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1. "East Coast presence."
2. "Thriving engineering/surrounding university infrastructure and student pipeline."
3. "Transportation hub with major growth potential."
4. "Strong technology and pharma industry presence."
5. "Business friendly, political incentives, and attractive tax/economic long term benefits."
Cory Booker did an incredible job as mayor of Newark, but it's still Newark. Fortunately, for Newark, there's still Camden. Everything is relative.
Camden is making strides too and I could see a large corporate headquarters like Amazon there in the future. You could take advantage of the Philadelphia-area workforce with presumably lower costs of doing business.
1. "East Coast presence."
2. "Thriving engineering/surrounding university infrastructure and student pipeline."
3. "Transportation hub with major growth potential."
4. "Strong technology and pharma industry presence."
5. "Business friendly, political incentives, and attractive tax/economic long term benefits."
My vote goes to Raleigh
Where is an East Coast presence listed as a requirement? I think that's where Amazon will end up but that wasn't mentioned in the RFP.
I don't know about that. ATL has a larger tech workforce, better airport, much better mass transit, more robust business community, etc.
The airport is bigger but not nicer. Dallas has a larger tech workforce. I don't think Atlanta has commuter trains so the bus system would be compatible to Charlotte. I don't think Amazon needs a business community as they bring their own. Charlotte is less sprawled than Atlanta. The population lives mostly in city limits.
Atlanta is a strong finalist. But seeing how Charlotte didn't make the 20 makes me think Atlanta won't be chosen. Charlotte was a nicer option than Atlanta in many practical ways.
I love Charlotte, but it is no way more practical to be chosen above Atlanta, no way.
Just consider 3 points that Amazon (and any tech company wants) and compare the 2 cities:
1. "Thriving engineering/surrounding university infrastructure and student pipeline." - Atlanta wins hands down
2. "Transportation hub with major growth potential." - Atlanta already has the largest airport in the world + better infrastructure
3. "Strong technology and pharma industry presence." - Again Atlanta wins
However Raleigh seems to have most points required - transportation needs a boost
1. "East Coast presence."
2. "Thriving engineering/surrounding university infrastructure and student pipeline."
3. "Transportation hub with major growth potential."
4. "Strong technology and pharma industry presence."
5. "Business friendly, political incentives, and attractive tax/economic long term benefits."
1. "East Coast presence."
2. "Thriving engineering/surrounding university infrastructure and student pipeline."
3. "Transportation hub with major growth potential."
4. "Strong technology and pharma industry presence."
5. "Business friendly, political incentives, and attractive tax/economic long term benefits."
My vote goes to Raleigh
This sounds like wishful thinking. Raleigh probably has the best weather/climate which helped make the list.
The airport is bigger but not nicer. Dallas has a larger tech workforce. I don't think Atlanta has commuter trains so the bus system would be compatible to Charlotte. I don't think Amazon needs a business community as they bring their own. Charlotte is less sprawled than Atlanta. The population lives mostly in city limits.
Lol, "nice". I don't even know what that means, but its irrelevant. An airport is a tool in this situation, and Atlanta has a better one than Charlotte.
You don't think Atlanta has commuter trains?! What? Are you aware of the MARTA system?
Dallas? What does Dallas have to do with anything?
Atlanta also has a much larger metro population, so fewer employees would have to enticed to move.
Dallas? What does Dallas have to do with anything?
Dallas is one of the cities in Amazon's Top 20.
Everybody's Southern bias is showing as if the entire world is the Atlanta - Charlotte - Raleigh corridor. It makes sense since this is a Charlotte forum, but Boston, Chicago, Miami, Toronto, Denver, Austin, Philadelphia, etc... are all just as legitimate contenders in this. Of course on the Charlotte forum though everything gets broken down to Atlanta vs. Charlotte, Raleigh vs. Charlotte, Raleigh vs. Atlanta, etc...
Amazon has 7 sites being considered in the Washington DC - Boston corridor vs. 6 sites in the entire group of Southern states in the country that span two time zones and 2.5 hours of flight time (Austin, Dallas, Nashville, Atlanta, Raleigh, Miami). If you exclude Texas and Miami, the South has less sites than the Rust Belt in the Top 20.
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