Philadelphia vs Pittsburgh (Riverside, Freedom, Austin: roaches, children, hospital)

[MarketStEl]

Well, all we can do now is wait, but I must confess that if Amazon chooses Pittsburgh over Philly, I won't shed any tears. And if Amazon chooses anywhere else over Philly, I might actually breathe a sigh of relief.

Why? My fellow journo Jim Saksa does a good job of explaining why in this piece that ran the day before the proposal submission deadline:

"Quality of Life" is Philadelphia's biggest selling point. Can it survive an Amazonian invasion? | Plan Philly

I think that, for all Pittsburgh has to offer, Philly holds an edge in this crucial intangible, and it's another case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. Save for history, we're not tops in anything, but we're good enough in so many things that the entire package is much more appealing than any of its specific components - and that gives us bonus points when tallying the overall score, much like Moody's Analytics did.

But just as the arrival of the Amazon mothership wrecked Seattle's quality of life - to read some pieces by Seattleites who have lived through it, it's turned the city into a wetter San Francisco - it might wreck Philadelphia's as well. Yeah, we could use the jobs, but should we sell our soul for a mess of pottage?

[Pine to Vine]

^^^ My DH and I are another example of people who visited the city, fell in love with it and ultimately moved here. I have begun to realize that landing Amazon will mean disruption of many of the things that drew us here. But in the end, I think that is a selfish view. The city has a horrible school system and the highest level of poverty among the top 10 US cities. Should Amazon choose Philly as the site for its HQ2, the city will have an unimaginable influx of capital to address the 2 biggest obstacles standing in the way of Philly returning to the world class city many of us know it can be.

[RightonWalnut]

I have no idea why you're even still posting stuff about Amazon. Do you literally have nothing else going on in your life? Is there literally nothing else going on in Pittsburgh right now?

Amazon said they will make a decision sometime in 2018. All submissions are in. Now it's just a waiting game. All of the articles are just guesses at this point.

Move on with your life. We can come back to this decision when Amazon announces a short list or the winner... hopefully Philly and/or Pittsburgh will both be on the short list. Hopefully one of these will be the winners. I don't think either will be unfortunately, but we can dream.

[mslhu]

Originally Posted by Pine to Vine

Who the EF is Paddy Power? Moody’s Analytics (heard of them?) ranks Philly at No 3 right behind Austin and Atlanta: moody amazon rankings.

Actually, look carefully at the actual final tally. You’ll see that that Austin and Atlanta are tied at 3.08 with Philly clocking in right on their heels at 3.07. Looks like a statistical dead heat.

No Comment

Paddy Power is a pretty big European betting company. People are placing their bets based on these "cities most likely to get the new headquarters" lists of which Pittsburgh is always on because it's a hip thing to do even if it doesn't really make sense. (someone in Forbes today said Cincinnati )

[mslhu]

Originally Posted by Blackbeauty212

Just an FYI ... No Comment

By the way, even though I think this is dumb, Philly has moved to third place while Pittsburgh is in 10th, lol.

Amazon Betting

[RightonWalnut]

Originally Posted by mslhu

By the way, even though I think this is dumb, Philly has moved to third place while Pittsburgh is in 10th, lol.

Amazon Betting

Whoops! Guess she posted this a little prematurely then

[Pine to Vine]

Originally Posted by mslhu

Paddy Power is a pretty big European betting company. People are placing their bets based on these "cities most likely to get the new headquarters" lists of which Pittsburgh is always on because it's a hip thing to do even if it doesn't really make sense. (someone in Forbes today said Cincinnati )

Thanks. I still put more faith in Moody’s than I do an off-track-betting analogue across the Atlantic. But, as you imply, there seem to be a hundred different entities offering predictions based on their interpretation the needs assessment for HQ2. I’ve also read about a dozen different claims of “someone who knows someone” with all the inside connectionns here on CD, letting us know that the die has already been cast. All of this provides a little fodder for our CD threads but little of real substance at this point in time.

[RightonWalnut]

Pennsylvania officially has a new tallest building.

The Comcast Technology Center - which will house offices for Comcast, NBC and Telemundo, as well as a Four Seasons Hotel, and two restaurants - has officially surpassed the current tallest in PA, the Comcast Center, which sits at 975 feet tall. The Comcast Technology Center is currently sitting at 995 feet tall, and has 126 feet to go before reaching it's official top-out height of 1,121 feet tall.


Philly by Tim O'Brien, on Flickr

New 23 floor, 375 foot tall tower for Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, in the Graduate Hospital neighborhood of South Philadelphia. This tower is an office/research tower called the Roberts Center for Pediatric Research. It is the first of 4 buildings that will be built on this new campus.


Schuylkill river boat tour to Bartram's Garden by Holly, on Flickr

Some gleaming new towers along the Schuylkill River. From left to right, the first highrise is the new One Riverside condominium building in the Fitler Square neighborhood of Center City.

The tallest tower in the center is the new 736 foot tall FMC Tower, which houses office for FMC, University of Pennsylvania, Brandywine Realty Trust, Nasdaq, Spark Therapeutics, Iron Stone Strategic Capital Partners, and Freedom Pay. The top floors contain an AKA extended stay hotel. There are also two restaurants in the building.

The third, on the right, is EVO, a 430 foot tall apartment building with ground floor retail. In the background, you can see more highrises in University City.


FMC Sunset by Tom Ipri, on Flickr

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by Pine to Vine

^^^ My DH and I are another example of people who visited the city, fell in love with it and ultimately moved here. I have begun to realize that landing Amazon will mean disruption of many of the things that drew us here. But in the end, I think that is a selfish view. The city has a horrible school system and the highest level of poverty among the top 10 US cities. Should Amazon choose Philly as the site for its HQ2, the city will have an unimaginable influx of capital to address the 2 biggest obstacles standing in the way of Philly returning to the world class city many of us know it can be.

This is my view. The positives would outweigh some of the negatives a number of Philadelphians seem to be worried about.

[Blackbeauty212]

Again, just an FYI .... No Comment

Amazon Is Not Coming; Your City Has Already Lost

Sorry to say, but your town lost the Amazon HQ2 game, and before the game even began. Amazon’s top executives have known for some time where they are putting their new headquarters – or at least they had it narrowed to two or maybe three contenders..

For HQ2, Amazon likely wants a city which won’t just pony up big initial incentives, but a city that will respond to Amazon’s needs in the future. If that’s the case, then large cities like New York, Boston and Washington would be out of the running. Another intriguing candidate, Philadelphia, would have trouble too – since Philly is Comcast territory.

In the end, where will Amazon go? The most tantalizing clue is where Amazon currently has research centers outside of Seattle. Those six cities are Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Minneapolis, Pittsburgh and Portland. After removing west coast Portland and too big Boston, that leaves four cities that fit the size requirements, have strong local high technology clusters and prominent research universities: Atlanta, Austin, Minneapolis and Pittsburgh.

Is Atlanta too congested? Can the progressive Bezos pick a city in Texas? Can Minneapolis or Pittsburgh attract and retain talent? Tough to say. But if I had to bet, I would put my chips on those four cities.

Amazon Is Not Coming; Your City Has Already L | The Daily Caller