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The housing cost in L.A is absolutely ridiculous, and for the price premium you do not even live in an urban environment that offers transit access, but still have to rely on a car for most day to day. :
Looks like reality is at odds with tired east coast L.A. stereotypes from 1989, according to this study which ranks Los Angeles behind only New York and San Francisco for the number of jobs accessible by transit:
About the second HQ. Let's think of another Seattle example HQ that in this case relocated instead of made a duplicate: Boeing.
Boeing wanted better access to the Eastern seaboard for executives. Being in Seattle is kind of removed from everywhere. It's far to the Bos-Was corridor. It's far to the Midwest. It's far to Atlanta and the SE. It doesn't have a lot of really good connections airport wise although Alaska airlines has it as its hub. Logistically, Seattle just doesn't make good sense as a headquarters for a global company whose business is logistics.
In Boeing's case the top contenders ended up being Dallas and Chicago and Chicago got the nod. So I don't think that the Eastern TZ is the main requirement. It's "can we have a week of meetings this week and not have to waste two days time for most of the employees to get here and back (day there, day back) from around the country. If you have HQ in Seattle, you waste a lot of time traveling from the Eastern seaboard.
So either excellent airport access (Atlanta, DFW, or Chicago) or excellent accessibility (Bos/NYC/Newark/Philly/DC/MD/VA) would seem to be decent picks.
Looks like reality is at odds with tired east coast L.A. stereotypes from 1989, according to this study which ranks Los Angeles behind only New York and San Francisco for the number of jobs accessible by transit:
This is from 2014, BEFORE the Expo and Gold line extensions.
Yes L.A. suffers from horrible outdated stereotypes. Even though one of the largest transit measures in history was just passed and soon L.A. will expand its already vast transit system, people back East tend to keep up 1980's smog stereotypes and that L.A. is a sprawling mess.
It isn't. It is the most densifying area in the country and the whole basin is more dense than the whole NY area I read. Downtown is a vibrant walkable area and there are many different neighborhoods that are fully walkable. Even the suburbs are walkable. I have a friend in Manhattan Beach and the area around his place is row after row of tightly knit shops, almost like what you see in San Francisco.
It's okay though, those in the know, they know that L.A. is one of the best cities in the world. One of the best climates, more to do than anyplace I know, and still a land of opportunity.
I don't think L.A. will get Amazon HQ2 but it's not because of lack of transit or lack of talent. The talent pool is deep and arguably better than any other city on the list, even Boston. I'd put a Cal Tech graduate up against an MIT graduate anyday. UCLA itself has so many students and many want to stay in L.A.
L.A. meets every requirement on the list but it suffers from the same problem that Seattle and Miami do, it's a bit remote from the rest of the US. For that reason I see that perhaps Atlanta would be the best fit.
If there was an example of a west coast tech company moving east for the specific reason of being able to be at work for a few hours while people in Europe are, this might be a persuasive point. I can't think of any examples where we have evidence of this.
We might also say that if someone has enough on the ball to get one of these HQ2 jobs, they would be just as inclined to move to a city like Los Angeles than to stay home.
I didn't realize that educated people don't like having their families within a day trip. Things like Friends and Family are for poor people apparently
You constantly bring down Pittsburgh. You do not live there. And from my understanding you have NEVER lived there, but had family who lived there and would visit. And visit infrequently at that, and from previous posts most of your time was spent in the far out burbs of Moon Twp. Which in many ways is not reflective of Pittsburgh as a whole, and surely does not reflect the character rich region.
I know you live in CO. Which is fine. It is fine to prefer where you live over other places. But to be constantly nodding down Pittsburgh across nearly every thread is getting old. TBH.
But time and time again you always try to bring it down. In basically any silly way you can. Whats your deal? Can you not take it that CMU is one of the top talent pools in the nation? Do you have an issue with the architecture? The topography? The fact that Denver is loosing in our City Data poll, so you bring up the most silly attacks against Pittsburgh?
Pittsburgh is isolated. But so is Denver. And Pittsburgh to be frank is less isolated than Denver. So to be honest I am sick of the comparisons across every thread on this website.
We might also say that if someone has enough on the ball to get one of these HQ2 jobs, they would be just as inclined to move to a city like Los Angeles than to stay home.
I here’s plenty of tech talent on the east coast that are happy where they are. I think you over estimate LA’s appeal.
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