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Sure. Maybe more than the general population, but not to the level of the city forums. I've found lots of people in the real estate, retirement, automobile, relationships, sports, etc forums who don't really care about cities or participate in the city conversations at all. But it's not an important point so whatever.
As others have noted, Schuylkill Yards in Philadelphia offers exactly the same, and in fact is arguably even better situated.
30th Street Station, which is right at the footstep of Schuylkill Yards, is Amtrak's third busiest train station in the nation right behind NYC and DC. It's literally the core of the Northeast Corridor. 30th Street Station also serves as Philly's major regional/commuter rail, trolley and bus hub, so there's a massive nexus of transportation options right onsite that I don't think any other proposal has put forth. Philly's regional rail also has a direct line to its airport, which from 30th Street takes only 20 minutes. When folks talk about "transit-oriented development," this would be a gold standard example.
Add onto this the proximity to several top-tier research/academic institutions within walking distance (something that appears a bit more disperse in Chicago's case, with top schools like Northwestern and U. Chicago a bit more removed from where HQ2 sites are proposed), and objectively I just don't see this kind of cohesion in any other city as far as HQ sites are concerned.
I think it's a great site as well, but I'm not sure how proximity to schools are super important. In Chicago's case, Amazon won't pull from Northwestern or U Chicago, mostly, even though they are both elite schools. They will pull from Purdue, U Illinois, and other engineering-focused schools that already feed heavily into Chicago. I'm not sure what the situation in Philly is.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rowhomecity
Chicago definitely has a healthy shot. I attempted to find more information/renderings on the Lincoln Yard site, but there was not tons of information.
Based on what I am seeing I will rank Lincoln Yards as definitely a top site location contender.
Honestly it would be nice to consider site location v. site location more on this thread rather simply city. v. city.
In all honestly you can be in the top city in terms of RFP, but if the site location does not match up. Is it really going to work??
I agree with Mutiny77 above. I think the Schuylkill Yards site location is the most urban, connected campus proposal I have seen so far.
The ability to walk 3 blocks out of your office to an Acela to NYC or DC.
The ability to walk 3 blocks out of your office and take SEPTA direct to the Philadelphia International in 18 mins. The trans atlantic hub for American Airlines.
The ability to walk 3 blocks out of your office and walk over to the TOP 3 Business School in the World. Wharton at University of Pennsylvania.
The ability to walk 3 blocks out of your office and be directly across from one of the largest CBD in the nation.
The ability to walk 3 blocks out of your office to access the 3rd largest commuter rail network in the nation, to efficiently whisk your employees to their suburban locales, if that is where they choose to reside.
(That is just the beginning).
There is some truth to that though. Seattle has a huge homeless issue and it has gotten very expensive. I think it is questionable if Amazon has walked the walk when it comes to mitigating the some of the consequences of them being there. It wouldn't bother me if Bezos wasn't so into liberal virtue signaling,but he is.
Look at the way he has handled this whole thing. It's great PR to get everyone hyped up and have hundreds of cities who don't have a chance to send in bids, but think of all the wasted time, and money for his publicity stunt, it's taking advantage of people's fools hope.
Amazon already knows who they want. At the very most they had 2 or 3 cities on their short list, I honestly bet they had already decided.
I mean I get it, they want to best package, the most free stuff, and I'm sure they love all the kowtowing, but it just seems so fake to claim to care all about liberal values and bathroom bills if you don't care about wasting peoples money and taking corporate hand outs.
I mean I use Amazon all the time, but I don't have any delusion they are any fundamentally different from Walmart or Target.
In general I want Dallas to become larger, denser, have more transit and thrive in general. I have mixed feelings about paying Amazon for that to happen when it would overnight drive up rent and congestion. I say this as a pro business conservative too.
I would feel even more strongly if I lived in Austin and they got Amazon, that would be a disaster.
The homelessness problem isn't necessarily Amazon's fault. Seattle is a west coast city, homelessness is rife all along the coast. It's still nowhere near the absolutely appalling, third world conditions you see in places like Los Angeles and San Francisco, but yes it is a problem. A problem that existed well before Amazon's proliferation, and would exist even if Amazon packed up and moved. The problem with Seattle is that there is a huge demand to live here, and simply not a lot of space to build. Homeless go wherever the weather is somewhat mild. Seattle is at the far end of the spectrum but it's still mild enough to sleep outdoors in relative comfort most nights of the year. Amazon's presence would not have such a huge impact in a city like Chicago or Philly that has a lot of housing available and are simply too cold in the winter for homeless to multiply in the orders of magnitude that they do in milder climates.
I think it's a great site as well, but I'm not sure how proximity to schools are super important. In Chicago's case, Amazon won't pull from Northwestern or U Chicago, mostly, even though they are both elite schools. They will pull from Purdue, U Illinois, and other engineering-focused schools that already feed heavily into Chicago. I'm not sure what the situation in Philly is.
Schuykill Yards is definitely a good site... it's up there with Lincoln Yards. Here is the promo video for Lincoln Yards in case you wanted more info:
Drexel who is co developing the SY project is right next to it, a large engineering school
Temple also in the city and Penn both also have substantial engineering schools as well as regional draw from schools like PSU, Villanova, Univ of De, Univ of MD, Rutgers. Also with their desire to play in Pharma and Life sciences there may not be a more concentrated set of life sciences and Pharma grads than exist in Philly and the region.
agree on the schools, they don't have to be next to it
SY may have the best transit connectivity of any site given that nearly every major rail transit option in Philly runs under the site with stations and connections there, including every regional rail line in Philly and Amtrak
the one positive of the colleges close by is that the whole U City area has been growing in its tech concentration, albeit behind a place like Kendall Sq in Cambridge, there are similarities to Cambridge on many fronts.
Last edited by kidphilly; 02-16-2018 at 09:31 AM..
NYC is too expensive.
Denver and LA are west (coast).
Raleigh Indy Columbus are too small. Raleigh doesn't have a major airport or dense urban core or public transit. Indy is in a conservative state and lacks public transit, but its airport isn't bad and it could attract talent from nearby universities within the state. Columbus lacks public transit, Ohio isn't exactly a liberal haven even though it's not entirely conservative, and OSU is a great school, but other cities have several great universities rather than just one.
Miami isn't that urban with sufficient public transit, and the talent isn't already there. UF and FSU are further from Miami than say IU and Notre Dame from Indy. University of Miami is there, but I still don't think Miami is as good an option as many others on the list. Miami's best features are its airport, internationalism, and ability to attract people.
Dallas and Austin are in a very conservative state and lack sufficient public transit. I think between the two, Dallas is the better choice. Better airport, better public transit, not an overgrown college boomtown.
Scott Galloway thinks it is nyc metro, dc metro, and philly (he sticks it in the nyc pile) - but pretty much nyc metro and dc metro.
I happen to agree with him minus the toronto hate.
I was laughed at my miami being a darkhorse pick earlier in this thread - Scott's exactly articulated why. "Anyone who lives in seattle wants to spend more time in miami". This is especially true with amzn's target demo - single bros under 35.
Galloway talks about the only two criteria that matters:
1. Where to attract young talent
2. Where does Jeff want to be.
Bezos is a multi-billionaire and does live and has the ability to live wherever he pleases, so Scott Galloway's assertion that HQ2 will not be located in certain cites because Bezos doesn't want to live there is absurd.
I believe Bezos is a very keen businessman and HQ2 will go wherever the best opportunities are for his business to flourish.
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