This stinks as bad an Olympics or FIFA World Cup bidding process. The “winning” city will see little long-term benefit.
Not really the same. The Olympics is a temporary event. This new headquarters is permanent. The reason they can't just increase their footprint in Seattle is they already have all the tech talent available and they have effectively ruined Seattle for everyone else because the real estate is now sky high and the traffic is unbearable. It is a double edged sword. They need a new location that they can monopolize which is why I doubt LA will be selected because the real estate pricing is already stratospheric and has the worst traffic in the nation. I think it will be Denver because in addition to highly educated work force and reasonable real estate prices, it also has lots of desirable outdoor activities.
It would be amazed if they picked NYC, it is already plagued with transit issues, terrorism, storm damage, ocean-rise risks and the housing is costly for the quality and size of dwelling you can get. (FWIW I lived in NYC for 4.5 years) Also, NYC is the city that young people are flocking to like they use to.
I feel like some cities, like NYC, are there to raise the competitive bids of Amazon's preferred city.
If DC was considered in the running (considering the Wa. Po. and Bezo's home is there) why would you ever pick NYC over Washington DC? yeah, to sweeten the deal that DC offers.
There is a pretty good argument for the midwest. Chicago has a lot of public debt and very high real estate taxes, there is a mass exodus going on. Columbus is a pretty good, and so is Indianapolis. I'd argue that, giving a 1,000 year view...I assume Amazon wants to be around that long. Cities within the mainland are safer against flooding, storms, nuclear threats, acts of terrorism, and civic unrest. Indianapolis has been ranked the city with the highest discretionary income and has one of the best ratio of income to housing costs, the airport was the first to be designed and built post-911. Indy is 1 days drive from like 70% of the US population. Salesforce has a strong presence here after buying exact target. Indiana, with IU, Purdue, Notre Dame, Rose-Hulman, and Butler export a lot of college graduates I public transportation is limited to buses, this is a car city, but the downtown is totally walkable and there is a lot of vacant land in the downtown area. I can visualize influx of residents from other cities coming to the new Amazon campus, and an increase of college graduate retention in Indiana. The problem is Amazon is going to go where the data meets their requirements TODAY.
It would be amazed if they picked NYC, it is already plagued with transit issues, terrorism, storm damage, ocean-rise risks and the housing is costly for the quality and size of dwelling you can get. (FWIW I lived in NYC for 4.5 years) Also, NYC is the city that young people are flocking to like they use to.
I feel like some cities, like NYC, are there to raise the competitive bids of Amazon's preferred city.
If DC was considered in the running (considering the Wa. Po. and Bezo's home is there) why would you ever pick NYC over Washington DC? yeah, to sweeten the deal that DC offers.
There is a pretty good argument for the midwest. Chicago has a lot of public debt and very high real estate taxes, there is a mass exodus going on. Columbus is a pretty good, and so is Indianapolis. I'd argue that, giving a 1,000 year view...I assume Amazon wants to be around that long. Cities within the mainland are safer against flooding, storms, nuclear threats, acts of terrorism, and civic unrest. Indianapolis has been ranked the city with the highest discretionary income and has one of the best ratio of income to housing costs, the airport was the first to be designed and built post-911. Indy is 1 days drive from like 70% of the US population. Salesforce has a strong presence here after buying exact target. Indiana, with IU, Purdue, Notre Dame, Rose-Hulman, and Butler export a lot of college graduates I public transportation is limited to buses, this is a car city, but the downtown is totally walkable and there is a lot of vacant land in the downtown area. I can visualize influx of residents from other cities coming to the new Amazon campus, and an increase of college graduate retention in Indiana. The problem is Amazon is going to go where the data meets their requirements TODAY.
Incidentally, you bring up a point I've never seen any analysts or investors address... who is "next in line" for the CEO position at Amazon if Bezos kicks the bucket? He's the thing that holds their entire operation together as far as I know.
