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Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

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Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#451

Post by acheron »

mindcrime wrote: post #428
2bitencryption wrote: post #327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 j…

That's just you though. If we're just considering weather, I'd take Chicago over anywhere in Texas, or Atlanta, or Raleigh, or anywhere south of Virginia really. Cold winters are normal, hot summers are terrible. :P

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#452

Post by mindcrime »

acheron wrote: post #451
mindcrime wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 j…

That's just you though. If we're just considering weather, I'd take Chicago over anywhere in Texas, or Atlanta, or Raleigh, or anywhere south of Virginia really. Cold winters are normal, hot summers are terrible. :P

See there ya go... different strokes and all that. I'd never want to live anywhere where it gets any colder than it gets here in NC. :p

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#453

Post by MrFoof »

ghaff wrote: post #230
chipgap98 wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The plot of land they are offering in Boston is Suffolk downs. So its outside of Boston proper, has a ton of space, is right on the T, and has easy access to Logan airport. Plus its proximity to schools you pointed out and its tech scene make it appealing. I actually think Boston has a decent chance, along with Denver, Atlanta, and DC.

Ah right. I don't live in the city so I hadn't really kept up with developments after the bid for a casino location there was rejected a few years ago. Presumably, if that was a legitimate bid at least someone thought you could move a lot of people in and out of the area. Traffic still isn't great around there but, yeah, you're right on the Blue Line (which is... OK I guess) and you're practically next door to the ai…

>I hadn't really kept up with developments after the bid for a casino location there was rejected a few years ago

That casino is actually now under active construction, and has been for about a year (if not longer). Though it's much further south in Everett.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#454

Post by fetus8 »

Pokepokalypse wrote: post #359
fetus8 wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh, there's nothing out in the eastern part of Colorado that qualifies as a city. Sterling, is like 10k people, if that. But anything east of Greeley is still relatively affordable. Anything along the Front Range, Colorado Springs, and north, all the way up to Fort Collins, have seen huge increases in housing costs in the last 5 years. Denver and Boulder are expensive, yes, but the commuter (bedroom) communities, lik…

Foreign Investment is driving this. The money got sucked out of the US economy (foreign manufacturing, high oil prices back in the '00's) - and now that wealth is consolidated, and they're investing in property all over the place; especially in US suburbs (and Canada), and it's jacking up demand so bad, that even very high-paying white-collar jobs can't realistically finance a house anymore. Oh- people can BUY the ho…

I've read about the foreign investors, but really want to believe that's only happening in places like CA, but I know that's not true.

Housing in Colorado isn't necessarily un-affordable, yet, it's just way over priced. Plus the demand continues to go up, causing pricing to rise. I know that in Northern Colorado, it sort of peaked back in 2016, and the rate at which prices are going up are slower than they were, but housing still isn't cheap.

(Luckily, I am fortunate enough to work in a developer role for a company, in an industry that is pretty rock solid, so I think getting laid off isn't a huge threat. I got laid off last year from HPE and managed to land on my feet. I have been working with a mortgage broker to try and buy something instead of paying sky high rents, but being a twenty-something, even with a decently high salary still makes this way harder than it would have been a few years earlier, even with a lower salary. )

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#456

Post by selectodude »

rubidium wrote: post #211
opportune wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main problem with some of these cities, Indianapolis in particular, is that it might be hard to attract software developers to go live there. Even though the dollar goes farther in Indianapolis, after adjusting for cost of living, you would still need to add a bonus to entice developers to live there rather than Seattle. I grew up near Indianapolis and I certainly would not live there over Seattle, for political/…

It depends. It would be a beacon for all software developers from the midwest. Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio and Indiana all have solid state schools with some of the better CS programs (top 25) in the nation. For all the home-grown developers, many would prefer to stay close to home than have to move to the mad-house of the coasts. In other words, I question that most developers would think the same way you do.

They all go to Chicago, though, and I think they would prefer to continue doing so.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#457

Post by snowwrestler »

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…

I doubt that land in the downtown core is a central consideration based on the fact that Northern Virginia and Montgomery County, MD are listed in addition to Washington, DC.

Northern Virginia has a lot of land, an existing tech sector, a ton of data centers, one of the biggest Internet peering points in the world, and a big international airport (Dulles). It's not a cool place to live and work, though, the way the city is. It's family suburbs and strip malls, mostly.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#458

Post by snowwrestler »

claudiulodro wrote: post #288
prklmn wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They won't do this after getting bids from numerous American cities. To choose a city in Canada would piss off too much of their customer base, including the president of the country, and would have a long term material impact on sales.

Have you seen Trump's tweets about Amazon and Bezos? He's already pissed at them. Frankly if I was in their shoes I would go with Toronto also to have some sort of hedging against the US political climate.

Trump does not give a shit about Bezos or Amazon. The only reason he targets Bezos is because Bezos owns the Washington Post.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#459

Post by [deleted] »

dgritsko wrote: post #184
JauntTrooper wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 :)

[deleted]

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#460

Post by otoburb »

gumby wrote: post #203
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…

> Nice to see Toronto on the list, though game theory suggest My bet is on Toronto because they can pick up all the staff they need worldwide without the problems of trying to get US visas.

>>My bet is on Toronto because they can pick up all the staff they need worldwide without the problems of trying to get US visas.

But non-Canadian staff still need to obtain Canadian visas. I'm not sure how much easier (or not) that process is compared to the TN or H1B lottery.

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