Here are the top 20 finalist for it's 2nd headquarters


AMAZON’S TOP 20

Atlanta
Austin, Tex.
Boston
Chicago
Columbus, Ohio
Dallas
Denver
Indianapolis
Los Angeles
Miami
Montgomery County, Md.
Nashville
Newark
New York
Northern Virginia
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
Raleigh, N.C.
Toronto, Canada
Washington, D.C.

_______________________
We rationalize dumb shit

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“There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” -Albert Camus

"$7 billion in tax incentives by New Jersey to bring Amazon to Newark. Officials in Chicago offered Amazon tax credits that would allow it to keep about $1.32 billion in income taxes that employees would ordinarily pay to the state"


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

_______________________
We rationalize dumb shit

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“There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” -Albert Camus

why I want no parts of this if I'm any of these cities. it's kind of telling how much corporations have the country by the short hairs.

1) Atlanta
2) Austin
3) Nashville

this.

Like instead of chasing amazon and apple, need to set the conditions that allow for hundreds of small companies to flourish and have the impact of one of these large companies to the area.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

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“There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” -Albert Camus

at some point during an economic downturn we are gonna have the federal government bailing out tech/media giants because letting them collapse would wipe out entire industries.

you know they had to have a list of cities they would want to move to before the process started and were trying to see which cities would go for it.

My money is on Atlanta.

ATL would get it if we had better mass transit options and highway infrastructure. A lot more tech companies (NCR which they stole from Ohio) are placing their headquarters in downtown ATL right now though.

_______________________
We rationalize dumb shit

I was really rooting for that one


Toronto is still in play. I'm scared it would turn into San Francisco overnight lol, but I do think it offers specific advantages that US cities could not (eg. a buffer against fluctuating immigration policy in the US)

Interesting about the Montgomery County bid, I've heard no buzz about this one. I read recently the Discovery Channel hq is moving from DT Silver Spring to NYC, which leaves a large commercial campus vacant across the street from a busy metro station/MARC stop.. wonder if that location is being considered.

And kind of sneaky to group Montgomery County as completely seperate Washington DC. Geographically and fiscally they are, yes, but would definitely be pulling talent from the same DMV metro area, not to mention using the same transportation infrastructure..

Basically dense suburbs. Gotta imagine the traffic increase and driving miles from living spread out are gonna really suck if they go to one of those towns, especially for the people that already live there.

Would be cool if they came here to Philly, but at the same time part of me hopes they go elsewhere. Someone else can get to deal with that cornball bro culture nonsense.

<--- Big Baller World Order

flood the city and surrounding suburbs with more highly educated liberal voters and help turn the state blue for good.

<--- Big Baller World Order

and the GOP here already has to change the political districts. Amazon coming here to NC would have a ripple effect on our state's politics for the better.

The negatives are the same that comes with any development of this nature: the displacement of the blue-collar working class. By 2024, the Triangle will be an extremely expensive region to stay.

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https://twitter.com/democracync/status/951520733909475330

When I get to a computer I'll find an article

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“There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” -Albert Camus

shortlisted for consideration.

Plus Bezos has made his home here.


If that ends up being what they were thinking all along, it'd kind of be like - why all the theatre? Lol

>If that ends up being what they were thinking all along, it'd
>kind of be like - why all the theatre? Lol


I'm guessing it'll be in the DC metro myself.

One big factor is COL. If Amazon makes that a major consideration then a lot of cities are immediately crossed-off, while others move to the top of the list. Mass transit is also a factor, though maybe not as much as COL.

Whichever city gets the headquarters absolutely deserves it.

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I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

A grip of well-paying, white collar jobs can have a ripple effect on the local economy with taxes, housing, retail, travel/tourism, etc.

The negatives are the same negatives that come with any growing economy, only probably much more rapidly.

Gentrification concerns aside, I was kinda hoping they'd go to Detroit for the reasons I stated above.

im not up on this so hip me as to why it'd be a bad thing

<--- Big Baller World Order

More people moving here, driving up housing costs which are already ridiculous, more traffic which already sucks. I work in the tech industry so part of me wouldn't mind having another A player to get a job at, but otherwise I'm good.

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http://www.soundcloud.com/sectachrome

While people that live in those areas tend to need things like true investment in their cities from government, not just trickle down industry.
The deals some of these cities are offering are just absurd.

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“There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” -Albert Camus

>The deals some of these cities are offering are just absurd.

