Could Atlanta be in the running for second Amazon headquarters? (Arlington: deals, interior)

[Mutiny77]

Originally Posted by Atlwarrior

It may not be a homer article but this quote

“However, it is in the bottom half for educational attainment — just 29 percent of adults have a bachelor’s degree or higher. ” Make no sense especially when the type of people needed for those jobs are probably people with bachelors degrees or higher in other cities that are not technically astute. Furthermore you can’t ignore cities that have schools like GT.

The issue with that CNBC article is that that 29% figure is for the entire state. Metro Atlanta's educational attainment rate is 37.7% and for the city of Atlanta, it's 50.5%.

[autolycus25]

Originally Posted by Mutiny77

The issue with that CNBC article is that that 29% figure is for the entire state. Metro Atlanta's educational attainment rate is 37.7% and for the city of Atlanta, it's 50.5%.

GA’s 6th Congressional District is the 6th best educated congressional district in the US. 56% have college degrees. More than the districts that contain downtown Seattle (including Amazon HQ), San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Boston’s northern areas (including Cambridge), and several of the NoVA and MD suburbs of DC.

To claim education levels are a downside for Atlanta metro is to show great ignorance about the metro area.

[krogerDisco]

Originally Posted by autolycus25

GA’s 6th Congressional District is the 6th best educated congressional district in the US. 56% have college degrees. More than the districts that contain downtown Seattle (including Amazon HQ), San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Boston’s northern areas (including Cambridge), and several of the NoVA and MD suburbs of DC.

To claim education levels are a downside for Atlanta metro is to show great ignorance about the metro area.

It's just slice of the metro area. According to the link above, Northern Virginia would be a better choice.

[AnsleyPark]

I certainly believe that Atlanta has and can attract sufficient folks to more than satisfy Amazon’s talent requirement. This really is a non-issue at the end of the day.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by AnsleyPark

I certainly believe that Atlanta has and can attract sufficient folks to more than satisfy Amazon’s talent requirement. This really is a non-issue at the end of the day.

I think its the key issue for Amazon. They are adding a second HQ for two reasons-1) getting enough talent to Seattle; and 2) overtaxing Seattle's infrastructure.

Atlanta definitely passes 1) and is big enough to handle 2). But some places do better on the talent issue. If that were the sole issue, they would go to New York or Boston. So while Atlanta does well enough, its not a non-issue.

[autolycus25]

Originally Posted by krogerDisco

It's just slice of the metro area. According to the link above, Northern Virginia would be a better choice.

I was not suggesting that Atlanta is the best-educated area that Amazon is considering. I was specifically responding to the notion that Atlanta was a poorly-educated area that was insufficient for Amazon's purposes.

NoVA is the best-educated region outside of Manhattan, but Amazon won't necessarily pick the single best-educated place. They just need somewhere that is adequately educated. Atlanta metro is well above that threshold.

[bu2]

Originally Posted by CaliDreaming01

Based on this I guess Raleigh is out of the running. I read an article recently about the difficult time companies are having getting IT talent. I'm not sure why there's such a shortage, but the article made it sound like it was dire.

So I think No.Va. is Atlanta's main competition at this point.

I think Atlanta falls in the roughly half the cities on the list that match the second criteria. Some of these would be crushed in housing and traffic by adding 50,000 Amazon employees in a relatively short time frame. And they don't have the airports.

[Otakumaster]

Originally Posted by bu2

I think its the key issue for Amazon. They are adding a second HQ for two reasons-1) getting enough talent to Seattle; and 2) overtaxing Seattle's infrastructure.

Atlanta definitely passes 1) and is big enough to handle 2). But some places do better on the talent issue. If that were the sole issue, they would go to New York or Boston. So while Atlanta does well enough, its not a non-issue.

If you admit that Atlanta does well enough then it’s literally a non-issue in the context of Atlanta. Pretty sure that was Ansley’s point.

[Mutiny77]

Originally Posted by CaliDreaming01

Based on this I guess Raleigh is out of the running. I read an article recently about the difficult time companies are having getting IT talent. I'm not sure why there's such a shortage, but the article made it sound like it was dire.

I'd like to read that article because the Triangle has a highly-educated population and lots of tech workers. It may be that there's a shortage of workers but given the high quality of life in Raleigh, attracting tech talent isn't such an issue (although I'm pretty sure it loses its fair share of tech grads to DC, NYC, Boston, and the Bay Area).

[bu2]

Originally Posted by Otakumaster

If you admit that Atlanta does well enough then it’s literally a non-issue in the context of Atlanta. Pretty sure that was Ansley’s point.

Not at all.

If all other things are equal, they go to Boston or New York instead of Atlanta.

So its not a non-issue. Atlanta gets a passing grade so they don't get eliminated, but they don't necessarily win. They have to beat some of these other cities in other ways.