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Few Cities Could Accommodate Amazon's New Headquarters

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Re: Few Cities Could Accommodate Amazon's New Headquarters

#91

Post by skookumchuck »

Amazon's announcement came right on the heels of Seattle enacting an income tax on higher income people. The city government has done a number of other anti-business initiatives and rhetoric.

Seattle has been taking Amazon for granted, suddenly the Mayor is taking an interest in Amazon:

'“My office will immediately begin conversations with Amazon around their needs with today’s announcement and the company’s long-term plans for Seattle,” Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said in statement Thursday.'

http://www.seattletimes.com/business/amazon/amazons-announce...

Re: Few Cities Could Accommodate Amazon's New Headquarters

#92

Post by seanmcdirmid »

shemnon42 wrote: post #41
100k wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, the article doesn't address the Twin Cities, but it meets his criteria: - 3.5M metro area population - Very high education levels - Diverse population protected by strong civil rights - Major international airport (Delta hub; 16th largest in the US) - Very affordable - Large business community already (Cargill, Target, Best Buy, major Wells Fargo office, etc.) On the negatives, it is growing slower than other m…

> and the weather will be a turn off. Wow, one of the few cities that competes poorly with Seattle weather.

Seattle weather is actually pretty good. You don't need much AC in the summer (these last couple of weeks being an exception), and it hardly ever gets cold enough to snow in the winter. There is rain, but being able to keep your window open year a.round is great for fresh air at least.

Re: Few Cities Could Accommodate Amazon's New Headquarters

#93

Post by seanmcdirmid »

pc2g4d wrote: post #62
joshdance wrote: post #28

SLC might be too 'small' but it growing, has a super strong university system and tons of software engineers.

SLC metro population: 1+ million Including SLC and Utah counties both: 2+ million University of Utah, Brigham Young University, Utah Valley University Substantial tech talent, startup scene. Adobe, EA, Ebay, Microsoft, Oracle all have a presence. And don't forget the NSA. International airport connects to Canada, France, Mexico, Netherlands, UK... but will take two hops to get anywhere else. https://www.slcairport.co…

I did my undergrad at UW and my grad at UU, I would say the cultures between SLC and Seattle aren't far off, in fact, SLC is the only city I ever knew to have 24 hour coffee shops. Not to mention mountains, hiking, and skiing.

Re: Few Cities Could Accommodate Amazon's New Headquarters

#94

Post by mindcrime »

hnaccy wrote: post #5

I hope they pick Atlanta but I doubt techies want to live in the South.

Have you ever been to RTP? We have a TON of techies here and this is one of the fastest growing areas in the country. Which is both good and bad, because right now one of the nice things about living in this area is the relatively cheap cost of living. But an influx of newcomers will eventually drive that up. But more jobs are good as well. Anyway, the point was just to say that lots of techies are already quite happy in this particular corner of the South.

Re: Few Cities Could Accommodate Amazon's New Headquarters

#95

Post by mindcrime »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #20
macintux wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd think the massive calamity known as Atlanta traffic would be more off-putting than "living in the South". I know I'd love to find someplace warmer to live.

Warmer but more humid. The Deep South is definitely air conditioning country.

You don't even have to be in the Deep South to need A/C. I live in North Carolina, which is "South but not Deep South" and I can't imagine living here without A/C.

Re: Few Cities Could Accommodate Amazon's New Headquarters

#96

Post by mindcrime »

Amazon should consider the Triangle (Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill) area of NC. There's definitely a strong university presence here, as well as an existing workforce of highly skilled / educated folks working at companies like Red Hat, IBM, Cisco, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Glaxo-Smith-Kline, Microsoft, and the like. The Raleigh metro area population was 2.16 million in 2011 and this is one of the fastest growing areas in the country (or was as of 2015)[1].

The Triangle is also in a sweet spot between beaches to the east, within about a 1.5 hour to 2.5 hour drive, and mountains to the west, within about 4-5 hours. And locally we have lots of outdoor green spaces with plenty of trails for running, hiking, mountain biking, etc.

