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Amazon reveals top 20 city candidates for its second HQ

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bfun_x1 said:
Oh everyone wants more houses but there is a housing shortage because there is a labor shortage. At least that's what they said a few years ago. After the housing market fell all the experienced builders left and never came back. It' been slowly ramping up again but most of the new building has been with multi-dwelling units.
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That's a smart move as multi-family units is a great way to rapidly and efficiently increase the housing stock. From my experience the primary inhibitor of development is zoning restrictions and NIMBYism. California may be taking radical steps to eliminate these and I think other states should look into similar measures.
 
Puffnstuff said:
Another thing to consider is that since Amazon is an international company their HQ will need to be close to an international airport.
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They explicitly address this in the RFP. Easy access to a major airport with international flights is a requirement as is consideration of frequency/travel time to Seattle.
 
I have family that live outside of Atlanta and you're correct. My cousin works in the city and traffic is horrible at best. One little screwup turns it into a disaster. You have to know several alternate routes at the drop of a hat to get where you're going.

The only thing Indy and Columbus have going for them is lower housing costs unless (as has been said), this site will be a shipping hub. If it's going to be a high data usage site, my be is it'll go in Boston or one of the sites around DC.

zinfamous said:
Atlanta has godawful/crippling transit infrastructure, though. It makes sense for location, housing, education and all that, but the place is a permanent traffic jam with garbage-to-non existent PT.

They would need to open more than the current single feeder expressway that essentially funnels all of the suburbs into Atlanta proper (unless they have already been working on that--I have no idea)
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K1052 said:
They explicitly address this in the RFP. Easy access to a major airport with international flights is a requirement as is consideration of frequency/travel time to Seattle.
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Without being privy to all of the factors under consideration we'll have to wait for them to announce the winner and then look at the attributes they cite for it.
 
K1052 said:
They explicitly address this in the RFP. Easy access to a major airport with international flights is a requirement as is consideration of frequency/travel time to Seattle.
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Given that, I'm surprised Columbus made the list. The airport is decent and relatively easy to get to, but it's not a hub for any major airline.
 
K1052 said:
I agree that Philly would be a good fit. If I had to whittle the list down to two cities I'd say Philly vs Chicago.

Incentives will be a factor but amongst the developer rumor mill in these parts I hear that access to the stream of graduates coming out of decent major state school catchment areas is becoming very important. Those are people who might not want to move to SF/LA or Boston/NYC because cost of living is out of control. This is true for all companies looking to mount major corporate expansions.
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As someone who lived in Philly for a year and loved the city, I have to disagree. I don't think it's a good fit at all. Yes, it's cheap, and transit works surprisingly well for a city with only two real subway lines, but it's a much more isolated city than most people realize.

It is not "close to NYC" in any meaningful way. In fact, it is not really close to any other major metropolitan area. DC? Nope. Baltimore? No.

There is also not a ready pool of tech workers like NJ has in towns like Edison and Clifton. These towns are easily commutable to NYC or Newark.

Of course there are advantages to having some isolation in Philly, it's harder for competitors to poach your employees.
 
FerrelGeek said:
Given that, I'm surprised Columbus made the list. The airport is decent and relatively easy to get to, but it's not a hub for any major airline.
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Some of the cities that made the 2nd round are similarly limited in air service. Again, their ranking of priorities is still open to debate.
 
Blackjack200 said:
As someone who lived in Philly for a year and loved the city, I have to disagree. I don't think it's a good fit at all. Yes, it's cheap, and transit works surprisingly well for a city with only two real subway lines, but it's a much more isolated city than most people realize.

It is not "close to NYC" in any meaningful way. In fact, it is not really close to any other major metropolitan area. DC? Nope. Baltimore? No.

There is also not a ready pool of tech workers like NJ has in towns like Edison and Clifton. These towns are easily commutable to NYC or Newark.

Of course there are advantages to having some isolation in Philly, it's harder for competitors to poach your employees.
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NYC and Philly are close enough that I know some people who commute from Philly to NYC for work. (no, I would not do this, but still it's a thing)

Philly is close to NYC in the sense that a business based in Philly can readily conduct business in NYC any day of the week without special accommodations or an overnight stay required.
 
Blackjack200 said:
As someone who lived in Philly for a year and loved the city, I have to disagree. I don't think it's a good fit at all. Yes, it's cheap, and transit works surprisingly well for a city with only two real subway lines, but it's a much more isolated city than most people realize.

It is not "close to NYC" in any meaningful way. In fact, it is not really close to any other major metropolitan area. DC? Nope. Baltimore? No.

There is also not a ready pool of tech workers like NJ has in towns like Edison and Clifton. These towns are easily commutable to NYC or Newark.

