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Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

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Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#631

Post by philsnow »

adreamingsoul wrote: post #272
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 loca…

I think there's a continuity of business aspect. When you're among the most valuable public companies in the world, losing your one and only headquarters to a natural disaster might not kill the company, but it would be pretty catastrophic. As such, they're probably going to try to build up a pretty comparable workforce in HQ2.

Amazon recently released Amazon Chime, a videoconferencing system. Maybe this was prioritized so that they'll have a homegrown thing when it comes time for a lot of your meetings to be with remote participants.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#632

Post by JPKab »

techwizrd wrote: post #39

I'm hoping it'll be northern Virginia or Washington, D.C. We already have Amazon stuff here and plenty of tech companies in Tysons Corner, Reston, Herndon, etc. and plenty of universities in close proximity so it wouldn't be a huge stretch.

Used to live there. Inflated salaries courtesy of Federal govt and contractors, and talent pool looks bigger on paper than reality. Govt contracting incentivizes overstaffed projects with slow pace and awful tech. Who wants to work at Amazon for 90k when you can have an easy govt contracting job for 150k that is strictly 9 to 5?

Plus, northern VA has awful traffic and high cost of living. Traffic jam on Saturday morning is a thing in the burbs there.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#634

Post by JPKab »

fetus8 wrote: post #86
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-...

As a Colorado resident, I'd love for them to pick anywhere BUT Denver. We already have major issues with homelessness, and rapidly rising cost of living. Our highways and infrastructure are beyond congested already, and our public transit is pretty half assed. If Amazon is going to build HQ2 here, they better help contribute to improving public transit, creating affordable housing, and help improve the highways to ha…

If only there was a system in place where the money paid to the 50K employees could be taxed by the state and city..... We could call it an income tax. Perhaps these people could even spend their money in their new home with local businesses too? Then this income tax could further apply to the people that paid.

Just imagine the possibilities.

Sorry for the sarcasm, but I'm routinely shocked by the lack of basic economic knowledge on HN.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#635

Post by jdhzzz »

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…

I'll take Atlanta and you can have the other 19 also-rans.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#636

Post by alexchantavy »

soulnothing wrote: post #630
ashelmire wrote: post #340

Part of me would love to have a big tech / infrastructure company like Amazon in Philly. But I take serious issue with the idea of the city paying millions or billions to bring them here, promising years of tax breaks (a free ride), and the tightening of an already very tight real estate and rental market. I don't think my fellow Philadelphians should have to pay to bring a company here that's just going to hire peop…

I moved from Philly to Seattle last year. I would also like to see a bigger tech firm in Philly. There is a great startup scene. The meetup scene is great, and the techie awards of best places to work were awesome. With University City providing good graduates. I mean Drexel, Upenn, Temple, Villanova, and just south University of Delaware. Then transit there was amazing. Philadelphia really feels like it has all the…

> That being said, I do not like what Amazon has done to Seattle. The culture, infrastructure housing, etc, etc.

I'm a Seattle transplant and I've heard this point before. Can you elaborate a bit more on what you mean by the culture changes brought by tech transplants?

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#637

Post by BookmarkSaver »

trevize1138 wrote: post #528
gumby wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I thought I heard 40% of Amazon's employees are not US citizens. This all makes me think Toronoto is the #1 pick.

40% of tech workers in Seattle are foreign (from ~11% ~25 years ago). I saw this figure yesterday, and it might be what you are thinking of.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#638

Post by tgb »

Spooky23 wrote: post #554
GVIrish wrote: post #477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. My thing is, if a sports stadium is gonna be built with public money, it should belong to the public and the team owner should have to pay rent and/or revenue share. Otherwise, why should a billionaire (or group of wealthy people) get a taxpayer-funded stadium for them to print money with?

Stadiums generate a lot of construction jobs, a lot of billable attorney hours, operational revenue to the locality and state/federal dollars for infrastructure. At worst, political people and relatives are members of LLCs that are owning real estate. Basically, it lets politicians be gold-givers. That means political capital, which is as important as cash is to a billionaire.

Oh come on, Philadelphia has plenty of other projects like roads and schools that it can spend that money on that also generate those jobs.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#639

Post by notatoad »

prklmn wrote: post #521
astrodust wrote: post #491

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many Americans are "pissed off" that their American cars are made in Canada? They don't even know where their stuff is made any more. Toyota makes cars in Kentucky, Texas, Indiana, Alabama, West Virgina and Mississippi, but they're an "import". Ford makes vehicles in Mexico and Canada but they're "domestic".

Your point is valid, however no car factory built recently has garnered a fraction of the publicity/public interest that HQ2 has. What people don't know can't hurt them.

Part of me says that if they wanted to set up shop in Toronto they would have just done it, and not gone out of their way to attract attention like they have.

But on the other hand, if they want to run a PR campaign on the basis of "we seriously considered many US cities, and Toronto was a better option", they're certainly putting in the groundwork for that.

Re: Amazon announces candidate cities for HQ2

#640

Post by notatoad »

olympus wrote: post #142
justin66 wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I do wonder what kept Vancouver off the list though. Housing crisis.

And probably the fact that it's so close to Seattle. Geography matters to a company like Amazon and putting up a large hub right next to the first one isn't the best choice.

Yeah, the map of shortlisted cities has a pretty conspicuous buffer around Seattle.
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