Amazon names top 20 finalists in second headquarters race

[brooklynite]

Source: USA Today

SEATTLE — Amazon named 20 finalists in the race to win its second headquarters Thursday, narrowing the pool of cities and states competing to secure an expected 50,000 jobs and $5 billion in investment.

They are:

Atlanta, GA
Austin, TX
Boston, MA
Chicago, IL
Columbus, OH
Dallas, TX
Denver, CO
Indianapolis, IN
Los Angeles, CA
Miami, FL
Montgomery County, MD
Nashville, TN
Newark, NJ
New York City, NY
Northern Virginia, VA
Philadelphia, PA
Pittsburgh, PA
Raleigh, NC
Toronto, ON
Washington D.C.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2018/01/18/amazon-names-top-20-finalists-second-headquarters-race/1040710001/

[VMA131Marine]

1. So it's narrowed to basically every major metro area in the country ....

Plus Toronto.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. It looks like they whittled down to real "metro" areas

a bit closer to those of around 1,000,000+. Amazon got 238 proposals, most from smaller metros.

Amazon link to their list - https://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?redirect=true&node=17044620011&sa-no-redirect=1&pldnSite=1

[brooklynite]

3. One of the requirements from Amazon was a robust public transportation system

That's going to knock out your average Des Moines or Knoxville.

[BumRushDaShow]

6. It should knock out Los Angeles too

(San Francisco's public transit was pretty robust - had the opportunity to use it to see about 2/3rds of the city - but they are not on the short list)

[brooklynite]

8. Probably hard to hire people given the Silicon Valley competition.

[BumRushDaShow]

9. True.

[LuckyLib]

13. That, and no place to live that doesnt cost

A fortune to either buy or rent. Or you could commute for 60-90 minutes each way.

[Cattledog]

4. Count Pittsburgh out after racist editorial in the Post Gazette

If you are the type of person who pays attention to this sort of thing, you might have noticed that Pittsburgh is often lauded nationally for being an attractive place to live. The Economist named it America’s Most Livable City in 2014. A writer for MTV referred to it as the “new Brooklyn.” The Washington Post called it the new Portland. There are so many lauds like this that last year, a Pittsburgh-based blog published an entire list comprising them.


Pittsburgh is also the second-whitest major metropolitan area in the country. When I share this tidbit with black people who’ve been to the Burgh, many of them express surprise because, to them, the city seems much blacker than that. But their perception is skewed because if you’re in Pittsburgh and you happen to be around black people, it’s likely a hyper-segregated space, which could lead you to believe that it’s an accurate or close-to-accurate representation of the city’s demographics. But once you leave those few places where black people live and congregate, you’re firmly ensconced in stark and boundless whiteness.

It’s a city that has never had a black mayor and has so little black political traction that no black person has ever even been close. The black middle class is composed of like 17 families, 37 transplants and the Pittsburgh Steelers. It’s easier to list the black-owned and black-centered businesses, lounges, bars, clubs and restaurants that don’t exist anymore than the ones that currently do. And if you’re a black parent and you want to send your child to a high school that’s both high achieving and diverse, well, bless your heart.

When you have an environment that combines the very active and public promotion of its attributes with the not-as-public and not-as-flattering treatment of its black population, editorials like “Reason as Racism: An Immigration Debate Gets Derailed”—which I promise you is the worst editorial you’ll read in a major newspaper this year—are able to exist and be printed and be cosigned by a paper’s entire editorial board. On Martin Luther King day.

To be fair, although this piece is attributed to the Post-Gazette’s editorial board, this is primarily the doing of John Block, the paper’s publisher and editor-in-chief. The notoriously conservative Block family also owns the Toledo Blade, where the piece first appeared. According to a source at the PG, the rest of the editorial board fought against Block republishing this. But since he’s the owner, he can do what he wants. Fortunately, so can I!

Anyway, the first line of this editorial, below, lets you know you’re in for a ride. And by “a ride” I mean “a ride on a roller-coaster at Six Flags Over Racism.”

Calling someone a racist is the new McCarthyism. The charge is pernicious. The accuser doesn’t need to prove it. It simply hangs over the accused like a great human stain.

In less than 30 words, he both attempts to decry racism hysteria by hysterically comparing racism to McCarthyism (???) and sets the framing so that people who call other people racists are the villains, not the racists themselves. John Block’s face will be on Whitesplain Mount Rushmore.

article at:

https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/the-pittsburgh-post-gazette-just-published-the-worst-ed-1822123972

[BumRushDaShow]

7. PA is only 11% black

and pretty much everything west of here in Philly, including the whole western side of the state, is pretty much empty of AAs.

When most of the steel mills shut down, folks left. What replaced that was the clinical/university hospital system, which helped Pittsburgh get back on its feet...

Of course Pittsburgh was the birthplace of Orrin Hatch.

[L. Coyote]

5. Wouldn't want to live in any of those unhealty places.

[Blue_Adept]

17. Pardon all my unhealthiness out here in Boston

I hope you live in a very healthy place to be able to cast such stones.

[L. Coyote]

18. I do, no pollution, no traffic, middle of a national forest on OR Coast.

Great garden, good fishing, wild mushrooms galore, home-grown shitake, wild berries, mild winters, cool summers, Pacific breezes on summer afternoons, elk mow the lawn all winter, eagles fishing the river fly by my office window. Moved here when I could go where ever I wanted.

[EL34x4]

19. You're in luck then!

I doubt Amazon ever planned on building their second headquarters in the middle of the forest.

[L. Coyote]

20. They should consider spreading their operation in many beautiful places instead of one big city.

[Rollo]

10. Likely will be some location in the middle to east coast...

To balance out shipping costs/times.

Just my opinion...

The "Sun Belt" (or Bible Belt) may have an edge due to weather concerns.

Remember, Amazon is basically what Sears used to be - an electronic mail order company.

[turbinetree]

11. 5 Billion in investment, really

this company, is demanding that to get into the city, that the taxpayers have to give a lot of incentives to go there, never mind, that this "company" could pay for all of the infrastructure requirements, they are demanding high speed rail service, really, you have current congress and administration, that want to cut and gut the DOT

This is the requirement that Amazon wants, just look at page 5, someone has to pay for the "incentives":

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/Anything/test/images/usa/RFP_3._V516043504_.pdf

Then to top it all off the taxpayers get left holding the bond notes to secure the infrastructure requirements, while this company gets another tax break--------to off shore the profits, so that they can use those profits to buy other companies, to narrow the field in there endeavors, while the "workers" in the city have to pay for the tax break and the floating of those bonds.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/03/amazon-goodies-tax-breaks-hq-city

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/making-sense/heres-what-cities-are-offering-amazon-to-host-its-new-headquarters


Just like football stadiums, except for one (Green Bay packers)

[EarthFirst]

21. Im with you...

I’m not into holding the bag on infrastructure bonds and massive tax incentives for a BILLION dollar company to set up shop in our community.

We never stood a chance in Buffalo/Rochester -too many weather-related liabilities to shipping; I’m glad that we’re no longer being considered.

I’d rather develop communities and small business/enterprise.

[TexasBushwhacker]

12. My money's on Austin

That's where Whole Foods HQ is. The only thing going against Austin is the lack of a great mass transit system. On the plus side, TX has no state income tax and real estate is still fairly affordable.

[msongs]

14. amazon jacking up the pressure for taxpayer $$ to subsidize its "free enterprise" business nt

[Maxheader]

15. Someplace warm?

Atlanta..too humid
Texas..maybe
LA..too crowded
Miama..maybe..

[bluestarone]

16. my guess is

Florida 1st Texas 2nd Nashville 3rd