I can't wait to see the hometown op-eds in ten years begging people to support whatever tax or millage or bond issuance the winning city has on the blocks because Amazon fucked over their city and they have nothing left in the coffers. I can't fucking wait.

__________________________________________

I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/sites/default/files/docs/pdf/amazon-subsidies.pdf

Here's the start

Amazon aggressively gained market share in part by long avoiding, and then minimizing, the collection of sales taxes. As it became less and less able to avoid collecting sales taxes—because it couldn’t avoid locating warehouses in more states—it learned that it could sometimes extract lucrative taxpayer subsidies for them, and methodically started doing so in 2010–2011.



Another part from the opener:

Public officials must recognize their communities’ value. They need to recognize that the prize on the bargaining table isn’t an Amazon facility: it’s more access to the local market for another aggressive retailer growing at the expense of existing retailers. To their credit, some of the public offcials we interviewed have a good sense of their bargaining power, informed by business basics, not incentives.

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“There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” -Albert Camus

<--- Big Baller World Order

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i mean, nyc tech has been bubbling for a good second but I'm ready for it to kick into over drive so I can buy a fucking house.

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https://soundcloud.com/swageyph/yph-die-with-me

Amazon gets tax breaks
City gets new residents who are a strain on the infrastructure, not to mention annoying techy, beet root latte drinking, driving up the cost of living residents. No thanks.

There is OBVIOUSLY positive brought from their expansion with dozens of offices in the city

But the cost of living has risen dramatically in a way that is too reminiscent of San Francisco for many locals

There is an honest to god fear of what Amazon setting foot in your city can do to the local economy

Good. No more magic beans.

Streets won't let me chill.

I imagine Baltimore could've used that tax revenue

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2013-10-23/business/bs-md-amazon-update-20131023_1_tax-credits-southeast-baltimore-amazon-com

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“There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” -Albert Camus

...again, more magic beans.

Streets won't let me chill.

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One Hundred.

the bottom to give away subsidies to companies and sports teams.

It seems everyone suffers when states try to out do each other to give away stuff to companies when the company should just pick the best state aside from the give aways.


**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

"what's a leader if he isn't reluctant"

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“There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” -Albert Camus

I'm not just saying that because I'm from NC.....but logically speaking Raleigh makes so much sense.

Raleigh is on I-40 and is only about 20 minutes from I-95. Also, Raleigh is geographically closest to the center of the East Coast (if you're measuring from Maine to Miami).

Raleigh has more cheaper space surrounding it than many of the other cities.

Also, UNC, NC State, and Duke are here. Amazon can easily farm technical talent from these schools like other corporations in the area have done. They'll have the pick of the litter because they are Amazon.

The area just has more upside than other cities by not already being oversized.
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The country's 8th largest public transit system by ridership (and 5th by mileage), world's busiest airport, tons of university inside the city limits (GT, AUC, GSU, and Emory), and we have highway access too (75, 85, and 20 all run through the city). Plus housing's affordable here as well (for now at least).

Don't get me wrong, I don't want Amazon (organic job growth is much better), but I'm not sure how Raleigh is the most competitive when you have better options, even within the region.

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"A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards. More than that no man is entitled, and less than that no man shall have." - TR

Raleigh's more affordable than Atlanta.

Raleigh's less crowded.....population-wise and business-wise. Amazon would immediately be the biggest fish in the pond in every way here.

I'd argue that our universities are more geared towards Amazon than Atlanta even though they great in their own right.


Sure, Atlanta is better right now but I'd argue that a lot of the problems that people from Atlanta have with the city (culture getting watered down, traffic, costs rising) would only get worse with Amazon present. If Amazon shows up in the Triangle, some of the same problems might exist but the pros would outweigh the cons because we have the room to grow.
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or use their influence to shape the city's transit growth plans.

and amazon has definitely created some spaces in seattle that are effectively company housing to shorten commutes.

i definitely don't think a sprawling city's messy public transit system is a selling point for them.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/311690-north-carolina-is-no-longer-a-democracy-report

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“There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” -Albert Camus

Most people here (in my experience) seem to be at least willing to hear both sides and occassionally come to an agreement more often than not.

North Carolina took a turn around the same time many states did. The difference between us and them is that our turn was more pronounced because of HB2 and some other bills. We have a state where, as that article states, the GOP-led legislature did hijack our government. We are about to fix that much more sooner than people think. Our districting problem will be fixed before the 2018 elections. It's on Democrats and Progressive in the state to get the vote out in November.