The last thing Atlanta needs is another 50,000 commuters. That might just push the average daily commute time beyond the 24 hour mark. /S But from what I can see pretty much every city/region on the list is already a commuting challenge. I know I know, everyone wants jobs even if they have to commute 2 hours a day to and fro. Personally, I'd like to see Columbus (Ohio State), Pittsburgh (CMU), or Indianapolis (IU, ND, Purdue) get the HQ2 just to fill out the tech sector in the middle part of the US. Pittsburgh is an especially good choice with CMU and a very nice airport that is massively underutilized. The quality of life in the US midwest is quite nice, especially for middle class families with kids and a big house.
Congratulations to Amazon on possibly the worst possible graphic showing the candidate locations, by the way. By all means, clutter up the map with lines all over the darn place with the names no where near the actual locations. Who knew that Nashville was between Denver and LA (the listing on the left side) and that Northern Virginia is between Raleigh and Atlanta (on the right side).
Agree, it’s utterly horrible. Why even use a map if you aren’t going to have something visually significant at the locations ?
The last thing Atlanta needs is another 50,000 commuters. That might just push the average daily commute time beyond the 24 hour mark. /S But from what I can see pretty much every city/region on the list is already a commuting challenge. I know I know, everyone wants jobs even if they have to commute 2 hours a day to and fro. Personally, I'd like to see Columbus (Ohio State), Pittsburgh (CMU), or Indianapolis (IU, ND, Purdue) get the HQ2 just to fill out the tech sector in the middle part of the US. Pittsburgh is an especially good choice with CMU and a very nice airport that is massively underutilized. The quality of life in the US midwest is quite nice, especially for middle class families with kids and a big house.
I would like to see the cost of a median house in each location. I’m sure Bezos will want to relocate whole departments to the new location so cheaper housing for employees can be a great incentive to move as long as there are good schools for families(that rules out Miami).
Congratulations to Amazon on possibly the worst possible graphic showing the candidate locations, by the way. By all means, clutter up the map with lines all over the darn place with the names no where near the actual locations. Who knew that Nashville was between Denver and LA (the listing on the left side) and that Northern Virginia is between Raleigh and Atlanta (on the right side).
I like it. Since most are on the coast and most are clumped together around a smallish, geographical location in the New England--ish area, more than half would've been off to the side with lines as it is.
I'm sorry, but that's crazy. Having the label for Toronto in the Pacific Ocean and the label for Dallas being closer to LA than the label for LA? Here's a MUCH better map:
Which map better reveals that fact that Amazon excluded any city within 1000 miles of Seattle, for example?
1) To me, that map is busy as fuck and clutters up the actual map compared to the original.
2) You still have lines coming off the East Coast, as I stated.
3a) Why would you add Seattle to the map when Seattle isn't one of the 20 candidates?
3b) In both maps I can easily see that there's no dot in Washington state, but the original map is much easier to see where the all the dots are because it isn't cluttered by a bunch of names.
4) Is this an issue of you not knowing where these major North American cities/areas are located? If so, how can you can tell which dot is Montgomery Country, Northern VA, and DC, since there's a single line to represent all three of those locations? How is that a better than a separate line connecting each location to a name?
Let's agree to disagree, but those us actually in the business of data visualization are having fun pointing out all the "rules" that the Amazon map breaks. The WaPo map isn't perfect, but it's much better.
1) There is no "agree to disagree" statement you can make when I start off my comment with "to me…"
2) If you really think data is better presented by having 7 of the cities still with lines and 6 of them with single line connecting multiple dots to multiple locations without any indication as to which dot represents which location, then you're not looking at this through analytical eyes. Having a map that you can look at by itself without reading any text to see where everything is located is much easier with Amazon's map, having a list of locations that you can read at once is much easier with Amazon's legend, and if there happens to be some reader with poor geography skills that may need to look at a name or a dot they can quickly follow a line find the answer (which is simply not possible for someone with your map looking to discern Montgomery v Northern VA without having to consult yet another map because they've purposely made it ambiguous, which is the biggest fail I've ever seen on such a simple image).
Perhaps the only time Canada is okay with being associate with the word `America`
I've never met a Canadian that had a problem with saying Canada is on the continent of North America. The United States, now that's another issue altogether.
The last thing Atlanta needs is another 50,000 commuters. [ - ] Pittsburgh is an especially good choice with CMU and a very nice airport that is massively underutilized.
The last thing we need is 50,000 more obnoxious Steelers fans.
