/exit-polls-who-voted-for-trum...

Every income group over $50k voted Trump. If you scroll down you see that rural voters did indeed go for Trump, but they are much smaller proportion of the population than city folk or, the largest group, suburbanites (who went for Trump solidly as well).

I don't have a source handy for the poor being largely non-voters but I've seen hundreds over the years, it's well-established fact.

>Given that most people seem to attribute the swing state losses to the 'we need jobs' votes coming from the manufacturing and steel industries

Most people might make this attribution but it is not correct.

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