Don't forget that pretty much all of our major areas go blue.

Amazon showing up here would have an immediate effect on the state.
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You're not gonna get a company HQed in Seattle to truly entertain what NC is starting to represent

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“There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” -Albert Camus

NC is a purple state.

The amount of coverage we received over HB2 really colors how people see the state.

Also, I'm not sold that Bezos wouldn't give us the nod still. Nothing leads me to believe that he (or any of the deciding executives at Amazon) are so far left that they would be absolutely against putting their second HQ in NC.
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Corporatations don't need bad press or bad government.

And scotus just said they have a stay and don't have to redraw maos for the midterms.

https://twitter.com/scotusreporter/status/954132667087323137

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“There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” -Albert Camus

forcing the area to invest in public transpo, that could be a win, b/c we been trying to pull that off for years.

raleigh tech scene is booming. plus biomedical (if amazon has aspirations in that area, and why not?).

they know about the area because they built a distribution hub in zebulon just a couple years ago.

i'm against public financing of stadiums and stuff like that. the relo incentives game is not new to NC, that's a big part of how Research Triangle Park blew up (that and big companies like ibm fleeing the north to shift jobs to a 'right-to-work' state). nonetheless, sometimes the incentives game can work for you.

what i've read, however, about the impacts around amazon's current hq, w/ the skyrocketing housing prices and homelessness doesn't have me thrilled.

peace & blessings,

x.

www.twitter.com/poetx

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I'm an advocate for working smarter, not harder. If you just
focus on working hard you end up making someone else rich and
not having much to show for it. (c) mad

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TBH the fact that you're even a mod here fits squarely within Jag's narrative of OK-sanctioned aggression, bullying, and toxicity. *shrug*

https://twitter.com/politicswolf/status/1006990733436309505?s=21

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“There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” -Albert Camus

RDU as an airport is a small-potatoes operation and not a hub. Public transit is poor and I don't see the entire triangle getting behind the sort of tax breaks Amazon will be after to get this done. The biggest thing they have going is the abundance of well educated people and pipelines to lots of good schools, but they are still behind the DC candidates, Atlanta and Austin.

but i could see it in rockville, maryland.

I feel like if they went Montgomery County for DMV,

Silver Spring or Bethesda would be more of a draw because the Purple Line would enable folks living in PG County to get to the HQ easily, too. The Purple Line won't connect to Rockville (though, I guess it'd be a super quick transfer from Bethesda)

But honestly, knowing that the Discovery campus is about to be vacant?? DT Silver Spring would probably be the best possible spot they could choose to put a flagship in the whole county, since Bethesda's as crowded as DC.

With DT Silver Spring they'd get contiguity to DC, insane amount of dining/leisure/community/wellness/festivals in surrounding streets, insane amount of brand new apartment buildings/condos that just went up in neighboring streets, THREE different rail systems converging at that location (WMATA, MARC, and soon Purple Line) which would connect people from neighboring counties like PG, Frederick plus DC proper and VA.

And I love Rockville. But just seems they're going for more of a bustling urban vibe.

>And I love Rockville. But just seems they're going for more of
>a bustling urban vibe.
>
>
>

As a former resident of that particular area, there's just not enough room for what Amazon is looking for. The Discovery building isn't big enough or on enough land. Amazon's HQ2 is supposed to be a campus with like 8 million square feet.

Best area for that in Moco right now would be the former site of White Flint Mall. Vacant, spacious, near metro and main arteries to get around the county.

White Oak would have worked, but FDA has that federal research center site sewn up. Gaithersburg could work as I hear Lake Forest mall is going belly up. There is some room over around Rt. 29 that could work as well.
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cscpov.blogspot.com

"There's a fine line between persistence and foolishness..."
-unknown

"To Each His Reach"

Gonna have to rename that metro station though. From Stadium Armory to Prime Free Shipping Station.
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cscpov.blogspot.com

"There's a fine line between persistence and foolishness..."
-unknown

"To Each His Reach"

and proximity to NY and DC.

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One Hundred.

.

the key to happiness is not being rich;
it's doing something arduous and
creating something of value and then
being able to reflect on the fruits of your labor

Biggest port in the country is long beach though.. LA could also house it easily..

