Could Atlanta be in the running for second Amazon headquarters? (Buckhead: job, town)

[fieldm]

Originally Posted by satchseven

I said "pretty much" which means there would be a few others but ATL would not be on the top five pretty cities for me. I would take Richmond VA before the ATL, confederate bs and all. But we are talking about America though not places outside of America. I have lived in ten big cites and have visited all of the biggest cities except six, I retired from two airlines

Unless you are the CEO of Amazon nobody cares about your opinions of where it should go.

[earthlyfather]

I worked for a couple of Rte 128 companies for several years. Use to 'run' with a work buddy who lived down in Scituate. The Rte 128 area and Boston in general is dynamic, with Western (The Berkshires) Mass just three hours away, for great r n' r.

Negatives, strictly from my perspective; the high COL and the long and often brutal winters. Recall playing golf in early May in cashmere top coat and still was freezing.

I can see how it would be high on the list.

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

fieldm makes an excellent point in asking why a company like Amazon would want to place its second headquarters in a seemingly-expensive city with a high cost-of-living like Boston.

Ansley makes an excellent point in saying that a city/metro like Boston (which has only about one-fifth of the metropolitan population and only about one-third of the regional population of New York) is a much more manageable place to raise a family.

A major global company like Amazon is seriously considering locating its second corporate headquarters in Boston for multiple reasons, including:

> The concentration of highly-rated colleges and universities in the Boston area that include such hallowed institutions of higher learning as Harvard University (leading member of the Ivy League), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (one of the world's leading STEM research universities), Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern University, Brandeis University, Tufts University, etc, etc... The concentration of internationally prestigious colleges and universities in the Boston area is one of the largest concentrations of prestigious colleges and universities both in North America and on the entire planet and generates a massive and unparalleled amount of young and promising talent for technologically-oriented companies both large (like Amazon) and small...

> The aforementioned concentration of colleges and universities feeds massive amounts of young graduate talent into the large concentration of technology companies in the Boston area, a concentration of technology companies and a tech industry scene that is one of the largest in the Western Hemisphere behind Silicon Valley... Boston's very large tech industry scene is epitomized by the concentration of tech companies along the well-known "Route 128 Corridor" that runs in a semi-circle around the outskirts of the west and north sides of the city...

"Massachusetts Route 128 - America's Technology Highway" (Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Route_128#"America's_Technology_High way"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_Route_128

> The very high rankings of the public schools in the Boston area and in the state of Massachusetts as a whole. The public schools in the state of Massachusetts often seem to appear at or near the very top of the national rankings (most often seemingly in the #1 spot in many surveys). Massachusetts has the reputation of being a state that invests more in its public schools than possibly most any other state...

> The numerous (and almost overwhelming) cultural and event offerings of the Boston area, a list of cultural and event offerings that is just too numerous to reasonably name (Red Sox home games at Fenway Park, Patriots games, Celtics games, Boston Bruins' games, Boston Marathon, outings to Cape Cod, etc, etc, etc.)...

> Despite the flaws in the system described by other posters, Boston's very extensive metropolitan and regional rail transit system (MBTA/Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority...which includes the "T" heavy rail system and an extensive regional commuter rail network that reaches into the neighboring state of Rhode Island) is also a draw for many because it enables one to get around extensively without the use of an automobile...

> Boston's highly-desirable system of urban and metropolitan parks and recreational trails...

> Boston's reputation for having a most intense amount of civic pride and cultural identity...

> Boston's location in the Eastern Time Zone on the Eastern Seaboard at the north end of the most heavily-populated and developed Northeastern Megalopolis, a most highly-urbanized region that stretches through parts of about 11 states and the District of Columbia (from Virginia up to Maine) and is home to about 50 million people.

> An extremely popular and very well-liked Republican governor in Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker (who is known as one of the most popular figures in all of American politics) whose approval ratings have remained well above 70% throughout his entire first term in office in a state dominated by Democrats at all levels of government.

(...It should also be noted that Boston has just very recently attracted the relocation of a major corporate headquarters when GE/General Electric just moved its headquarters from Fairfield, Connecticut (exurban New York) to Boston proper in 2016.)

As noted, the one really bad mark against Boston is its relatively extremely high cost-of-living.

But with so many other numerous amenities and advantages, Boston is definitely a most formidable contender that must be taken seriously as a frontrunner in this apparent competition to attract the $5 billion in investment and 50,000 jobs that will come with being named the site of Amazon's second headquarters.

[earthlyfather]

I could see either of the DC locations, simply from the proximity to the seat of political power in the U.S. Fortune 50 corporate leaders are realists.

Your points as noted, in particular about DC. I commented separately about my experience, knowledge of and take on Boston.