The last thing Atlanta needs is another 50,000 commuters. [ - ] Pittsburgh is an especially good choice with CMU and a very nice airport that is massively underutilized.
The last thing we need is 50,000 more obnoxious Steelers fans.
Agreed with Pittsburgh, and their awesome Steelers fans, as a great option; although like many on this list the region needs to commit to infrastructure improvements. Also, the Univ of Pittsburgh has just as much to contribute as CMU, if not more, especially as Amazon gets into pharmaceuticals.
Raleigh is quite similar - great universities and workforce, infrastructure needs (traffic surprisingly bad), and a nice airport that needs more nonstop destinations.
Perhaps the only time Canada is okay with being associate with the word `America`
I've never met a Canadian that had a problem with saying Canada is on the continent of North America. The United States, now that's another issue altogether.
Strange... I have. When living abroad the term “American” was never synonymous with Canada. /boggle.
Perhaps the only time Canada is okay with being associate with the word `America`
I've never met a Canadian that had a problem with saying Canada is on the continent of North America. The United States, now that's another issue altogether.
Strange... I have. When living abroad the term “American” was never synonymous with Canada. /boggle.
1) I'm not sure what synonymous has to do with anything. The United States of America isn't synonymous with North America just because each has the word America in it. The same goes for the United Mexican States (Estados Unidos Mexicanos), which is not synonymous with United States of America simply because both reference having "united states" in their name.
2) What continent would a Canadians say there country is on if not North America?
Perhaps the only time Canada is okay with being associate with the word `America`
I've never met a Canadian that had a problem with saying Canada is on the continent of North America. The United States, now that's another issue altogether.
Strange... I have. When living abroad the term “American” was never synonymous with Canada. /boggle.
1) I'm not sure what synonymous has to do with anything. The United States of America isn't synonymous with North America just because each has the word America in it. The same goes for the United Mexican States (Estados Unidos Mexicanos), which is not synonymous with United States of America simply because both reference having "united states" in their name.
2) What continent would a Canadians say there country is on if not North America?
Comments
I feel like some cities, like NYC, are there to raise the competitive bids of Amazon's preferred city.
If DC was considered in the running (considering the Wa. Po. and Bezo's home is there) why would you ever pick NYC over Washington DC? yeah, to sweeten the deal that DC offers.
There is a pretty good argument for the midwest. Chicago has a lot of public debt and very high real estate taxes, there is a mass exodus going on. Columbus is a pretty good, and so is Indianapolis. I'd argue that, giving a 1,000 year view...I assume Amazon wants to be around that long. Cities within the mainland are safer against flooding, storms, nuclear threats, acts of terrorism, and civic unrest. Indianapolis has been ranked the city with the highest discretionary income and has one of the best ratio of income to housing costs, the airport was the first to be designed and built post-911. Indy is 1 days drive from like 70% of the US population. Salesforce has a strong presence here after buying exact target. Indiana, with IU, Purdue, Notre Dame, Rose-Hulman, and Butler export a lot of college graduates I public transportation is limited to buses, this is a car city, but the downtown is totally walkable and there is a lot of vacant land in the downtown area. I can visualize influx of residents from other cities coming to the new Amazon campus, and an increase of college graduate retention in Indiana. The problem is Amazon is going to go where the data meets their requirements TODAY.
2) If you really think data is better presented by having 7 of the cities still with lines and 6 of them with single line connecting multiple dots to multiple locations without any indication as to which dot represents which location, then you're not looking at this through analytical eyes. Having a map that you can look at by itself without reading any text to see where everything is located is much easier with Amazon's map, having a list of locations that you can read at once is much easier with Amazon's legend, and if there happens to be some reader with poor geography skills that may need to look at a name or a dot they can quickly follow a line find the answer (which is simply not possible for someone with your map looking to discern Montgomery v Northern VA without having to consult yet another map because they've purposely made it ambiguous, which is the biggest fail I've ever seen on such a simple image).
Raleigh is quite similar - great universities and workforce, infrastructure needs (traffic surprisingly bad), and a nice airport that needs more nonstop destinations.
P.S. Great double entendres.
2) What continent would a Canadians say there country is on if not North America?