50,000 Amazonians in KC? (Miami, Newark, Florida: to live in, cheap housing, metro)

[rwiksell]

Originally Posted by kcmo

True and True. I don't know. From what I know, which I can't confirm, the sites pitched were the Riverfront, the blue valley in eastern Independence, Lee's Summit (probably near the summit tech campus), Oxford on the Blue in South KC near the Cerner project and this is just a guess, but I'm thinking the Kansas side would have pitched sites near the speedway, somewhere along K10/Renner, bluehawk in south OP. They may have come up with a better location in a more built up area near 435, but you would still lack transit etc.

Riverside is reasonably close to downtown. What urban site would you have recommended specifically, considering the acreage they're likely to need?

[Peter1948]

Originally Posted by kcbluesprings

This might sound like a put down, but I just don't believe that Kansas City ever had a ghost of a chance of landing this. Look at some of the cities that Amazon also skipped over... (I'll admit that I don't know if they submitted proposals) Charlotte, Jacksonville, Tampa-St. Pet., Orlando, San Diego, San Francisco area, Sacramento, Portland, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Minneapolis, Houston, San Antonio. All of these cities I believe are cities that Amazon would have picked over KC. And as for some of the other cities that could have gone either way.... St Louis, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Louisville, Norfolk-Va Beach, who knows?? But looking at the map on this link I provided, https://www.geekwire.com/2018/amazon...conomic-prize/ clearly Amazon is looking further east, and on the east coast. Again, I think we need to quick putting ourselves down and look ahead. I think Kansas City has made numerous strides for the better, and if we continue down that path, other opportunities will present themselves. Amazon, as big as it is, is just one company. I'm sure we can land other company expansions or start-ups.

edit: reading the link, a total of 238 cities submitted proposals. Odds were never in our favor.

Why do people care about this? Does anyone TRULY believe second run cities like Indy, Columbus, or Nashville are getting this? All the older cities listed above shouldn't feel ashamed....but they should not that their tech talent is behind many cities on this list. I'm sure most would consider KC a better overall city than Indy, but Indy has better young tech talent and kudos to that town and local universities for creating that.

This is very very clearly between DC metro and Boston. TX, FL, and Atlanta will always be in the hunt do to their tax structures, big cities, and current growth.

[rwiksell]

Originally Posted by rwiksell

Riverside is reasonably close to downtown. What urban site would you have recommended specifically, considering the acreage they're likely to need?

By "Riverside" I meant "The River Front". I caught that too late to edit.

[rwiksell]

Originally Posted by Peter1948

This is very very clearly between DC metro and Boston. TX, FL, and Atlanta will always be in the hunt do to their tax structures, big cities, and current growth.

You don't think Chicago and the New York metro (NY and Newark) are serious contenders?

[Peter1948]

Originally Posted by rwiksell

You don't think Chicago and the New York metro (NY and Newark) are serious contenders?

I do....but I think theyre too expensive.

The point is.....NO WAY Is it going to be Indy or Columbus, etc. Amazon is probably baiting these lower tier cities against each other to get them to offer their soul so they can coerice where they want to be (DC or Boston) into the same. Bezos has developed a monopoly and no one cares....you think he's done? Next for bezos is AI, drones, and robots. Then, we're all done!

[MOforthewin]

I don't think Miami will get it. It's in a very hurricane prone area historically.

IF Irma would have went just 25 miles north and didn't go just inland over northern Cuba, it would have stayed just offshore and wouldn't have weakened as much as it did. with that more northern track Southeast Florida would have likely been hit by a very large category 5 hurricane and would have got the dirty side of it.

Damage would have been so much worse than Andrew due to the larger size of the storm and surge.

Most in FL don't realize how bad Irma could have been. it would have been 20 times worse that it was. Instead FL keys got hit by a weak cat 4 and Southwest FL got hit hard but by a borderline cat 4. IMO the final report the winds at Marco Island will be upped. Even Naples didn't get the strongest part of the eye.

However, for warehouse though labor wise it would be good because they pay low down here an in SEFL with a lot of immigrants there is a demand for service jobs.

For corporate though I just don't see it being a good area for corporate jobs. The talent pool isn't very good in FL with our crap education system.

SEFL also has a very high cost of living. We have no income taxes, BUT FL more than makes up for it in other ways such as higher driver license fees, car registration, high property taxes and toll road$ galore. A lot more expensive than Missouri down here except the pay doesn't make up for it.

IMO I'd put their HQ is the upper south/lower Midwest or more central of the country like Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Texas. Where the cold is tolerable at least.

[rwiksell]

Originally Posted by Peter1948

I do....but I think theyre too expensive.

The point is.....NO WAY Is it going to be Indy or Columbus, etc. Amazon is probably baiting these lower tier cities against each other to get them to offer their soul so they can coerice where they want to be (DC or Boston) into the same. Bezos has developed a monopoly and no one cares....you think he's done? Next for bezos is AI, drones, and robots. Then, we're all done!

New York may be too expensive. But Chicago is not more expensive than Boston.

I'm mostly curious to figure out whether Amazon wants a city that checks all its boxes (New York, Chicago, Boston, LA, DC) or a city that will sell its soul and become its permanent slave (Indy, Columbus, Raleigh, Pittsburgh, Nashville, maybe Austin)

I think the smart money is somewhere in between (Philadelphia, Atlanta, Dallas, Toronto)

I'll put my bet on Philly, for the record.

[kcmo]

I think it will be DC or Boston for sure. I'm not sure a metro of under 3-4 million would even work for Amazon, but I still think KC dropped the ball. This was a fun game to play to see how progressive and big you can think as a metro. I just feel like KC's proposal was likely full of KC's general ideals that tend to be 1980's style sprawl development. Also, Amazon doesn't seem to care about cheap housing and all that. There is a reason why big coastal cities are expensive to live in. You get what you pay for.

So yea, Indy, Nashville, Raleigh, Columbus etc. I don't see it. But you never know.

[kcbluesprings]

When I saw that the Minneapolis-St. Paul area didn't make the cut, I figured that it was probably going east..... especially since there are 3 areas in and around D.C. that made the cut. One place I was surprised was Newark. Where could you even put that? I mean, kudos to them if they get it, but they'll tear down half the city to put it in there... LOL

[James Bond 007]

This is a proposal for downtown Newark called SoMa Newark.