Double 0
DJ/Producer/Artist
Producer in Kidz In The Hall
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twitter: @godouble0
IG: @godouble0
www.thinklikearapper.com

I want no parts of that bullshit in my (host) city; everyone who ain't an executive of Amazon are gonna get FUCKED in the deal.

Its gong to be Mississauga/Brampton area I believe


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IG @h_n_z

I've been seeing the signs for 'Possible Home of Amazon HQ2' in the City signs going into York Region/Markham lately. The funniest part is they make 'Possible' really hard to see.

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Obviously White

700/6000

https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2018/01/08/amazon-employees-food-stamps-poverty-snap.html

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“There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” -Albert Camus

will kill MURRICA

amazon is kind of a horrible place to work for however no matter the level

they want your blood and soul

however, its kinda like google, once you go through that you can go anywhere

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https://soundcloud.com/swageyph/yph-die-with-me

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/paq48y/amazons-first-checkout-free-store-wont-accept-food-stamps

Need an account, a new smart phone, and app

Digital redlining.

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“There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.” -Albert Camus

Raleigh
Atlanta
Pittsburgh
Nashville
Austin

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-30/attention-jeff-bezos-raleigh-tops-amazon-com-hq2-ranking

_______________________
We rationalize dumb shit

for it being a livable city

Raleigh is turning into the new Austin. Quickly.

i still fantasize about moving there

--
the untold want by life and land ne'er granted
now voyager sail thou forth to seek and find

Austin includes 3M, Apple Inc., Hewlett-Packard, Google, Facebook, AMD, Applied Materials, Cirrus Logic, Cisco Systems, eBay/PayPal, Bioware, Blizzard Entertainment, Hoover's, Intel Corporation, National Instruments, Samsung Group, Silicon Laboratories, Oracle Corporation, Hostgator, and United Devices as some of the ...
.
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Current Favorite Song: https://youtu.be/8v_KFHnPImY

"I cannot see how nature could have created itself. Only a supernatural force that is outside of space and time could have done that. ~ Francis Collins

<--- Big Baller World Order

probably on the list for fuckery but the cost of living way too high, not enough affordable/non-luxury housing, and its already crowded AF. Tech companies in large metropolitan areas are more detrimental than beneficial.

We don't really need another West Coast HQ, logistically would be better in midwest, south or east coast. Some of the midwest cities, could really benefit & grow with Amazon's presence.

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peace and love

that's when i tiptoed out ur inbox (c) ricky

http://instagram.com/kahlema
http://twitter.com/jazzlema

Amazon's effect on Austin, Raleigh or Atlanta would be much more catastrophic than in Chicago or Philly, and the effects would be barely noticeable in NYC.

There are only a few truly big cities on that list, the rest are medium cities or large suburbs surrounding a business district.

and that Philly is like 4 million people less than Chicago?

Atlanta peak population (1970): 495,039
Philly peak population (1950): 2,071,605

For Chi:

Chicago: 2,705
Chicago's peak (1950): 3,621,000


As you can see, the actual CITIES are miles apart, and both Chicago and Philly have room to grow, while Atlanta appears to be close to its' all-time peak population currently.


I'm talking cities because "urban campus" was clearly on the Amazon RFP.

Most of the complaints I see in this post all relate to suburban areas like the Atlanta or Austin metros ("where will everyone live! It's too expensive already!" & "what about the traffic")



Edit: Also, there's the actual size of the metro areas:

Atlanta metro: 8,377 square miles
Philly metro: 4,630 square miles

Not quite half, but far less dense.

Also, where Philly's metro area ends, the NYC & Baltimore/DC metros begin. No gaps. Rail infrastructure between them (especially Philly & NYC).



Anyway, I don't think Amazon is coming to Chi or Philly, but I'm just pointing out that the problems of lack of urban space, lack of mass transit and lack of affordable housing are issues that affect smaller cities and super-sized suburbs much more than some off the bigger cities with infrastructure to handle a lot of people.

The population densities are really interesting to look at as well. Seattle is seen as crowded and expensive with a population density of 4721.6 people per square mile, while Philly feels somewhat empty at over twice that: 11,233.6 people per square mile.

The RFP vaguely defined what they were looking for in an urban campus. Chicago is sprawly as hell if you want to make the complaint about Atlanta being spread out, and Seattle isn't a beacon of mass transit or affordable housing, as is. I think it's going to a smaller city like Raleigh, personally. The talent pool thing is going to heavily influence their decision and The Triangle is just a hot bed of ready talent.