Passenger Trains > Official Amazon HQ finalist list

NY Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/18/technology/amazon-finalists-headquarters.html?_r=0

Good list, several adds in this 20 city list from the Wall Street Journal's educated guess of 10 cities

A few of interest to me no particular order:

Montgomery County MD, between DC and Baltimore

Denver

Philadelphia

Toronto

Columbus OH

Chicago, which offered bundles of money and offered to let Amazon keep the taxes paid by its employees. Even as Chicago schools fall apart, and murders continue at a high rate.

Pittsburgh

Boston

Columbus and Indy are dark horses, but they have a lot to offer. Highly educated work forces, major research universities nearby, business-friendly tax environments, affordable housing prices, and lots of developable land in or near the downtown core. What they *don't* have is strong transit.

Paul Wilson
Arlington, VA

Atlanta has it in the bag <G>.

apple is looking too for customer support center

Raleigh beating out Charlotte which already has light rail is interesting. They must have really sold the new station as being "commuter ready". To get things started they can add an Research Triangle Park stop for the Piedmonts.

General1862 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Raleigh beating out Charlotte which already has
> light rail is interesting. They must have really
> sold the new station as being "commuter ready". To
> get things started they can add an Research
> Triangle Park stop for the Piedmonts.

Maybe it was the riots in September 2016.

It would be interesting to know how Amazon weighted the criteria, and is the list of 20 composed of cities which led in some criteria, but not in others.

Raleigh, with no transit, did well in the 238 city screening. But, did it score very high when they weighted young people, housing costs, education, and zero out on transit? Boston, in contrast, scored very high on transit, tech availability, education and young people but zeroed out on housing costs.

Each time they re-weight the criteria, they get a different ranking of cities.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Each time they re-weight the criteria, they get a
> different ranking of cities.

Criteria probably means nothing. Amazon is just waiting to see who offers them the most.

ts1457 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Lackawanna484 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Each time they re-weight the criteria, they get
> a
> > different ranking of cities.
>
> Criteria probably means nothing. Amazon is just
> waiting to see who offers them the most.

Within some limits. I don't expect Baltimore would have been selected even if the city offered buckets of money. Unstable municipal government, failed school system, out of control crime. Chicago, in contrast, has begun to reduce the growth in murders in several concentrated areas.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Within some limits. I don't expect Baltimore
> would have been selected even if the city offered
> buckets of money. Unstable municipal government,
> failed school system, out of control crime.
> Chicago, in contrast, has begun to reduce the
> growth in murders in several concentrated areas.

OK, you got me on that point.

But of course, places like that are not going to be able to put together a package.

I can’t for even a second think that selection is about anything but money. Transit! LOL. This is the US.

I'm surprised Topeka isn't on the list. Kansas, as a low-tax state, should compete well.

As the WSJ article posits, it’s possible that politics are more important to Bezos than near-term profits at this point. Shifting the political winds to favor amazon’s business model, perhaps by attracting thousands of tech workers to a swing district or being close to DC, are more important to amazon’s future than making a quick buck. Transit is probably pretty low on the list of factors in play. I’d like to see Pittsburgh get the gig.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/18/18 09:09 by njfrn.

njfrn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> As the WSJ article posits, it’s possible that
> politics are more important to Bezos than
> near-term profits at this point. Shifting the
> political winds to favor amazon’s business
> model, perhaps by attracting thousands of tech
> workers to a swing district or being close to DC,
> are more important to amazon’s future than
> making a quick buck. Transit is probably pretty
> low on the list of factors in play. I’d like to
> see Pittsburgh get the gig.

He could turn Georgia into a blue state.

njfrn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> As the WSJ article posits, it’s possible that
> politics are more important to Bezos than
> near-term profits at this point. Shifting the
> political winds to favor amazon’s business
> model, perhaps by attracting thousands of tech
> workers to a swing district or being close to DC,
> are more important to amazon’s future than
> making a quick buck. Transit is probably pretty
> low on the list of factors in play. I’d like to
> see Pittsburgh get the gig.

Then it'll be Montgomery County, Maryland.
Bezos owns the Washington Post.
Amtrak and MARC - keeping the pax rail theme.
DC Metro.
Dulles Airport.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/18/18 10:47 by Lurch_in_ABQ.

Denver by a ‘Mile high!’ Excellent international airport, expanding mass transit & a highly educated workforce. Low murder rate...🤗

We have room for Apple as well!

njfrn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> As the WSJ article posits, it’s possible that
> politics are more important to Bezos than
> near-term profits at this point. Shifting the
> political winds to favor amazon’s business
> model, perhaps by attracting thousands of tech
> workers to a swing district or being close to DC,
> are more important to amazon’s future than
> making a quick buck. Transit is probably pretty
> low on the list of factors in play. I’d like to
> see Pittsburgh get the gig.

Please not Pittsburgh ! I want to be able to afford to move there :-)

Korotaj46 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I can’t for even a second think that selection
> is about anything but money. Transit! LOL. This
> is the US.

Well yes, it's about money. But part of the "money" consideration will include "can I convince the kind of young, educated people I want to recruit to move here? You need those smart young people to make more money.

On those grounds, I would think Denver has a clear edge. Cool town, lots of stuff for young people to do in the 2-3 hours a week when they won't be working. Montgomery County MD would be a good choice but I don't see real estate availability and affordability in there. I'm a former resident of both locations.

“Chicago, which offered bundles of money and offered to let Amazon keep the taxes paid by its employees. Even as Chicago schools fall apart, and murders continue at a high rate.”
Wtf, keeping taxes their employees pay? That is BS, so Amazon would take taxes out of their employees checks only the keep the money for themselves? That’s complete BS

Posted from iPhone