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Saying Philly didn't fit the "profile" is a really bogus claim. Philadelphia finished in the top 3 above DC, and the Washingtonian puffs out it's chest and says Philly can't compete us! The executives always knew they just wanted to be in NYC and Bezos wanted to be at his mansion in DC. Schuylkill Yards is a ballin' development that is still getting built without Amazon as the anchor.
So true. Also pretty moronic to assert that a brand/company as powerful and ubiquitous as Amazon couldn't attract employees, regardless of where it's located. Way to completely undercut your company's appeal, Mr. Jassy.
A major city in the middle of the Northeast Corridor, amongst the one of the greatest concentrations of top universities within a 100 mile radius in the world? Nope, no access to talent there!
I'm indifferent. Amazon already has 7,000 white collar jobs in the Bay Area, by far the largest concentration outside of Washington state, that was before the whole HQ2 thingy happened.
I'm indifferent. Amazon already has 7,000 white collar jobs in the Bay Area, by far the largest concentration outside of Washington state, that was before the whole HQ2 thingy happened.
The Bay Area wasn’t won of the 20 metros involved.
So true. Also pretty moronic to assert that a brand/company as powerful and ubiquitous as Amazon couldn't attract employees, regardless of where it's located. Way to completely undercut your company's appeal, Mr. Jassy.
A major city in the middle of the Northeast Corridor, amongst the one of the greatest concentrations of top universities within a 100 mile radius in the world? Nope, no access to talent there!
Agree with your assessment, as well as the post you quoted. I was glad to see Philly compete for Amazon HQ, even though I have major reservations about Amazon and Bezos. It's always good to see the city and region flex for national and international projects and commerce. Great that we acquitted ourselves well in the process; but I was just as glad to pass on jumping thru hoops for Amazon. Always happy to see the region attract high profile investment, but not at all convinced that Amazon was a good fit here. Certainly not at the expense of removing all the green M & M's and licorice jelly beans from their boardroom, or whatever it was they were demanding, for the next hundred years or whatever.
So true. Also pretty moronic to assert that a brand/company as powerful and ubiquitous as Amazon couldn't attract employees, regardless of where it's located. Way to completely undercut your company's appeal, Mr. Jassy.
A major city in the middle of the Northeast Corridor, amongst the one of the greatest concentrations of top universities within a 100 mile radius in the world? Nope, no access to talent there!
In the corporate location world, location is considered VERY important. Maybe that's not intuitive to you.
In fact, much of the entire point is to attract people who won't move to Seattle!
Also, it's not about attracting enough employees. It's about whether the location can help hire the world's best and brightest.
Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
8,134 posts, read 7,586,619 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by thedirtypirate
Saying Philly didn't fit the "profile" is a really bogus claim. Philadelphia finished in the top 3 above DC, and the Washingtonian puffs out it's chest and says Philly can't compete us! The executives always knew they just wanted to be in NYC and Bezos wanted to be at his mansion in DC. Schuylkill Yards is a ballin' development that is still getting built without Amazon as the anchor.
Schuylkill Yards is very nice. But the rest of this post is just boosting falsehoods.
The top 3 were DC/Arlington VA (who won), NYC (also won), and Dallas.
Philly was finalist candidate with about 20 other cities.
Obviously Philly's tech job base isn't prolific as all the others, including Dallas. Bezos has houses in 5 cities at least, and could have picked any of them. The company chose the places they did because of culture/talent base in the region, Philly's perception of grit and tough people, probably served them poorly in this particular HQ2 location. Sorry if that hurts anyone's feelings.
Schuylkill Yards is very nice. But the rest of this post is just boosting falsehoods.
The top 3 were DC/Arlington VA (who won), NYC (also won), and Dallas.
Philly was finalist candidate with about 20 other cities.
Obviously Philly's tech job base isn't prolific as all the others, including Dallas. Bezos has houses in 5 cities at least, and could have picked any of them. The company chose the places they did because of culture/talent base in the region, Philly's perception of grit and tough people, probably served them poorly in this particular HQ2 location. Sorry if that hurts anyone's feelings.
In your previous post, you linked to an article that had excerpts from a recently released book that literally stated Philadelphia, Raleigh, and Chicago were the search committees picks and Bezos and Jassy said they would rather just be in NYC and DC. Look it up. There’s plenty of news articles. The snide tone in your last sentence makes you look foolish.
Quote:
The “top-tier” locations, according to the memo, were: Chicago, Dallas, New York City, Northern Virginia, Philadelphia and Raleigh.
But the search team narrowed the list again, picking three cities the company should focus on: Chicago, Philadelphia and Raleigh.
Philly's perception of grit and tough people, probably served them poorly in this particular HQ2 location. Sorry if that hurts anyone's feelings.
That works both ways, though.
Amazon's and Bezo's perception of greed, avarice, exploitative labor practices, and generally noxious corporate citizenship also served them poorly. With us.
So much so that (wisely, imo), the city wasn't willing to give away the farm in negotiations; negotiations that it was also obvious to anyone paying attention, that Amazon was never engaged in good faith. Mostly just trying to use other cities to leverage their bargaining positions with the locations they had clearly planned on selecting all along. Shocking, I know.
They were happy to pass. We were just as happy to see them go.
There are other corporations and investors. Many of which would be much better fits for the region, and much better corporate citizens; genuinely interested in partnering with us for mutual, long-term benefit. Rather than cynically trying to use us a bargaining chip.
Nobody's feelings are hurt. Here, anyway.
Last edited by LiveFrom215; 05-20-2021 at 10:03 PM..
In your previous post, you linked to an article that had excerpts from a recently released book that literally stated Philadelphia, Raleigh, and Chicago were the search committees picks and Bezos and Jassy said they would rather just be in NYC and DC. Look it up. There’s plenty of news articles. The snide tone in your last sentence makes you look foolish.
Yeah, I'm also getting a little tired of this: "Philly lacks talent" city-data mantra.
It's like they think if they keep saying it, it will become true. Like we're not already a world-class education and research hub.
Like they think our knowledge base is a couple guys in tri-corner hats baffled at the mechanisms of the printing press, and a couple other guys trying to write code by punching sides of beef in a freezer.
Let 'em keep underestimating us, though.
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