Philadelphia 2035 (Washington, Girard, Penn: shelters, firearms, rural area)

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by cpomp

I would really like to see any info on the discussion and the reasons for picking these spots.

Also is odd and a real F*** Y** to Philadelphia if Amazon chooses to split their HQ2 between NYC and DC and skipping over a major region in the middle. Amazon doesn't get my business, and they certainly will never if that ends up being the outcome.

But I agree with AJNEOA that this whole thing was a scam and lined someones pockets. Why was a city like Indianapolis even involved if they didn't stand a chance?

I also think Amazon should reimburse every city that spent money on this silly pitch.

Perhaps. And I'd agree with your characterization of this dance as silly.

Joe Cortright sent out a note to his City Observatory mailing list today saying, "Remember, you heard it here first." Here's Cortright's Jan. 22, 2018 essay explaining what everyone following the Amazon HQ2 saga was overlooking:

Two things everyone's missed about Amazon's HQ2 decision | City Observatory

I have a friend who works in IT who tells me that Amazon Web Services is actually a bigger profit center for the company than the retailer is. You might note where Cortright says Amazon might want to locate one of two or three HQ2s if building on AWS is a top goal.

Well, one of those cities is now in final-stage talks, it appears, and it ain't this one. Which brings us back to another factor students of locational geography have frequently noted over the years:

the Boss' Residence Factor.

Bisnow's Lois Weiss fingered that as a deciding factor in her Jan. 25 column saying that the whole search dance was a farce and that Bezos already knew where he was going to put (a) satellite headquarters.

Put Cortright and Weiss together and you have what's happening now. The boss will put one of the headquarters as close to where he would like to live as possible. The other will go where the talent pool he wants to access lives.

Now, this might mean that if Cortright is right about Amazon deciding that media tech will be a future growth driver, Philadelphia may still find itself with a shiny new Amazon office facility, maybe in Schuylkill Yards, sometime down the road. But note that Washington checks two of Cortright's four boxes (he leaves the fifth, retailing, off the table, presumably because the company can continue to run that from Seattle) while Philly checks off only one.

IOW, don't take Amazon's leaving Philadelphia waiting at the altar personally. Perhaps we can offer Bezos a huge Rittenhouse Square mansion as an incentive to reconsider. Except he's already spent a chunk of his own money remodeling a similar house in DC.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by cpomp

I would really like to see any info on the discussion and the reasons for picking these spots.

Also is odd and a real F*** Y** to Philadelphia if Amazon chooses to split their HQ2 between NYC and DC and skipping over a major region in the middle. Amazon doesn't get my business, and they certainly will never if that ends up being the outcome.

But I agree with AJNEOA that this whole thing was a scam and lined someones pockets. Why was a city like Indianapolis even involved if they didn't stand a chance?

I also think Amazon should reimburse every city that spent money on this silly pitch.

The other thing is it proves how lazy and/or diabolical they are. They simply picked the "usual suspects". Shrug.

They could have said, " We are going to put our second headquarters in NY and also near the seat of government. We are doing this inorder to maintain our global footprint therefore we need be more physically established in the US' largest city and the nation's capital". That would have made sense to me because it would show honesty and a level of integrity.

Instead they pulled this stunt to trigger an enormous act of "longing" on the part of over 200 cities initially. Then they went further and essentially pitted 20 cities against each other. Poor Atlantians, who seemed to think they had it in the bag, were probably being laughed at by execs in Seattle, "Look at those stupid southerners! They really believe we're going there!!"

The whole thing makes me

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

Perhaps. And I'd agree with your characterization of this dance as silly.

Joe Cortright sent out a note to his City Observatory mailing list today saying, "Remember, you heard it here first." Here's Cortright's Jan. 22, 2018 essay explaining what everyone following the Amazon HQ2 saga was overlooking:

Two things everyone's missed about Amazon's HQ2 decision | City Observatory

I have a friend who works in IT who tells me that Amazon Web Services is actually a bigger profit center for the company than the retailer is. You might note where Cortright says Amazon might want to locate one of two or three HQ2s if building on AWS is a top goal.

Well, one of those cities is now in final-stage talks, it appears, and it ain't this one. Which brings us back to another factor students of locational geography have frequently noted over the years:

the Boss' Residence Factor.

Bisnow's Lois Weiss fingered that as a deciding factor in her Jan. 25 column saying that the whole search dance was a farce and that Bezos already knew where he was going to put (a) satellite headquarters.

Put Cortright and Weiss together and you have what's happening now. The boss will put one of the headquarters as close to where he would like to live as possible. The other will go where the talent pool he wants to access lives.

Now, this might mean that if Cortright is right about Amazon deciding that media tech will be a future growth driver, Philadelphia may still find itself with a shiny new Amazon office facility, maybe in Schuylkill Yards, sometime down the road. But note that Washington checks two of Cortright's four boxes (he leaves the fifth, retailing, off the table, presumably because the company can continue to run that from Seattle) while Philly checks off only one.

IOW, don't take Amazon's leaving Philadelphia waiting at the altar personally. Perhaps we can offer Bezos a huge Rittenhouse Square mansion as an incentive to reconsider. Except he's already spent a chunk of his own money remodeling a similar house in DC.

You left out something significant: they apparently have a shiny new biga$$ contract with the Pentagon. So the DC metro was/is a shoein.

Doesn't Bezos have a bunch of houses though?

[cpomp]

Pa., N.J. congressional election results: Democrats gain four seats in Philly region

I am sure everyone has been following, but good to see this.

[AJNEOA]

Originally Posted by cpomp

Pa., N.J. congressional election results: Democrats gain four seats in Philly region

I am sure everyone has been following, but good to see this.

What does everyone expect will change in the Philly area from this news? Not a loaded question, I don't know the politics as well as everyone else.

[thedirtypirate]

Originally Posted by AJNEOA

What does everyone expect will change in the Philly area from this news? Not a loaded question, I don't know the politics as well as everyone else.

I mean all of the elections, at least where I live, didn’t have much ramification for local impact. I highly dislike Trump so I have a hard time justifying voting to send anymore Republicans to Washington when they controlled all of congress. I hesitated voting for Evans and contemplated voting for Leib, but I rather elect a young republic to a city position instead. City Council is what needs a purge imo and this election didn’t have any at least for me.

I voted yes to the ballot initiative. I think reinvesting in streets and infrastructure is a worthwhile investment.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by cpomp

Pa., N.J. congressional election results: Democrats gain four seats in Philly region

I am sure everyone has been following, but good to see this.

Sure, but DT fired Sessions today and he wants to try to get rid of Mueller before the new Congress is swore in on 1/3/19.

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by cpomp

Pa., N.J. congressional election results: Democrats gain four seats in Philly region

I am sure everyone has been following, but good to see this.

Somewhat related. PA has a second openly gay legislator just elected...and the incredible news from Colorado.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by kyb01

Somewhat related. PA has a second openly gay legislator just elected...and the incredible news from Colorado.

Yep, and the second one's African-American.

He also had an openly gay African-American challenger in the primary. I think that was a first too.

Glad the voters in his North Philly district ignored the gay-baiting material that circulated in the runup to the election.

[MB1562]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

Glad the voters in his North Philly district ignored the gay-baiting material that circulated in the runup to the election.

Can you provide specifics? I didn't hear about that and I'm curious what happened.