Of course there are advantages to having some isolation in Philly, it's harder for competitors to poach your employees.
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I think from Amazon's perspective the questions are can they get people graduating college to move to the PHL area to fill their jobs and can the city accommodate the growth without sending housing costs into orbit like on the west coast and in Boston/NYC.
 
Puffnstuff said:
With their race to the bottom the overall cost of doing business will probably the most influential thing with this decision.
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Cost is one factor but talent attraction is another. West coast companies are having trouble hiring because cost of living is out of control even with big salaries to counter it some and lots of people don't want to live/commute to/work in suburban office parks. Over the last decade basically every major going concern around here that is HQ'd out in the burbs has moved or opened city offices because they couldn't get younger people to take the jobs.
 
fskimospy said:
NYC and Philly are close enough that I know some people who commute from Philly to NYC for work. (no, I would not do this, but still it's a thing)

Philly is close to NYC in the sense that a business based in Philly can readily conduct business in NYC any day of the week without special accommodations or an overnight stay required.
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That's not wrong, but I think it would be a mistake to consider 'proximity to NYC' as a plus for Philly. The reality is, if you're a worker or a student in the NYC metro area, working in Philly would involve a move. The culture of the Philly is vastly different from the culture of the NYC metro area. I don't think the tech community in Northern NJ is going to be excited about moving down to Bucks or Mercer County.

K1052 said:
I think from Amazon's perspective the questions are can they get people graduating college to move to the PHL area to fill their jobs and can the city accommodate the growth without sending housing costs into orbit like on the west coast and in Boston/NYC.
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I think the answer to both of those questions is yes. Philadelphia is loaded with good schools, and the gentrified neighborhoods in Philly only go up to Spring Garden or maybe a little further North. The city could handle a huge influx of tech workers.
 
Blackjack200 said:
I think the answer to both of those questions is yes. Philadelphia is loaded with good schools, and the gentrified neighborhoods in Philly only go up to Spring Garden or maybe a little further North. The city could handle a huge influx of tech workers.
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I miss the fresh soft pretzels and cheese steaks but not much else.
 
I live in Montgomery County, MD (which spans multiple cities) and I have no clue where they would actually put it.

I will say though from where I live, I'm 40 minutes to 3 different major airports (BWI, IAD, DCA) which meets the one point about being able to get to Seattle easily.
 
Puffnstuff said:
I miss the fresh soft pretzels and cheese steaks but not much else.
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Really? I think the Chinatown is great, good Pho shops, Philly Art Museum is awesome and not crowded like NYC museums are. Fairmount Park owns the living shit out of Central Park. You can live right in the urban core for very reasonable rents. (I lived in a great neighborhood in Passyunk and paid $1400 for a two bedroom). So many cool little spots like Old City, Farimount Ave., Passyunk Ave. etc.

Did you live in Philly or near it?
 
Blackjack200 said:
Really? I think the Chinatown is great, good Pho shops, Philly Art Museum is awesome and not crowded like NYC museums are. Fairmount Park owns the living shit out of Central Park. You can live right in the urban core for very reasonable rents. (I lived in a great neighborhood in Passyunk and paid $1400 for a two bedroom). So many cool little spots like Old City, Farimount Ave., Passyunk Ave. etc.

Did you live in Philly or near it?
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Yeah after growing up there I go back a few times a year for Eagles games (WOO) and to visit friends. While it was kind of shitty in years past over the last 15 years or so I think it’s become a pretty great place.
 
Oh crap, I forgot that Bezos, ~last year, bought that old textile museum just outside of DC (near Chevy Chase, MD, I think, and in the same neighborhood of the Ivanka family and the Obamas) and is currently turning it into a mega mansion (and most expensive single family residence in the entire DCMA)

crap
 
Blackjack200 said:
Really? I think the Chinatown is great, good Pho shops, Philly Art Museum is awesome and not crowded like NYC museums are. Fairmount Park owns the living shit out of Central Park. You can live right in the urban core for very reasonable rents. (I lived in a great neighborhood in Passyunk and paid $1400 for a two bedroom). So many cool little spots like Old City, Farimount Ave., Passyunk Ave. etc.

Did you live in Philly or near it?
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I lived on the shipyard in South Philly until my dad retired from the Navy.
 
zinfamous said:
Oh crap, I forgot that Bezos, ~last year, bought that old textile museum just outside of DC (near Chevy Chase, MD, I think, and in the same neighborhood of the Ivanka family and the Obamas) and is currently turning it into a mega mansion (and most expensive single family residence in the entire DCMA)

crap
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Jeff likes houses. I think he's up to 6 or 7 now across the country.
 
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