ATL is a sentimental favorite, has much going for it. And, if Amazon is willing to reward based upon an aggressive ramp up of mass transit on ATL's part, then I think ATL's bid becomes more of a contender. It would boggle the mind that the 50,000 and the campus to support them would magically appear within within a tow or three year window. In other words, ATL could guaranteeingly - new word - commit to a massive mass transit ramp up in time to handle the bulk of the employment load.

Originally Posted by primaltech

DC area has the best odds. They have 3 dots out of the 20. NY area has 2, everybody else on the shortlist has 1.

Also, Jeff Bezos bought a house in DC in early 2017, in Obama's neighborhood.

Jeff Bezos buys $23 million mansion in Washington DC - Business Insider

I'm not saying with any kind of certainty, just that if I had to bet, I'd bet on one of the 3 DC area possible locations.

Other than that, I'd say Boston seems really likely.

Atlanta definitely should be in the top 10 of these 20. Maybe in the top 5, maybe not.

[earthlyfather]

Yes, there would most definitely be a ripple effect. Of some magnitude, but impossible to quantify.

Originally Posted by Jandrew5

The Greenville area is rooting for Atlanta because that could mean more visitors and possible business impacts. I'd assume Birmingham and Chattanooga would have a similar feeling at this point.

[fieldm]

Originally Posted by earthlyfather

I could see either of the DC loss, simply from the proximity to the seat of political power in the U.S. Fortune 50 corporate leaders are realists.

Your points as noted, in particular about DC. I commented separately about my experience, knowledge of and take on Boston.

ATL is a sentimental favorite, has much going for it. And, if Amazon is willing to reward based upon an aggressive ramp up of mass transit on ATL's part, then I think ATL's bid becomes more of a contender. It would boggle the mind that the 50,000 and the campus to support them would magically appear within within a tow or three year window. In other words, ATL could guaranteeingly - new word - commit to a massive mass transit ramp up in time to handle the bulk of the employment load.

What are you talking about? The area they would put it in Downtown ATL already has 3 MARTA stations

[brown_dog_us]

Originally Posted by earthlyfather

In other words, ATL could guaranteeingly - new word - commit to a massive mass transit ramp up in time to handle the bulk of the employment load.

Atlanta has one of the better mass transit systems of the 20 finalists. Some of them, Austin for example, have very limited systems. This tells us that a great mass transit system is not a requirement.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by brown_dog_us

Atlanta has one of the better mass transit systems of the 20 finalists. Some of them, Austin for example, have very limited systems. This tells us that a great mass transit system is not a requirement.

While you are right about Austin, mass transit <> having rail. Atlanta ranks near the bottom of the top 100 metros in the ability to get you to jobs in the area in a reasonable amount of time. They ranked something like 90 in a study a couple years back looking at the % of jobs reachable in 45 (?) minutes.

[NC2ATL60]

Originally Posted by fieldm

What are you talking about? The area they would put it in Downtown ATL already has 3 MARTA stations

He's clearly talking about expanding the mass transit across the metro. Sorry, but no way all 50,000 folks would be living in town.

[brown_dog_us]

Originally Posted by bu2

While you are right about Austin, mass transit <> having rail. Atlanta ranks near the bottom of the top 100 metros in the ability to get you to jobs in the area in a reasonable amount of time. They ranked something like 90 in a study a couple years back looking at the % of jobs reachable in 45 (?) minutes.

I agree. Amazon is most likely looking at how easily their future employees can get from where they want to live to where the office is. It can be walking, biking, car, bus, or train. They don't care about how they get to work only that they can get to work.

[fieldm]

Originally Posted by NC2ATL60

He's clearly talking about expanding the mass transit across the metro. Sorry, but no way all 50,000 folks would be living in town.

Who said that? lol


230k+ people ride MARTA heavy rail daily so they can handle another 50k

Plus all the express buses from the suburbs go downtown so Atlanta is good.

Not having MARTA rail in the suburbs OTP doesn't really hurt the city of Atlanta ITP but it mostly hurt the suburbs OTP. We had the Olympics plus plenty of companies moving OTP to ITP because of MARTA being ITP regardless of if MARTA was OTP. Its probably better for the city of Atlanta that the suburbs don't have MARTA because all of these companies would have stayed in the suburbs and not moved into the city. Now does the metro area want MARTA to expand OTP? Sure we do but we can reap the benefits of them being idiots until that happens

Looks like most of the posters either don't live in Metro Atlanta or they live in the suburbs without MARTA. Just because y'all don't have good public transportation in the suburbs doesn't mean ITP doesn't have good transportation. Sure it can be better but it does the job especially if you work in Downtown, Midtown, Buckhead or Perimeter via MARTA from 4:45am until 1am.