We have major league sports (the NHL Carolina Hurricanes) and minor league baseball (Durham Bulls) and soccer (NC Football Club, formerly the Carolina Railhawks).

The local airport has direct flights to Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Paris, New York, Chicago, Atlanta, DC, and Toronto among others.

There's a nice nightlife scene here with each of the three "points" of the Triangle being a "college town" (Duke, UNC Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State being the major universities). And if you like music, you can get everything from jazz at Beyu Cafe, to the NC Symphony Orchestra at Meymandi Hall in Raleigh, to black metal / death metal / metalcore / etc. at The Maywood in Raleigh, and all sorts of eclectic shit at the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro. And Trans-Siberian Orchestra always has a stop here at PNC Arena on their winter tour. And that's not even mentioning Motorco and the Durham Performing Arts Center in Durham, or Lincoln Theater or Walnut Creek Ampitheatre in Raleigh.

There's plenty of good food to be had here, although admittedly not quite the variety found in Seattle, Chicago, New York or San Francisco, etc. But still you can find a very nice range of options here. Lots of good Thai food in particular.

All in all, despite the embarrassing fuckups by our state government over the past couple of years that have made the national news, this really is a nice place to live and work. And the Triangle metro area is really a different world from the rural parts of NC. Yeah, if you go looking, you can find some pretty backwards, uneducated, ignorant people in NC, but the area here is very diverse, educated, cultured, etc.

[1]: https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/morning_call/2015/01/fo...

Re: Few Cities Could Accommodate Amazon's New Headquarters

#97

Post by not_kurt_godel »

jamesmishra wrote: post #35
bovermyer wrote: post #7

The Twin Cities are looking at courting Amazon for this. IMO, Minneapolis would be a great location for it. We fit the RFP criteria.

Minneapolis would definitely be a great choice. For those that don't know Minneapolis like the parent commenter and I do: - Amazon already has an engineering office in Minneapolis. Check out some of the jobs here. - Amazon has a fulfillment center in Shakopee, MN -- a third ring suburb ~30 miles away from Minneapolis. - This is mostly anecdotal on my part, but it's pretty typical for top computer science students at…

Fulfillment centers are not going to be a consideration, sorry.

Re: Few Cities Could Accommodate Amazon's New Headquarters

#98

Post by not_kurt_godel »

_red wrote: post #78
Jemaclus wrote: post #74

I find it interesting how many of these comments are sales pitches for their chosen cities. I don't have any preferences, since I have no desire to work for Amazon nor do I think my current city of SF is a good choice for reasons laid out in the article. What I'm most interested in, however, is how you get around some of these problems. The article points out a number of issues: Can even Amazon afford to pay 50,000 p…

Houston. Low Taxes. Low Cost of Living. International Airport. Major Port. Plenty of Housing. Universities.

Low-lying land! Surely you must be joking?

Re: Few Cities Could Accommodate Amazon's New Headquarters

#99

Post by dgemm »

rmason wrote: post #2

He needs to add Detroit to his list. Amazon already has two large warehouses and a small developer office there. The only negative on the list is a less than overwhelming public transport system. But they've got lots of cheap land, and both an international airport and an international border as well as three world class universities within an hours drive. Not to mention a metro area with a population of 4.5 million.

They need to be able to convince lots of people to move there. Detroit will be a hard sell.

Re: Few Cities Could Accommodate Amazon's New Headquarters

#100

Post by johan_larson »

rmason wrote: post #2

He needs to add Detroit to his list. Amazon already has two large warehouses and a small developer office there. The only negative on the list is a less than overwhelming public transport system. But they've got lots of cheap land, and both an international airport and an international border as well as three world class universities within an hours drive. Not to mention a metro area with a population of 4.5 million.

My impression of Detroit is that it's a bunch of pretty nice suburbs clustered around a sucking chest-wound of a city. Some areas are flat out depopulating. The government pays to demolish abandoned buildings so they don't become firetraps.

If I were Amazon, I'd stay clear of such a place.

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