Los Angeles make top 20 list for Amazon HQ2 (San Francisco, Mountain View: houses, tech job)

[Nema98]

L.A will most likely not vet this. Their headquarters are in Seattle, I would think they would go for Midwest or East for their second headquarter.

And that is a good thing.

[saybanana]

I dont think Amazon HQ is going to come to LA.
But Amazon might increase its presence in it's media market. Currently headquarters for Amazon Studios is in Santa Monica along with Hulu.
Google moved to playa vista along with Youtube.
Netflix moved to Hollywood.
Facebook is looking into Culver City.

A lot of big tech companies are expanding where tech meets media. Even major TV networks are getting into this game like CBS all access.

Anyway, Amazon's choice wont have huge impacts in major cities like LA, NY, Chicago, Boston or DC where there is already huge populations, larger cost of housing/living, taxes, etc. The smaller cities on the list would have major impacts.

[Xanathos]

^As someone who experienced firsthand what Amazon did to Seattle (which is not a small city by any stretch), I can tell you unequivocally that they have a massive impact. Now, some of it is quite good (my salary jumped by leaps and bounds every year because all the tech companies had to man up to try and compete with Amazon's stock awards), but most of it was pretty terrible.

[jm1982]

It'll be interesting to see where they end up picking .
I think it would be more beneficial for some of the other cities versus L.A

All the cities on the top 20 seem to have pretty strong economies though .

I think if they opened in the Midwest it would be great and help encourage more tech in the area .

[ryanms3030]

Originally Posted by Nema98

L.A will most likely not vet this. Their headquarters are in Seattle, I would think they would go for Midwest or East for their second headquarter.

And that is a good thing.

The choice has nothing to do with geographic location. It's all about economics and talent pool. The places being considered have lots of tech related industry so they have talent pools. But a place that is more business friendly then CA will probably win. Sounds like Raleigh is the leading candidate

[jm1982]

Originally Posted by ryanms3030

The choice has nothing to do with geographic location. It's all about economics and talent pool. The places being considered have lots of tech related industry so they have talent pools. But a place that is more business friendly then CA will probably win. Sounds like Raleigh is the leading candidate

Also I would think they would want their employees to be able to live decently and although the HQ salaries will be high might not be high enough to be able to live decently in L.A

Raleigh is a lot more affordable. I've heard good things about the city but never been there .

[CaliRestoration]

LA does not have a shot of landing HQ2.

It would be like shoveling hundreds of millions of dollars into a furnace for Amazon. Corporate HQs are leaving CA in droves. Bezos may be a lefty but he's not going to throw money away.

[ryanms3030]

Originally Posted by jm1982

Also I would think they would want their employees to be able to live decently and although the HQ salaries will be high might not be high enough to be able to live decently in L.A

Raleigh is a lot more affordable. I've heard good things about the city but never been there .

Amazon isn't exactly known for good pay or treating employees well. But Raleigh is an affordable up and coming area. Redhat is based there and they are one of the biggest tech companies. They also have a growing Indian population due to tech jobs already there and that will make it easier to recruit Indian programmers and IT workers

[majoun]

Originally Posted by ryanms3030

The choice has nothing to do with geographic location. It's all about economics and talent pool. The places being considered have lots of tech related industry so they have talent pools. But a place that is more business friendly then CA will probably win. Sounds like Raleigh is the leading candidate

It has a lot to do with geographic location as a hub in the Eastern or Central time zones will be more advantageous to Amazon's customers than a second hub in the Pacific time zone.

[Xanathos]

Originally Posted by ryanms3030

Amazon isn't exactly known for good pay or treating employees well. But Raleigh is an affordable up and coming area. Redhat is based there and they are one of the biggest tech companies. They also have a growing Indian population due to tech jobs already there and that will make it easier to recruit Indian programmers and IT workers

First off, Raleigh, according to most, is one of the biggest longshots of the group, because it's a 5.5 hour flight between the two cities. That's too long to have an executive in the air. There's also the drama around having to deal with protesters for putting up a business in a state with a bathroom bill, because that's just the most important issue the world has ever known, apparently. Raleigh (should call it Raleigh/Durham, since they're intermingled) is positively lovely, though, if you can get past the humidity. It's a strong tech hub, but it's mostly biotech. Amazon would be setting up shop there in the hopes of poaching people from Red Hat, Cisco, and a couple others that have outposts there.

Second, "Amazon isn't exactly known for good pay"? Warehouse workers, sure, but this isn't a warehouse. It's going to be a corporate HQ loaded with techies. Amazon pays these people incredibly well. The salary cap isn't that high ($165,000 last time I was felt out almost a year ago), but they more than make up for it with absolutely ludicrous stock awards that push the salaries up to over $300,000 for your run-of-the-mill dev. It is a meat grinder, though.