Quote:
Originally Posted by austlar1
Probably just wishful thinking on my part, but I could almost imagine Abbott backing away from his bathroom bill support in the event Bezos and Amazon made a big point about it. Bezos likes to be a change agent. That is why he bought the Washington Post. He has Texas bonafides. 50,000 Amazon jobs in the Metroplex would likely soften up support from the DFW delegation to the Texas Senate and House for anti LGBT legislation. Meanwhile the DFW area has lots of underutilized light rail and a growing commuter rail network. There are several large transit adjacent parcels in the DFW area that would be ideal for an Amazon HQ2. DFW can adequately supply Amazon's workforce requirements. They've had no problem attracting tech savvy workers to the area. I don't think Austin has a real shot at this because of our lack of transit and even more limited express highway offerings. We just could not handle the additional traffic.
|
FWIW I think our current politics will be one of the biggest knocks against any Texas city. Our taxes are low and regulation is lax but the bathroom bill and sanctuary city fight would be potentially insoluble cultural problems for a company like Amazon.