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Seems so silly that there were 248 proposals and yet there re only about 55 metro areas in Canada & the US {Mexico has less than no chance} of over 1,000,000. Some in the US have basically no transit system to speak of and are the anti-thesis of pedestrian friendly environments.
I think the "unqualified" cities/metros just wanted to get their name out there. And if they didn't spend too much money/time on their proposal, then no real harm and who knows, maybe down the road Amazon decides to place a small regional office in one of those places.
It's probably safe to say it won't be Florida. My guess is Amazon would be more interested in the Northeast region. As mentioned in other posts basically all requirements are met there. It's the ridiculous high COL, that will ruin HQ2 setting up shop there. So I'm guessing Amazon will decide on another Eastern city powerhouse. Atlanta. It not then possibly Charlotte, but I do feel Atlanta will be the pick.
I actually hope they pick the most economically depressed city in their list like Albuquerque or a rust belt one. Most of those desirable cities don't really need Amazon to boost their economy and housing prices are already out of control. Plus, going to an economically depressed area will often be cheaper and a lot of folks will likely be willing to relocate for the once in a lifetime opportunity to work for Amazon.
Sadly, i think Amazon will end up going somewhere that already has plenty of opportunities like SF, Austin, Chicago, NYC, etc.
In many ways I like the idea of going to a Rust Belt city and being part of a rejuvenation. That said, the only 2 rust belt cities that would qualify on the transit front are Pittsburgh, Baltimore, St.Louis, and Cleveland.
The real concern here for Amazon is the ability to get and retain the highly skilled workforce. These are highly skilled and highly sought after employees who can get a job anywhere, anytime they feel like. All the bribes in the world {aka NJ} and cheap land means squat if they can't get the workers. The notion of asking such workers to move to such high crime cities {less so Pittsburgh} seems almost comical. This is what Chicago and Philly also have to overcome. This is why I don't think they will get it. Chicago routinely has more murders every year than all of Canada. They are up against cities like Toronto which was recently rated as the world's 4th safest major city and the safest in NA. If you were a skilled worker which would you pick and which environment would you rather raise your kids in?
Cost of living, good schools, and airports are all come into play but they will be secondary as the primary concern for Amazon will be the city's ability to draw and maintain these workers.
Because of the unusually high turnover rate, it has to be a hip city where the young and bright will WANT to move without being killed by COL.
Chicago - Yes
Atlanta - Yes
NJ/NYC - Yes (Just because of NYC)
Charlotte - Yes
Minneapolis - Probably
Austin - Probably
St. Louis - ???
Boston - ???
Philly - ???
In many ways I like the idea of going to a Rust Belt city and being part of a rejuvenation. That said, the only 2 rust belt cities that would qualify on the transit front are Pittsburgh, Baltimore, St.Louis, and Cleveland.
The real concern here for Amazon is the ability to get and retain the highly skilled workforce. These are highly skilled and highly sought after employees who can get a job anywhere, anytime they feel like. All the bribes in the world {aka NJ} and cheap land means squat if they can't get the workers. The notion of asking such workers to move to such high crime cities {less so Pittsburgh} seems almost comical. This is what Chicago and Philly also have to overcome. This is why I don't think they will get it. Chicago routinely has more murders every year than all of Canada. They are up against cities like Toronto which was recently rated as the world's 4th safest major city and the safest in NA. If you were a skilled worker which would you pick and which environment would you rather raise your kids in?
Cost of living, good schools, and airports are all come into play but they will be secondary as the primary concern for Amazon will be the city's ability to draw and maintain these workers.
Chicago because I understand that a big chunk of its crime is contained within certain neighborhoods that can be avoided. Crime is not spread uniformly throughout the city.
There's a reason that Chicago is attracting wealthier and better educated residents even as it posts a modest population decline.
The real concern here for Amazon is the ability to get and retain the highly skilled workforce. These are highly skilled and highly sought after employees who can get a job anywhere, anytime they feel like. All the bribes in the world {aka NJ} and cheap land means squat if they can't get the workers. The notion of asking such workers to move to such high crime cities {less so Pittsburgh} seems almost comical.
The notion that people won't follow high-paying jobs seems almost comical. People leave places like NY and SF everyday for career opportunities.
Yeah, but we're talking about a relatively short list of cities here (Austin, Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, etc.). I don't see many people looking at a job posting for $250K and saying, "Naaah, it's in Austin." I don't see any of these cities having a problem attracting talent because they are not cool/liberal/educated/walkable enough.
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